Founded by anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist in 1986, this anti-taxation advocacy group is best known for the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in which political officials and candidates for political office vow to “oppose any and all tax increases.” According to the organization, signing the pledge is a necessity for any Republican candidate, as well as any Democratic candidate running in a Republican-leaning district. The organization holds itself as the sole arbiter in determining whether a candidate or officeholder has honored the pledge. Breaking the pledge carries the implicit risk of a primary election challenge, with Norquist and ATR helping to fund a more suitably anti-taxation challenger. Every GOP presidential candidate since 1986, with the exception of Bob Dole in 1996, has signed on to the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Since 1993, Norquist has also held a weekly “Wednesday Meeting” for conservative activists, officeholders, and lobbyists. Drake Bennett, writing for Business Week, characterizes Norquist as “a single unelected actor with a single issue, he holds immense power over the Republican Party’s fiscal platform, and through it, the national policy debate.”
While most of the GOP field in the Campaign of 2016 is committed, at least in principle, to the Norquist pledge, not all of the candidates have officially signed on, Jeb Bush being among those more notably absent.
Americans for Tax Reform. “What Is the Taxpayer Protection Pledge?” http://www.atr.org/taxpayer-protection-pledge. Accessed September 5, 2015.
Bennett, Drake. “Grover Norquist, the Enforcer.” Business Week, May 26, 2011.
Berg, Rebecca. “Jeb Still Won’t Sign Grover’s Anti-Tax Pledge.” Real Clear Politics, May 2, 2015. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/05/02/jeb_still_wont_sign_grovers_anti-tax_pledge_126469.html. Accessed September 5, 2015.
Franklin, Daniel, and A.G. Newmyer III. “Is Grover Over? Norquist’s Anti-Tax Jihad Stumbles in the States.” Washington Monthly, March 2005.