FreedomWorks

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

FreedomWorks
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
President & CEO
Adam Brandon[2]
Parent organization
Citizens for a Sound Economy
AffiliationsFreedomWorks for America,
FreedomWorks Foundation
WebsiteFreedomworks.org
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FreedomWorks is a

Koch brothers were once a source of the organization's funding.[6]

History

FreedomWorks originated from a conservative political group founded by the brothers

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, and former Representative Vin Weber.[11] In December 2006, Steve Forbes joined the FreedomWorks board of directors.[12]

The FreedomWorks name was derived from Armey saying: Freedom works. Freedom is good policy and good politics."[13]

On August 14, 2009, after Armey's leadership of FreedomWorks became a problem to his employer, the lobbying and legal firm of DLA Piper, Armey was forced to resign from his job at DLA Piper. In 2010, DLA Piper chairman Francis Burch responded that the firm serves clients "who support enactment of effective health care reform this year and encourages responsible national debate."[14]

On November 30, 2012,

Richard J. Stephenson.[17][18]

Shortly following the split between FreedomWorks and Dick Armey, FreedomWorks again faced public controversy over its creation of a video featuring a giant panda-costumed intern pretending to perform cunnilingus upon another person wearing a Hillary Clinton mask.[19] Its video was reported to be intended for showing at a conservative conference featuring Glenn Beck.

FreedomWorks is an associate member of the Koch-funded

climate change denier.[21]

In March of 2023, FreedomWorks had to lay off 40% of its 50 staff, including its executive vice president, Noah Wall.[22]

Actions

Together with

health care reform and cap and trade.[31][5] FreedomWorks sponsored campaigns to block climate legislation as well as Obama's broader agenda.[32]

Among other activities, FreedomWorks runs boot camps for supporters of Republican candidates. FreedomWorks spent over $10 million on the 2010 elections on campaign paraphernalia alone. The required reading list for new employees includes Saul Alinsky,[33] Frédéric Bastiat and Ayn Rand.[3] Rolling Stone and Talking Points Memo allege that FreedomWorks helps run the Tea Party Patriots.[34][35] Tea Party Patriots denies this claim.[36] According to a 2010 article in The New York Times, FreedomWorks "has done more than any other organization to build the Tea Party movement".[3]

In the

2010 congressional elections, FreedomWorks endorsed a number of candidates, including Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul.[37] In addition to the aforementioned United States Senate candidates, FreedomWorks endorsed 114 candidates for federal office, of whom seventy won election.[38] An independent study performed by Brigham Young University showed that only FreedomWorks's endorsement had a statistically significant impact on the success of a candidate in the election.[39]

In 2011, FreedomWorks ran a number of campaigns targeted at corporate

energy subsidies.[40]

In addition to their anti-rent seeking campaigns, FreedomWorks has also been active in a number of issue campaigns at the state and national levels. One of these campaigns is the school choice SB1 campaign in Pennsylvania.[41] Additionally, FreedomWorks ran an active grassroots campaign in support of Ohio Governor John Kasich's union reforms. FreedomWorks delivered thousands of yard signs, door-hangers, handouts, and registered conservative voters.[42]

In 2011, FreedomWorks launched a

Super PAC called FreedomWorks for America.[43] The stated purpose of this PAC is to "empower the leaderless, decentralized community of the tea party movement as it continues its hostile takeover of the GOP establishment".[43] Its endorsed candidates included Don Stenberg, Ted Cruz, Jeff Flake, and Richard Mourdock.[44]

In February 2013, FreedomWorks signed onto a memo which said, "Conservatives should not approve a

Mark Meadows (R-NC) are leading the charge to get their colleagues to commit to this approach, by putting their signatures to a letter affirming that they will refuse to vote for a CR that contains ObamaCare funding."[46] Withrow wrote, "Support for the Cruz/Graves bills is absolutely meaningless without also signing the Lee/Meadows letter."[46]

In September 2013, FreedomWorks opposed the legislation called Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against the Government of Syria to Respond to Use of Chemical Weapons.[47] This was the first time FreedomWorks took an official stance on foreign policy.[48]

On February 12, 2014, FreedomWorks joined with Rand Paul as co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Obama administration concerning reports of NSA domestic wiretapping. The lawsuit names President Obama, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is representing Paul and FreedomWorks in the case.[49]

Some of FreedomWorks' campaigns have been called "astroturfing", and some claim that they project a false impression of grassroots organizing.[50][51][52]

During the 2020 election campaign, FreedomWorks pushed false and misleading claims about mail-in-voting, targeting ad campaigns on swing states with high concentrations of minority voters.[7] In its ads which suggested that vote-by-mail was not safe for voters, FreedomWorks posted an image of NBA basketball player LeBron James, misquoting him to make it seem as if he was against vote-by-mail.[7]

Legislation supported

FreedomWorks supported the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on January 8, 2014.[55] The proposed rule would establish uniform national limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new electricity-generating facilities that use coal or natural gas.[55][56] The rule also sets new standards of performance for those power plants, including the requirement to install carbon capture and sequestration technology.[55] In a blog post, then FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe said that the bill would go a "long way in curbing the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) radical war on affordable and reliable energy from fossil fuels".[54] Kibbe argued that the EPA's proposed rule was "an obvious backdoor attempt to effectively outlaw coal" because the standards were set "well below the emissions levels achieved by even the most advanced coal facilities".[54]

FreedomWorks supports the

REDEEM Act,[57] and Email Privacy Act.[58] FreedomWorks opposes net neutrality regulation.[59]

Funding

According to John Broder of The New York Times, FreedomWorks has been supported by the oil industry.

Richard J. Stephenson, Philip Morris and foundations controlled by the Scaife family, according to tax filings and other records.[61][62] FreedomWorks also receives funding through the sale of insurance policies through which policyholders automatically become members of FreedomWorks.[63] In 2012, FreedomWorks had revenue of $15 million, with nearly 60% coming from four donors.[64] In 2012, $12 million in donations from William S. Rose (via two of his companies) were scrutinized by some members of the media. Watchdog groups asked for investigations of the donations, alleging that the companies were created merely to hide the identity of contributors.[65][66]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-19-991283-4
    .
  2. ^ "Staff". FreedomWorks. October 15, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Shaping Tea Party Passion Into Campaign Force, Kate Zernike, The New York Times, August 25, 2010
  4. ^ a b c Good, Chris (April 13, 2009). "The Tea Party Movement: Who's In Charge?". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-026203-7. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-063366-0
    .
  7. ^ a b c "Disinformation campaign stokes fears about mail voting, using LeBron James image and boosted by Trump-aligned group". The Washington Post. 2020.
  8. ^ a b Pilkington, Ed (September 18, 2009). "Republicans steal Barack Obama's internet campaigning tricks". The Guardian. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  9. ^ "FreedomWorks.org". July 25, 2004. Archived from the original on July 25, 2004. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  10. ^ "Board of Directors". FreedomWorks. October 15, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  11. ^ "Empower America – Profile – Right Web – Institute for Policy Studies". Rightweb.irc-online.org. Archived from the original on December 29, 2005. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  12. ^ "Board of Directors". Freedomworks. October 15, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  13. ^ Dick Armey (January 8, 2003). "Citizen Armey". The Wall Street Journal.
  14. ^ "Armey leaves firm amid health care flap – David Mark". Politico. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  15. ^ Corn, David; Kroll, Andy (December 3, 2012). "Exclusive: Dick Armey Quits Tea Party Group in Split Over Direction". Mother Jones. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
  16. ^ Vogel, Kenneth (December 4, 2012). "Inside the Dick Armey, FreedomWorks split". Politico. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  17. ^ Gillum, Jack; Braun, Stephen (December 4, 2012). "Tea Party group chief quits, cites internal split". Associated Press. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
  18. ^ Amy Gardner (December 25, 2012). "FreedomWorks tea party group nearly falls apart in fight between old and new guard". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 29, 2012.
  19. ^ Coscarelli, Joe (February 14, 2013). "Tea-Party Interns Starred in Video of Hillary Clinton Having Sex With Panda". New York. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  20. ^ Kopan, Tal (November 13, 2013). "Report: Think tanks tied to Kochs". Politico. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  21. ^ Harkinson, Josh (December 4, 2009). "The Dirty Dozen of Climate Change Denial". Mother Jones. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  22. ^ Oprysko, Caitlin; Lippman, Daniel (March 8, 2023). "FreedomWorks lays off 40 percent of staff". POLITICO. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  23. ^ Riley E. Dunlap, Aaron M. McCright: Organized Climate Change Denial. In: John S. Dryzek, Richard B. Norgaard, David Schlosberg (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford University Press, 2011, pp 144–160, p. 154.
  24. ^ Brown, Emma; Hohmann, James; Bacon, Perry (September 13, 2009). "Lashing Out at the Capitol: Tens of Thousands Protest Obama Initiatives and Government Spending". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  25. ^ Pilkington, Ed (September 13, 2009). "Barack Obama denounced by rightwing marchers in Washington". The Guardian. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
  26. ^ Isenstadt, Alex (September 12, 2009). "'Freedom fighters' take a stand in D.C." Politico. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
  27. ^ Snow Hopkins, Christopher; Mahanta, Siddhartha; Poulson, Theresa (February 4, 2010). "12 Tea Party Players To Watch". National Journal. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
  28. ^ "The top national players in the tea party". The Washington Post. September 26, 2010. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
  29. ^ Eggen, Dan; Rucker, Philip (August 16, 2009). "Conservative Mainstays and Fledgling Advocacy Groups Drive Health-Reform Opposition". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  30. ^ a b Broder, John (October 20, 2010). "Climate Change Doubt Is Tea Party Article of Faith". The New York Times. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  31. ^ Armey, Dick; Kibbe, Matt (August 17, 2010). "A Tea Party Manifesto". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  32. ISBN 978-0-19-935611-9
    .
  33. The Washington Independent. Archived from the original
    on October 18, 2010. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  34. ^ "FreedomWorks Says Jump, Tea Partiers Ask How High". TPM.
  35. ^ Dickinson, Tim (September 23, 2009). "The Lie Machine". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on September 28, 2009.
  36. ^ Fang, Lee. "Pressed On FreedomWorks' Connections To Tea Parties, Dick Armey Lashes Out At TP As 'Juvenile Delinquents'". Think Progress. Retrieved March 14, 2012.
  37. ^ "A Tea-Party Target List? FreedomWorks Releases Its Races For 2010 – Politics". The Atlantic. January 25, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2010.
  38. ^ "Tea party endorsement overlap". The Washington Post.
  39. S2CID 154650467. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on January 19, 2012.
  40. ^ "Protesters descend on Duke Energy meeting". Charlotte Business Journal. May 5, 2011.
  41. ^ "Conservative TV & Radio Ads Target Vance, Yaw". PoliticsPA.
  42. ^ "Kasich to rally state issue supporters". Retrieved November 1, 2011.[dead link]
  43. ^ a b "Log in – FreedomConnector". FreedomWorks. Archived from the original on January 29, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  44. ^ [1] Archived January 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  45. ^ Matt Kibbe (February 14, 2013). "Coalition Letter: Congress Must Honor Sequester Savings and Defund ObamaCare Before It Is Too Late". FreedomWorks. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  46. ^ a b c Joshua Withrow (August 14, 2013). "Have Your Members of Congress Signed the "Defund ObamaCare" Letter? Find Out Here!". FreedomWorks. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  47. ^ Burgess Everett (September 5, 2013). "FreedomWorks to fight Syria resolution". Politico.
  48. ^ "Year in Review". fwsites.org.
  49. ^ "Paul sues Obama over NSA spying". The Hill. February 12, 2014.
  50. ^ Phillips, Michael M. (May 16, 2008). "Mortgage Bailout Infuriates Tenants (And Steve Forbes)". The Wall Street Journal.
  51. ^ Krugman, Paul (April 13, 2009). "Tea Parties Forever". The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  52. ^ "Big Money Backs Renders' Campaign". NPR.org. NPR. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  53. ^ "H.R. 3826 – Summary". United States Congress. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  54. ^ a b c Kibbe, Matt (January 28, 2014). "Tell Your Representative/Senators to Support the Electricity Security and Affordability Act". FreedomWorks. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  55. ^ a b c "CBO – H.R. 3826". Congressional Budget Office. February 12, 2014. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
  56. ^ Kasperowicz, Pete (March 6, 2014). "House votes to block EPA regs on coal-fired electricity plants". The Hill. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  57. ^ Reader, Mallory (June 11, 2015). "Here are three conservative bills the House Judiciary Committee's justice reform initiative should consider". FreedomWorks. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  58. ^ "Support The Email Privacy Act – Freedomworks Action Center – D7 Staging". Secure.freedomworks.org. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  59. ^ Coopersmith, Wesley (July 16, 2012). "Net Neutrality: Goes Global". FreedomWorks. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  60. ^ [2] Archived November 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  61. ^ Dan Eggen and Philip Rucker, Loose Network of Activists Drives Reform Opposition The Washington Post, August 16, 2009
  62. ^ Ed Pilkington, Republicans steal Barack Obama's internet campaigning tricks The Guardian, September 20, 2009
  63. ^ "With Insurance Policy Comes Membership". The Washington Post.
  64. ^ Maguire, Robert (October 24, 2013). "More than Kochs, Small Donors Fueled Heritage Action in 2012". OpenSecrets. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  65. ^ Schouten, Fredreka (December 20, 2012). "Watchdog groups ask for probe of super PAC donations". USA Today. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
  66. ^ Gillum, Jack (December 8, 2012). "Shadowy donor behind record 'super' PAC checks". Associated Press. Archived from the original on June 28, 2014. Retrieved December 16, 2013.

External links

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