Speaker set
FreeCon 2026 features some of America’s most-influential policy leaders
When Freedom Conservatives convene in Washington on May 20 for our second annual conference, we’ll hear from a wide variety of policymakers, policy analysts, scholars, and commentators.
The daylong event at Capital Turnaround will feature such speakers as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru, and Stand Together CEO Brian Hooks.
Think tank exexcutives such as Kent Lassman (Competitive Enterprise Institute), Tim Chapman (Advancing American Freedom), Ben Klutsey (Mercatus Center), and Tony Woodlief (State Policy Network) will speak, as well.
We’ll talk about emerging issues, fusionism, developing talent, building coalitions, expanding opportunity, strengthening families, and the future of the American Right.
With the event still two weeks away, FreeCon 2026 has already proven to be a popular ticket. Only a few seats are still available — so if you want to attend, now is the time to click here and register.
Today we feature recent work by other speakers appearing at the Freedom Conservatism Conference on May 20.
Vital message
Guy Benson is a senior columnist for the Washington Examiner, a Fox News political analyst, and the host of the Guy Benson Show. He is also a featured speaker at FreeCon 2026, to be held May 20 in the nation’s capital.
In a recent Examiner piece, Benson criticized left-wing attempts to whitewash the behavior of an antisemitic terrorist accused of murdering a Holocaust survivor and fire-bombing peaceful protestors in Colorado.
“Is it now the ‘progressive’ position,” he asked, “that foreign nationals can come to America on tourist visas, file legally dubious asylum claims, then stay indefinitely, even after an immediate family member commits a deadly terrorist attack on U.S. soil?
“One might argue that even if none of the rest of the family had anything to do with the murderous assault against Jews, it is vital to send a message that foreign nationals who come to America and attack our people will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and that their relatives, who are guests in our country, will not be permitted to stay.”
Offensive lines
Stephanie Slade is a senior editor at Reason and the author of Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right, forthcoming from University of Notre Dame Press. She is also a speaker at FreeCon 2026, to be held May 20 at Capital Turnaround in Washington.
In a recent magazine piece, she dissected the “Groyper” movement led by Nick Fuentes and its popularity among far-right youth.
“Following their leader's example,” she wrote, “Groypers generally adopt an ironic posture and winking delivery intended to make onlookers feel unsure whether to be horrified by their unabashed racism and misogyny or to laugh it all off as performance art. Since transgressiveness is their main source of in-group social capital, a status competition has emerged to see who can be most inflammatory and offensive.”
“The influence and relevance of Groyperism to right-wing politics is increasingly hard to deny,” Slade concluded.
Clear conclusion
FreeCon signatory Lathan Watts is a columnist for Townhall and vice president of public affairs for Alliance Defending Freedom and its sister organization ADF Action. He is also a speaker at FreeCon 2026, to be held May 20 in Washington.
In a recent Washington Examiner piece, Watts praised the U.S. Supreme Court for unanimously affirming the constitutional rights of faith-based nonprofits.
“From Washington state to Vermont, California to New York,” he wrote, state officials have targeted pro-life organizations. “Whether they’re going after confidential donor data or attempting to punish centers for sharing possibly life-saving information about abortion pill reversal, their message is clear — if you provide free, compassionate care and information to women and families, you could be subjected to harassment by your state government.”
Now, thanks to “a clear conclusion from the highest court in the land,” such harassers are on notice that they may be “held accountable in federal court for violating constitutional rights.”
In the mix
• At RealClearHealth, FreeCon signatory Joel White described hospital consolidation as “the monopoly tax on your health insurance.”
“In 1970, about 90% of U.S. hospitals stood on their own,” wrote White, who leads the Council for Affordable Health Coverage. “Today, only one in five does. Eight in ten hospitals are now part of a consolidated system, and those systems control 93% of acute care beds.”
“Roughly one in four U.S. physicians worked for a hospital in 2013,” he added, while today “nearly four in five work for a hospital or another corporate entity such as an insurer.”
“This is not a functioning market. It is a patchwork of local monopolies where patients, employers, and taxpayers are paying the bill.”
• At National Review, FreeCon signatory Christian Schneider cast a spotlight on left-wing commentator Hasan Piker’s defense of “microlooting” as a form of political activism.
Piker’s preposterous use of the term “will almost certainly fade, as most political neologisms do when they outlive their tactical usefulness,” wrote Schneider, op-ed editor at the Pacific Legal Foundation. “But its brief moment of circulation did exactly what it was designed to do: insert a small hesitation, a philosophical speed bump, between the act of shoplifting and the social consensus that shoplifting is simply wrong.
“That’s not wordplay. That’s the Left burdening us all with more emotional labor.”