LIBERTY RISING

Frontpage of the Greenville News

nedryun — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:35:42 -0400

It’s been called “the track too tough to tame,” but Darlington Raceway is likely to be a friendly venue this weekend for a grassroots conservative political group called American Majority, which will be trying to energize NASCAR fans during the Bojangles Southern 500 to vote to “Keep America Free.”

Read more here.

Jim Moldenhauer applies American Majority training and wins

neilam — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:51:06 -0400

American Majority continues on its mission to identify and train conservatives across the country to run for office and to win. Jim Moldenhauer took the practical knowledge he gained from American Majority training in November 2011, and applied it in his run for Alderman in District 1 of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

Jim had been approached last year to run for office in Wauwatosa. Jim chose to challenge the progressive-leaning, hand-picked successor to the retiring incumbent, in a district won by JoAnne Kloppenburg in her attempted defeat of Justice David Prosser.

The odds were stacked further against Jim by the actions of a local progressive organization Grassroots Tosa. Every candidate they targeted with their last minute attack lost, except for one: Jim Moldenhauer. He overcame direct, motivated opposition by applying the lessons he learned from Matt Batzel and Matt Robbins at the AM training session.

Said Jim on what he learned: “Yard signs don’t get you elected… I ran my campaign without a single yard sign. Not one.” AM training allowed him to focus his campaign’s efforts on what would work best: fundamental door-to-door outreach, trying to win the votes of Democrats and Republicans alike with his common-sense message.

What does that message include ”I want to be a good representative of the people, while holding true to the conservative vision that I laid out at the beginning of my campaign,” Jim says. The most pressing problems for Jim’s neighborhood are high personal property taxes and a nearly 100 year-old sewer system in need of a serious overhaul. Jim aims to tackle these problems in a fiscally responsible way.

Jim’s advice to future grassroots activists becoming candidates? ”Be committed. Come up with a compelling vision, and be ready to verbalize it succinctly.” He also suggests that on top of being able to verbalize that message, having handy literature is a help. Learn what you need to do to win, and then do it.

Start Your Engines: The Race for NASCAR Votes

nedryun — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:31:30 -0400

RICHMOND, Va — Conservative activists are racing to snag the pole position with NASCAR voters this election cycle.

While brand names like Skoal, Coca-Cola and Sprint competed for the hard-earned dollars of middle-class race fans on the midway of the Richmond International Speedway on a recent race day, the American Majority tent used race car simulators and patriotic banners to vie for something else: swing state voters. More than two dozen volunteers for the conservative group worked the race in Richmond on a recent weekend, trying to get fans not only to register to vote but to sign a pledge that they would make it to the polls in November.

Read more here.

The Wisconsin Fight

nedryun — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:29:59 -0400

Even those who barely follow politics couldn’t avoid seeing Wisconsin constantly in the news last year. It started with Governor Scott Walker’s much-needed Budget Repair Bill, which curbed bargaining rights for many public-sector employees. A state Supreme Court race (considered a referendum on Walker’s bill) and state Senate recall elections followed. But despite tens of millions of dollars and hours of drum beating (literally-by protesters), the public sector unions failed on all three counts to gain the upper hand in Wisconsin.

Read more here.

American Majority-trained Chris Koerber wins!

neilam — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:33:10 -0400

American Majority’s goal is to identify and train conservative candidates and activists. Over the last four years we have trained over 20,000 of them and each has a unique story of what brought them into the fight and how they are working to impact the direction of their government. As one of the trainers, my hope is always that some part of the training is going to motivate those that attend to change their past behavior patterns, in regards to elections, activism and their government, and drive them to become more engaged.

Chris Koerber and his wife, Halcyon, attended an American Majority candidate training during the Summer of 2010. Up to that point they had a pretty typical level of political action: they voted and tried to stay educated on news and current events but had never attended rallies, worked directly to support candidates or run for office. They were concerned about the direction of their state and country though and wanted to become educated on how they could make their political voice heard.

During the day of training that Matt Robbins, our National Executive Director, and I conducted, we focused on effectively employing social media, building a campaign plan and precinct level campaign organization. We taught them about the importance of voter contact and that there was no substitute for actually knocking on a voters door, communicating your message and asking for their vote.

While they walked in as frustrated conservatives they walked out trained and focused activists. During the 2010 election they worked hard in their home town of Sierra Madre, California to elect conservatives and promote conservative policies.

Chris had never really considered the idea of running for office before attending the American Majority training but walked away thinking about the opportunity and knowing how to run a successful campaign. When an unexpired term on the Sierra Madre city council opened up earlier this year, he stepped up and put his hat in the ring.

While most candidates planned on waiting until late march to start block-walking and engaging voters, Chris and his campaign team began knocking on doors in January. They knew the platform they wanted to articulate would resonate with Sierra Madre voters but had had little name ID and only a small campaign budget.

Throughout the entire campaign, Chris said that, “I had one A+ activity - the highest priority that trumped everything else: Talking to Voters!”

On Saturday’s he block walked. On weeknights he called voters on the phone. Wherever he was welcome he held meet-and-greet functions in supporters homes. The constant through all of this was the belief that the platform of fiscal responsibility the he held was the right plan at the right time for Sierra Madre and that if enough voters found out about it then he would win.

Sierra Madre is a LA suburb of about 11,000 people, roughly 7,000 of which are registered to vote. When all was counted on election night, Chris won his seat with 1535 votes and the second place finisher held 1290. In addition to his personal victory, where he received the highest vote total of all three City Council races, their efforts helped defeat a 20% city utility tax increase.

I asked Chris what was the most important piece of knowledge that he wanted to pass on to fellow conservatives and he said, “After Halcyon and I took your American Majority training in Ontario, CA, the biggest takeaway that I remember you and Matt giving was that: You have to knock on doors to get out the vote. I recall the training said it took about 20 pieces of mail or 10 calls, or 1 knock on the door to get the same results.”

Yesterday, Chris was sworn in as the most recent Sierra Madre City Councilman. He is now one of 5 city council members governing a budget of over $20 Million and 67 City employees.

We’re very proud of the work that Chris did and want to share the story of his victory as a case study in how conservatives with the right training and motivation can defeat liberal tax-and-spend fiscal policy and change the face of our government.

Great job, Chris!

The Tea Party Gets Professional

nedryun — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:51:38 -0400

In the smallish outbuilding on the Wausau Homes campus known as the “Prosperity Center,” a group of conservative activists last week plotted to take back America.

Actually, conservatives largely took back America in the Republican wave of November 2010, so maybe it’s better to say they plotted to keep it.

Organizers of an activist training by the conservative group American Majority graciously allowed me to sit in on part of the session and talk to a couple of participants. What I saw was part of a continuing story of how the conservative activist energy that started at the tea party rallies in early 2009 is being professionalized, not to say co-opted, and brought further and further into the traditional political system.

American Majority opened its Wisconsin office in 2010 in Port Washington, and since then has trained more than 1,000 candidates, activists and campaign managers throughout the state — among them, former state Sen. Pam Galloway. In this busy election year, the group is ramping up activity. Its Wausau training, attended by about 40 people by my count, was the first of seven it’ll hold in the next five weeks.

Read more here.

Technology as a Weapon

nedryun — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:40:21 -0400

The conservative political group American Majority Action (AMA) has spent $1,000,000 on new software that it intends to distribute to local ‘Tea Party’ groups to help them run election efforts on the ground.

According to the president of AMA, Drew Ryun, the software in question called ‘Gravity’ will “rocket conservatives past the high-tech approaches of the DNC and other progressive political groups.” Ever since the impressive technological efforts of the first Obama campaign, conservative groups have been working to close whatever digital gap that existed. Ryun also described the application as a “fusion of old-school grassroots tactics with the state-of-the-art technology.”

Read more here.

"Gravity will rocket conservatives past the high-tech approaches of the DNC and other progressive..."

nedryun — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:04:29 -0400

““Gravity will rocket conservatives past the high-tech approaches of the DNC and other progressive political groups.””

- Drew Ryun, President of American Majority Action to Alex Bolton of The Hill

The Tea Party Goes Local

nedryun — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:46:50 -0400

WASHINGTON — All is bleak. All is woe! I speak of the tea party movement, the movement of 2009 and 2010 that was the hot news story of those years and led to the Republican rout of the Democrats in 2010. Now the tea party movement is, according to reports in the media, in decline.

Read more here.

Alumni Spotlight: Early Victory for Michael Schraa

amhq — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:47:00 -0400

Michael Schraa, an Oshkosh WI small business owner, has already taken on a career politician and won. State Rep. Dick Spanbauer announced he is retiring. Spanbauer was a RINO who voted against Gov Walker’s famous Budget Repair Bill last spring. That vote and others like them didn’t sit well with Michael Schraa. He decided to pursue a primary challenge against Spanbauer.

Schraa has taken a stand for conservative leaders and issues in the past but this is his first run for political office. He previously has put up yard signs in front of his business, Leon’s Frozen Custard in Oshkosh. Because of these signs, the local teachers union decided to boycott his business. But Schraa didn’t back down. Their boycott only further encouraged him to get off the sidelines and into the game.

Schraa attended an American Majority candidate training last November. About the training Schraa said I “felt more emboldened after sitting in on the training and hearing others stepping forward about bringing fiscal responsibility back to government.” He felt “motivated not to sit on the sidelines” and “found it very helpful.” Since he is “coming in green,” he appreciated how American Majority talked about vote goals and coming up with a win number, broken down by wards so that he can target the important townships he’ll need to win.

Spanbauer’s retirement is a testament to the credible conservative challenge that Schraa posed to him. It also is a sign of how conservatives are continuing to take control away from the Old Guard in Wisconsin.

Schraa still faces a long campaign in front of him to win the Assembly seat, but he already is a part of forcing a career politician to retire from the State Assembly.

The Relentless Pursuit of Americanism

nedryun — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:44:00 -0400

“It should be no secret to anyone who reads my columns in The American Spectator or my posts here that not only do I strongly believe that America is in crisis but that the values espoused by the conservative movement are being trampled to dust, which is such a gentle term for the reality of what is actually taking place. Why this is happening is open to some debate and there isn’t one cause to be sure. However, it is indisputable that the left has long had better grassroots organization and has approached the pursuit of their damaging statist agenda relentlessly. After all, if you believe that government exists to provide to the masses, then you’re going to encourage its expansion for your own benefit.”

Have you heard about Gravity? Check out PowerOfGravity.com for...

amhq — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:00:06 -0400

Have you heard about Gravity? Check out PowerOfGravity.com for more information.

Impact of #WIright

amhq — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:00:05 -0400

Our Wisconsin state office is leading the charge as activists take to Twitter to be effective locally. American Majority-WI co-created the hashtag: #wiright with MacIver institute. It has taken off and even has their our own lefty trolls and groups using it regularly. Conservatives are using it to share good stories that highlight a conservative message.

According to hashtracking.com, #wiright had 403 tweets generating 572,388 impressions, reaching an audience of 178,209 followers within 24 hours. Impressive considering these tweets are all centered in the state of Wisconsin.

#WIright is also breaking stories. Recently, it was reported that liberal judge issued a temporary injunction on the Voter ID law, so some folks did some digging and found that the judge had signed a recall walker petition. It was shared on #wiright and then some of us retweeted it and it created a buzz. The Wisconsin State Journal picked up on it and even credited the tweet for discovering that the judge signed the recall petition. The judge signing the recall storyline was picked up by pretty much every news organization in Wisconsin that covered the ruling.

With so much opportunity for action online, what are you doing to be most effective?

A Tale of Two Movements

amhq — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:38:26 -0500

Ned Ryun is a regular contributor to the American Spectator. This month he dove in to the history of the progressive movement as it compares to today’s tea party movement.

Even more important, however, the Tea Party needs to realize is that its objective is not about shifting paradigms or having a short-term impact. It’s about crushing paradigms and creating a new set of rules that dictate how the game is played decades from now. America needs a renewed system of government dedicated to reversing the damage of the Progressive movement and promoting American values. The Tea Party, if it is to be remembered a hundred years from now, must shrink the bureaucratic state, returning government to its proper role. It must also fundamentally change the process of electoral politics, whether it’s a return to a caucus and convention nomination process or even repealing the 17th Amendment and the direct election of Senators. Real change is about the Tea Party and the American people transcending the Progressive system of government, the ruling class it created, breaking it and its cronies, devolving power from the federal government, and changing the playing field and rules by which the “game” of politics and government is played. Fundamental change has happened before, and it can be done again, and that is the measurement of true success the Tea Party should seek to attain.

Read the rest at Spectator.org

American Majority Alumnus Is Changing Local Politics In Virginia

amhq — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0500

“I’m afraid of what we’ve done here.”

That’s how a long-time liberal incumbent of the local school board in Loudoun County, Virginia reacted to cuts made in this year’s bloated education budget. And what strikes fear into the heart of this long time big spender? A coalition of newly elected conservative members, led by the board’s new Vice Chair, freshman member Jill Turgeon. Jill, a former public school teacher, is an American Majority alumni, and her story epitomizes our nationwide strategy perfectly.

You see, just four months ago, Jill’s normal day consisted of teaching in a public school, coming home, and knocking doors every afternoon until dinnertime for her school board campaign. Now, she’s leading the coalition that has cut $13 million from her county’s exorbitant education budget. Even nationally syndicated talk radio host Mark Levin took notice of Jill’s work, and praised the new members of the Loudoun County School Board on his radio show last week.

“What we’re doing is unheard of,” Jill says. And it hasn’t been easy. “Our biggest issue this year is the status quo. There is a difference of philosophy among members of the board. Some members believe that they are representatives of the schools to the people. I believe that I am a representative of the taxpayers to the schools.”

Jill is just like millions of Americans – a regular person, concerned for her community and her country. But she had no prior experience as a candidate for office. With American Majority’s training, she gained the knowledge and skills she needed to carry her campaign across the finish line: “American Majority helped me by laying out the basics of what needs to be done on a campaign. They showed me anyone can do it. It’s truly a grassroots approach – American Majority is training citizens, not politicians.”

Jill is not alone. American Majority has already trained 2,000 conservative citizens to run for office and win. This year, we’ll double that figure. Every week, our trainers are bringing our cutting-edge training and resources to fiscally responsible, liberty-minded individuals who will run for office, win their elections, and implement sound-minded policy in their local and state governments.

Could you imagine thousands of conservative candidates doing the same thing across the country this year?

Statement from Ned Ryun on the passing of Andrew Breitbart

amhq — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:41:00 -0500

Ned Ryun, President of American Majority, released the following statement today in reaction to the untimely passing of his friend Andrew Breitbart. Ryun is a contributor to Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com website. Breitbart also worked collaboratively with American Majority over the last several years.

“Today, the conservative movement has lost a powerful voice in the fight to protect our freedom. Andrew Beitbart was a pioneer in using social media and digital technology to bring a courageous conservative message to America’s grassroots. He did something many in the conservative movement are afraid to do - go right at the left and not back down. Andrew served as an example to the rest of the conservative movement of how to fight for our values without apology or compromise.”

“He was never afraid to tackle the most pressing issues of our time, the most damaging special interests, and the corruption and hypocrisy that threaten the American way of life. Andrew was a soldier for this nation’s core values of limited government, and individual freedom. We will carry on this great cause of protecting freedom from government excess using his passion and energy as inspiration. While he has been taken from us too soon, his voice will undoubtedly resonate and his impact will be felt long after this sad day.”

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Media Inquiries Contact: Thomas Basile at TBasile@EmpireStrategy.com or call 917-579-2216

Quoted:
NPR
Yahoo! News Blog
The Cypress Times, Cypress, TX,

Wishing our fearless leaders, Ned and Drew Ryun a very happy...

amhq — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:38:26 -0500

Wishing our fearless leaders, Ned and Drew Ryun a very happy birthday!

They also got a bit of love from Erick over at RedState, check it out.

Is the Tea Party Dead? Check out what AM President Ned Ryun had...

amhq — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:56:00 -0500

Is the Tea Party Dead? Check out what AM President Ned Ryun had to say to NTV in Nebraska as two Senate candidates vie for local and national tea party support.

Time: Can a Tea Party Race Car Rev Up the Conservative Base?

amhq — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:01:53 -0500

At our announcement earlier this month we were interviewed by Time magazine about our American Majority Racing project. Check out this quote from Ned and the full story below.

“We want to be a portal into politics for NASCAR Nation. One of the things that excites me is being able to challenge people and say listen, if you are concerned about too much government, too much spending, not enough individual freedom, there’s something you can do about it, and that’s vote. I think that’s a message that will resonate.”

Does the Tea Party have a Pulse?

amhq — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Does the Tea Party have a Pulse?:

There have been several recent efforts to show that the Tea Party is still alive and kicking. For instance, American Majority president Ned Ryun suggested that Partiers have eschewed “street theater” to instead focus “on the long haul for fundamental, generational change for this great nation.” And we’ve also seen articles about in state legislative and local government elections. But it does seem that the Occupy Wall Streeters have captured the public imagination that was once focused on Tea Party rallies.