Opponents of the educational doctrine often called Vital Race Concept protest exterior of the Loudoun County Faculty Board headquarters, in Ashburn, Virginia, U.S. June 22, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
A bunch that fueled assaults on important race concept throughout Virginia’s hotly contested gubernatorial race has ties to a number of of former President Donald Trump’s allies, together with Newt Gingrich and former Housing and City Improvement Secretary Ben Carson.
The group, 1776 Motion, is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit “darkish cash” group that is not required to publicly disclose its donors. Gingrich and Carson themselves aren’t listed among the many group’s leaders, though individuals near them — together with members of the family and former high aides — have management roles.
Earlier than this yr, it was often called the American Legacy Heart. It focused Hillary Clinton in the course of the 2016 election and congressional Democrats in the course of the 2018 midterms.
The group raised over $2.3 million from 2014 by way of 2019, in accordance with their public 990 varieties reviewed by CNBC. Data for 2020 and 2021 usually are not but out there. 1776 Motion didn’t reply to CNBC’s requests for remark earlier than publication.
The group, which says it’s dedicated to stopping “anti-American indoctrination,” is positioned to proceed pushing its message throughout subsequent yr’s midterms after which maybe the 2024 race as conservative forces more and more take goal at important race concept.
The group’s rebranding got here as new fronts within the conservative-liberal tradition battle erupted over educating about race and racism in faculties.
Vital race concept is an educational strategy to learning the influence of racism. It’s taught on the school and graduate faculty stage. Conservatives have lately used the time period to explain any anti-racism dialogue and even any mention of race in schools. Republicans have largely opposed the educating of important race concept, and it was a pivotal concern within the Virginia election.
1776 Motion took its identify from Trump’s personal 1776 Fee, a White Home initiative that referred to as its work a “rebuttal of reckless ‘re-education’ makes an attempt that search to reframe American historical past round the concept the US just isn’t an distinctive nation however an evil one.”
Republican Glenn Youngkin received the Virginia governor’s race after campaigning, partly, on pushing to ban the educating of important race concept within the commonwealth’s faculties. Whereas Youngkin stored Trump at arm’s size, the previous president was outspoken in his help of the candidate – and for combating important race concept training.
In September, 1776 Motion’s brand was featured at a Virginia occasion referred to as the “Rally to Save Our Colleges.” Youngkin said during the rally that he would ban the teaching of important race concept if he turned governor. Carson additionally spoke on the occasion.
The banner on the occasion featured logos of different comparable teams, such because the Virginia-based political motion committee Combat for Colleges, which opposes the educating of important race concept. Knowledge from the Virginia Public Entry Challenge exhibits that 1776 Motion group contributed $10,000 this yr to the PAC, one in every of their most up-to-date high donors. Two exterior teams affiliated with Trump additionally gave to the Combat for Colleges PAC.
1776 Motion additionally revealed an over nine-minute video showing what the group says is Virginia mother and father pushing again on the educating of important race concept.
The group’s origins
The American Legacy Heart was established in 2014. Virginia state information present an unique board together with Adam Waldeck, who labored on Gingrich’s 2012 marketing campaign for president. Waldeck is now the president of 1776 Motion. Waldeck was American Legacy’s govt director from its inception by way of 2019. Stefan Passantino, who went on to grow to be deputy White Home counsel underneath Trump, is listed because the lawyer that represented the group when it filed articles of incorporation.
Waldeck lately mentioned 1776 Motion on Gingrich’s podcast. Waldeck told Gingrich that Hannah Smith, who received a faculty board seat in Texas and has against the educating of important race concept, is now a member of their board of advisors. The interview additionally sheds gentle on a textual content messaging marketing campaign the group unleashed throughout Virginia’s elections this yr.
Mike Murray, who would function a senior advisor to Carson’s 2016 marketing campaign for president, served on the American Legacy Heart’s board from 2015 to 2017. Murray additionally labored on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.
Murray is now the CEO of TMA Direct, an information administration firm that has labored for Carson’s marketing campaign and American Legacy PAC, a political motion committee affiliated with the American Legacy Heart. American Legacy PAC was reportedly co-founded by Gingrich. Murray just isn’t listed as a frontrunner on 1776 Motion’s web site.
Carson’s son Benjamin Carson Jr. joined the American Legacy’s board beginning in 2016 and remained on it by way of 2019, in accordance with the 990 varieties. 1776 Motion’s web site lists Carson Jr. son as a member of its board of administrators.
A disclosure from 2016 lists one other board member, Vincent Haley, who would go on to work for the Trump administration. He resigned from the group in 2017 to hitch the White Home. Haley labored as a deputy assistant to the president, particularly as an “adviser for coverage, technique and speechwriting,” in accordance with disclosure experiences.
Haley’s first monetary disclosure throughout his Trump administration tenure additionally exhibits his personal ties to Gingrich. Haley was a vice chairman at Gingrich Productions earlier than becoming a member of the Trump marketing campaign, his submitting says. He additionally had earlier expertise working as a producer for the “Billy Graham Movie Challenge, LLC.” Graham was a massively influential Christian evangelist who died in 2018.
Haley just isn’t listed as a 1776 Motion board member.
Ryan Rhodes, a former member of Carson’s 2016 marketing campaign, is on 1776 Motion’s board and had additionally served on the board of the American Legacy Heart.
Cash and affect
Although American Legacy Heart doesn’t publicly listing its donors, the operatives concerned with it helped finance Republican campaigns, in accordance with Federal Election Fee filings. Murray was the treasurer of the affiliated American Legacy PAC because it launched in 2010 by way of many of the 2016 election. Waldeck was briefly treasurer earlier than the PAC closed in 2017.
The PAC contributed to Mitt Romney’s marketing campaign in 2012 and Trump’s effort in 2016, in accordance with information from the nonpartisan Heart for Responsive Politics. From 2012 by way of the 2018 midterms, the American Legacy PAC gave over $280,000 to Republican candidates.
The PAC raised greater than $9 million from its creation till it shut down in 2017. Prime donors through the years included Jennifer Pritzker — a member of the rich Pritzker household — and Murray, together with different staff of his information agency, TMA Direct. Murray’s firm acquired over $325,000 from the PAC earlier than it closed.
Whereas the American Legacy PAC is closed, its associated group, the American Legacy Heart, persevered and took pro-Trump stances within the 2016 and 2018 election cycles.
In the course of the 2016 marketing campaign, the group took goal at Clinton’s dealing with of the 2012 assault on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, when she was secretary of State. In two advertisements posted on their nonetheless lively YouTube account, the group blasts Clinton with commentary from Kristian “Tanto” Paronto, who was a part of the safety element that defended towards the assault. These two spots have been revealed in the summertime of 2016, months earlier than Trump defeated Clinton within the election.
An internet site sponsored by the American Legacy Heart on the time lists Paronto because the chairman, in accordance with web archive the Wayback Machine.
In the course of the 2018 midterms, the identical group put up an ad that includes former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who was later pardoned by Trump for federal crimes.
The advert calls on viewers to “put America first,” evoking one in every of Trump’s slogans, and to “drive your members of Congress to do their job.” It ends by encouraging individuals to go onto a web site titled “Sovereignty Now.” Textual content of the archived web site says “the 2018 midterm elections provide a transparent selection between President Trump’s imaginative and prescient of sturdy borders and restored American sovereignty, and the novel Left’s imaginative and prescient of open borders and abolishing ICE.”
