WTPKY & Boone County Republican Party nationally recognized for conservative leadership
August 14, 2022
In a recent email written by a Senior Evaluator for the Foundation of Applied Conservative Leadership (FACL), the effectiveness of Northern Kentucky's direct-action, Liberty leaders and volunteers from WTPKY We The People Kentucky, and Boone County Republican Party (BCRP), are applauded. "The groups built lists and raised money to conduct these issue-oriented fights. They helped recruit and groom candidates. Then, utilizing tools like candidate surveys, further damaged the career politicians by exposing their records to voters during the election season."
In 2021, WTPKY and the BCRP hosted a Political Leadership School and a Campaign Management School taught by FACL for the many involved in our Northern Kentucky direct-action oriented groups.
Read the entire email entitled "The Model Works- Kentucky Proves it Again," below:
"Many different types of Patriots read these weekly Foundation emails. Some work in single-issue groups, hoping to preserve or restore our Constitutional rights. Others are candidates, or work hard to support candidates, who believe in our conservative values like Life, Liberty and Family. Others are part of local groups, working on a daily basis to preserve our liberties and resist things like government mandates.
No matter what path your activism takes, all readers share a common hope... that our toil, in the long run, will have a positive effect and make this a better country -- and as our Founders said in the Preamble to the Constitution, "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."
We inherently believe this to be the case, that through our efforts, we are making a difference. But sometimes it's also nice to hear and see the proof.
Just recently, the Foundation received just such reinforcement that buoyed the spirits of our Staff and Instructors.
It comes from the State of Kentucky and relates to results from the recent primary season. We received several emails from alumni that I want to share with you.
We Love Hearing Success Stories
The first email comes from Steven, an attendee of the Florence, Kentucky Campaign Management School taught by Instructor Alex Salsman.
To FACL and all those who trained in Northern Kentucky:
I and all who attended your training classes have to thank you for your expertise and wonderful training, as well as the supportive emails. Our coalition of groups working diligently since last summer have led us to a very successful Primary Election. We managed to unseat 3 incumbent KY state Representative RINOs, as well as some other county seats. It's been long hours and hard work but, wow, it worked. Please keep up your charge for our country and teaching as many folks as possible.
God Bless and Thank You.
Another email was sent to Senior Instructor Kirk Shelley from Cassi. She attended a Political Leadership School taught by Instructor Chanel Prunier in Frankfort, and a Campaign Management School taught by Alex Salsman in Florence.
Kirk,
I wanted to follow up with you on our success here in Northern Kentucky, since you were a great resource for starting my 501c4. While we had about 12 liberty candidates running, only the hardest working won, but we did send a message with close wins in other races.
The link below is to one of the counties I covered, by helping to educate the community on their elected representatives. All 4 were terrible RINO incumbents, in Boone County. 20+ year, career politicians.
Every one of them lost their seat Tuesday, 5/17/22.
Thank you, and all at FACL who helped the team here in Northern Kentucky.
So, What Happened?
What were these primary accomplishments alumni were so anxious to relate to us?
While we still have the general election to go through in November, here are the tallies to date:
Two new State Senate wins, now giving the state the opportunity in November to have three liberty/constitutionally-minded members in the Senate.
Eight new State House wins, giving the state the opportunity in November to have ten liberty/constitutionally-minded members in the House.
Amongst the incumbents defeated, three powerful House Committee Chairs who had been entrenched in the Legislature a combined 65 years.
If successful in the general election, it would represent a quadrupling of liberty- minded representatives in the Kentucky Legislature.
Yes, It's a Big Deal
So, as a fun exercise, I wanted to include a few excerpts from a lengthy article published just after the primary from the May 24th issue of the Lexington Herald-Leader, the second-largest newspaper in Kentucky, entitled:
"Nobody saw it coming." How 3 influential Northern Kentucky Republicans Lost on primary day.
In one night, Northern Kentucky's delegation to the state house changed dramatically. Three influential House committee chairs – Licensing, Occupations & Administrative Regulations Committee Chair Adam Koenig, Judicial Committee Chair Ed Massey and Transportation Committee Chair Sal Santoro – were all voted out in primaries against challengers running to their right.
"Nobody saw that coming. I don't know why nobody saw it coming, but nobody did," Ryan Salzman, political science professor at Northern Kentucky University and councilman for the nearby town of Bellevue. "We lost a lot of clout in Frankfort as a result of this. Three committee chairs, including a person who was tasked with creating the road plan, gone.""
Who beat these candidates? A slate of three people who are part of a somewhat organized cadre of Kentucky politicians cropping up in the Republican Party of Kentucky. Their mission is loosely articulated, but you might know them by a couple different names.
They are 'Liberty' candidates, Tea Party-adjacent or any variant of a noun used to refer to someone who adheres closely to a founding U.S. document (constitutionalist, 'We the People,' etc).
I know... I can see the smile on your face as I am writing this.
The article continued: In Northern Kentucky, their cause extends from county party leadership all the way to its representative in Congress, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie.
One of the flag-bearers for a similar style of politics on a national level, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie said he hopes the primary results will change behavior among the GOP in Frankfort.
He said, "We already have some Liberty legislators in Frankfort, and they're just getting stiff-armed whenever they bring forward good legislation. Hopefully, this is a wake-up call for the people in Frankfort -- who are just voting with the agenda of the lobbyists -- that that's not going to get it done anymore."
Representative Massie is a big supporter of the Foundation's training mission, and both he and his staff have been to our advanced schools.
Leaders in Kentucky Are Doing What Leaders Are Supposed to Do
The success in the state did not happen overnight. It is the result of a real movement that is growing with many varied gears (organizations and dedicated individuals) that are starting to mesh together and operate in tandem.
Successful leaders do four things: They Plan, they Prepare, they Act, and they Evaluate. All four phases are being implemented in Kentucky.
As an example of planning and preparing, from the beginning of 2021 up until the primary this spring, a 14-month period, the Foundation was brought in to teach a combined total of 11 Political Leadership and Campaign Management Schools. State activists also traveled and attended Advanced Foundation trainings in Indiana and Florida.
The net result was that in the majority of the "liberty" races run in Kentucky, either the candidates themselves or the key people working on their races had attended a Foundation training.
Trained indirect path organizations also played a big role in the effort. These are grassroots groups that, as one group puts it, "are fed up with the establishment, RINOs, bureaucrats, and career politicians who just aren't honoring their oath to uphold the Constitution and who aren't making decisions in the best interest of "We the People."
These groups and their activists implemented the Foundation model at its very core, starting with "picking the right battles." Through the effective use of their existing inside "champions," they were able to force votes in the legislative season on Constitutional Carry, school choice, and the gas tax. Bad votes on these issues greatly weakened incumbents during the legislative season, who were then to be targeted in the election season.
The groups built lists and raised money to conduct these issue-oriented fights. They helped recruit and groom candidates. Then, utilizing tools like candidate surveys, further damaged the career politicians by exposing their records to voters during the election season.
It is the model taught by the Foundation being put into practice by dedicated Patriots bearing fruit over time. We here at the Foundation salute their tireless efforts.
And in closing, a big thank you to all our Instructors who have taught in Kentucky over the years. Your efforts and individual encouragements are really paying visible dividends.
To all our Foundation alumni, know that the work to restore and protect our liberties is advancing on many fronts in many different states, be it Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, or Alabama, just to name a few.
Best wishes to all our alumni as you put the Foundation's training to work in your area of operations. Know that while it may not always be visible, you are making a difference.
In Liberty,
Dave Pridgeon
Senior Evaluator
Foundation For Applied Conservative Leadership
P.S. All Foundation alumni share a common hope, that through our activism and our toil in politics, we will have a positive effect and make this a better country in the long run. We believe that, through our efforts, we are making a difference, but sometimes it's also nice to hear and see the tangible proof.
This proof recently came in the form of some very strong election results in the Kentucky primaries that resulted from the implementation of the model the Foundation teaches.
We stand ready to aid you along the road on which you're engaged, so that you may one day be a success story. "