Press Releases
Meet the Extremist Network Behind CPAC 2023
Conservative conference supported by slew of prominent far-right orgs
Today, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) kicks off, ushering in a week of extremism, conspiracy, and political stunts — featuring a sinister extremist network of prominent conservative organizations.
Here are just a few of the far-right organizations involved with CPAC:
- The American Conservative Union, CPAC’s host, claims to be a “grassroots” organization but is actually bankrolled by some of the wealthiest conservative foundations and dark money groups including the 85 Fund, the Mercer Family Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and DonorsTrust.
- The Heritage Foundation, one of CPAC’s supporting sponsors, has advanced debunked claims of widespread voter fraud used to enact restrictive voting laws across the country and has taken an active role in the fight to limit access to abortion, roll back environmental regulations, and curtail the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans.
- America First Legal, whose president and senior counsel will speak at the conference, is staffed by a number of former Trump administration officials and continues to influence the House MAGA majority.
- The America First Policy Institute, originated the “America First Agenda” that proposed gutting the Affordable Care Act and giving corporations a boost over working families by lowering the corporate tax rate. The vice chair of the Institute’s Center for Election Integrity will speak at the conference, along with other Institute staffers.
Accountable.US recently launched its Monitoring Influence project to document the dark money network connecting these right-wing organizations and others. Along with regularly updating the Monitoring Influence database with new connections and organizations, Accountable has also specifically tracked the extremist groups influencing the MAGA majority in Congress.