What to know about The Heritage Foundation's role in the RNC in Milwaukee
If you landed in Mitchell Airport this week, you might have seen welcome signs for the Republican National Convention papering the airport — and not just from the city or the Republican Party.
The Heritage Foundation's welcome signs are among the first thing convention attendees saw this week after touching down in Milwaukee. The conservative think tank is behind the Project 2025 policy proposal and a key sponsor of the RNC.
Here's what to know about The Heritage Foundation and its role in the RNC in Milwaukee.
The Heritage Foundation wants folks to know that this is *their*convention—-> The first thing RNC attendees will see when they arrive in Milwaukee pic.twitter.com/SW8oQKfFJD
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) July 11, 2024
What is the Heritage Foundation?
Heritage is a conservative think tank based in D.C. In addition to drafting policy proposals, the group lobbies and hosts thousands of meetings with lawmakers every year, according to its website.
Kevin Roberts, president of Heritage, made headlines earlier this month for saying on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s radio show that the country was “in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
The comment came just weeks before the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump prompted GOP lawmakers to pivot to a message of national unity during the RNC.
How involved has The Heritage Foundation been in the RNC in Milwaukee?
Heritage's involvement in the RNC hasn't just been limited to airport billboards.
The right-wing group is an official convention partner, according to the RNC host committee's website. It is unclear how much Heritage donated to the convention’s host committee, though the committee recently announced it has raised more than $85 million for the 2024 RNC.
On July 15, the opening day of the convention, Heritage rented out the Bradley Symphony Center for a day-long policy festival. The event, themed "Fighting for America's Future," featured speakers including entrepreneur and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
On Wednesday evening, the group will also host a social event at Uncle Buck's, a bar near Fiserv Forum, according to the convention’s event calendar.
What is The Heritage Foundation's involvement with Project 2025?
The Heritage Foundation produced Project 2025, a more than 900-page policy proposal to dismantle and reconstruct the government in the event of a second Trump term.
Among other policies, Project 2025 calls for a sweeping expansion of presidential powers, an end to the Department of Education and a reversal of the Food and Drug Administration's approval of abortion pills.
It also appears to oppose same-sex marriage and gay couples adopting children by seeking to "maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family." Read more about Project 2025 and its implications here.
Though several former top Trump administration officials were involved in drafting Project 2025, the document is not the official policy proposal of the Trump campaign. In fact, Trump has sought to distance himself from Project 2025 in recent weeks, while President Joe Biden's campaign has buckled down on pointing out the connections between Trump's staff and the Project 2025 authors.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about The Heritage Foundation, 2024 RNC sponsor
