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EXCLUSIVE — A group of 12 prominent conservatives, including a former governor, media executives, and a former U.S. attorney general, have issued a letter calling for Nikki Haley to drop out of the race for president. The former U.N. ambassador is the last remaining GOP opponent in former President Donald Trump‘s quest to win a nonconsecutive second term in the White House. She has vowed to remain in the race and is continuing to raise money, but the group argues she is only damaging her party. “While you have waged a spirited campaign for the 2024 Republican Party nomination, it...

Bob Heghmann, 70, filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court saying the national and Virginia Republican parties and some GOP leaders raised millions of dollars in campaign funds while knowing they weren't going to be able to overturn the ACA, also known as Obamacare. The GOP "has been engaged in a pattern of Racketeering which involves massive fraud perpetrated on Republican voters and contributors as well as some Independents and Democrats," the suit said. Racketeering, perhaps better known for use in prosecuting organized crime, involves a pattern of illegal behavior by a specific group. The lawsuit lists as defendants...

No activist can work in the public policy process for long without running across one or more conspiracy theories. How should you react to these theories? What do you have to know about these theories to make a difference as an activist? These questions will be answered in the newest FREE training webinar with Morton Blackwell. Conspiracy Theories airs Wed, Aug 10 at 3:00 PM EST. Register for the Leadership Institute’s free webinar with Morton Blackwell, Conspiracy Theories. LI's founder and president, Morton Blackwell, will be in the studio sharing his insights on conspiracy theories. Mr. Blackwell has been a...

CLEVELAND — Barely two hours into the much-anticipated meeting of the Convention Rules Committee, a backroom deal may be in the works. According to two sources, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus and top RNC officials are huddling privately with Senator Mike Lee, Virginia Committeeman Morton Blackwell, and leaders of the Never Trump movement to discuss a procedural compromise that would allow for gimmick-free votes on anti-Trump measures in exchange for their cooperation in not gumming up the works and prolonging the Rules Committee meeting unnecessarily. The discussion is taking place during a recess from the Rules Committee meeting, which...

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...

Longtime conservative leader Morton Blackwell, a Reagan administration alumni and once the youngest Goldwater delegate at the GOP convention, is perhaps best know as the originator of the phrase “Personnel is policy.” Blackwell’s observation speaks a great truth about American government. Since no one man or woman can do it all, alone, we have followed the French in the development of bureaucratic systems that allow for power and authority to be delegated to subordinates who are responsible, on a daily basis, for the administration of public policy. It is these people, even more than the president, who directly impact the...

I have obtained a copy of the long-awaited and highly-anticipated responses to RNC Committeeman Morton C. Blackwell's questionnaire. All six declared RNC Chair candidates responded. The answers are below: Questionnaire for Candidates for Chairman of the Republican National Committee Prepared and distributed to candidates for RNC chairman November 25, 2008, by Morton C. Blackwell, Virginia Republican National Committeeman, 3128 N. 17th St., Arlington, VA 22201, res. xxx-xxx-xxxx, off. xxx-xxx-xxxx The 37 questions are in bold. The answers are just as provided by Saul Anuzis of Michigan, Ken Blackwell of Ohio, Katon Dawson of South Carolina, Mike Duncan of Kentucky, John...

The nine (at last count) candidates for the job of Republican National Chairman have been sent an eight-page questionnaire by one of the RNC's members — essentially attempting to determine what they would do to pick up the pieces following the 2008 disaster. This letter is bound to get much attention because it comes from a party activist whose prominence in the GOP and in the conservative movement has earned him the respect of those skilled in the craft of serious political science.

"She is dynamite,” said Morton C. Blackwell, who was President Ronald Reagan’s liaison to the conservative movement. Mr. Blackwell described vying to get close to Ms. Palin at a fund-raiser in Virginia, lamenting that he could get only within four feet. “I made a major effort to position myself at this reception,” he said, adding that he is eager to sit down with her after the election to discuss the future. Asked if the weeks of interviews had tarnished her among conservatives, he replied, “Not a bit.” Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, a conservative group, called it...

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...

Thursday, January 24, 2008 Romney Scores Veteran Conservative Endorsement Posted by: Matt Lewis at 4:19 PM Jonathan Martin reports that conservative icon (and personal hero to yours truly), Morton Blackwell has endorsed Mitt Romney for President. (Previously, Morton had endorsed Fred Thompson.) While Morton Blackwell may not be a household name, he is, without a doubt, one of the most important conservative leaders in America. It's safe to say he has acolytes serving in the highest echelons of government -- as well as in every major GOP presidential campaign. Here's one small example that will give you a glimpse into...

WASHINGTON -- Republican insiders, puzzled by the sudden rise of Mike Huckabee as a serious presidential candidate, are overlooking the role played for him by actor Chuck Norris. Called "Huckabee's Oprah" in Hollywood, Norris is helping the former governor of Arkansas in much the same way that Oprah Winfrey boosts Sen. Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Huckabee began his ascent from the depths of the second tier of candidates after his endorsement in late October by Norris, called the "marshal of martial arts." Norris's endorsement is featured in a Huckabee TV ad, which his money-short campaign has...

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...

Source: This letter is taken from Chapter 17, page 571 and 572, of the book Reagan – A Life in Letters which is Edited with an Introduction by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson with a Foreword by George P. Shultz. Editor’s Note: Robert Bork, a distinguished legal scholar and member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, was nominated for the Supreme Court on July 1, 1987. The confirmation proceedings were protracted and contentious. The nomination was defeated in the Senate 58-42 on October 23, 1987. The Democratic majority in the Senate made...

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...

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...