Group that created Tea Party dissolves over split between 'MAGA and Never Trump factions'
Freedomworks, which served as the primary hub for the conservative Tea Party movement of the late 2000s and early 2010s, is now closing its doors for good. Its leader blames the group's demise on the division within the GOP centered around former President Donald Trump.
Politico reported Wednesday that Freedomworks is shuttering after two decades in operation. Adam Brandon, who is Freedomworks' president, attributed the closure of the group to irreconcilable differences between the more libertarian-leaning faction of the Republican Party and the far-right, pro-Trump faction that has since taken over the GOP and dominated mainstream Republican orthodoxy.
"A lot of our base aged, and so the new activists that have come in [with] Trump, they tend to be much more populist," Brandon told Politico. An internal document Politico obtained included a quote from Brandon in which he said "[Freedomworks] staff became divided into MAGA and Never Trump factions."
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"Now I think donors are saying, ‘What are you doing for Trump today?" Freedomworks board member Paul Beckner said. "And we’re not for or against Trump. We’re for Trump if he’s doing what we agree with, and we’re against him if he’s not. And so I think we’ve seen an erosion of conservative donors."
According to a former Freedomworks staffer, Brandon often had to toe the line between appeasing the MAGA movement while staying true to Freedomworks' conservative libertarian roots. In one instance, the group tweeted in support of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' so-called "Don't Say Gay" law, and publicly cast doubt on the veracity of 2020 election results.
"[Brandon] let a bunch of right-wing nutjobs turn FreedomWorks into a MAGA mouthpiece because there was money and eyeballs in it," said the staffer, who was granted anonymity to speak freely. "If that becomes the case again, he’ll repeat history."
After the death of Freedomworks, Brandon hinted at launching a new organization aimed at libertarian-leaning, politically active younger voters among the millennial and Gen Z age groups. He added that he was hoping for a fresh start to "get away around all the baggage [associated with FreedomWorks]."
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Freedomworks was launched in 2004, after the Koch-backed Citizens for a Sound Economy split into Freedomworks — chaired by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) — and Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which was chaired by far-right billionaire David Koch. Both Freedomworks and AFP laid the groundwork for the Tea Party movement, which launched in 2009 in opposition to then-President Barack Obama's administration.
While the Tea Party was initially regarded as a grassroots, populist movement, both Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity were revealed to be supplying the movement with professional training sessions and well-funded protest efforts that led to the 2010 midterm Republican wave election.
"When Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, FreedomWorks studied how he did it and then copied him," read a Guardian report from 2009. "They set up a ning site, a Facebook-like platform that allows members to talk to each other without having to go through the parent body. The result was explosive."
Click here to read Politico's full report.
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