Monthly Archives: February 2021

When people of like minds believe certain issues arent getting enough attention in the Legislature, they band together in a special group in an effort to push for them.

They form whats known as a caucus, and give it a name to signal whos in it or what they care about, like the LGBTQ Caucus or the Persons of Color Caucus.

Last week, the Senate got a new group, calling itself the Freedom Caucus, with four members who said they want to stand up for responsible budgets, no new taxes, gun rights and the value of life, which is to say, theyre opposed to abortion. Theyre also opposed to Gov. Jay Inslees continuation of emergency orders for the COVID-19 pandemic, want the entire state to go to Phase 2 and want schools to reopen.

Wait a minute, you might be saying. Isnt there already a caucus that supports all those things called the Senate Republican Caucus?

Well, yes. The four members of the Freedom Caucus are all Republicans, and would probably be described as four of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate.

It includes Sen. Mike Padden, of Spokane Valley, who summed up the caucuss concerns as life, liberty and prosperity values on which hardly anyone would take an opposing stance.

The caucus was formed last May, when Republican legislative leaders didnt push hard enough for a special session to have a say in the states emergency orders, said Sen. Phil Fortunato, of Auburn. He described Inslees approach to the pandemic as heavy-handed.

People should be able to make their own decisions, he said.

There may be a disconnect there, considering that some people could make personal decisions to ignore COVID precautions that could affect another persons life, liberty or prosperity. Thats not to suggest that Inslee has been right in all his decisions. But just as the freedom of one person to swing his fist stops at the end of another persons nose, there are problems in managing competing personal interests in a pandemic.

Sen. Doug Ericksen, of Ferndale, said the caucus is open to Republicans, moderate conservatives, fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, Libertarians (of which, for the record, there are none in the Legislature) and even Democrats presumably if they are sufficiently conservative on an issue like $30 car tabs or gun rights.

The difference between the Freedom Caucus and the rest of the Senate Republican Caucus is that they can take stronger stances on their key issues than the GOP leadership, which might have to take the views of members from more moderate districts into effect, Fortunato said.

They could, as Ericksen said, provide a voice for people around the state who share their views. The problem, however, is the strength in a specialized caucus lies in the ability of its members to swing a close vote on an issue of concern.

With Republicans at a seven-vote minority in the Senate and no Democrats currently flocking to the Freedom Caucus, its hard to see where they can affect legislation and debate any more than before. Padden, Fortunato and Ericksen are all sponsors of past legislation addressing the caucuss stated concerns, and some of the most enthusiastic debaters against Democratic legislation they view as opposing those principles.

A few years ago, the House had a small group of Republicans that called themselves the Liberty Caucus, which had as one of its main proponents Republican Rep. Matt Shea, also of Spokane Valley. That caucus had what it called the Freedom Agenda, which included a wide range of issues.

It had some successes, like expanding the access for ATVs to public roads. But on most of its big issues, such as splitting the state in half to create the 51st state of Liberty, it struck out.

The Freedom Caucus has an agenda that could generate support from more voters, but faces a similar problem with the math in passing or blocking legislation.

See the article here:

Spin Control: New Freedom Caucus: Conservative agenda but a problem with numbers - The Spokesman-Review

Rafael Garcia|Topeka Capital-Journal

Mabel Rice had already been dealing with a blizzard of documents in getting ready to teach spring semester child development classes at the University of Kansas when the Kansas Board of Regents approved a new policy document that could essentially strip her of any semblance of job security shed had.

The Regents in late January had voted to allow the six state universities the ability to implement policies to more easily trim down payroll. University leaders could more easily suspend, fire or dismiss any staff including tenured professors in light of the extreme financial pressures placed on the state universities because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The distinguished professor a title conferred on some of the states most respected and senior faculty members, alongside the ultimate job protection of academic tenure had been focused much more on complying with demanding, but necessary, COVID-19 protocols and class adjustments.

The Regents decision, as well as the very idea universities were even considering the policy option, came as a shock to Rice and most faculty across the Regents six state universities.

Wed heard more about building security than we had heard about this possible, substantive change in policy, Rice said.

More: Washburn Regents take first look at new School of Law designs

In the wake of the Regents decision, the Kansas higher education governing body has drawn blunt criticism from not only faculty within the statebut also higher education groups across the country.

The American Association of University Professors condemned the Regents decision as abandoning the principle of academic freedom that tenure provides. While the Regents decision simply allows universities to adopt such policies through the end of 2022 and within frameworks subject to Regents approval, the AAUP said even temporary policies would be detrimental to Kansass universities.

While some regard tenure as an exalted faculty status separable from the due-process protections of the kind described here, tenure is inseparable from those due-process protections which in fact define it, the letter read. An institution that fails to afford those protections cannot protect academic freedom in service of the common good.

Out of the six state universities, leaders at all but one have announced they will not seek to implement such policies and instead defer to existing avenues, in consultation with campus leadership groups, to address any financial difficulties.

The University of Kansas the states largest and flagship university has declined to rule out eventually implementing a policy under the new Regents language.

KU provost and executive vice chancellor Barbara Bichelmeyer on Friday wrote to the campus community and said KU administrators would seek an extension from the Kansas Board of Regents to July 1 to continue discussions on whether the extreme measure is necessary.

"We value and want to protect tenure, while we also accept and respect our responsibility to serve the needs of our various constituencies," she said.

She earlier had said the university will continue to rely on other budget reduction measures, such as a voluntary separation program and policies clamping down on travel and extraneous expenses, that are expected to save several million dollars over the next year.

KU also hopes to build enrollment back up after higher education enrollment across the nation cratered in the wake of COVID-19, particularly at institutions like KU that had ambitious plans to bolster enrollment from international students. With travel restricted across the globe, many of those students did not return or never came to Kansas campuses.

Still, the university's statements havedonelittle to assure campus faculty, and 1,000 professors and staff signed a letter demanding University of Kansas chancellor Douglas A. Girod and KU join the other state universities in declining to pursue a policy under the framework.

For faculty that have spent many years teaching at KU, and who have been loyal to KU, I imagine there is deep disappointment that the university is considering a policy that would allow them to be dismissed with only 30 days notice, said Berl Oakley, a distinguished professor in KUs Department of Molecular Biosciences. For faculty who are leaders in their fields or young faculty who have recently received tenure and who are doing well in their research and scholarship, I imagine they will be looking around for better jobs.

KU has been hemorrhaging excellent faculty in recent years and this policy will certainly make KU less attractive, added Oakley, who is also the universitys AAUP representative. Departmental chairs and directors have already signed a letter indicating that this policy will make it more difficult to attract and retain excellent faculty.

More: KU football personnel will dictate approach on offense, new OC Mike DeBord says

As a policy making and implementing body, the Regents typically make decisions on a timeframe of months or even years, rather than days or weeks.

But in addressing COVID-19, the Kansas Board of Regents has moved at relative lightspeed to allow universities greater latitude in how they deal with any issues from the pandemic, such as in March 2020 when universities suddenly shut down for in-person operations.

And the speed at which the decision to allow policies latitude on firing or suspending employees came especially shocked faculty groups, since the proposal was only discussed the morning of the Regents January meeting and added to the boards agenda during the meeting itself.

That said, in the week before the meeting, the Regents and Kansass state university presidents were reacting to an analysis from the Kansas Legislative Research Department that showed that Gov. Laura Kellys proposed budget would amount to a $37.4 million reduction in state general funding for higher education.

Even then, faculty groups said universities have been dealing with the financial toll of COVID-19 since last March, and other existing financial mitigation measures already agreed to and accepted by administration, faculty and student leadership representatives have been available to universities.

One of those measures, if extreme, is for a university to declare a financial exigency. Per Regents definition, a financial exigency is an emergency state of operations when universities, having exhausted all other avenues of cost-reduction, may decide to not reappoint tenured faculty. To declare one, university administrators must notify the Regents of that intent.

A financial exigency, though, is a last-ditch measure that signals potentially insurmountable financial difficulties and a university on the verge of collapse. Such declarations also have further financial implications, since universities may face higher interest rates on bonds or other debt instruments. Few universities across the U.S. have declared financial exigencies, even in the wake of the pandemic.

Bichelmeyer on Friday said KU officials are not exploring declaring a financial exigency, especially since that measure would apply to the entire university system. Other austerity measures will take a priority over the next few months, she said.

"Because financial exigency applies to an entire institution, and our fiscal challenges are primarily on the Lawrence campus, this is not an option that we will pursue," she said.

The University of Kansas system, at the start of the school year, had $667 million in outstanding revenue bond debt and $30 million in capital leases and notes payable, although those numbers were down from $725 million and $44 million respectively.

Faculty critics have also said the university is looking to sidestep declaring a financial exigency because doing so would inevitably lead to an increase in the university's indebtedness from resulting hikes in interest rates.

Furthermore, KU faculty members are arguingthat the existing method of declaring a financial exigency at least requires university administrators to consult with other campus leaders and groups in deciding how to make any staffing cuts, and any policy under the Regents new language essentially does the same thing a financial exigency would do while circumventing that requirement for collaboration.

My understanding is that the existing policy, which is very well-described and laid out, nevertheless requires time to implement, said Rice, KU professor in child development. Somehow, the impression is that we no longer have time for anything that has deliberative judgment involved in it.

Any employee fired or suspended under a policy using the Regents' new language would have to be given 30 days of written notice, which could then be appealed through the Regents to the state's Office of Administrative Hearings. Faculty groups, though, say that any appeals under that system would likely be in vain.

Matt Keith, a Regents spokesperson, said declaring a financial exigency would require state university CEOs to first make "sweeping cutsto positions other than tenured faculty.

"This policy was adopted to give university CEOs flexibility to make staffing reductions that might be necessary because of pandemic-related budget constraints in a way that makes the most sense for their institutions and has the smallest possible impact on students and the universities missions," Keith said.

More: Facing $37M in funding cuts, Kansas colleges given broader latitude to fire employees

In the past two decades, Kansas universities' revenue from state funding and tuition, as proportions of their overall budgets, have essentially flipped, with universities now receiving a bigger chunk of their funding from rising tuition rates.

While all six state universities have dealt with dropped enrollment this year, KU leaders say they face a particularly unprecedented $74.6 million budget cut that will require the university to make drastic cuts and even eliminate programs and departments, reduce services, and implement furloughs and layoffs, Chancellor Girod previously told the campus.

Bichelmeyer, the provost, said one of the keys to the universitys recovery will be bolstering the number of prospective students and admissions to increase the universitys enrollment, as well as working on student retention and graduation rates.

Thats in addition to other measures that are bound to be less popular.

…And, unfortunately, it is likely that, in addition to all the other work we have before us, we will need to close some low-enrolled programs and programs that dont align with the core mission of the university and consolidate some administrative services, all of which will likely result in the need to let some people go, she wrote.

Under the Regents policy, KU or any other state university, if their presidents go back on their words has until March 6 to return to the Regents with a framework to enact any new policy subject to the boards approval. KU officials have said they'll ask the Regents for an extension to that deadline to further discuss the issue and have additional time to create such a framework.

Even though much of the criticism has been aimed at KU, a group of over 100 distinguished professors from across the state on Wednesday called on the Regents to repeal the policy language for all state universities.

To jettison best practices with this substitute policy not only reveals a lack of respect for each campus' system of shared governance, it threatens long-term damage to the missions of each institution, a letter from the group read. It undermines the purpose of tenure, which is to allow faculty to pursue their scholarship without fear of repercussions.

Keith said statewide faculty representatives were given the chance to respond to the new policy language at two different meetings, although both were on the same day. The first meeting was the Regents' governance subcommittee, which met before the second meeting, the Regents' regular meeting in which the board adopted the new language.

At both meetings, Aleks Sternfeld-Dunn, a Wichita State University professor representing the state universities' faculty senate presidents, said the faculty senate presidents had "grave concerns" over the policyand the potential trouble it could cause for Kansas's universities.

He warned the policy would attract national scrutiny, and by demonstrating a lack of collaboration with tenured faculty, Kansas universities would struggle to recruit new faculty.

More: Coronavirus could end history, math and chemistry majors at some universities in Kansas

Philip Nel, a Kansas State University distinguished professor in childrens literature who signed on to the letter, was more critical of the Regents. He said Januarys vote was the result of having well-intentioned business experts who nevertheless lacked higher education experience in charge of the states colleges and universities.

He said Kansas already had a mixed record on higher education in the nation, and the Regents decision only further tarnished the state as a place for academics to avoid.

This policy is currently only under consideration at the University of Kansas, but there is nothing to prevent it from applying to other places, he said.

Opponents of the policy have particularly honed in on the policy as inherently violating the principle of tenure, which is supposed to offer professors protection from retaliation for academic views, as controversial as they may be.

It is an academic freedom that has made U.S. public research universities the envy of the world, said Rice, the KU professor in child development.

They are a wonderful source of pride, but they run well under a common purpose and sense of trust, she said. Thats one of the most concerning elements that sense of trust and adherence to professional standards. Under the situation were in right now, theres concern about whether these standards as we know them will be honored.

While measures taken to mitigate financial losses could be understood, if not forgiven, the faculty groups said the potential policies were a bridge too far in providing university higher-ups with unchecked power to choose which staff or faculty to lay off.

It is tenure, then, that allows older faculty the ability to speak out when younger staff might be reluctant, Rice said.

As the group of distinguished professors, we are more senior and are in a position to reflect on the implications of this vote when some of our younger colleagues may not feel comfortable expressing their opinions, said Rice.

Bichelmeyer, in her Friday letter, said the university was doing what it could to balance professor tenure as a priority, but the university is also responsible to other stakeholders, like taxpayers, accrediting agencies and even the university itself.

"While we aspire to the twin goals of bringing our university back to fiscal health and to upholding the rights afforded through tenure for our faculty, it is critical we recognize that we secure the right to tenure by addressing the rights of our various constituents, investors, benefactors and advocates," she wrote."Ultimately, tenure means that we are accountable for monitoring, demonstrating and reporting our commitment and responsiveness to the common good."

And while Rice said she believed KU administration is erring in not yet ruling out implementing the policy, she said she understood the difficult position the administrators are in.

She said she hopes Chancellor Girod and other university leaders are willing to work with faculty, instead of against them.

Our chancellor and provost are very capable and very strong leaders who have had careers in this system as well, and I can only assume theyre trying to solve a difficult problem, she said. Almost all of us who signed that document did it from a spirting helping to solve these problems from the ways we know how. It isnt in a climate of hostility, its in a climate of caring.

More:

A new Regents policy on firing tenured faculty caught national blowback, and KU is in the crosshairs - The Topeka Capital-Journal

RIPON The newly formed Republican Party spread like a prairie fire through rural Wisconsin in the 1800s.

Fueling the movement was the unique character of people who settled in and around Ripon,a community whose first citizens were idealists who lived in a commune.

Most of these settlers came from western New York, considered at the time to be a hotbed of "political turbulence," according to William Woolley, aretired Ripon College history professor who studiedtheparty's origins in Wisconsin.

In 1854, Ripon was a place that was unusual in the fact people liked to go to meetings where issues of national and even cosmic significance were discussed, and felt it was important to do so, Woolley said. And where citizens did not feel it at all presumptuous to think that they could change the world by themselves.

That spirit led to the birth of a new partyand Ripon's proclamation as the birthplace of the Republicans.Jumpahead 167 years and we may be witnessing the fracturingor end of the nation's conservative political party as it looks today.

Some party elders, with decades of experience representing the Riponarea as part of their districts, point to new members and ideasthatcould usher in areturn to the kind of Republican principlesthat took rootin that Fond du Lac County community.

The Little White Schoolhouse, also known as the Birthplace of the Republican Party, at 305 Blackburn Street in Ripon. Citizens met here in 1854 to discuss the beginnings of the Republican Party.Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

There is a new generation of people coming along in the party, who think differently and are bringingnew ideas to the table, said former U.S. Rep Tom Petri, who represented the Ripon area for 36 years in Congress. They are the future, and I am hopeful.

Others see a breakup on the horizon as thenationexperiencesa new periodof political turbulence, not unlikepre-Civil War dayswhen the Whig Party disintegrated and the Republican Party rose to take its place.

For the first time in American history, a president was impeached twice by the House of Representatives. The most recent article of impeachmentchargesthat former President Donald Trumpincited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6before a violent mobinvaded the Capitol and left multiple dead.

As Trump's impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate starts Tuesday, the turmoil within the party is growing overTrump's role after hisdefeat in November and false claims of voter fraud. Trump himself hinted he might start a new political movement under the "MAGA Party" or "Patriot Party" banner, the Washington Post reported last month.

A sign outside the Little White Schoolhouse at 305 Blackburn St. in Ripon tells the story of the formation of the Republican Party.Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Ten Republicans in the House crossed party lines to vote with Democrats for impeachment, and even some of those who opposed impeachment condemned Trump and blamed him for sparking the insurrection. No Republicans supported his first impeachment in the the House in 2019. He was acquitted following a trial in the U.S. Senate in early 2020.

The latest impeachment vote demonstrates how challenging this year isfor Republicans. Fractures are visible over the members who voted to impeach Trump and comments made by a freshman lawmaker who previously called for the assassination of political leaders and pushed false and outlandish conspiracy theories.

Some see a split as inevitable.

I think theres a third party that will come out of the schism inside the GOP. And Ill be very blunt with you.I dont think it will be the largest of the two factions. I think the traditional Republicaneconomic, social and fiscal conservatism is basically dead," Rick Wilson, who co-foundedthe Lincoln Project, a political action committee formed to defeat Trump,told ABCaffiliate WFAA-TV.

Alvan Bovay, a New Yorker who moved to Ripon in 1850, had similar feelings about the Whig Party, which was weakened and divided over thornyissues like slavery.

During a trip back East, Bovay met with Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, the closest thing America had to a national newspaper at the time. He told Greeley he felt a new party should be created calledthe Republican Party.

Bovay returned to Ripon and pushed his idea, but without much success, Woolley said.

Then, an event occurred that changed the course of history.

In 1852, a slave named Joshua Glover escaped from his owner in Missouri and made it to Milwaukee. Two years later, federal marshals raided Glovers home and captured him.

The sight of Glover, bleeding and trussed up, finally put a face on slavery and the capture created outrage in Milwaukee and elsewhere. A crowd of 5,000 people staged an emotional protest. The next morning, a large band of citizens from Racine broke into the prison and rescued Glover, transporting him to Canada.

The people who rescued Glover were normal citizens who would otherwisenever even consider breaking the law, Woolley said. But the capture of Glover seemed so inhuman that, along with everything else, normally law-abiding citizens felt they could no longer put up with the existence of slavery. It was time to stop talking and start acting.

A monument stands outside the Little White Schoolhouse, also known as the Birthplace of the Republican Party, at 305 Blackburn St. in Ripon.Doug Raflik/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Within a couple of days, Bovayhad the support he sought. Whigs, Democrats and Free Soilers came together at a long, contentious meeting heldMarch 20, 1854, in Ripons new, state-of-the-art schoolhouse.

Similar meetings followed across the upper Midwestand, in November,a national convention held in Pittsburgh created the Republican Party.

Six years later, the nation elected its first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln.

Though there is no "smoking gun" evidence of any connection between Bovays meeting in the schoolhouse and the rest of the events leading to the triumph of the party in 1860, the Ripon story is a good one, Woolley said.

It is a story of how a few concerned citizens in a tiny town saw a great moral wrong, and had the sense of compassion, courage and confidence to change history, he said.

Like Greeley, Tim Lyke was a newspaper publisher who commented on politics near and far.Lyke did so for31 yearsat the helm of theRipon Commonwealth Press, where he was proud to represent what he saw as Ripon's unique role in safeguarding Republicanvalues and tenets set down in those formative days. His family sold thepaperinDecember 2019 after 57 years of ownership.

Lyke, who calls himself a never-Trump Republican, believes the partys proud roots in abolitionism and civil rights have been undermined by the former president.

This was a party that believed in civil discourse and fancied itself the law-and-order party, but there has been no civility and no unity under this leadership,Lyke said. "Instead, it's become a party of obstruction of justice and not holding a leader accountable."

Trumps tactics and harsh opinions have split the party, Lyke said, between traditional Republicans and a more populist, disenfranchised group of people who are predominantly white working-class, nativistand distrustful of a government they believe is self-serving, corrupt and insensitive to the needs and concerns ofaverage families.

"Prior to social media, this population suffered in silence," he said. "Now, theyve not only found a savior in Donald Trump, who has played into their fears and insecurities, but have discovered places to convene with like-minded individuals on internet platforms, hearing their beliefs and concerns affirmed and amplified.

Similar to Lyke, Scott McCallum has experienced the tone changes and incivility firsthand. McCallum, who served as governor from 2001 to 2003, wasfirst elected to the state Senate in 1976 in a district that included Ripon. He won reelection twice before serving as lieutenant governorfrom 1987 to 2001.

McCallum, now an adjunct professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Milwaukee,said he's watched for some time the frustrationsbrewinginAmericanswho feltleft behind bya "rapidly changing and moving, technology-driven economy."

Former Gov. Scott McCallum, right, talking with former Gov. Jim Doyle, says Republicans should take a more bipartisan approach to fixing problems.Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Trump pitted working people against non-working people, even though 50% of working-age people are not working because the system isnt working, McCallum said. This isnt a political issue; its peoples lives and we need to come together in a nonpartisan way to understand it and fix it.

After Democrat Tony Evers took office as governor in 2019, McCallum viewed it as an opportune moment for political leaders to unite. He spoke out publicly,telling Republicans they should back off and engage inbipartisan efforts.

I was viciously chastised for it," McCallum said. "Peoplein politics today are playing a game to win, and 'compromise' has become a bad word to both parties. Unfortunately, when winning becomes so important, we lose whats important for the country."

Some Republicans like ChrisVance, former chair of the Washington State Republican Party, are actively working tobuild a centrist/reformist alternative.

Hebelieves principled Republicans willing to put country before party need to encourage a split because, he told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, a united Republican Party led by Trump or someone like him is the greatest threat to freedom and democracy that America faces.

What America needs now are brave center-right leaders who are willing to create a movement that reflects the old Republican Party at its best, with an emphasis on freedom, economic growth, the rule of law and global leadership, said Vance, who is a senior fellow at a Washington D.C.-based think tank, theNiskanen Center.

In an op-edfor the Seattle Times, Vance pointed out that, until relatively recently, the nations political parties were constantly splitting up, realigning and reforming. The Federalist party broke up and vanished after the War of 1812. The Democratic Party split over the leadership of Andrew Jackson, eventually creating the Whig Party. The Whigs broke up in the 1850s over the issue of slavery, and the Republican Party emerged.

Republicans split in 1896, and again in 1912 as the Bull Moose Progressives followed Theodore Roosevelt out of the GOP. Southern Democrats split with their party over civil rights in 1948, 1960 and 1968, before ultimately migrating to the Republicans.

Petri, who represented the Ripon area in theHousefrom 1979 to 2015, says while political upheaval is not uncommon in history, he believes aparty split isnt the answer.

These sorts of things have happened before and they will happen again, he said. We have to learn from them, move forward and be stronger as a result.

Petri recalled that, as a young boy, he joinedAmericans inspired byRichard Nixon's famous "Checkers" speech in which the vice presidential candidate fended off accusations he took secret gifts from wealthy donors and indignantly refusedto return a beloved dog named Checkers a supporter had given his daughters.

The young Petri talkedhis mother into driving him to the Western Union office in downtown Fond du Lac, where he sent off a telegram to President Dwight Eisenhower, urging him to keep Nixon as his vice-presidential running mate. Eisenhower relented and kept Nixon on the ticket.

A lot of friendships crossed party lines during the early decades of Petri's longlegislative run. He says committees and committee chairpersons oncecontrolledthe flow of business in their jurisdictions, and brought legislation forward without the need for party leadership involvement.

I feel sorry for what people have to deal with in politics, and it has to do with the way communication has changed, Petri said. Lincoln himself used to write poison pen letters, but three days later, hed tear them up. Today, its too easy to push a button and send.

Still, he says he counts on the youths of today he sees working to evoke change. Petri serves on the advisory committee for the American Conservation Coalition a Republican pro-environmental group founded by Wisconsin activist Benji Backer.

Backer, a graduate of Appleton North High School, has been involved in politics sinceage 10. He says he wasinspired into activism by the late U.S. Sen. John McCain.

Many young Republicans dont like Trump and his cultish following, Backer said. We embrace issues like climate change, gay rights, improving race relations and allowing immigrants a path to citizenship that is productive and fair to those who want to make this country a better place.

The 23-year-old founded the American Conservation Coalition in 2016, during his freshman year at the University of Washington, right after Trump was elected.

Today, the organization has 300 chapters across the country and 12 staffers working to ignore the extremist noise, Backer said, and move conservative values forward that appeal to young Americans.

The reality is most Americans wantsolution that are somewhat near the center, and the government to stay out of their lives as much as possible, Backer said. If we can create a party that speaks to that middle and embraces common-sense principles, it would be unstoppable.

Contact her at 920-907-7936 or sroznik@gannett.com; follow her on Twitter at @SharonRoznik .

Published1:55 pm UTC Feb. 8, 2021Updated3:15 pm UTC Feb. 8, 2021

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As Donald Trump's impeachment trial begins, are Republicans headed for a split? The party's roots in Ripon could point the way forward - Wisconsin...