Free Republic

Fifteen years ago this week, I landed my first writing gig. I was unpolished, young, and inexperienced. And I hadn’t found my voice yet. My “Teen Beat” column, however, helped jumpstart my career. Writing for my community paper eventually gave way to stints at my university’s conservative newspaper, an internship at Media Research Center, and co-launching several blogs. In 2013, I finally got my big break publishing this article here at Townhall.com. Fast forward to today: I’ve been fortunate to have bylines in national publications, an award to my name, and a sizable social media platform—things I value and don’t...

President Trump on Saturday invited Hayden Williams, the conservative activist attacked at Berkeley, to the stage to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference. (Fox News)President Trump announced Saturday that he will sign an executive order to promote free speech on college campuses. Trump made the announcement at the Conservative Political Action Conference after he brought up to the stage Hayden Williams, the conservative activist attacked last month at University of California-Berkeley. Conservatives have accused some colleges of trying to supress anti-liberal viewpoints. “He took a punch for all of us,” Trump said of Williams. “And we could never allow...

Conservative Founding Father: "I Expect Him to Win"HOUSTON, Texas – Presidential candidate Ted Cruz today announced the endorsement of Morton Blackwell, the president and founder of the Leadership Institute and a founding father of the modern conservative movement.Since being founded by Blackwell in 1979, the Leadership Institute has provided training in grassroots organizing, campaigning, fundraising, and communication to more than 171,000 conservative activists. Through 47 training workshops, they prepare conservatives for success in politics, media, and government. The Leadership Institute also has a national field-training program, organizes a network of 1,700 conservative campus groups, and offers a job placement service...

...Leadership Institute founder and president Morton Blackwell has now enthusiastically endorsed Iowa frontrunner Ted Cruz....Among the criteria Blackwell outlined for a candidate were "a record of personal activism and leadership for conservative principles," being "surrounded by people notable for their firm commitment to conservative principles," fighting hard "for conservative principles when it appeared to be a losing battle," a lack of flip-flopping on policy positions, and "helping conservative organizations and working to elect conservative candidates."On Friday, Blackwell named the candidate he believes has met those concerns. "I have decided to endorse Ted Cruz and to urge other serious conservatives to...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demanded information about conservative groups’ college-aged interns, prompting outrage from one of the country’s top conservative activist organizations and leading one former intern to wonder whether his family’s pizza parlor would be endangered. The IRS requested, in an audit, the names of the conservative Leadership Institute’s 2008 interns, as well as specific information about their internship work and where the interns were employed in 2012, according to a document request the IRS sent to the Leadership Institute, dated February 14, 2012. The IRS requested: “Copies of applications for internships and summer programs; to include: lists...

If you’re sick of hearing bad news you’ve starting reading the right column today. Everyone else is talking about the end of the world. There are predictions of war in the Middle East. There’s talk of an even greater economic downturn in the not-too-distant future. Some people are even predicting the Union will begin to dissolve in a few short years. But I’m spending the week telling stories, real stories, about some great people and some great organizations that give me hope. Stick with me for the next few days and you’ll probably feel a whole lot better about your...

Let me see if I have this right: ACORN, in five locations coast-to-coast are on tape counseling tax fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and the coup de grace, how to set up a whorehouse for 12 to 15-year-old El Salvadoran sex slaves, and now ACORN and the Left are POed about it being exposed without ACORN’s consent?! What else ticks the Left off about ACORN being uncovered assisting in some of the worst kind of scandalous scat known to mankind? Well, if you Google around you’ll find the “progressives” are peeved not because ACORN had the spotlight bare down on...

A new study by the Washington, DC-based Leadership Institute highlights how companies divvy their political dollars. The Leadership Institute has released its study of the largest corporate and business-related Political Action Committee (PAC) contributors. The study is more or less a compilation of publicly available data from the 2005-2006 election cycle. Institute spokesman Ian Ivey says, although they do not draw any conclusion from the data, it is published on their website so browsers can see whether companies line up with their political views. "People who visit our website and take a look at this can examine what companies that...

Youth Leadership School Radisson Hotel Chatsworth Chatsworth, CA May 3rd – 4th, 2008 Since 1979, no other organization has prepared as many people with the nuts-and-bolts techniques necessary to be effective youth leaders as the Leadership Institute. The Institute was founded in 1979 by Morton C. Blackwell to train the next generation of conservative leaders; to date we have trained over 59,000 conservatives. Attend the Youth Leadership School and join the ranks of Morton Blackwell’s notable graduates: • Karl Rove, Former Deputy Chief of Staff for President Bush • United States Senator Mitch McConnell, Kentucky • United States Congressman Patrick...

Virginia National Committeeman Supporting Thompson MCLEAN, Virginia, Dec. 11 /Standard Newswire/ -- Today the Fred Thompson campaign announced that conservative leader and Virginia Republican National Committeeman Morton Blackwell is endorsing Senator Thompson for President of the United States. "Of all the candidates who have a chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination, Fred Thompson is my choice," said Morton Blackwell. "Senator Thompson has the most conservative instincts on the public policy issues that are important to America." Morton Blackwell is well known in conservative circles as the Founder and President of the Leadership Institute, an educational foundation, which trains young...

Virginia Sen. John W. Warner has said little about whether he will run for re-election, but the 80-year-old Republican is giving clear indications that he will not return for another term and that his coyness is merely an attempt to help Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, a fellow Republican, replace him. "There has been considerable discussion about the possibility that [Mr. Warner] might delay an announcement of candidacy, then announce he wasn't going to run, to allow Congressman Tom Davis to build up at the beginning of the campaigns, which would give Davis an advantage," said Morton C. Blackwell, chairman...

www.gunowners.orgJun 2006 Rep. Stockman Helping GOA Start Gun Clubs On Campus -- Do you know someone who can help win the hearts and minds of the next generation? Gun Owners of America 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585 Tuesday, June 20, 2006 Do you know someone who is pro-gun, who likes working with college age kids, and who is in need of a full-time job in the fall? Well if so, former Rep. Steve Stockman (R) has a deal for him. Stockman is the Director of the Campus Leadership Program (CLP) in northern Virginia. The CLP is...

2006: Turning point for young conservatives Posted: January 5, 2006 By Hans Zeiger Something big is going on in America, but few are yet aware of it. It is a generational shift comparable to that of the infamous '60s, and it will involve as much revolt and upheaval. In this case, revolution is desperately needed, for the previous revolution has almost destroyed the country. The new revolution will repair the country. Yet 2006 will not be the beginning of the revolution – it has already been gathering steam now for several years. But it will, I predict, commence the vigorous...

News media reports from meetings organized by billionaire George Soros say he and some rich allies are now funding groups intended to counter the efforts on college campuses of the Leadership Institute and other conservative educational organizations. Although Soros and his allies hope through their spending to increase the effectiveness of the left on campus, I do not fear that activities they bankroll will significantly increase the left's campus influence. Nor can Soros stop the growth of campus conservative activities. My Leadership Institute's Campus Leadership Program, for example, grew its number of active, independent, conservative campus groups from 216 in...

If John Kerry is elected president, he will have many people to thank, but the list may start with Michael Whouley. A legendary Democratic field operative, the reclusive Mr. Whouley is in charge of the thousands of Democratic grassroots organizers who are charged with getting out the vote. Similarly, if George W. Bush wins he will owe a great deal to Morton Blackwell, a GOP national committeeman from Virginia, who helped persuade the party to supplement its paid advertising with a ground game that worked so well in Senate races in 2002 that it became the model for this year's...

Fellow Conservatives, I'm writing to ask you to join me in doing something effective against the leftist organizations and liberal media who have launched truly vicious attacks on U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. They attack Tom DeLay for just one reason: Congressman DeLay is one of the most effective fighters for conservative principles. Time and again, Majority Leader Tom DeLay manages the strategy which wins for conservatives in the narrowly divided House of Representatives. I know personally that Tom Delay is almost obsessively careful to get good legal advice before he takes any step which might conceivably be questioned...

My right-wing degree How I learned to convert liberal campuses into conservative havens at Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute, alma mater of Karl Rove, Ralph Reed, Jeff Gannon and two Miss Americas.   - - - - - - - - - - - - By Jeff Horwitz   May 24, 2005 | One recent Sunday, at Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute, a dozen students meet for the second and final day of training in grass-roots youth politics. All are earnest, idealistic and as right wing as you can get. They take careful notes as instructor Paul Gourley teaches them how to...

DEEP BLUE CAMPUSES John Kerry v. George W. BushGiving To 2004 Presidential Campaigns From Employees at U.S. News & World Report’s  Top-Ranked National Universities  USN&WR’s 2004School Rankings Kerry/Bush Dollar Ratio Kerry/Bush Dollar %  Number of Donations         Harvard 25 to 1 97% to 3%    406 to 13 Princeton 302 to 1 99.7% to 0.3    114 to 1 Yale 20 to 1 95% to 5%    150 to 3 Penn 32 to 1 97% to 3%    93 to 5 Duke 9 to 1 90% to 10%    98 to 7         MIT 43...

Across the heartlands and hinterlands of conservative America, many doubters and desponders wake up every morning to retrieve their newspaper, a product of the downtown Left. And so it shall remain, they say. But for America's growing army of young conservatives, there are no boundaries to the battle for the future. Even the newspapers of America must stand to reckon with a new generation of conservatives. Two students at Seattle Pacific University named Matthew McCleary and Benjamin Williams are launching a publication called the Seattle Sentinel at www.seattlesentinel.com . The sophomores have a long-term goal no less than turning the...

The Free Republic Activism Seminar in New York City is this coming Saturday, June 5, 2004 Place: Women's National Republican Club, 3 West 51st Street, NYCTime: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.Tuition: $70 without scholarship; $35 with scholarshipTime is getting short now, so act right away if you want to come to this. Go to PAYPAL and send your tuition to the e-mail address nancy2003@sluggy.net or freepmail me for other ways to pay.See the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd threads below in the replies.We have 20 enthusiastic participants and 2 enthusiastic leaders from the Leadership Institute to make this day one of...