# American Conservative Union (ACU) / CPAC The **umbrella organization of the American conservative movement**, founded in December 1964 in the immediate aftermath of Barry Goldwater's landslide defeat, and best known as the organizer of the **Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)** — the annual gathering that has served as the movement's trade show, talent showcase, straw poll, and (increasingly) coronation stage since 1974. The ACU matters for the KB for two reasons: its **congressional scorecard** (the ACU rating that for decades defined who counted as "conservative" in Congress) and **CPAC's evolution** from a movement-conservative policy conference into a MAGA loyalty rally — a transformation that tracks the coalition's shift from fusionism to populist nationalism. ## Founding The ACU was founded on December 18, 1964, by a group of conservative activists including Robert Bauman, Donald Bruce, and others in the Goldwater orbit. The founding purpose was to create a **permanent organizational vehicle** for the conservative movement after Goldwater's defeat — a structure that could maintain the coalition between election cycles, coordinate messaging, and provide institutional continuity. The timing matters: the ACU was born from the same post-Goldwater impulse that produced the conservative institutional buildout of the 1970s. Goldwater lost, but the delegate army, the volunteer infrastructure, and the direct-mail lists survived — and the ACU was one of the first organizations designed to maintain them. ## The Congressional Scorecard The ACU's most durable institutional contribution is its **annual congressional ratings** — a scorecard that grades every member of Congress on a 0–100 scale based on key votes selected by the ACU. For decades, the ACU rating was the **de facto definition of "conservative"** in American politics: a score above 80 made you a reliable conservative; below 50 made you a moderate or liberal Republican; below 20 made you a Democrat in all but name. The scorecard's power was gatekeeping: it allowed the movement to enforce ideological discipline on Republican officeholders by providing primary challengers with a simple metric. "ACU rating of 55" was shorthand for "target this person in a primary." The [[Club for Growth]], the Senate Conservatives Fund, and other enforcement organizations later built their own scorecards, but the ACU's was the original. ## CPAC: The Annual Convention The Conservative Political Action Conference, first held in 1974, became the movement's signature public event: **Classic era (1974–2015):** CPAC was a policy conference where conservative intellectuals, politicians, and activists gathered to debate, network, and signal priorities. The annual CPAC straw poll became the first indicator of presidential primary preferences. Reagan spoke at CPAC repeatedly; his 1975 CPAC speech is considered a landmark of movement-conservative rhetoric. The conference featured panels on policy, breakout sessions on strategy, and a book fair that served as the movement's intellectual marketplace. **Trump era (2016–present):** CPAC transformed from a policy conference into a **loyalty rally**. The 2020 CPAC featured a golden statue of Trump. The straw poll became a one-candidate coronation. Policy panels gave way to culture-war programming. The intellectual diversity that had characterized classic-era CPAC — where libertarians, traditionalists, and hawks debated each other — collapsed into ideological uniformity. **CPAC International:** Under chairman [[Matt Schlapp]], CPAC expanded internationally — **CPAC Budapest** (hosted in [[Viktor Orbán]]'s Hungary), CPAC Brazil, CPAC Australia, CPAC Mexico, CPAC Japan. The international expansion is a key node in the [[Global New Right Network]], connecting MAGA to European and Latin American far-right movements through a shared conference infrastructure. ## The Keene Era (1984–2011) [[David Keene]] chaired the ACU for twenty-seven years, longer than anyone before or since, and is the figure who turned CPAC from a gathering of a few hundred into an event drawing more than 10,000. A former national chairman of [[Young Americans for Freedom]], aide to [[Spiro Agnew]] and [[James L. Buckley]], Reagan's 1976 southern coordinator and [[George H.W. Bush]]'s 1980 political director, he was the movement's fusionist institution-builder in its most literal form. Three things from the end of his tenure foreshadow the Trump era: - **Trump's debut.** [[Donald Trump]] gave his first big political speech at CPAC in February 2011. Keene had stepped down the day before the conference opened; the board elected [[Al Cárdenas]] (2011–2014) without opposition. - **The GOProud fight.** Keene let a group of gay Republicans participate; [[Heritage Foundation]], [[Liberty University]] and [[Jim DeMint]] boycotted — the first open test of whether CPAC would stay a big tent. - **The books.** In June 2011 the ACU's former administrative director — Keene's ex-wife — pleaded guilty to mail fraud for diverting ACU funds between 2006 and 2009 (court documents: $120,000–$400,000). Keene was not accused of wrongdoing. Keene went straight from the ACU to the presidency of the [[NRA]] (2011–2013), where he was the senior American host of [[Alexander Torshin]] and [[Maria Butina]] — see [[Russia-NRA Connection]]. In 2024, two years before his death, he publicly asked of CPAC's direction "how it has come to this." ## Matt Schlapp and the Current ACU [[Matt Schlapp]] became ACU chairman in June 2014 and oversaw the organization's full alignment with Trump. In January 2023, Schlapp was publicly accused of sexual assault by a male Republican operative, Carlton Huffman, who alleged that Schlapp groped him after a campaign event. Schlapp denied the allegations; the matter has been litigated. The scandal has weakened Schlapp's position but has not (as of 2026) removed him from the ACU chairmanship. Under Schlapp, CPAC has become increasingly identified with the MAGA movement's international ambitions rather than with domestic policy conservatism. The Budapest conferences — where Orbán has been a featured speaker and where European far-right figures network with American MAGA operatives — represent the ACU's evolution from a domestic policy organization into a node in the transnational right-wing network. ## Analytical Framework The ACU/CPAC arc tracks the movement-conservatism-to-MAGA transition precisely: - **1964–1980:** Post-Goldwater institutional infrastructure building - **1980–2000:** Reagan-era coalition maintenance; CPAC as movement trade show - **2000–2015:** Increasing tension between establishment and insurgent wings; Tea Party energy enters CPAC - **2016–present:** Full MAGA capture; CPAC as loyalty rally; international expansion as Global [[New Right]] infrastructure The organization that was founded to maintain the Goldwater-Buckley fusionist coalition now serves as the convention stage for the populist-nationalist movement that displaced fusionism. ## See Also - [[David Keene]] — ACU chairman 1984–2011; built CPAC into a mass event - [[Al Cárdenas]] — ACU chairman 2011–2014 - [[Matt Schlapp]] — ACU chairman 2014–present - [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] — The intellectual tradition the ACU was founded to maintain - [[Barry Goldwater]] — The 1964 candidate whose defeat prompted the ACU's founding - [[Young Americans for Freedom]] — The youth organization that preceded and fed into the ACU - [[Movement Conservatism]] — The coalition the ACU organized - [[Global New Right Network]] — The international network CPAC International now serves - [[Heritage Foundation]] — The policy institution that partners with CPAC programming