Together with
Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks played an important role in generating a significant part of the
Tea Party movement and encouraging it to lay a focus on
climate change denial. In 2009, FreedomWorks responded to the growing number of
Tea Party protests across the
United States, and became one of several groups active in the "Tea Party" tax protests. FreedomWorks was a lead organizer of the September 12, 2009,
Taxpayer March on Washington, also known as the 9/12 Tea Party. In February 2010, FreedomWorks, the FreedomWorks Foundation, and the FreedomWorks
Political Action Committee were among the twelve most influential groups in the Tea Party movement, according to the
National Journal. In September 2010, FreedomWorks was one of the top five most influential organizations in the Tea Party movement, according to
The Washington Post. In 2009, FreedomWorks advocated for the defeat of Democratic-sponsored climate change legislation. In 2010, FreedomWorks helped organize Tea Party protests and passed fliers opposing national climate policy. FreedomWorks promoted the
Contract from America, a Tea Party manifesto, which included planks in opposition to the Obama administration's initiatives on
health care reform and
cap and trade. Among other activities, FreedomWorks ran
boot camps for supporters of Republican candidates. FreedomWorks spent over $10 million on the 2010 elections on campaign paraphernalia alone. The required reading list for new employees included
Saul Alinsky,
Frédéric Bastiat, and
Ayn Rand.
Rolling Stone and
Talking Points Memo alleged that FreedomWorks helped run the
Tea Party Patriots. Tea Party Patriots denied this claim. According to a 2010 article in
The New York Times, FreedomWorks "has done more than any other organization to build the Tea Party movement". In addition to the aforementioned
United States Senate candidates, FreedomWorks endorsed 114 candidates for federal office, of whom seventy won election. An independent study performed by
Brigham Young University showed that only FreedomWorks's endorsement had a statistically significant impact on the success of a candidate in the election. In 2011, FreedomWorks ran a number of campaigns targeted at corporate
rent-seeking behavior. FreedomWorks ran a campaign with the goal of getting
Duke Energy to fire their CEO Jim Rodgers, accusing Duke Energy of lobbying for a "progressive agenda" to ensure that the company would receive green
energy subsidies. In addition to their anti-rent seeking campaigns, FreedomWorks was also active in a number of issue campaigns at the state and national levels. One of these campaigns was the
school choice SB1 campaign in Pennsylvania. Additionally, FreedomWorks ran an active grassroots campaign in support of Ohio Governor
John Kasich's union reforms. FreedomWorks delivered thousands of yard signs, door-hangers, handouts, and registered conservative voters. In 2011, FreedomWorks launched a
Super PAC called FreedomWorks for America. The stated purpose of this PAC was to "empower the leaderless, decentralized community of the tea party movement as it continues its hostile takeover of the GOP establishment". In February 2013, FreedomWorks signed onto a memo which said, "Conservatives should not approve a
CR unless it defunds Obamacare." On August 14, 2013, Joshua Withrow of FreedomWorks mentioned the
continuing resolution set to
expire September 30 which "must be renewed in order for the doors to stay open in Washington. The CR is the best chance we will get to withdraw funds from
ObamaCare. This can be done by attaching bills by Senator
Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Congressman
Tom Graves (R-GA) to the CR, which will totally defund ObamaCare." Withrow also wrote "Senator
Mike Lee (R-UT) and Congressman
Mark Meadows (R-NC) are leading the charge to get their colleagues to commit to this approach, by putting their signatures to a letter affirming that they will refuse to vote for a CR that contains ObamaCare funding." This was the first time FreedomWorks took an official stance on foreign policy. On February 12, 2014, FreedomWorks joined with Rand Paul as co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Obama administration concerning reports of NSA domestic wiretapping. The lawsuit named President Obama, Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper and National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander. Former Virginia Attorney General
Ken Cuccinelli represented Paul and FreedomWorks in the case. Some of FreedomWorks' campaigns were called "
astroturfing", and some claimed that they projected a false impression of
grassroots organizing. The bill would repeal a pending rule published by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on January 8, 2014. The proposed rule would establish uniform national limits on
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new
electricity-generating facilities that use
coal or
natural gas. The rule also sets new standards of performance for those power plants, including the requirement to install
carbon capture and
sequestration technology. and
Email Privacy Act. FreedomWorks opposed
net neutrality regulation. == Funding ==