# Rockbridge Network The political venture capital firm of [[the New Right]]. Co-founded in 2019 by [[JD Vance]] and Chris Buskirk, the Rockbridge Network is a secretive conservative donor coalition that functions as the financial and operational backbone of the Vance-Thiel political project — funneling tech billionaire money through a web of dark-money nonprofits, super PACs, and voter mobilization groups to reshape American politics from the right. ## Structure Rockbridge describes itself as "a kind of political venture capital firm." In practice, it's a centrally controlled network of eight organizations designed to maximize donor influence while minimizing transparency: ``` ROCKBRIDGE NETWORK LLC (umbrella) ├── 4x 501(c)(4) dark-money organizations │ ├── Better Tomorrow (Virginia) — voter turnout, swing states │ ├── Over the Horizon (Washington) — voter turnout operations │ ├── Faithful in Action — church-to-politics pipeline (160,000+ members) │ └── [Fourth entity name not publicly disclosed] ├── 2x Super PACs │ ├── Turnout for America (Buskirk's PAC, $25M+ raised in 2024) │ └── Firebrand Action (right-wing investigative journalism) └── 1x 501(c)(3) donor-advised fund (nonprofit activity) ``` The LLC structure is key: unlike a 501(c)(4), an LLC has essentially no disclosure requirements. Rockbridge is the command node; the affiliated organizations are the operational arms. Money flows in from donors at the LLC level and gets distributed to the tentacles — with no public accounting of who gave what or where it went. ## Founders ### JD Vance Co-founded Rockbridge in 2019 during his pre-political "venture capitalist" phase, after leaving [[Narya Capital]] operations. By the time he ran for Senate in 2022, Rockbridge had already built the donor infrastructure and political relationships he would need. The network was, in effect, the launchpad for his political career. Now as VP, Vance headlined Rockbridge's March 2026 Nashville summit at the Four Seasons — ~250 attendees, $100K minimum to attend — fueling 2028 presidential speculation. ### Chris Buskirk Publisher of *American Greatness*, [[Claremont Institute]] Publius Fellow, and co-founder of [[1789 Capital]] (an anti-"woke" investment fund). Buskirk is the operational brain — he runs the day-to-day while Vance provides the political star power. His Claremont connection is critical: it links Rockbridge to the intellectual infrastructure of the post-liberal right. ## Major Donors & Members 150–200 members as of late 2024. Membership tiers: - **Limited Partner:** $100,000 - **Principal Partner:** $1,000,000 Known donors and members include: - **[[Peter Thiel]]** — Founding donor, Vance's mentor and political patron - **[[Rebekah Mercer]]** — Renaissance Technologies heiress, 2016 Trump kingmaker, Breitbart funder - **[[Winklevoss Twins]]** — Gemini co-founders, crypto billionaires - **[[Donald Trump]] Jr.** — Member, Vance ally - **Omeed Malik** — Business partner of Trump Jr., attended 2026 Nashville summit - **[[Leonard Leo]]** — Attended 2024 Rockbridge event at [[Mar-a-Lago]] ## Budget & Financial Scale | Year | Budget | Key Activity | |------|--------|-------------| | 2022 | ~$30M | Senate races, early infrastructure | | 2024 | ~$75M | Presidential election, 7 swing states, voter turnout | | 2026 | TBD | Midterm prep, 2028 positioning | ## Political Activities ### Voter Turnout Operations Better Tomorrow and Over the Horizon ran get-out-the-vote operations for Trump/Vance across seven swing states in 2024. This is the ground game — door-knocking, phone-banking, ballot-chasing — funded by tech money but executed through traditional political infrastructure. ### Church-to-Politics Pipeline Faithful in Action is the religious mobilization arm: 160,000+ members recruited from churches into political activism. This is the institutional link between Rockbridge's tech-billionaire funders and the Christian nationalist base — the mechanism that turns Sunday churchgoers into Tuesday voters. Mirrors the [[Turning Point USA Ecosystem]]'s TPUSA Faith model. ### Right-Wing Media Firebrand Action funds "investigative journalism" from the right — the media arm of the political project. Combined with Buskirk's *American Greatness*, this gives Rockbridge influence over the information environment as well as the electoral one. ### Polling & Research Rockbridge underwrites its own polling operations, giving the network proprietary political intelligence that it doesn't share with the broader Republican infrastructure. ## Ideological Position Rockbridge is the operational expression of what might be called the **Vance synthesis** — the merger of: 1. **Silicon Valley techno-populism** (Thiel, Winklevoss) — anti-regulation, pro-crypto, skeptical of democratic constraints on capital 2. **Catholic post-liberalism** ([[Catholic Post-Liberalism]]) — Vance's intellectual framework, the belief that liberalism itself has failed 3. **Claremont Institute constitutionalism** (Buskirk) — the "Flight 93" thesis that the republic must be saved by extraordinary measures 4. **Christian nationalism** (Faithful in Action) — church-based political mobilization for a "Christian America" This synthesis is what distinguishes Rockbridge from older donor networks like the Koch network (libertarian) or [[Leonard Leo]]'s [[Marble Freedom Trust]] (Catholic judicial). Rockbridge is post-libertarian, post-fusionist: it wants a **strong state** captured by the right people, using tech money to fund populist politics, with churches providing the voter base. ## Connection to the Thiel-Vance Pipeline Rockbridge is one node in the broader system by which [[Peter Thiel]] cultivated [[JD Vance]] from Yale Law student to Vice President: ``` Yale Law School (2011 Thiel talk → mentorship) → [[Mithril Capital]] (2016-2017, Thiel's VC firm) → Narya Capital (2020, Thiel-backed, Vance's own firm) → Rockbridge Network (2019, political infrastructure) → Senate race (2022, $15M from Thiel) → VP selection (2024, Thiel lobbied Trump) → 2028 presidential positioning (Rockbridge Nashville 2026) ``` Rockbridge is the political infrastructure layer of this pipeline — the mechanism that converts tech wealth into political power and back again. ## Relationship to Other Networks ### vs. Leonard Leo's Network Leo attended a 2024 Rockbridge event at Mar-a-Lago, signaling overlap rather than competition. But the networks serve different functions: Leo's $1.6B dark-money empire focuses on **judicial capture** ([[Federalist Society]] → Supreme Court). Rockbridge focuses on **electoral and executive capture** (donor money → voter turnout → loyal officials). They're complementary pillars of [[The Unholy Alliance]]. ### vs. Koch Network The Koch network is libertarian — free markets, small government, deregulation. Rockbridge is **post-libertarian** — it wants state power deployed for conservative ends, economic nationalism, immigration restriction. The Vance wing actively rejects Koch-style libertarianism. ### + Claremont Institute & SACR Rockbridge supplies money and infrastructure. The Claremont Institute supplies intellectual doctrine and institutional cover. The Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR) provides a Christian-nationalist fraternal order for on-the-ground organizing. Together they form a three-legged stool: money, ideas, and foot soldiers. ### + Nate Fischer / New Founding [[Nate Fischer]]'s [[New Founding]] ecosystem (American Reformer, Firebrand, Principle Investments) operates in the same ideological space — building parallel right-wing institutions in media, finance, and culture. The overlap with Rockbridge's Firebrand Action super PAC is notable: both are building right-wing media infrastructure funded by the same tech-money donor class. Fischer is a Claremont Lincoln Fellow, deepening the Claremont–Rockbridge connection. ## Dark Money Architecture The genius of the structure is its opacity. The LLC at the top has no disclosure requirements. The 501(c)(4)s don't have to reveal donors. The donor-advised fund launders charitable giving through a third party. Only the super PACs have any disclosure obligations — and even those are limited. The result: $75M+ flowing through the political system with almost no public accountability for who's funding what. This is political venture capital in the literal sense: wealthy investors make large bets on political outcomes, expect returns in the form of policy access and government contracts, and the public never sees the deal terms. ## Why It Matters for This KB Rockbridge is the missing piece connecting the **money** (Thiel, Mercer, Winklevoss crypto wealth) to the **politics** (Vance's career, Trump's base mobilization) to the **ideology** (post-liberalism, Claremont, Christian nationalism) to the **defense tech contracts** ([[Palantir]], [[Anduril]], Founders Fund portfolio companies). When Rockbridge donors invest $100K–$1M in membership, they're buying access to a Vice President whose mentor's companies hold $10B+ in government contracts. The defense tech conflicts of interest aren't incidental — they're the business model. ## See Also - [[JD Vance]] - [[Peter Thiel]] - [[Narya Capital]] - [[The Unholy Alliance]] - [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]] - [[Dark Enlightenment]] - [[Leonard Leo]] - [[Turning Point USA Ecosystem]] - [[Defense Tech Conflicts of Interest]] - [[Founders Fund]] - [[Crypto-Political Machine]] - [[Winklevoss Twins]] - [[Revolving Door]]