Family affairs
FreeCon 2026 will offer practical responses to America’s toughest issues
What good is economic growth if Americans still struggle to find productive employment, form families, and afford food, clothing, shelter, education, and other critical goods and services?
When Freedom Conservatives defend free enterprise, free trade, and the freedom to pursue the American Dream, we get this question a lot — both from left-wing progressives and right-wing populists.
It’s a fair question! FreeCons can’t defend the market process in theory while ignoring practical objections. Indeed, in our Statement of Principles, we observed that “Americans can only prosper in an economy in which they can afford the basics of everyday life: food, shelter, health care, and energy.”
What sets us apart from our rivals is our answer to the question. We reject the notion that giving government more tax dollars, employees, and power over private households and businesses will truly expand access to the American Dream.
Instead, signatories to the FreeCon Statement of Principles have committed ourselves to “reducing the cost of living through competitive markets, greater individual choice, and free trade with free people, while upholding the rule of law, property rights, freedom of contract, and freedom of association.”
At the 2026 Freedom Conservatism Conference, to be held May 20 at Washington’s Capital Turnaround, our panelists will talk extensively about these solutions — and how they and other policies can help foster family formation in America.
Help families thrive
Les Ford is president of Ford Policy Solutions, a senior fellow at the Alliance for Opportunity, and a former special assistant in the White House. She is also a speaker at the 2026 Freedom Conservatism Conference on May 20 in Washington.
In a recent paper published by the Alliance for Opportunity, Ford urged states to implement reforms to Medicaid and food assistance that will promote “greater prosperity for low-income Americans by ensuring that these vital programs fulfill their purpose by safeguarding them against fraud, so they are able to meet the vulnerable when they need assistance, and refocusing them on their long-term goals of independence through gainful employment or community engagement.”
Policymakers should seek to ensure that “every beneficiary who can work can find stable, meaningful employment that allows them to be self-sufficient and thrive,” Ford continued.
“This will require the administrative agencies to provide states with clear, cross-program guidance and regulation. This will also require better alignment in state safety net and workforce agencies.”
“As the safety net front line, every state can holistically reform and restructure these vital programs to ensure that all vulnerable, low-income families can thrive.”
Too much politics
Tim Carney is the senior political columnist at the Washington Examiner, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a speaker at the 2026 Freedom Conservatism Conference on May 20 in the nation’s capital.
Carney’s books include Family Unfriendly: A Critical Examination of Overparenting and Its Consequences (2024), Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse (2019), and The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money (2006).
In a recent Examiner column, he built on former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse’s correct observation that both left-wing progressives and right-wing populists are fixated on Washington and federal power.
“Our problem is not simply caring too much about Trump and Kamala and Congress,” Carney wrote.
“Our problem is caring too much about activism, government, policy, and elections in general. Activism isn’t bad in itself, but activism is often rivalrous with community: The more time you spend trying to change the world, the less time you spend living and working among your neighbors.”
“Politics is making us lonely, and loneliness is making us more politically partisan.”
Extend opportunity
Carrie Sheffield directs artificial intelligence and tech policy at Independent Women and is the author of Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness (2024). She is also a speaker at the 2026 Freedom Conservatism Conference on May 20 in Washington.
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Sheffield praised a Labor Department move to clarify and expand access to private-market investments within 401(k) plans. “If done right, this could be one of the most consequential retirement policy reforms in a generation,” she argued.
Wealthy individuals and large public pension funds “have long invested in private equity, private credit, real estate and infrastructure — asset classes that offer equity-like growth, steady income and returns that don’t move in lockstep with the stock market,” Sheffield observed, while “the typical 401(k) holder remains on the outside looking in.”
“The wealthy have long understood that diversification means owning a piece of the whole economy, not just the sliver that happens to be publicly listed. Let’s extend that understanding — and that opportunity — to everyone.”
Affordable homes
Adam Millsap is a senior fellow at Stand Together Trust, author of Dayton: The Rise, Decline, and Transition of an Industrial City, and a speaker at the 2026 Freedom Conservatism Conference on May 20 in the nation’s capital.
In a recent interview, Millsap explained why so many families — and Americans who desire to start a family — are having so hard a time finding affordable housing.
“The fundamental driver of the affordability crisis is that we haven’t been building enough housing to keep up with population growth and family formation,” he said. “We saw a significant decrease in the number of new units during the Great Recession, resulting in what we’re seeing today: high prices and a lack of housing options, especially in areas close to good jobs and schools.”
“The long-term solution is to dramatically increase housing supply,” he added, “especially smaller starter homes and multifamily housing such as duplexes and triplexes.”
“Policymakers often turn to short-term, demand-side solutions like down payment assistance or subsidized mortgage rates that might help some individuals in the moment, but if you don’t increase supply at the same time, you’re just pushing prices higher.”
In the mix
• At National Review, FreeCon signatory Joel Griffith argued that the Trump administration’s stiff tariffs on vehicles assembled in other countries — plus taxes on imported auto parts and metals — are “totaling affordable cars.”
Honda, Nissan, and Toyota may have to “pull affordable, entry-level cars off the market” if the tariffs continue, observed Griffith and his Advancing American Freedom colleague Marc Wheat, “because those vehicles are no longer profitable.”
“New car prices are near all-time highs, used car prices are surging, repair costs are rising, and the Corolla is on the endangered species list.”
• At the Wall Street Journal’s Free Expression site, FreeCon signatory Michael Reitz asked readers to “imagine if our elected officials squared off publicly against each other instead of bickering or reciting talking points.”
“Voters should demand that local and state officeholders hold monthly debates,” wrote Reitz, executive vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan.
“Pressure senators and members of Congress to square off publicly against each other. There are tricky details to work out — who picks the interlocutors, who decides the topics — but it’s better to seek answers to these questions than to accept a world where politicians never answer hard questions at all.”