# Council for National Policy The secret coordinating body of the American right. Founded in 1981 during the Reagan revolution by [[Tim LaHaye]], [[Paul Weyrich]], [[Howard Phillips]], [[Richard Viguerie]], [[Phyllis Schlafly]], oilman [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]], and a small circle of movement conservatives and religious-right organizers, the Council for National Policy is the invitation-only network where the most powerful operatives, donors, theologians, and politicians on the American right meet three times a year behind closed doors to coordinate strategy, move money, and align the movement. It does not lobby. It does not publish policy papers. It has no public-facing campaigns. It holds its meetings at undisclosed locations, keeps its membership directory confidential, and requires members to sign non-disclosure agreements. What it does is far more consequential: it is the **room** where the factions of the right — evangelical clergy, dark-money donors, think-tank presidents, gun-rights leaders, judicial network operators, election-integrity lawyers, and political candidates — meet in private to build consensus, trade introductions, and assign responsibilities before the rest of the world sees the strategy take shape. ## Why It Matters Most political coalitions are held together by press releases, coalition letters, and conference speeches. CNP is held together by **relationships** — by the simple fact that for forty-plus years the same ~400 people have met three times a year, known each other's staff, funded each other's projects, and treated the movement as a single enterprise. This is why CNP is not a think tank or a PAC and does not need to be: it is the connective tissue that lets specialized organizations (FRC does social policy, Heritage does executive branch blueprints, Federalist Society does judges, NRA does guns, DonorsTrust anonymizes the money) operate as a coordinated whole rather than as rivals. Anne Nelson's 2019 book *Shadow Network* named the relationship most precisely: CNP is the **hub** that connects the "spokes" of the conservative coalition — media, money, and movement — into a single strategic architecture. Its power is that it does not appear on any organization chart of American politics. ## Origins (1981) CNP was founded in May 1981, four months into Reagan's first term, explicitly to formalize and sustain the coalition that had just won. Its founders had spent the 1970s building the new religious right ([[Tim LaHaye]] via the [[Moral Majority]] and Left Behind platforms; [[Howard Phillips]] via the Conservative Caucus), the direct-mail fundraising apparatus ([[Richard Viguerie]]), the think-tank infrastructure ([[Paul Weyrich]], who co-founded the [[Heritage Foundation]] in 1973 and ALEC in 1975), and the anti-feminist movement ([[Phyllis Schlafly]], whose [[Eagle Forum]] had just defeated the Equal Rights Amendment). The founding premise, explicitly articulated at the time: liberal elites had the [[Council on Foreign Relations]] and the Trilateral Commission as permanent coordinating bodies; the right needed its own. The original seed funding came from [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]] — the Texas oil heir best known for attempting to corner the global silver market in 1980 — along with brewer [[Joseph Coors]] and several other first-generation conservative donors. The model was deliberate: members would contribute substantial annual dues, meet privately, and never publicly identify themselves as members. ## Structure CNP is actually a **three-entity complex**, each with a specific legal and operational purpose. ### 1. Council for National Policy (the 501(c)(3) parent) The main body. Tax-exempt "educational" nonprofit. Hosts the three-times-a-year meetings, maintains the membership directory, provides the relational infrastructure. Does not lobby directly, because (c)(3) status limits political activity. EIN 72-0921017. [[Bob McEwen]] (former U.S. Representative, Ohio, 1981–1993) serves as Executive Director; [[William Walton]] (Heritage Foundation trustee) chairs the board. [[Cleta Mitchell]] sits on the board and chairs the policy committee. ### 2. CNP Action, Inc. (the 501(c)(4) advocacy arm) Founded 1987. EIN 52-1530983. Where the actual political work happens — lobbying, "Action Alerts," the *Heard Around the Hill* newsletter, coordination with campaigns. Reported $173,700 in revenue for FY2023. [[Ginni Thomas]] served on CNP Action's board during the 2020–2022 period in which the group promoted election-fraud narratives and pressured swing-state legislatures to reject Biden electors. The (c)(4) structure lets the network do things the parent cannot. ### 3. Council for National Policy — Education & Research Foundation Historically a third legal entity used to receive certain grants. Current operational status unclear as of 2026; may be dormant or folded. **Membership tiers:** Historical reporting describes a tiered dues structure (Gold Circle, Silver Circle, regular membership) with the top tiers contributing substantially more and gaining additional access. Dues and membership composition are kept confidential; the organization does not publicly confirm tier structure. **Meeting cadence:** Three closed-door meetings per year — typically winter, spring, and late summer — rotated among undisclosed locations, often resort or conference venues. Speakers and agendas are not published. Attendance is by invitation; journalists are excluded. Members sign confidentiality agreements. ## What We Know About the Membership Because the directory is private, the definitive source material is a series of **leaks**: - **2014 Center for Media and Democracy leak** — Established the basic structure and identified dozens of top-tier members - **2020 SPLC / Southern Poverty Law Center investigation** — "Behind the Curtain" series, identifying hundreds of members and mapping organizational ties - **2022 Documented leak** — Most recent comprehensive membership list; added [[Mike Pence]], [[Jenna Ellis]], and dozens of others to the previously documented roster From these leaks and subsequent reporting, publicly confirmed members include: **Religious right leaders:** [[Tony Perkins]] (FRC), [[James Dobson]] ([[Focus on the Family]]), [[Ralph Reed]] (Faith & Freedom Coalition), [[Franklin Graham]], [[David Barton]] (WallBuilders), [[Kenneth Copeland]] (historical) **Dark-money operators:** [[Leonard Leo]] (Federalist Society / [[Marble Freedom Trust]]), [[Cleta Mitchell]] ([[Election Integrity Network]]), Morton Blackwell (Leadership Institute) **Political figures:** [[Mike Pence]] (former VP), [[Mike Johnson]] (Speaker of the House), [[Kris Kobach]], Jenna Ellis, [[Kellyanne Conway]], [[Ed Meese]] (Reagan AG, listed as CNP director in recent filings) **Movement organizers:** [[Steve Bannon]], [[Rebekah Mercer]], [[Charlie Kirk]] (TPUSA — joined the CNP orbit in the late 2010s), [[Wayne LaPierre]] (NRA, during his tenure) **Historical core (founders and early members):** [[Tim LaHaye]], [[Paul Weyrich]], [[Howard Phillips]], [[Richard Viguerie]], [[Phyllis Schlafly]], [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]], [[Pat Robertson]], [[Jerry Falwell]] Sr., Reed Irvine, T. Cullen Davis, [[Edwin Feulner]] (Heritage Foundation founder) The 2022 Documented list remains the most recent comprehensive public accounting. The actual current (2026) roster is confidential; the list has clearly continued to evolve, with reporting indicating additions from the Trump second-administration personnel class. ## What CNP Actually Does ### 1. Strategic alignment meetings The three annual meetings are the core product. They produce no public output, but they are where the heads of the movement's institutions agree on priorities. The August meeting in particular is often timed to align the movement for the fall election cycle. ### 2. Personnel matching CNP is a **people market**. A donor looking for a project, a candidate looking for donors, a think tank looking for a communications director, a campaign looking for a legal team — all meet at CNP. The 30,000-name [[Project 2025]] personnel database did not emerge from nowhere; it emerged from three decades of CNP relationship-building. ### 3. Coalition enforcement When factions of the right disagree — e.g., libertarians vs. Christian nationalists on drug policy, or hawks vs. restrainers on foreign policy — CNP is the forum where those disagreements are negotiated privately rather than litigated publicly. This is why the American right so often appears more unified than its actual ideological range would suggest. ### 4. Idea laundering Ideas originating at the edges of the movement — whether from [[Claremont Institute]] fellows, Christian Reconstructionist theologians, or dissident-right intellectuals — are tested at CNP meetings before being pushed out to the broader ecosystem. If a proposal survives the CNP room, it gets funded and amplified. ### 5. Post-2020 election-integrity mobilization In the period between November 2020 and January 6, 2021, CNP and CNP Action were central nodes in the post-election pressure campaign. [[Cleta Mitchell]]'s Election Integrity Network (launched in 2021 under [[Conservative Partnership Institute]] sponsorship but rooted in CNP relationships) became the operational engine for state-level voter-suppression and registration-challenge activity that continues through the 2024 [[SAVE Act]] pressure campaign and beyond. ## Relationship to Project 2025 The [[Heritage Foundation]]'s Project 2025 is, in effect, **the CNP coalition made visible**. Analysis by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism found that CNP members hold leadership or advisory roles in more than 20% of the organizations that contributed to Project 2025's [[Mandate for Leadership]]. [[Kevin Roberts]] (Heritage president, Project 2025 architect) is a member of the CNP orbit; [[Ed Meese]] is both a CNP director and a Project 2025 contributor; the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI, led by former Senator [[Jim DeMint]]) serves as the operational logistics layer connecting CNP relationships to Project 2025 deliverables. The division of labor: Heritage produces the public blueprint; CNP produces the private coalition that executes it. ## Funding CNP's own budget is modest relative to its influence — it is a **coordinating body**, not a spending organization. Reported annual revenue hovers in the low seven figures; CNP Action's is smaller. The strategic dollars flow through members' own institutions. Known historical donors to CNP itself include: - **[[Bradley Foundation]]** — $75,000 (2019) and comparable annual giving across prior years - **National Christian Charitable Foundation** — $52,600 (2019) - **[[First Liberty Institute]]** — $37,000 (2019) - **[[Castle Rock Foundation]]** (Coors family) - **[[Sarah Scaife Foundation]]** (Scaife family) - **[[DonorsTrust]]** — historical donor-advised fund contributions that anonymize original source More important than the direct-donor flows: CNP's members control institutions managing billions — [[Leonard Leo]]'s Marble Freedom Trust alone holds $1.6B — and those institutions coordinate at CNP meetings. ## Current Leadership (as of 2026) - **Executive Director:** [[Bob McEwen]] — former U.S. Representative (R-Ohio, 1981–1993), longtime movement organizer - **Board President:** [[William Walton]] — Heritage Foundation trustee, private equity investor, conservative media investor - **Policy Committee Chair:** [[Cleta Mitchell]] — elections attorney, founder of Election Integrity Network, lead counsel on post-2020 election challenges ## The Analytical Framework CNP's function in the right-wing ecosystem is **coalition persistence**. The American right contains factions that, on paper, should not coexist: libertarian Silicon Valley billionaires who want open immigration and legal drugs; Christian nationalists who want a theocratic state; evangelical pastors who believe the Rapture is imminent; paleoconservative nativists; and Federalist Society originalists who distrust all of the above. CNP is the room where these factions agree, three times a year, to act as a coalition anyway. This is why mapping the right-wing ecosystem without mapping CNP is like mapping a city's transit without mapping the central station: you can describe every line individually but you miss the node where they connect. ## See Also - [[Council for National Policy Ecosystem]] — Full ecosystem map - [[Dark Money Ecosystem]] — The funding architecture that CNP members control - [[Think Tank Ecosystem]] — The institutional layer that CNP coordinates - [[The Unholy Alliance]] — Master concept for cross-faction coordination - [[Heritage Foundation]] — Institutional partner; Weyrich lineage - [[Family Research Council]] — Religious-right anchor (Perkins, Dobson) - [[Federalist Society]] — Judicial pipeline (Leo) - [[Leonard Leo]] — Central CNP figure, $1.6B network controller - [[Cleta Mitchell]] — CNP board, election-integrity operational lead - [[Tony Perkins]] — Longest-tenured CNP religious-right principal