Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFP) is an anti-taxation advocacy group founded and financed by David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who own Koch Industries of Wichita, Kansas, in 2004. The Kochs also founded (and funded) AFP’s predecessor, Americans for a Sound Economy, as well as the Cato Institute and the National Center for Policy Analysis, and numerous other free-enterprise, libertarian-oriented think tanks. AFP is a 501(c) group, which means that they do not disclose their donor list. The group’s stated policy goals include “removing unnecessary barriers to entrepreneurship and opportunity” and “restoring fairness to our judicial system by stemming the tide toward ‘overcriminalization’ of economic activity spurred by over-active attorneys general,” as well as “pointing out evidence of waste, fraud, and abuse,” tax reduction, and halting “the encroachment of government in the economic lives of citizens.”
AFP boasts of having over one hundred field organizers, thirty fully staffed state affiliates, and 1.6 million members, although the latter figure cannot be verified. AFP provides a forum for conservative candidates running for office, by hosting political dinners and policy summits. In the summer of 2009, AFP created Patients United Now to organize hundreds of rallies against President Obama’s proposed health care reforms. The group also promotes Tea Party movement candidates, offering training sessions in grassroots political activities and, according to journalist Jane Mayer, providing lists of candidates for the Tea Party to target and talking points for members to utilize (leading critics to characterize the movement as astroturfers). Beginning in 2008, the group has also hosted the yearly RightOnline conference. RightOnline was intended to create a forum for conservative bloggers and activists that was similar to the liberal Netroots conference. The Kochs also underwrite Generation Opportunity, a 501(c)(4) group focused on conservative youth mobilization, although this is done through their TC4 Trust and Freedom Partners. Generation Opportunity ran ads encouraging young people to “opt out of Obamacare” and financed ads against endangered Democratic incumbent senators in the 2014 midterm elections.
Americans for Prosperity has funded state legislative and gubernatorial candidates who were committed to limiting the role of public-sector unions, opposing reforms in minimum wage laws, opposing new health care regulations, reducing taxes, and limiting regulations on businesses more generally. In particular, the organization contributed to the 2010 gubernatorial campaign of Scott Walker in Wisconsin, as well as numerous other state legislative candidates. Shortly after the newly elected Republicans were sworn into office in January 2011, Walker and the Republican legislature attempted to ban collective bargaining for public-sector unions (with the exception of firefighters and police officers). Large protests followed, and the Koch brothers’ role in funding federal elections became a topic of media scrutiny. AFP began to run ads in Wisconsin and other Midwestern states that portrayed public-sector union members as enjoying unfair privileges that other workers don’t get, and of failing to do their fair share to reduce state deficits. During the midterm elections of 2010, AFP spent over $40 million, a record sum for the group, on a combination of campaign donations, rallies, door-to-door voter canvassing, and attack ads, the vast bulk of which benefited Republican candidates.
In the Campaign of 2012, AFP spent an estimated $122 million according to Michael Beckel of Primary Source, albeit with somewhat less success, prompting an internal audit of their electoral targeting and spending practices after Obama was reelected. In particular, the group and its benefactors are concerned about environmental regulations on industry, particularly those aimed at global climate change (most notably, cap-and-trade). They also seek to reduce corporate and individual tax rates and to expand oil exploration and production in the United States. They have also actively campaigned against minimum wage legislation. In many ways, AFP has come to perform many of the functions that the GOP has traditionally performed, and it can be viewed as a rival to the GOP for conservative influence and agenda setting. They are on track to play an influential role in the Campaign of 2016, with the expectation that they will spend $125 million in 2015 in preparation for the election, and many times this amount the following year to promote the GOP candidate.
Americans for Prosperity. http://www.americansforprosperity.org. Accessed September 5, 2015.
Americans for Prosperity State Chapters. http://www.americansforprosperity.org/state-chapters. Accessed September 5, 2015.
Beckel, Michael. “Koch-Backed Nonprofit Spent Record Cash in 2012.” Primary Source, November 14, 2013.
Gold, Matea. “Koch-Backed Network Aims to Spend Nearly $1 Billion in Run-Up to 2016.” Washington Post, January 26, 2015.
Hamburger, Tom, Kathleen Hennesset, and Neela Banerjee. “Koch Brothers Now at Heart of GOP Power.” Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2011.
Harris, Paul. “The Koch Brothers: All the Influence Money Can Buy.” The Guardian, April 8, 2011.
Lawler, Joseph. “Jane Mayer’s Violent Assault on the Koch Brothers.” American Spectator, August 23, 2010.
Lipton, Eric. “Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute.” New York Times, February 21, 2011.
Mayer, Jane. “Covert Operations: The Billionaire Brothers Who Are Waging a War Against Obama.” New Yorker, August 30, 2010.
RightOnline Conference. http://www.rightonline.com. Accessed September 5, 2015.
Vogel, Kenneth P. “Secret Koch Memo Outlines Plans for 2016.” Politico, April 22, 2015. http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/koch-brothers-2016-election-memo-117238.html. Accessed September 5, 2015.