# Erick Erickson Conservative radio host, blogger and commentator; born June 3, 1975. A lawyer by training (Mercer University, B.A. and J.D.) who practiced and ran campaigns before going into political media full-time. ## Career Erickson joined **[[RedState]]** in 2006 and became its editor-in-chief, running it for roughly a decade in the period when it was the most influential blog on the American right. He was elected to the Macon, Georgia city council, and in **January 2011** began hosting a weekday talk show on **WSB Radio** in Atlanta, later syndicated nationally. He was a **[[CNN]]** political contributor from 2009, moved to **[[Fox News]]** in 2013, and left in 2018. His daily "Morning Briefing" email has long functioned as a coordinating document for conservative activists and staff. *The Atlantic* named him the most influential conservative in America in 2015. He was part of the **Never Trump** faction in 2016 — he appears among the contributors to *[[National Review]]*'s "Against Trump" issue of January 22, 2016 and in the broader anti-nomination effort — and has since occupied the uncomfortable position of a movement-conservative institutionalist inside a party reorganized around Trump. ## "The Midwestern Führerbunker" (September 2026) On **September 16, 2026** Erickson published a long essay on his Substack titled **"The Midwestern Führerbunker Driving the Right Off the Cliff."** It is the most explicit naming-of-names by a mainstream conservative broadcaster of the white-nationalist and antisemitic networks operating inside conservative institutions. > [!quote] Erick Erickson, September 16, 2026 > "To varying degrees, they embrace white nationalism, antisemitism, and even Nazi sympathies. Some of them believe the United States is at a tipping point, and they want to push it over the edge and rebuild it in their image." His argument, in outline: - A "group of white guys" has **"subtly inserted themselves into conservative institutions and church organizations,"** and by his account "even surround the Vice President of the United States" ([[JD Vance]]). - He names **[[Charles Haywood]]**, whose fortune has let him shape boards and institutions — Haywood founded the **[[Society for American Civic Renewal]]**, and the essay's title borrows [[Rod Dreher]]'s description of Haywood writing from "deep in his Midwestern Führerbunker." - He names **[[Nick Fuentes]]**, whom he describes as radicalizing young men and urging them to infiltrate the Republican Party — a different entry vector, with different money behind it. - He names **[[Bo French]]**, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, and the online right that rallied to him. - His central claim is institutional rather than personal: the two currents arrive from different directions and **"the institutions of the right are absorbing both without resistance."** > [!warning] What the essay did not do > Neither Erickson, nor [[Karl Rove]], nor [[John Cornyn]] — all three of whom broke publicly with French in the same week — called for French to drop out of the race. This page records this as the boundary of the September 2026 intra-right revolt: naming the problem, not costing the nominee the ballot line. ## KB significance Erickson matters here less as an individual than as a **sensor**. He is a movement-conservative with a national radio audience, no Democratic constituency, and a decade of institutional standing on the right; when he publishes a 'name names' essay about Nazi sympathizers in conservative institutions, that is evidence about the institutions, not about him. The essay is also one of the few mainstream-right documents that treats the [[Groyper Movement]] entry vector and the [[Christian Nationalism]] network-building vector as **one problem with two doors**, which is how the vault's own [[Christian Network State]] and [[Groyper Movement]] pages are structured. ## See Also - [[Charles Haywood]] · [[Society for American Civic Renewal]] · [[Nate Fischer]] - [[Nick Fuentes]] · [[Groyper Movement]] - [[Bo French]] · [[Karl Rove]] · [[John Cornyn]] - [[RedState]] · [[National Review]] · [[Right-Wing Media Timeline]]