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‘Crush liberal dominance’: Conservative megadonor urges leaner, meaner posture for activist groups

‘Crush liberal dominance’: Conservative megadonor urges leaner, meaner posture for activist groups

Billionaire conservative philanthropist Leonard Leo, who operates a vast network of conservative nonprofits, called on his groups to start “weaponizing” their ideas, something he said the left has been championing over the years.  A letter sent to groups supported by Leo’s 85 Fund on Wednesday said it would be undergoing a “comprehensive review” of entities it supports, and “will be adjusting the extent to which it funds ideas and policy development.” The goal, according to Leo’s letter, is to ensure their philanthropic efforts are not overly focused on “ideation,” or as Leo describes it, “the development of and education about conservative ideas and policies.” Rather, Leo wants his groups to adopt more aggressive tactics that “weaponize” their ideas and produce more tangible results, something he suggested liberals have championed effectively for their causes.   “The Left built powerful networks of activists, academics, journalists, and philanthropists, along with professionals from other disciplines, who could collaborate to influence public attitudes and generate political pressure on public officials,” Leo said. “They invested in talent pipelines to populate the power centers inside government, where policy would be implemented. They incubated litigation as a means of leveraging the law to produce change. And, beyond politics and law, left-wing philanthropy built or took over enormous infrastructure to control various cultural chokepoints.” “In contrast,” Leo continued, “vastly insufficient funds are going toward operationalizing and weaponizing [conservative] ideas and policies to crush liberal dominance.” ‘STOP PRETENDING’: CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST WANTS DEMS BEHIND SCOTUS ETHICS RULES TO TAKE THEIR OWN MEDICINE  Leo’s letter cited the George Soros-funded Tides Foundation and the Hansjörg Wyss-backed Arabella Advisors as examples of groups that “incubate action-oriented campaigns.” He pointed to their support of nationwide NGOs like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). SJP has been at the forefront of drumming up anti-Israel sentiment at college campuses across the country since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack that killed over a thousand innocent Israelis and took hundreds hostage. Meanwhile, WPATH has been at the forefront of the transgender movement, publishing standards of care that doctors and public officials alike have used to justify “gender-affirming care” for minors. “With donors like Hansjörg Wyss and the Arabella Advisors network having billions at their disposal, the left is able to significantly outspend the conservative movement to shift American society,” Leo told Fox News Digital. “Consequently, we need to do more with less, focusing on leveraging the conservative movement’s talent to have impact, if we want to be successful.” Leo is the co-chairman and former executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a group focusing on advancing the principles of a limited, constitutional government, particularly in the legal world. He has been credited with transforming the Federalist Society into the powerhouse lawfare organization it is today with more than 70,000 members. Meanwhile, Leo has also been considered one of the foremost influences on former President Trump’s Supreme Court nominations. Prior to Trump’s selection of Federalist Society-backed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, Leo drew up a list of potential judges that Trump released during his 2016 campaign.   LEONARD LEO WARNS BIDEN-HARRIS EFFORTS TO RADICALLY OVERHAUL SUPREME COURT COULD ‘BACKFIRE’   After Trump was elected, Leo stepped away from his daily duties with the Federalist Society, but remained its co-chair. Meanwhile, in 2022, Leo’s Marble Freedom Trust received a $1.6 billion gift from American businessman and GOP donor Barre Seid. Leo still has roughly $1 billion left to spend, the Financial Times reported this week after analyzing public financial disclosures. A representative for Leo declined to share how many total NGOs receive financial support from the 85 Fund.  “Expect us to increase support for organizations that call out companies and financial institutions that bend to the woke mind virus spread by regulators and NGOs, so that they have to pay a price for putting extreme left-wing ideology ahead of consumers,” Leo said during a rare interview he granted to the Financial Times.  Leo told the outlet that his Marble Freedom Trust has been increasingly focused on going after “woke” banks and China-friendly entities across a range of sectors, such as food production and artificial intelligence. Leo also indicated he plans to invest in local media in the U.S. over the next year.   The call from Leo for his groups to “operationalize” and “weaponize” their ideas has been met with anger from liberal critics.  “Leonard Leo’s brazen call to ‘weaponize’ the conservative movement further exposes his strategy of using his dark money network to force his right-wing agenda on everyday Americans and stack the deck in favor of the powerful few,” said Carolina Ciccone, president of NGO watchdog Accountable.US. “Let’s be very clear: This isn’t just about shaping conservative thought — it’s about weaponizing the very institutions that are set up to protect the rights of everyday Americans to serve the interests of right-wing special interests.” Jay Willis, former GQ writer and current editor-in-chief of progressive commentary website Balls & Strikes, accused Leo of trying to rebrand “as an Elon Musk-style culture warrior who rants about the ‘woke mind virus.’”

Harris-Trump showdown: GOP chair vows ‘we absolutely have the resources’ to win in November

Harris-Trump showdown: GOP chair vows ‘we absolutely have the resources’ to win in November

Former President Trump’s 2024 campaign and the Republican National Committee are facing a fundraising deficit to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and the Democratic National Committee. But RNC chair Michael Whatley vows that the Trump campaign and the GOP’s national committee “absolutely have the resources” to win in November. Harris’ campaign, touting an “historic, 24-hour haul,” this week showcased their fundraising prowess in the immediate aftermath of the first and potentially only debate between the vice president and Trump. The money raked in by the Harris campaign was the latest sign of the vice president’s surge in fundraising in the nearly two months since she replaced President Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 national ticket. WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKING IN THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE SHOW Word of the post-debate fundraising comes a week after the Harris campaign announced that they hauled in $361 million in August, nearly triple the $130 million raised by the Trump campaign. Asked about the fundraising, Whatley in a Fox News Digital interview Tuesday at the presidential debate in Philadelphia, responded that “the Democrats have a ton of money. The Democrats always have a ton of money.” HARRIS AND TRUMP HOLD DUELING RALLIES IN KEY BATTLEGROUNDS But he emphasized that “we absolutely have the resources that we need to get our message out to all the voters that we’re talking to and feel very comfortable that we’re going to be able to see this campaign through and we’re going to win on November 5.” Longtime Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams noted that in the 2016 presidential election, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton “vastly out raised Donald Trump and it didn’t make a difference. He was able to essentially commandeer free media and push his message without having to spend a lot of money on TV ads.” “People have an opinion about Donald Trump. You can run tens of millions of dollars in negative ads against him but the cake’s kind of already baked in terms of his public perception,” added Williams, a veteran on multiple GOP presidential campaigns. “Harris is less known and less defined. I think the Trump campaign will have adequate resources to define her.” The Harris campaign highlights that it is investing much of its fundraising dollars into its grassroots outreach and get-out-the vote efforts, noting that it’s “putting its resources to reach the voters who will decide the election.” The large ground game operation, originally constructed when Biden was the nominee, according to the campaign, includes over 312 offices and more than 2,000 staff in the key battlegrounds coordinated between the presidential campaign, the DNC, and state Democratic parties. In a straight Harris campaign and the DNC comparison to the Trump campaign and the RNC, the Democrats enjoy a sizable ground game advantage. But Trump is relying on a handful of aligned outside groups to help run turnout operations that are traditionally performed by a presidential campaign.  Whatley took issue with the suggestion that the Democrats enjoyed a stronger get-out-the-vote operation. “No, they don’t have a stronger ground game. I feel very, very comfortable about the ground game we’re putting in place through Trump Force 47,” the RNC chair told Fox News Digital. Williams emphasized that “the ground game will be critical given how tight the margins are in the key battleground states and could tip the balance of the election.” “In this race, where each critical race seems to be within a point, the ground game can make a difference, and you need resources, and you need organization to run an effective ground game, to identify persuadable voters and turn them out,” he added. “Democrats will have a very formidable operation and in many states will try to bank votes early.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.