The Daily Signal - Freedom Caucuses Shaking Up How Business Is Done in 11 States

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

For nearly a decade, the House Freedom Caucus has disrupted the way business is done in Congress. Now, that same model is spreading to state capitals across America. State Freedom Caucus Network President Andy Roth is no stranger to Washington’s policy fights after spending years with the Club for Growth. A few years ago, he decided it was time to turn his attention to the states. Today, the State Freedom Caucus Network is growing and currently active in 11 states that span the country. On this episode of "The Daily Signal Podcast," we talk about the how these conservative lawmakers are challenging the status quo and shaking up the establishment. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, March 14th. I'm your host, Rob Blewey. For nearly a decade, the House Freedom Caucus has disrupted the way business is done in Congress. Now, that same model is spreading to state capitals across America. On today's episode, we're going to learn more about the State Freedom Caucus Network from Andy Roth, the organization's president. Roth is no stranger to Washington's policy fights after spending years with the Club for Growth. Today, the State Freedom Caucus Network is growing and currently active in 11 states that span the country. We'll talk about how these conservative lawmakers are challenging the status quo and shaking up

the establishment. Stay tuned for our interview right after this. Conservative women are problematic women. Why? Because we don't adhere to the agenda of the radical left. Every Thursday morning on the Problematic Women podcast, Kristen I, Cammer, Lauren Evans, and me, Virginia Allen, are joined by other conservative women to break down the big issues and news you care about. Whether you're interested in hot takes and conversations on pop culture or what Congress is up to, problematic women has you covered. We sort through the news to keep you up to date on the issues that are of particular interest to conservative leaning that is problematic women. Find problematic women wherever you like to listen to podcasts and follow the show on Instagram. Andy Roth is

President of the State Freedom Caucus Network. Andy, thanks for joining the Daily Signal. Thanks for having me, Rob. You spent nearly two decades in Washington fighting for limited government at the Club for Growth. You and I got to know each other, fighting earmarks and all sorts of other bad things that Congress was doing. What inspired you to refocus your attention on state legislatures? The House Freedom Caucus launched in 2015, and almost immediately, because of my position at the Club for Growth, I had a lot of state lawmakers come to me and see. say, gosh, I wish we had that at the state level. And so we've been talking about this for years, and we never really formalized it. But in 2019, we're like, we've got to make this happen,

because there are 50 swamps in the 50 states that people don't know about. And they're arguably, I would say they are worse than the swamp in D.C. And because of the COVID stuff, school choice, there are so many issues that impact people and their families at the state level, and no attention was paid on them. So in 2019, we launched the network. The Georgia Freedom Caucus was the first one. Then we went to South Carolina, South Dakota, Illinois, on and on. And now we have 11 of them.

And the goal is obviously to get into all 50. It's going to take some time to get into New Jersey and California, but we'll get there. Can you speak about your strategy in terms of how you go about identifying a state? Why was Georgia first? Why was South Carolina second? How did you come up with the 11 so far? Yeah, these state freedom caucuses have to originate organically, meaning that the lawmakers themselves have to come to us and say, we've got the members, we've got the desire, we have the principles, let's do it. And so we then talk to them and we help put it together and then we launch. So we found the members in Georgia, South Carolina, elsewhere because they were ready to go.

And that's kind of the process now going forward is a lot of state lawmakers all across the country know about us, but there are some that still don't. But once they do, they come to us and then we go through the process and hopefully we're able to launch in all of them. I think Daily Signal listeners will understand what it takes to be a Freedom Caucus member in the U.S. House. Could you speak to some of those characteristics expand on your last answer in terms of explaining the types of people that gravitate toward this organization? Yeah, they are full-spectrum conservatives, but more importantly than that, they are conservatives before the Republicans, meaning that if there are Republican leaders, whether it's the governor, whether it's the Speaker of the State House or the Senate Majority Leader, if they're pushing policies that are not conservative, we only want lawmakers who are willing to fight back

against them. So not only do they have to be great on policy, but they have to be great on policy, but they have to to be willing to fight Republicans and Democrats at every turn. Yeah. Well, thank you for saying that. And of course, some of those politicians, the establishment in the states, haven't exactly welcomed the state federal caucus network. What are some of the conflicts that are playing out right now in the states that you can share

with our listeners? The best example I like to give is Wyoming. It is the reddest state in the union based on Trump Biden numbers. won that state more than any other state. The Wyoming House has 57 Republicans, 57 Republicans to only five Democrats. So you would think that they could pass school choice, banning transgender surgeries on minors, getting pornography out of the classroom. You would think they could do all of that. But when you look at the actual voting records, instead of 57 to 5, it's 26 conservatives to 36 liberals.

So liberals are in charge of the Wyoming House and the Senate, frankly. And that's because big government liberals know that they cannot win in Wyoming with a D after their name. So they simply put an R after their name, run, get elected, and then vote like liberals. And Wyoming is not an outlier. Every red state is like that. And that's why you're seeing headlines in South Carolina. Carolina, Missouri, Idaho, all the states that we're in in red states where we are provoking the establishment and exposing their conceit.

And obviously, they don't like that. And so that blows up and manifests itself in really big fights. Thank you for explaining that problem. Obviously, a big one that you need to solve. What are some of the tactics that you then go about using, whether it's in Wyoming or other states, in order to accomplish what you're trying to achieve? I'll give you the best example in Missouri. Missouri, that's our most recent state, we launched on January 5th of this year, and in two weeks,

our lawmakers got kicked off their committees, had their parking spots taken, and even some of their staff got deducted pay because they committed the horrible sin of pushing leadership to pass the conservative priorities that the entire state GOP has advocated for. and leadership didn't want to do the conservative priorities of the state party. And so we merely, our lawmakers in Missouri merely said, we're going to filibuster in the Missouri Senate because we were by camera. We have state reps and state senators. We're going to filibuster all gubernatorial appointments until you guys commit to actually

putting good legislation on the floor. Well, they didn't like that, so they kicked them off committees and took their parking spots away and so on. And in South Carolina, it was even worse than that. At the very beginning of last year's session, leadership required every member of the Republican House to sign a loyalty pledge. And this loyalty pledge had a lot of stipulations in it, but one of them said, you cannot criticize any of your Republican colleagues. And one of our South Carolina Freedom Caucus members raised their hand and said, so if I take a picture of the vote board after a big vote and tweet that out, am I criticizing my colleagues? And they said yes. So our South Carolina Freedom Caucus members refused to sign the loyalty pledge.

And within a couple of days, they got kicked out of the House Republican caucus. So they're now off on an island. And I'll tell you, candidly, our Freedom Caucus members were kind of wringing their hands when leadership was threatening. them. But ever since they've been kicked out, it's been liberating for them because they don't have to attend the stupid meetings where leadership finger wags at you and say, we have to pass this huge corporate welfare bill. They don't have to listen to any of that anymore. Right, right. It's liberating for them to be able to be in that position. You've mentioned some of the issues that they've confronted in the States. Do you have a suite of issues that you're generally focused on? It sounds like fiscal issues obviously are a prominent one, but what are

some of the other things that have come up? Well, the fiscal thing, let me touch on that first. At the state level, by and large, in red states, budgets pass almost unanimously, historically. So if you've got Republicans and Democrats voting for budgets, you should be worried. And the data bears that out. States are plusing up their budgets by 10, 15, 20%, like year after year after year, a lot because all the Biden bucks are coming down from the feds and, you know, just doing horrible damage. So we fight on the budget first and foremost, and we use every opportunity to offer amendments to cut this or that.

And unfortunately, we're still losing on that because a state freedom caucus only has a small number of members compared to the overall legislature. But like in South Carolina, last year's budget had more no votes than any time. time in the last 50 years. So that's one. All of the big hot topic issues that you see in the headlines our guys are fighting on, like school choice. I mentioned before, banning transgender surgeries for minors. We really are hitting every issue possible. It's fiscal, cultural, everything. That's great. Yeah. Thank you for leading that fight. When you've seen so many leaders step up to the plate despite probably the threats and challenges that they're facing, the difficult circumstances,

whether it's, you know, things like losing seats on committees or having the staff, you know, face reductions. What motivates these leaders, these conservative leaders, to keep the fight going and to stand up and recruit others to the cause? Honestly, each other. When I got into this, I knew about the House Freedom Caucus. I love those guys. I knew the fight in front of us. I knew that the establishment would retaliate. What I didn't fully appreciate, appreciate at the time, though, is that these members really love and respect each other and they stick together. And they do that not just on the floor of the chamber when they vote, but they meet a lot of time. They pray a lot of time with each other.

And when you know you're in a trench fighting against somebody, knowing that the person to your left and to your right have your back, that motivates everything. And I will say in a lot of these red states, the grassroots are kind of. a demoralized. Like, they see what's going on in D.C. They see that nothing's going on in their state capital. But now, for the first time, they have a Freedom Caucus at their state capital who's not only voting with them, but being very loud and vocal. And when they see that, they're like, sign me up. And so not only do you have people in the trench to your left and right, but when you look back, there's a whole army of supporters that are ready to charge that hill with you. It's it's actually a beautiful thing to see.

Now, here in Washington, obviously there are a number of policy organizations, including the Heritage Foundation and Club for Growth, which you mentioned earlier, which provide advice and guidance to members of Congress. What is the atmosphere like in the states? We hear about state think tanks, but not necessarily doing the extent of work in every particular state. So does the State Freedom Caucus Network provide them with ammunition and support on policy issues to help them make decisions in the right way?

Yeah, that's a great question. And to be honest with you, Heritage Foundation has been invaluable in that sense because whenever there's an issue coming up where we need policy support, we reach out to you guys. But then there's also the state think tanks. And frankly, it's a mixed bag with the state think tanks. Some of them are well organized and well funded. Others are not. But on any given issue, and this is a great benefit that our network can provide our states, is that we can find experts all across the country, whether it's in Idaho or in Georgia or South Carolina,

we can find those experts somewhere in the conservative movement and give them the resources to then fight. That's great. That's great. And you, in order to build this team, you've tapped into somebody, Justin Wemet, who obviously has firsthand experience working with the Freedom Caucus. Can you talk about your team and how you've gone about organizing, building it, where you've deployed people to be effective in terms of accomplishing your goals. Yeah, let me step back a little bit.

One thing people don't know is that state lawmakers are part-time. They have a full-time job most often and a family to take care of. So they don't get a lot of time to spend in the capital itself. And when they do, they don't have an office sometimes. In some states, their desk on the chamber floor is their office. they have zero staff or very little staff. And if they do have staff, it's somebody that answers the phone. It's not like all the policy experts here in Congress.

Responding probably to constituent complaints or concerns. Right. Right. And so, and this, by the way, is by design. Like the establishment, whether it's the governor, the bureaucrats, the special interest, the legislative leaders, they all have staff. They have consultants, lawyers, press team, everything like that. So in every one of our states, we have a state director and that person is on the floor with them, reading the bills, providing vote recommendations, building the coalition support.

And so we've got a great team in our 11 states. Some of them worked here on the Capitol Hill like Connie Hare, who was chief of staff to Louis Gomer. She's now in Louisiana, helping the Louisiana Freedom Caucus. So we have those 11. Then like you mentioned, we have Justin Womet. He was the chief of staff to Louis Gomer. She's now in Louisiana, helping the Louisiana Freedom Caucus. So we have those 11. Then, then like you mentioned, we have Justin Womet. He was, the former executive director of the House Freedom Caucus here in D.C. So he was the guy kind of behind the curtain who was helping our guys up here. Then we have Greg Price, who is our comms director. And if anybody's listening, you should definitely follow Greg on Twitter. He's got over 350,000 followers. Elon Musk retweets him every once in a while. He's a great asset. So whenever we have a small localized fight, whether it's in Idaho or Louisiana, he helps it. There's a build into a national story. And when the leadership in a small red state realizes that there is now national firepower

against them, they quake in their boots. And it's wonderful to see. Well, I know some of those people you mentioned, obviously, Justin, Greg, Connie, they're fantastic. You've built an outstanding team. And I really agree that what you have described in terms of. Giving national attention to some of the state issues can have a profound impact and probably send shockwaves through state legislature. Andy, can you share any thoughts on where you might go next?

You mentioned a number of states that we typically identify as red states. You said it might take a little longer to get into blue states. So what's your growth plan? So, again, we just want to be available and reach out to lawmakers who want to do this. Texas just had their big. primaries last week. It was beautiful. The governor, the AG, the lieutenant governor, even President Trump endorsed candidates against liberal Republican incumbents and in a lot of cases they want. We have had our eye on Texas for a long time, but things were so corrupt down there and so bad in

Austin. I joke that it's like a Spanish soap opera because it's not only policy disputes, its personalities disputes. It's all sorts of things. But Texas is a place that I think that we could be in very soon. Then there's other states like Oklahoma, Ohio, that I think we could be in fairly quickly. I am worried about Florida. DeSantis has done such a great job there that there's almost an attitude of we don't need a Florida Freedom Caucus. And my argument to them is DeSantis isn't going to be there forever.

And the great thing about state freedom caucuses is that they live in perpetuity. Lawmakers will come and go, but you can always count on a state freedom caucus to advance conservative policy. So hopefully we'll get into Florida at some point, but right now it's just not there. You never want to get too comfortable, I suppose, even if you are in a good situation today. I'm so glad you mentioned that Texas example. It's so recent. My memory serves correctly. Kim Reynolds in Iowa employed a similar strategy, right?

In terms of getting involved directly in primaries, and that was one way that she helped advance school choice in that state. Do you see more of that happening in the future, or is that going to be a case-by-case state-by-state basis? Well, I'll tell you, what Reynolds did and Abbott did in Texas is very unusual. In fact, the opposite happens. In South Dakota, Christy Noem has politically supported opponents to, our incumbents, Doug Bergam in North Dakota, spent a lot of his own personal money going after

conservatives. We don't have a Freedom Caucus there yet, but the norm is the other way around. So I do welcome what is happening. Honestly, I think they're aboricians and I don't think we're going to see a lot more of those. Now, if we're effective, and I believe that we are, I think that the establishment is going to go after our guys more and more politically. But, you know, there's the saying, first they ignore you, then they fight you, and then they work with you. In a couple of our states, we've gotten to the, now we'll work with you. But this year's elections, it's going to be nasty.

And if we come out of it victorious, I think we're going to dramatically change the landscape in this country. So then what is your advice to elicit? who's in one of the 11 states and trying to make a decision, whether it be in a primary or some other forum, how do they know who the conservative champion is? What should they be looking for? Yeah, great question. If you are in one of our 11 states, go to state freedom caucus.org. There's a map that shows the 11 states, and it also shows the lawmakers. So reach out to them, reach out to our state directors, and just get on the list, get the updates so that you know when the fights are occurring.

and how you can help. If you're not in one of the 11 states, find out who your conservative lawmakers are and urge them to start a Freedom Caucus. Those are the two best things you can do. That's great advice. A couple final questions. First of all, I'm on your list,

and I love the updates that you send things that are happening in the states. Very informative. What's the best way for people to subscribe to updates from the state Freedom Caucus. Yeah, just go to our website, sign up. Also follow Greg on Twitter. can follow me at Andy Roth. I'm not as prolific as Greg, but we provide updates constantly on

Twitter and on our substack, which you can sign up for at our website. And how do people support your organization if they wanted to make a financial contribution? Great. I love that question. So we are a C3 and a C4. So what that means is that we have an educational arm and an advocacy arm. And so State Freedom Caucus Network is our C4. That's sort of our mothership. And And then State Freedom Caucus Foundation is our educational arm. Contributions to that are tax deductible. I know a lot of folks find that important. So just go to our website and you can give to either one.

Andy Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network. Thanks for all you're doing. Appreciate you spending time with the Daily Signal. Thanks for having me, Rob. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to The Daily Signal podcast. Please subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you prefer to listen to podcasts. And help us reach more listeners by leaving a five-star rating

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