American Majority is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political training organization. Founded with an initial investment by the Sam Adams Alliance

Sam Adams Alliance

Sam Adams Alliance is a non-profit organization based in Richmond, Virginia. Founded in Chicago in 2006, the group describes itself as a "fiercely independent organization dedicated to inspiring and encouraging grass-roots citizen activism."...

, the organization is funded by smaller individual donors. The organization provides political training to conservative activists and candidates in state and local elections. Registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

, the group describes itself as "a non-partisan political training institute whose stated mission is to train and equip a national network of leadership committed to individual freedom through limited government

Limited government

Limited government is a government which anything more than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy is generally disallowed by law, usually in a written constitution. It is written in the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 8...

 and the free market

Free market

A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...

."

American Majority was founded in 2008 by Ned Ryun

Ned Ryun

Ned Ryun is the founder and president of American Majority, an organization that identifies and trains candidates and activists who will become involved in local government, school district governance, or state legislatures...

, a former presidential writer for George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 and the son of former Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 U.S. Congressman Jim Ryun

Jim Ryun

James Ronald Ryun is an American former track athlete and politician, who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007, representing the 2nd District in Kansas. In the 2006 election, Ryun was defeated by Democratic challenger Nancy Boyda...

. Headquartered in Purcellville, Virginia

Purcellville, Virginia

Purcellville is a town in the Loudoun Valley of Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The population was 3,584 at the 2000 census, but has undergone considerable growth since then. Purcellville is the major population center for western Loudoun and the Loudoun Valley...

, the organization trains across the country with staffed offices in Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

, Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, and Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Until the spring of 2011, American Majority also operated state offices in Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

, Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, and Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

.

Arkansas

Mark Darr and his future campaign manager attended an American Majority training in December 2009. Mark faced a formidable primary opponent but won his primary to face a long-term incumbent that had a loyal following on both sides of the aisle. Mark’s opponent was overwhelmingly popular in is district and surrounding areas, but Mark applied what he learned through American Majority and won his campaign for Lt. Governor in November 2010 by just over two points.

Kansas

In the spring 2009 local elections, 23 of 54 American Majority trained candidates won. Fall 2010 victories include Terry Calloway who was identified and trained by American Majority in hopes that he would challenge a very liberal state house incumbent who had voted for the second-largest tax increase in Kansas history. Calloway handily beat a primary challenger, then went on to win the general election with 52% of the vote. In addition, his campaign manager was trained through American Majority’s Campus Majority program, as was his online director, who created Calloway’s website and managed his new media. American Majority has also held successful activist trainings across Kansas that covers various topics and factors in political activism such as coalitions, holding events, the structure of government in Kansas, holding elected officials accountable, and how to effectively use wikis, blogs, and social media.

Minnesota

Washington County Commissioner Lisa Weik was identified and trained by American Majority and is currently in her first term on the commission board. She opposed a recent ½ cent sales tax increase, and has been very vocal in her support of rescinding a tax on transit projects. Lisa recently came out strongly against the city administrator’s proposal to raise property taxes in Washington County’s 2011 budget. American Majority has continued to expand its presence in Minnesota by training 37 conservative candidates in 2010.

Oklahoma

In spring 2009 local elections, 17 of 27 candidates trained by American Majority were victorious. Victories in 2010 include Josh Brecheen, who attended an American Majority candidate training in Oklahoma City in the spring of 2010, declaring, “Guys, I have no idea what I’m doing but I’m gonna do the best I can.” He ran against a two-term and very popular incumbent state senator, Jay Paul Gumm. Brecheen’s campaign manager was also trained by American Majority. As they report, they ran their race based on what American Majority taught them and executed it flawlessly. Breechen defeated Gumm by double-digits in Oklahoma’s “Little Dixie,” where Republicans have never won a state senate race. In the same year 8 of 12 school board candidates that the organization trained in Oklahoma were elected. The organization also trained the state’s superintendent of public instruction, Janet Barresi, who was elected in 2010.

Wisconsin

American Majority trained Dr. Pam Galloway. Despite not having held any prior political office, she definitively beat Wisconsin State Senate’s Majority Leader Russ Decker, who was a five-term incumbent, by ten points. Pam’s victory was called one of the most stunning results of election night in Wisconsin.

American Majority has been a leader in encouraging anti-union protests in Wisconsin, coordinating the “I Stand With Walker” rally in Madison, W.I. on February 19, 2011.

Texas

Lt. Colonel Brian Birdwell attended an American Majority candidate training in the summer of 2009 and was encouraged to pursue public office at the state level. He won a tough election for state senator in 2010 against the establishment favorite, with many of his campaign volunteers trained through American Majority’s activist workshops.

Training

The organization's main focus is training. Offering three “tracks” including activists, candidates and college students, American Majority seeks to transition the tea party movement from protests to local activism. Trainings cover a variety of topics from the history of our political system to effective ways to campaign online.

Training Bomb

In July of 2011, American Majority announced its first ever Constitution Day

Constitution Day (United States)

Constitution Day is an American federal observance that recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. It is observed on September 17, the day the U.S...

 "Training Bomb," which will take place on September 17th, 2011. The concept of the Training Bomb is based on the popular "money bomb"

Moneybomb

Moneybomb is a neologism coined in 2007 to describe a grassroots fundraising effort over a brief fixed time period, usually to support a candidate for election by dramatically increasing, concentrating, and publicizing fundraising activity during a specific hour or day...

 fundraising strategy employed by political candidates such as Ron Paul

Ron Paul

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...

, in which donors are asked to contribute money to reach a usually ambitious target amount in a single day. Applying this concept to its primary function, American Majority aims to train hundreds of activists and candidates across thirteen cities on the same day. American Majority president Ned Ryun has dubbed the Training Bomb "the biggest one-day training of conservative activists ever." In coordination with the initial announcement, American Majority established the website TrainingBomb.com, on which information is posted about trainings, locations, and schedules.

Social Media

The organization makes use of social media to disseminate their opinions and electoral information, and publishes documents to its followers illustrating the basics of social media. American Majority has emerged as a powerhouse resource providing social media tools for activists. They provide comprehensive beginner guides on Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 and Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 as well as videos on a range of other topics including YouTube and Wikis.

American Majority is on Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 and Facebook.

By the Numbers

Since January 2009, American Majority has trained 18,957 activists on how to hardwire precincts, build coalitions, be effective online, and work for greater transparency and accountability in our government. They have also trained 1,729 candidates on how to run for office and win politically so that the new leaders can implement policies that reflect free enterprise, limited government and fiscal responsibility and conducted 535 trainings in 40 states.

Training numbers for 2011 to date:
- 117 Trainings
- 4,486 Activists trained
- 440 Candidates trained

Activism

American Majority has launched several websites as part of its political operations, including AftertheTeaParty.com

Tea Party movement

The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...

, and the now-closed RecessRally.com. The former is a site designed to encourage the public to subscribe to its mailing list. The latter was a tool for coordinating additional protests during the 2010 August congressional recess.

American Majority has actively encouraged and led anti-union protests in Wisconsin, coordinating the “I Stand With Walker” rally in Madison, W.I. on February 19, 2011.

New Leaders Project

On November 16, 2010 American Majority announced the New Leaders Project. Working with local tea party leaders, American Majority aims to identify and train 10,000 new leaders by the 2012 elections.

AM Podcasts

American Majority's free podcasts include the acclaimed "Running for Office" series to practical political guides on how to "Hardwire Your Precinct" and how to hold elected officials accountable.

Nonprofit status

American Majority is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

. Legally the organization is only able to keep this status by not explicitly endorsing any party or candidate, though the organization openly admits its conservative views and "identifies" conservative candidates for its members. Despite this requirement, it has made specific calls for candidates to leave races.