The head of the most influential conservative group on the planet has deep roots in Wyoming. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, came home to the Cowboy State over the summer, and we had a nice chat.
The Heritage Foundation has more than 500,000 members and is based in Washington, D.C. Roberts is a former president of Wyoming Catholic College in Lander.
Roberts brought his family back to the Cowboy State this summer for an extended vacation. He says they still consider Lander and Wyoming to be their home, despite living in the nation’s capital because of his job.
Roberts is one of the country’s most prominent conservative figures and often appears on national TV news programs and in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
This past week, he shared some of his thoughts on the current political situation, mainly concerning presidential policies.
“Here's how I'd state the situation now: Former President Donald Trump is clearly the frontrunner, but the race is far from over,” he said. “Not only is Ron DeSantis strong in Iowa — something I saw firsthand while visiting candidates there recently — but also Trump's legal troubles, however unjustified, are a real problem politically.
“Unlike the political boost they've given him during the nominating process — none of us like our successful former president being persecuted by the regime — we should all expect an absolute barrage if he becomes the nominee.
“That, plus the growing awareness that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s third-party candidacy is a bigger threat to Trump than to Biden, will all have to be considered by early-state primary voters, who are just now starting to pay attention.
“So, while I wouldn't make a prediction on the Republican nominee now, I would say the race is far more open than many realize.
“The greater certainty in my mind is that President Joe Biden will be dumped by the Democrats no later than their convention next summer, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom will become their nominee,” Roberts concluded.
During our interview this summer, he had high praise for Harriet Hageman, our freshman congresswoman who defeated Liz Cheney last fall.
He felt Cheney had really blown it. She let a “personal grudge” sway her judgment, he said. It cost Cheney all of her clout in Congress and hurt Wyoming. He does not see any future for her in the Republican Party anytime soon.
The stands taken by his Heritage Foundation should have a good audience in Wyoming, one of the most conservative states in the country. Roberts recently sent out a president’s message that included the following:
“The Heritage Foundation’s and Heritage Action’s mission is to promote human flourishing by restoring self-governance to the American people. As the everyday American’s outpost in Washington, D.C., Heritage promotes and advocates for public policies based on the principles of limited government, economic freedom, a robust civil society and a strong national defense. In recent years, those principles have been under attack by the leftist ideologues running America’s elite institutions.
“Heritage’s place in this fight is primarily in the arena of ideas, public policy and government accountability. As conservatives, our weapons are not the fleeting trends of the moment, but the proven, permanent fundamentals of human flourishing: faith, family, freedom and nation.
“Through a rigorous analysis of public policy, opinion and events, Heritage has identified seven challenges where our efforts are most needed and where we can do the most good. It will be on these seven fronts that The Heritage Foundation will make our stand, to:
Empower parents to make education choices
Secure America’s borders and reduce crime
Ensure free and fair elections
Reverse the growth of regulations, spending, and inflation
Counter the threat of Communist China
Hold Big Tech accountable
Protect unborn life and family formation
“These are the issues that will decide the fight for America’s future and the conservative movement’s success over the next several years.
“Parental rights. The rule of law. Democratic accountability. Individual liberty. National security. Equal opportunity. Human dignity. As matters of political debate and public policy, these issues seem distinct, but in the context of woke totalitarianism’s escalating culture war, they blend into a single fight, the same fight Americans have been waging — and winning—since 1776. Will our government serve ‘We the people’ or a political, cultural, and corporate aristocracy that hates them?
“Heritage offers solutions to the challenges we face and the concrete reforms America needs to achieve the outcomes we seek. Unlike Washington partisans, we believe leaders owe the country such an agenda before ballots are cast — as an act of patriotic duty and republican virtue. This agenda proposes a return to our founding principles, trust in America’s unique constitutional culture, and adherence to both scientific fact and moral truth.
“In our schools, along the border and on our streets, in our voting booths, in our economy, in the world, and in the womb, we face the same choice: to stand up for the American people or bow down to elites that are trying to subjugate and cancel them.
“The stakes are high, and the battle lines are drawn. But neither are daunting — or unfamiliar. For they are the same today as they were at Bunker Hill and Gettysburg, at the Bulge and at Brandenburg Gate, at Independence Hall and on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
“History is once again calling America — the last, best hope of Earth — to defy the privileged and powerful and defend our Revolution, our Constitution, and our Heritage.
“Join us in this second American Revolution, and once again, together, we will win.”
