Right-wing think tank’s 'policy wins' show growing influence on GOP officials: report

17 March 2024

Back in 2011, during President Barack Obama's first term, Republican Tarren Bragdon — a Republican who formerly served in the Maine House of Representatives — founded the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a right-wing think tank, in Naples, Florida (his adopted home). FBA has grown increasingly influential in the GOP since then — so influential that, according to CNN reporters Daniel Medina and Bob Ortega, it can shape a politician's messaging.

"Along with attacking 'woke' investing," Medina and Ortega explain in an article published on March 17, "FGA has worked with legislators and elected officials to push for laws to deregulate child labor, stop Medicaid expansion and slash food stamps, among other initiatives. Since the 2020 presidential election, the group also has played a key role in the push to advance voting restrictions and other legislation pitched as promoting election integrity in Republican states — claiming more than 70 such policy wins across the country in 2022 alone."

The reporters cite Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft as an example of a Republican who FGA has influenced.

E-mails obtained by CNN and the watchdog group Documented, according to Medina and Ortega, show that Ashcroft adopted "regulatory language" that FGA was pushing.

The journalists note, "The e-mails not only reveal FGA's influence over Ashcroft, they offer a snapshot of the group's growing influence across the country, particularly in red states…. In Wyoming, a GOP state senator forwarded an FGA draft bill to Secretary of State Chuck Gray that would prohibit sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms."

According to Medina and Ortega, FGA's pressure campaign against the ESG movement is also influencing Republicans.

"ESG refers to a financial strategy that considers the environmental, social and governance effects of an investment, rather than solely the potential profit," the reporters explain. "Dubbed 'woke investing' by its critics on the right, it has become a wedge issue in modern culture wars. Conservative activist groups have gotten lawmakers and officials in 17 states to pass investment laws to protect fossil fuel companies and gun manufacturers who might be hurt by ESG considerations."

Read CNN's full report at this link.

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