# Lincoln Project Founded in December 2019 by eight current and former Republican political operatives — **George Conway III**, **Reed Galen**, **Jennifer Horn**, **Rick Wilson**, **Mike Madrid**, **Ron Steslow**, **Steve Schmidt**, and **John Weaver** — the Lincoln Project is a super PAC created to oppose [[Donald Trump]] and Trumpism from within the Republican tradition. It is the highest-profile organizational expression of the **never-Trump conservative** faction. ## The Niche The Lincoln Project operates in a strategic space no progressive organization can occupy: **speaking to Republican voters in Republican language with Republican iconography**. Its ads are designed to function as psychological warfare against Trump personally (targeting the Washington media market and thus Trump's own media consumption) and as permission structures for Republican voters to defect. This positioning produces a distinctive media strategy: short, aggressive video ads engineered for viral social media distribution, featuring production values and rhetorical styles drawn from Republican political consulting. The ads are often more rhetorically brutal than anything progressive organizations produce — a function of the founders' backgrounds in Republican opposition research. ## The Controversies The Lincoln Project has been dogged by serious institutional problems: **The Weaver scandal:** In January 2021, multiple young men accused co-founder John Weaver of sending sexually suggestive messages, including to minors. The organization's leadership was accused of having known about Weaver's behavior before it became public. Co-founder Jennifer Horn alleged that leadership ignored the allegations. **Financial structure:** An AP investigation found that $50 million of the $90 million raised in the 2020 cycle went to firms controlled by the group's leaders. The structure raised questions about whether the organization was primarily a vehicle for political impact or for enriching its founders. **Leadership departures:** Schmidt, Wilson, and Galen resigned from the board in February 2021 amid the Weaver fallout. Schmidt and Wilson later returned in advisory capacities. Galen remains as a central operative. ## Trump 2.0 (2025-2026) The Lincoln Project has continued anti-Trump messaging in the second term, framing its purpose as protecting "the American Republic from Donald Trump and those who identify (publicly or privately) as MAGA supporters." The organization's ad output has continued at a high pace through its [[YouTube]] channel and social media platforms. Notable 2025-2026 development: **George Conway** filed FEC paperwork in December 2025 to run for the House in NY-12 as a **Democrat** after [[Jerry Nadler]] announced retirement — a personal embodiment of the never-Trump Republican-to-Democrat pipeline. ## The Strategic Significance The Lincoln Project matters for the KB as a case study in **cross-ideological coalition politics**. The question the organization raises: can Republican defectors contribute meaningfully to resistance, or do their institutional and financial baggage make them net liabilities? The argument for: the Lincoln Project reaches audiences that progressive organizations cannot, and its media strategy produces high-visibility anti-Trump content that circulates far beyond its donor base. The argument against: the organization has absorbed tens of millions of dollars in progressive-aligned donations while enriching Republican operatives and producing no demonstrated electoral impact distinguishable from organic anti-Trump sentiment. The Weaver scandal demonstrated that the organization's internal governance was no better than the Republican Party culture it claimed to oppose. The honest answer is probably that the Lincoln Project matters more as a **cultural signal** (prominent Republicans publicly opposing their party's leader) than as an **organizational force** (a PAC that moves votes). The cultural signal has real value — it gives media outlets a "bipartisan opposition" frame and gives wavering Republican voters social permission to defect. Whether that value justifies the financial cost is the open question. ## See Also - [[Resistance Hub]] - [[Pro-Democracy Movement]] - [[Protect Democracy]] — the more institutionally serious bipartisan organization