Political movements promote ideas. Political parties promote candidates for office. Without an electoral vehicle, activists won’t get anywhere. Without ideas, politicians won’t know where to go.
Some of the 300 signatories to the Freedom Conservatism Statement of Principles are veterans of party politics. They’ve served in office, staffed legislative or executive offices, raised money for candidates, or worked in party organizations and campaigns.
Others FreeCons have spent their careers covering politicians as journalists, advising them as policy practitioners, or educating them in classrooms and boardrooms.
Whatever our backgrounds, we share a belief that political engagement is necessary for conservatives to preserve the American experiment and extend the blessings of liberty more broadly across our beloved country.
We also share a belief that to be effective, political engagement must be both principled and prudent. As Freedom Conservatives form coalitions with others on the Center Right, we shouldn’t shy away from areas of disagreement. We should argue our case — be it on trade, fiscal restraint, federalism, or pluralism — firmly but respectfully, seeking to win others over while continuing to work together in areas where we already agree.
Being part of a political coalition can be challenging. Managing it can be maddening. Bernice Johnson Reagon, the late civil-right activist and Smithsonian curator, put it this way: “If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable, you know it’s not a broad enough coalition.”
Today we spotlight FreeCon signatories and allies who’ve been exploring these issues since the November elections, including three featured speakers for the inaugural Freedom Conservatism Conference to be held on February 24, 2025 at the National Press Club in Washington.
Deliver on promises
Kristen Soltis Anderson is a pollster, speaker, commentator, and author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up).
A founding partner of Echelon Insights, an opinion research and analytics firm, Anderson is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and a political contributor at CNN. She currently writes the Substack Codebook.
Anderson is also a featured speaker for the Freedom Conservatism Conference, which will be held on February 24, 2025 at the National Press Club.
In a recent Times column, she argued that the November elections revealed “a reorientation of many of our existing political divides. Organizations, professions and institutions that were recently trusted by at least one side of the political aisle have come in for greater scrutiny, with new bipartisan alignment on skepticism.”
Giving voice to this agitation was a key factor fueling Mr. Trump’s election, Anderson wrote. But “voters are looking for things to be fixed, not obliterated.”
“If Mr. Trump wishes to retain the support he cultivated in the election, he cannot just smash the old things or resort to demagoguery and blaming institutions; he must build things that are in touch and responsive to the entire country he will again lead.
“Crucially, to keep his coalition together, the institutions he leads must deliver on their promise of prosperity and peace rather than simply be demolished and cast aside.”
Desperate for change
Daniel Garza is founding president of the Libre Initiative and a featured speaker at the Freedom Conservatism Conference, to be held on February 24 at the National Press Club.
He began his career in public service as an assistant to U.S. Rep. Richard Hastings and was later elected to the city council of Toppenish, Washington. In 2001, Garza joined the Bush administration as deputy director of foreign and intergovernmental affairs at the Department of the Interior.
A former presenter of Univision’s “Agenda Washington” program, Garza has written for and appeared on a wide variety of media outlets.
In a post-election piece for National Review, he argued that the rise of Latino support for Republican candidates in 2024 should have come as no surprise.
“Besides the many Latinos already sympathetic to conservative ideas, many other Latinos pulled the lever for Republicans in 2024 because they desperately wanted a change from the status quo.”
Many politicians and pundits have misunderstand their views on immigration policy, for example.
“Latinos support immigration and immigrants, but they also deeply value the rule of law and order,” Garza wrote. “Latinos also support meritocracy, hard work, and equality of opportunity — not equality in outcome.”
The election results represent “a repudiation of manufactured outrage and victimization,” he concluded. “It was also the death of the monolithic Latino voting bloc.”
What voters want
John Hood is president of the John William Pope Foundation, a conservative grantmaker, and one of the featured speakers at the Freedom Conservatism Conference on February 24 at the National Press Club.
A syndicated columnist and former Heritage Foundation fellow, he is the author of ten books and teaches at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Hood chairs the North Carolina Institute of Political Leadership, co-chairs the North Carolina Leadership Forum, and serves as vice chair of State Policy Network, the Martin Center for Academic Renewal, and North Carolina Public Radio.
In a recent RealClearPolicy essay, he related the origins of the Freedom Conservatism project and urged FreeCons to press their case at the White House, federal agencies, and on Capitol Hill.
“Last fall, American voters rejected a continuation of the Biden-Harris administration,” Hood wrote. “They voted against inflation and DEI run amok. They voted for job creation and order at the border.”
Americans did not vote for higher prices, however, which Hood called “the inevitable result” of tariff policies advocated by President Trump and some in his administration.
“On trade, as on so many other policy matters,” he concluded, “FreeCons believe the best way to nurture and preserve American greatness is to champion and expand American freedom.”
In the mix
• In a recent report for the Economic Policy Innovation Center, FreeCon signatory Paul Winfree warned that the federal government is recklessly approaching its “fiscal limit,” the “debt threshold beyond which government borrowing becomes unsustainable.”
He argued that the Trump administration and Congress can roll it back to its 2017 level, while extending the expiring provisions of the tax bill enacted that year.
“This can be achieved by implementing policies that increase annual economic growth and reducing spending by an achievable $100 billion to $140 billion per year,” wrote Winfree, EPIC’s president and a former deputy assistant to President Trump for domestic policy.
• At RealClearEnergy, FreeCon signatory Drew Bond predicted that Chris Wright, picked to be the next secretary of energy, will be an experienced and innovative leader.
He “understands the importance of energy, and he knows how to get things done,” wrote Bond, the president of C3 Solutions. Wright is “serious about the climate challenge but is clear-eyed about the importance of fossil fuels for the long haul.”
• In The Washington Examiner, FreeCon signatory Jessica Melugin previewed technology-related bills likely to draw attention from the new Republican-controlled Congress.
Potential actions include auctioning government-held wireless spectrum, reauthorizing the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and enacting new policies on child safety, artificial intelligence, and privacy.
“Past efforts have hit an impasse over Republicans seeking federal preemption of state privacy laws,” wrote Melugin, director of the Center for Technology & Innovation at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, “while Democrats have sought a private right of action for violations.”
• In the National Catholic Register, FreeCon signatory Andrea Picciotti-Bayer reproached President Biden for his poor record on religious freedom and offered four steps President Trump can take to repair the damage done by his predecessor.
These include restoring the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the Office of Civil Rights, reforming and reining in the Department of Justice, reversing recent rulemaking that injected gender ideology into America’s foster-care system, and screening judicial picks carefully.
“Nominating justices faithful to the original meaning of our Constitution can further entrench a strong, pro-religious-rights majority,” wrote Picciotti-Bayer, director of the Conscience Project.