Americans for Prosperity
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch.[6] As the Koch family's primary political advocacy group, it has been viewed as one of the most influential American conservative organizations.[7][8]
After the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, AFP helped transform the Tea Party movement into a political force. It organized significant opposition to Obama administration initiatives such as global warming regulation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the expansion of Medicaid, and economic stimulus. It helped turn back cap and trade, the major environmental proposal of Obama's first term. AFP advocated for limits on the collective bargaining rights of public-sector trade unions and for right-to-work laws and opposed raising the federal minimum wage. AFP played an active role in achieving the Republican majority in the House of Representatives in 2010 and in the Senate in 2014.
In the 2014 midterm election cycle, AFP led all groups other than political action committees (PACs) in spending on political television advertising. AFP's scope of operations has drawn comparisons to political parties. AFP, an educational social welfare organization, and the associated Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a public charity, are tax-exempt nonprofits. As a tax-exempt nonprofit, AFP is not legally required to disclose its donors to the general public;[9] the extent of its political activities while operating as a tax-exempt entity has raised concerns among some campaign finance watchdogs as to the transparency of its funding.
Background, founding, and growth[edit]
Americans for Prosperity was founded in 2004 when internal rivalries caused a split in the conservative political advocacy group Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE),[10] creating Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.[7][11] AFP's founding was funded by businessmen and philanthropist brothers David H. Koch and Charles Koch, of Koch Industries.[10][12][13][14] The Americans for Prosperity Foundation is the Koch brothers' primary political advocacy group.[8][15][16] According to a spokesperson from Koch Industries, the Koch companies do not direct the activities of AFP.[10]
AFP's original stated mission was "educating citizens about economic policy and mobilizing citizens as advocates in the public policy process".[17] Its current stated mission is "to mobilize citizens to advocate for policies that cut red tape and increase opportunity, put the brakes on government overspending, and get the economy working for hard workers – not special interests".[5] It is focused on "fiscal responsibility," and in particular on cutting taxes, reducing regulation of business, and limiting the power of the courts.[18] According to FactCheck.org, "AFP seeks to support free markets and entrepreneurship by advocating lower taxes and limited government spending and regulation."[9] Its leaders view the organization as a counterbalance to the progressive movement's unions and activist organizations.[19] According to NBC News, The New York Times and others, some of AFP's policy positions align with the business interests of the Koch brothers and Koch Industries, including its support for rescinding energy regulations and environmental restrictions; expanding domestic energy production; lowering taxes; and reducing government spending, especially Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.[20][21][22]
From 2004 to 2007, AFP was led by Nancy Pfotenhauer.[23][24] In 2005, the Kochs hired political strategist Tim Phillips to work at AFP.[25]
AFP had a staff of 116 employees in September 2012,[26] and the next year it had chapters in 34 states and reported a membership of 2.3 million.[3] In June 2014, it had 240 employees in 32 states.[27] AFP has been active in national, state,[3][28][29] and local elections.[30][31] AFP registered to lobby in 2014.[32] According to FactCheck.org, by 2011, AFP had "emerged as one of the most influential conservative issue advocacy groups on the national and state political scene".[9][33] The Los Angeles Times said AFP performed roles typical of national and state political parties.[34] ABC News said in August 2014 that AFP was "poised to be the most influential conservative group in the nation this year, and among the most influential and heaviest spending across the political spectrum this year and into the looming presidential race".[35]
As of mid-September 2018, AFP has become one of just 15 groups that account for three-quarters of the anonymous cash following the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC, which paved the way for dark money to flow into U.S. elections.[36][37]
In 2023 in Wyoming, Tyler Lindholm formed the 36th state chapter of Americans for Prosperity.[38][39]
Obama reelection[edit]
AFP ran an early television advertising campaign opposing Obama's reelection.[132][133] An August 2012 ProPublica analysis of broadcast television political advertising purchases by category showed that two nonprofit organizations, AFP and Crossroads GPS, combined, outspent all other categories, including political parties, political action committees, super PACs, unions, and trade associations.[134] While previously AFP had run issue advertising that opposed Obama's programs, in August 2012 the organization shifted to express advocacy, which explicitly called for his defeat.[135][136][137] That month, AFP spent $25 million on television commercials against Obama. AFP said the goal of the commercials was to educate voters.[138] AFP raised $140 million in the 2012 election cycle, and it spent $122 million, more than in all the previous eight years since its founding. The organization spent more than $33.5 million on television advertisements opposing Obama's reelection.[3][26][83]
In 2011 and 2012, AFP spent $8.4 million in swing states on television advertisements denouncing a loan guarantee the Department of Energy had made to Solyndra, a manufacturer of solar panels. Solyndra was the first recipient of such a guarantee under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the company went bankrupt.[139] In January 2012, The Wall Street Journal said AFP's Solyndra campaign was "perhaps the biggest attack on Mr. Obama so far in the 2012 election campaign."[140] AFP sent a bus on a nationwide tour condemning Obama's economic policies called the "Obama's Failing Agenda Tour."[141][142][143]
In April 2011 in New Hampshire, AFP sponsored an informal gathering of five Republican presidential candidates, including Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Herman Cain.[144][145] AFP offered Tea Party groups $2 for every new AFP member their volunteers signed up at polling places in the February 2012 Florida Republican primary.[146] AFP employed methodologies developed in its efforts to thwart the recall of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, including deploying a smartphone application called "Prosperity Knocks" to canvassers.[26] AFP canvassers utilized "Themis", an online voter database of millions of Americans.[147][146][148] Phillips said that AFP's canvassing support application offered field operatives the previous voting history of voters integrated with census data and consumer data including purchases, magazine subscriptions, and favorite websites.[138]
[edit]
In June 2011, AFP placed fake eviction notices on doors in the Delray neighborhood of Detroit, stating that homes might be taken to make way for the Detroit River International Crossing project.[234]
In August 2011, AFP mailed absentee voter applications to Democratic voters in at least two recall elections in Wisconsin that included a filing deadline two days after the election. The return envelopes were addressed to an "Absentee Ballot Application Processing Center" with the post office box number of Wisconsin Family Action, a socially conservative group, rather than to the clerk's office.[235][236] Responding to charges of voter suppression, AFP said the incorrect date was a "printing mistake" and was intended only for voters in the two districts where Democrats are set to face recalls on a later date.[237][238] The state board of elections opened an investigation.[239]
In 2013 in Virginia and 2014 in Arkansas, the AFP Foundation mailed "voter history report cards," which included the public-record voting history of both the addressee and its neighbors.[240][241][242]
A 2014 television advertisement targeting Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Gary Peters of Michigan for his support of the Affordable Care Act featured leukemia patient Julie Boonstra, who said she could no longer afford the cost of her treatment after the ACA.[186][187][243] The Washington Post reported that the advertisement had "significant factual errors and/or obvious contradictions."[244] Boonstra would save at least $1,000 a year under the ACA, according to The Detroit News.[245][246] AFP aired another television advertisement in which Boonstra said Peters was trying to silence her.[187][247] AFP apologized for another television advertisement that criticized the ACA and Democratic Senator Mark Udall, a candidate for reelection, using images of a somber Obama and Udall from their visit to Aurora, Colorado, in the wake of the mass shooting there.[248]
In April 2014, AFP mailed voters in at least eight West Virginia counties material that may have led them to believe they were ineligible to vote in an upcoming primary election. The mailings, received just before the deadline to update voter registration, included registration cards and prepaid return envelopes addressed to county clerks, with a message cautioning voters that if they did not update their voter registration, they might lose their right to vote in the upcoming primary election. AFP's West Virginia director said the mailings were a non-partisan, get out the vote effort targeting unregistered voters.[249]
In September 2014, AFP was investigated by the state board of elections of North Carolina after the state Democratic Party filed a complaint regarding an AFP voter registration mailing labelled "official application form" containing inaccurate information including an incorrect filing deadline five days before the actual deadline.[250][251] AFP stated the mistakes in the North Carolina mailings were "administrative errors."[252]
In 2017, AFP ran ads attacking Virginia Democratic candidate for governor Ralph Northam.[253]
In 2018, the New Hampshire attorney general's office began investigating the nonprofit status of AFP after a group of Republican representatives accused the conservative activist group of improperly wading into state elections. The investigation is ongoing.[254]
The organization said that it may support Democrats in the 2020 United States elections as part of a broader effort to adjust its strategy.[255]
In March 2023, the group said it was opposing Trump's reelection as president and was seeking an alternative to Kari Lake in her 2024 Senate run.[256]
The group supported Lily Wu's successful campaign for mayor of Wichita, Kansas, in the November 2023 election. Wu had completed an associate program at the Charles Koch Institute.[257]
On November 28, 2023, the group announced its support for Nikki Haley in her campaign for the Republican Party's nomination for president of the United States in the 2024 United States presidential election.[258]
On February 25, 2024, after she lost the primary in her home state, the group cut funding to Haley's campaign.[259][260]