# Americans for Prosperity (AFP) The **grassroots-lobbying arm** of the [[Koch Network]] — the third leg of the state-policy pincer that operates alongside [[State Policy Network]] (research) and [[ALEC]] (model bill drafting). Founded in 2004 by [[Charles Koch]] and [[David Koch]] after internal rivalries split the predecessor organization [[Citizens for a Sound Economy]]. AFP is a 501(c)(4) social-welfare organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with paid field operations in most states. ## Role in the state-policy machine AFP is the **pressure layer** in the Koch state-policy apparatus. Where SPN produces research and ALEC produces bill text, AFP mobilizes constituent calls, runs targeted ads in legislators' districts, and — when necessary — threatens primary challenges against legislators who do not vote the Koch-preferred way on priority bills. Between 2011 and 2015 the number of registered AFP lobbyists in the states **more than tripled**, according to CREW's reporting — a measure of AFP's deliberate scaling during the Tea Party / Obama opposition period. AFP coordinates directly with ALEC legislator-members: AFP state directors communicate with sitting legislators, often ALEC members themselves, about which model bills are priorities and what cover AFP can provide. This coordination is the operational backbone of the state-level conservative movement's post-2010 success. ## Founding and evolution Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), founded in 1984 with Koch backing, split in 2003–2004 into two successor organizations: **AFP** (Koch-aligned) and **[[FreedomWorks]]** (which became associated with [[Dick Armey]] and later the Tea Party movement). AFP's founding purpose was to consolidate the direct grassroots-mobilization capacity of [[Charles Koch]] and [[David Koch]]. ## Recent strategic shifts - **2016:** AFP did not endorse Trump in the primary or general; tension with the populist MAGA wing has been a recurring theme. - **2023–2024:** AFP Action (AFP's PAC affiliate) endorsed [[Nikki Haley]] in the 2024 Republican presidential primary — a rare visible break with Trump-era movement consensus and a reminder that the Koch network operates on its own strategic clock, not Trump's. - **Branding:** Post-2020, AFP has increasingly operated under the "[[Stand Together]]" umbrella brand that unifies the Koch charitable and political vehicles. > [!important] The federal committee lives at [[AFP Action]] > This page is the **501(c)(4)** — lobbying, field operations and state policy. The Koch network's > federal **independent-expenditure committee**, FEC **C00687103**, filing as *Americans for Prosperity > Action, Inc. (AFP Action) DBA CVA Action and DBA LIBRE Action*, is a separate legal entity with separate > disclosure obligations and has its own page at **[[AFP Action]]**. Campaign-finance findings from the FEC > e-file feed attach there, not here. > > First recorded there: **$10,490,289.14** in a single Form 24 notice on 2026-10-03 — five Senate races > bought on both sides, 90.3% of it through one mail vendor. See > [[AFP Action 10.5M Senate Map IE October 2026]]. The split was made on 2026-10-04, after the daily money > sweep had proposed and declined to build an AFP Action Deal on twelve consecutive runs because there was > no committee-level page to hang it on. ## See Also - [[AFP Action]] — the federal independent-expenditure committee - [[AFP Action 10.5M Senate Map IE October 2026]] - [[Koch Network]] - [[ALEC]] - [[State Policy Network]] - [[ALEC Ecosystem]] - [[Dark Money Ecosystem]]