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ABOUT TCC

What is TCC?     |    The Mission    |   Your Advocates   |   History   |   What We Stand For   |   Get Involved

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WE ARE THE CONSERVATIVES' NATIONAL
GRASSROOTS NETWORK.

Our mission is to create a grassroots conservative network, uniting people of widely varying backgrounds in peaceable defense of our country, our Constitution, and our common values rooted in liberty and equal rights.

ABOUT TCC

WHAT IS THE CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS?

Founded in 1974, The Conservative Caucus is the face of Grassroots America. We are the mainstream majority. Our adversaries are the power-mad, corrupt, anti-American Left aka the “Woke” whose only mission is to erode our freedoms with the far-left, extreme agenda.

 

We will not allow that to happen. 

 

Our dedicated, devoted leadership and a steadfast board of directors and team are committed to make The Conservative Caucus a true conservative voice in the country. We take action on the issues that matter most. Over the next several years The Conservative Caucus is needed more than ever.

 

Our Vision:

So that all conservatives have a voice in Washington, D.C., in state capitals, and in counties and cities across America, TCC will create organizations in congressional districts across the country and wherever conservatives can be brought together, to learn about important issues, protest bad policies and promote good ones, and ensure that the vote of every person who shares our values is cast and counted.

What is TCC
The mission

THE MISSION

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We are conservatives’ national grassroots network.​

 

The key to success is still to let people know what is happening in government and to tell them how they can have an impact on the decisions to be made. TCC uses many methods to make conservative opinions felt in Congress and the White House.​

 

We encourage members and all citizens to call, visit, or write their elected representatives; and to alert other Americans by calling talk shows and writing letters to the editor. Often petitions are collected and delivered to key decision-makers. Testimony before Congressional committees, meetings with members of Congress and their staff, video commentaries and programs, and Member's Message all help communicate to the public and make sure that elected officials hear what conservatives have to say.

THE TCC AGENDA TO RESTORE AMERICA

 

  • Prepare to retake the Senate and build strength in the House.
     

  • Prepare key 'day one' actions a new president can take to safeguard America and rebuild our economy.
     

  • Stop Biden's invasion of America through our open border. Pressure Congress to restore border security by finishing the border wall and ending open-border policies.
     

  • Impeach President Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas and Attorney General Garland.
     

  • Endorse a conservative Presidential nominee who will win back the White House.
     

  • Cut spending to help end “Bidenflation” and get the cost of living back under control. 
     

  • Support legislation to rebuild the American economy with tax and spending cuts, restore American oil and gas production, and cut federal regulations.

JOIN OUR MOVEMENT TO RECLAIM AMERICA

With your help, TCC in the years to come will play a key role in standing up to the Woke mob – the “mind-numbed robots,” we call them – and in defeating the Washington elite, the extremists hurting the American economy, endangering our national security, and threatening our freedoms.

The Team

MEET YOUR ADVOCATES

The officers and staff of The Conservative Caucus represent and empower you in Washington and around the country to restore our Constitutional government.

Mr. Peter J. Thomas

Chairman

Peter J. Thomas was the National Field Director of TCC when the Caucus had chapters in most of the nation’s congressional districts. He served as director of communications for Papa Gino’s restaurants, founded and served as President of the Massachusetts Foundation for Economic Research, and was chief of staff to Congressman Peter Torkildsen. He was regional administrator of the General Services Administration under President Reagan, worked in the Small Business Administration under President Bush the elder, and was acting assistant secretary for administration in the Department of Agriculture under President Bush the younger.

Mr. Barry Goldwater, Jr. 

Honorary Chairman

Barry M. Goldwater, Jr. is Honorary Chairman of The Conservative Caucus. He served 14 years as a member of the U.S. Congress, representing a district in California, and is the son of the late Senator Barry Goldwater Sr., who was the first presidential candidate of the modern conservative movement.

 

Goldwater Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps as a conservative leader. In Congress, he co-authored the Privacy Act of 1974, one of the most important pieces of legislation protecting Americans’ privacy rights. He blocked the federal government from creating movies in-house, which would have taken jobs from the U.S. motion picture industry. On the Energy Research and Development Committee, he promoted energy independence in the wake of the OPEC embargo. He also served on the Space and Aviation Committee, which authorized and oversaw the historic Apollo 11 moon landing. An expert on aviation and transportation technology, he is a pilot with over 3,000 hours of flight time.

 

He campaigned for Ronald Reagan, a family friend whose emergence as a political figure came during the Goldwater for President campaign, and for other conservative candidates such as Ron Paul. He has won the Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, an award from the President’s Commission on Employment of the Handicapped, and the Conscience of the Congress Award of the American Conservative Union (the group behind CPAC).

 

Goldwater is a board member of the Goldwater Institute, a leading conservative think tank, which has an arm that sues government entities when they violate the Constitution and statutory law. He is also a member of the board of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program, one of the most prestigious national undergraduate scholarships in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics; it is awarded to some 400 students per year.

The Team

Mr. Jim Pfaff

President

Jim Pfaff is the President of The Conservative Caucus. Jim’s political career stretches over three decades. He served as a Chief of Staff in Washington, DC for two different congressmen. He has also been a communications, grassroots, and political consultant during that time. Through his company, he provided consulting in public policy and public relations; business research; media strategies; and on-the-ground consulting for political campaigns and grassroots organizations.

 

Jim served as Chief of Staff for two different Congressmen – Cong. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Cong. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS). He also served as the Chief of Staff for the Colorado House Republican Caucus. He also served as Founder and Executive Director of Americans for Prosperity of Colorado, President of the Colorado Family Institute, and a National Representative for Family Policy Councils at Focus on the Family.

 

Jim is a seasoned grassroots and campaign operative having led major congressional, state legislative, and statewide ballot efforts.  As President/CEO of Innovative Research and Data Solutions, LLC and the Innovative Solutions Group, he provided consulting services, media consulting services, and communications products and services.

 

Jim is a nationally recognized public policy leader. He is known for his skills in strategic management, organizational development, and public outreach for government officials, political campaigns, and non-profit organizations.

 

He is a graduate of The Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. He studied English and Political Science at Indiana University.

Mr. Art Harman

Administrative Director

Mr. Art Harman served as a Legislative Director in Congress where he developed the successful strategy to kill the 2013 Senate amnesty bill, wrote legislation and amendments, and learned from the inside how Congress really works. Harman is also President of the Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration. Since 2010, he promoted the return to the Moon to decision makers, astronauts, and advised the 2016 Trump campaign on space policy, border security & international broadcasting as well as to the transition and White House. He was the advisor to Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) on foreign affairs, border security, China and Taiwan, science & space. He also wrote the foundational bill for post-Brexit trade relations with the UK for Senator Mike Lee. His policy specialties include foreign policy, China, Taiwan, asymmetric deterrence, border security and NASA/space.

 

Mr. Harman produced TCC's long-running, nationally-televised public affairs television program, "Conservative Roundtable," and directed major grassroots lobbying and outreach programs. He is a veteran of many radio and TV interviews, and has been published on Red State, Epoch times, The Hill and more.

 

He’s served on the board of directors of three non-profits, and is an award-winning film producer and photographer. He has traveled extensively in the world and returned home each time with greater appreciation for other cultures as well as a renewed passion to defend the liberties and opportunities Americans often take for granted. He did a shocking inspection of our border with Mexico. Harman witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, was arrested by the KGB and stood in the footsteps of freedom fighters in Tiananmen Square.

Mr. Art Kelly

Director of Field Operations

Art Kelly is Director of Field Operations for The Conservative Caucus.  Prior to that, he served 7 years on the Board of Directors of TCC.

He was previously Director of Research and Legislation for American Target Advertising and its subsidiaries, ConservativeHQ.com and My60SecondScoops.com.  As part of his duties, he wrote the online newsletters, What’s Happening With Seniors Benefits and What’s Happening With Conservatives and the Tea Party.  

Prior to that, he was Vice President for Field Operations at United Seniors Association (USA), where he developed a nationwide network of grassroots leaders to educate the public and influence governmental policies.  According to Michael Murphy, President of Direct Mail Processors, USA was the only organization, liberal or conservative, which delivered its petitions on issues to members of Congress through its local grassroots leaders.

He served in the Reagan Administration in senior management positions at the U.S. Department of Education, including Director of Interagency Operations and the Secretary’s Regional Representative for a 5-state region, in which he received several special cash awards from different supervisors for outstanding achievements.

Before coming to Washington, D.C., Kelly spent 10 years as Chief of Staff to Texas State Senator Walter Mengden (R-Houston).  He managed the 1976 re-election campaign of Senator Mengden, who received more votes for state senator at that time than anyone else in Texas history.

Kelly has been extremely active in Toastmasters and has won numerous speech contests, including unprecedented championships in speech evaluation in two different Toastmasters districts.  He is the President Emeritus of the National Press Club Toastmasters in Washington, D.C.  During his term as President, that club was ranked #32 out of over 8,000 Toastmasters clubs worldwide. 

History

Melissa Ortiz is senior advisor to the Able Americans Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research. She was Ms. Wheelchair New York, worked at Tea Party Review magazine, and served as a visiting fellow at the Independent Women's Forum, the top woman-oriented conservative think tank. Called “a pro-life advocate for Americans with Disabilities” by the Susan B. Anthony List, she served as commissioner of the Administration on Disabilities at HHS in the Trump administration and was called the administration's “disability czar.”

Mr. Mark Weaver

Board Member

Donna Jackson is director of membership development for Project 21, the national leadership network of African-American conservatives. 

 

She served as deputy controller for the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and worked in recruiting and communications for the successful campaigns of Governor Mike Huckabee, Senator Tim Hutchinson, and Congressman (now Governor) Asa Hutchinson. In the Huckabee administration, she recruited African-American candidates for executive-appointed boards and commissions and helped create job-training programs for community college and the Arkansas Office of Workforce Development. Her articles have appeared in more than 30 news outlets, and she appears frequently on such channels as One America News, Newsmax, PBS, and CNN.

Board Member

Ms. Donna Jackson

Secretary of the Board

Mrs. Melissa Ortiz

A LONG HISTORY OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

THE CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS

Defending America and What It Stands For. 

DOWNLOAD TCC'S "THROUGH THE YEARS"

The Conservative Caucus has been proudly and diligently fighting for our country and our country’s values for half a century.

 

At its height, TCC’s influence extended to chapters in 225 of the country’s 435 congressional districts, with TCC’s weekly program, Conservative Roundtable, carried on 120 cable channels. TCC conferences attracted people from across the country, and TCC media events received coverage in the national news. Following the deaths of the organization’s founder, Howard Phillips, TCC scaled back operations for a while.

 

Today, with the country facing the greatest threat of left-wing political extremism in living memory, the Caucus is committed to building a grassroots network across the nation, and to using all forms of media to get the conservative message out, defending America and the principles this country stands for.

History

THE HISTORY OF TCC

TCC was founded in 1974 by Meldrim Thomson and Howard Phillips. Governor Thomson (R-New Hampshire) was the only sitting governor to support Ronald Reagan for president in 1976. Phillips was one of the founders of William F. Buckley Jr.’s conservative youth group Young Americans for Freedom, served as student body president at Harvard, and was President Nixon’s acting director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (Democrats refused to confirm his nomination).

 

Phillips hosted meetings in every U.S. congressional district to recruit and mobilize grassroots activists. In less than two years, there were state coordinators or contacts in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Regional conferences were conducted in Los Angeles and the Washington, D.C. area, and a national gathering of TCC coordinators and activists from almost all states and congressional districts was held in Atlanta.

 

In 1976, The Conservative Caucus Research, Analysis, and Education Foundation (TCCF), a 501(c)3 entity, was established to supplement the work of TCC. TCCF published the Senate Report analyzing the voting records of all U.S. Senators, along with Congressional Reports in targeted districts.

 

In 1977, TCC formed a Citizen’s Cabinet – a version of what the British call a Shadow Cabinet – to criticize Carter administration officials. The Citizen’s Cabinet members included former Newsweek columnist Henry Hazlitt, Congressman (and future Senator) Steve Symms, and Congressman Ron Paul. TCC helped defeat Postcard Voter Registration, taxpayer funding of election campaigns, the nomination of leftist Ted Sorensen to be director of the CIA, and a Ted Kennedy plan for a takeover of healthcare by the federal bureaucracy. TCC’s National Field Director traveled to crucial states, working to defeat a Constitutional amendment which would have given Washington, D.C. two Senators and voting representation in the House.

 

TCC Chairman Howard Phillips, accompanied by top generals and admirals, visited all 50 states rallying TCC’s membership to help defeat the Jimmy Carter-Leonid Brezhnev SALT II Treaty. Phillips led a fact-finding trip to the Republic of China on Taiwan, accompanied by members of Congress and key conservative leaders. TCC’s documentary, Can Soviet Imperialism Be Halted?, starring top defense and foreign policy experts, was broadcast on TV stations throughout America.

 

In the fight over the Panama Canal Treaty, TCC led the grassroots opposition, with rallies in all 50 states. It’s widely believed that the fight over the treaty kept Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign alive and positioned him to win in 1980. The mass defeat of treaty supporters in 1978-80 gave Republicans control of the Senate for the first time in 38 years.

 

One of those new Senators was Gordon Humphrey, TCC’s New Hampshire state coordinator. Humphrey, who had never held office, defeated three-term Senator Thomas McIntyre; he was easily reelected in 1984, and retired in 1990.

 

TCC helped pass the Kemp-Roth tax cuts, signed into law by President Reagan, which spurred a decade of economic growth. The organization was almost alone in opposing the nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Proving TCC correct, Justice O’Connor in 2003 cast the deciding vote and wrote the majority opinion in the case legalizing illegal discrimination when people practicing discrimination claim they’re doing it for “diversity.”)

 

Chairman Phillips assisted in the founding of Concerned Women for America and of an umbrella group for conservative leaders, the Council for National Policy.

 

TCC helped win the Cold War. The organization was instrumental in the implementation of the Reagan Doctrine, in which the U.S. provided support for freedom fighters while avoiding direct conflict with the Russians. In that effort, he traveled frequently to southern Africa and led a major delegation to meet with anti-Soviet activists in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. TCC organized the effort for global ballistic missile defense, which became the Strategic Defense Initiative (sometimes called “Star Wars”) and stymied the Soviets. After Congressman Larry McDonald and the other passengers on Korean Air Lines Flight 007 were murdered by the Soviets, TCC organized a memorial service at Constitution Hall in Washington with over 4,000 attendees.

 

TCC campaigned at the 1984 Republican National Convention in support of a 10 percent flat tax. A TCC-backed tax reform capped federal income taxes at 28 percent for a time.

 

TCC worked to expose the corruption and extremism of the taxpayer-funded Legal Services Corporation, which was chaired by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

 

TCC campaigned successfully against ratification of the U.N. Genocide Treaty (which was not actually about preventing genocide), helped push Congress to approve the MX Missile and repeal an amendment blocking aid to freedom fighters, and exposed collusion between Fidel Castro’s Communist dictatorship, the Chevron oil company, and Assistant Secretary of State Chester Crocker. Backed by TCC, President Reagan agreed to end compliance with an arms agreement which was beneficial to the Soviet Union, and TCC Chairman Howard Phillips and White House Communications Director Pat Buchanan helped draft President Reagan’s veto message concerning sanctions on South Africa. TCC helped lead the fight against ratification of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, claiming that the Soviet Union would violate the treaty – which, as was later discovered, it did. (Eventually, the U.S, under President Trump, would abrogate the treaty.)

 

With TCC support, Jesse Helms became the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, aided by his chief of staff, TCC Treasurer Dr. James P. Lucier.

 

Together with Congressman Jack Kemp, TCC led an official Congressional Delegation to Central America for meetings with key officials in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica during the attempted Soviet takeover of Central America.

 

TCC also pushed for confirmation of William Rehnquist and Antonio Scalia to the U.S. Supreme Court, and was part of the unsuccessful effort to confirm Robert Bork. TCC was the only conservative organization opposed to the nomination of David Souter – and was proven correct when Justice Souter often joined the Court’s leftwing bloc. With strong TCC support, Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Court.

 

TCC campaigned successfully against the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, and helped block D.C. statehood. The Caucus successfully fought the nomination of Caldwell Butler as chairman of the Legal Services Corporation, and campaigned successfully for a 30 percent cut in the LSC budget. TCC’s Defund the Left campaign successfully pressured the U.S. General Accounting Office to investigate federal grants to extreme leftist organizations.

 

Toward the end of the Cold War, TCC worked to put pressure on the Soviets. Chairman Phillips led a Baltic Liberation Tour, bringing American anti-Communists to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland. While in Europe, the TCC-sponsored group met with Vaclav Klaus, a free market anti-Communist leader in Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic who would later become president of Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic.

 

In the Clinton years, TCC launched a campaign for an impeachment inquiry of the Clintons’ massive corruption, challenged the administration’s transfer of critical technology to Communist China, and helped stop automatic pay raises for Congress. TCC’s campaign against HillaryCare helped upend U.S. politics, playing a key role in overthrowing the Left’s control of Congress. For the first time in 40 years, Republicans won the House.

 

TCC helped block confirmation of Anthony Lake to head the CIA, pushed successfully for withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, organized a delegation that traveled to Panama to protest the turnover of the Panama Canal, and helped secure House passage of a bill repealing a Clinton tax increase that was targeted at senior citizens.

 

Chairman Phillips led a delegation to Taiwan, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Beijing that met with journalists, diplomats, military personnel, and political leaders, including Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-Jeou, who later became President of Taiwan. Backed by TCC, President George W. Bush removed the U.S. signature from the International Criminal Court Treaty, preventing corrupt U.N. officials from hauling American citizens into a kangaroo court. TCC led the fight against the “Continuity of Government” Project, which would have led, in a crisis, to the selection of members of Congress by appointment rather than election. The Caucus pushed successfully against the Social Security Totalization Agreement with Mexico giving U.S. Social Security benefits to illegal aliens, and TCC’s Secure Borders Coalition was instrumental in blocking illegal-alien amnesty.

 

TCC created the Coalition to Block the North American Union, chaired by Howard Phillips, who held news conferences on the border-weakening NAU in Ottawa and New Orleans during Mexico/Canada/U.S. summit meetings. The Caucus fought against the Law of the Sea Treaty, against the return of the Fairness Doctrine (which would have killed conservative talk radio), against the renewed push for illegal alien amnesty, and in favor of the repeal of the death tax, and opposed the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

The Caucus campaigned successfully for House repeal of ObamaCare, which unfortunately failed in the Senate, and for a House bill defunding ObamaCare, Planned Parenthood, and National Public Radio.

 

TCC opposed the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, campaigned for Parental Rights and against racist Critical Race Theory, and pushed for the protection of honest elections. The Caucus took its “Thank You Trump” project on the road, gathering the signatures of tens of thousands of Americans. TCC is working for the enactment of term limits for members of Congress.

 

TCC’s Independent Campaigns included our "Defeat the Biden Senate" that targeted key races in such states as Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

In 2024, we are advocating the impeachment of President Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas and Attorney General Garland, supporting adding language to seal the border in any possible legislation, and any other possible efforts to limit or block the damage President Biden and the left-wing Senate can do in the remaining months of the term. 

We will present to the presidential transition team and to Congress action items to reverse Biden's executive orders to seal the border, to unleash American energy, and to restore Constitutional governance.

We welcome your support as we enter our 50th year of progress. 

  GET STARTED  

Get Involved

READY TO GET INVOLVED?

THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW.

Sign the pledge.

Stand with thousands of other conservative Americans letting our Congress know we want them to stand up for our 1st and 2nd Amendment rights. 

Make a donation.

Make a donation now to help us create organizations in all 435 congressional districts and wherever conservatives can be brought together.

Join our cause. 

Become a member and stay up to date on our progress, gain access to exclusive resources, see our opinions,  and let your voice be heard. 

WHAT WE STAND FOR, WHAT WE FIGHT FOR

What We Stand For

Patriotism – love of our country and of what it stands for, “warts and all”

 

American Exceptionalism – seeing the U.S. as a special place, where our tradition of freedom and opportunity attracts the smartest, most talented, hardest-working people, from around the world

 

Nationalism – putting the concerns and just interests of the American people first

 

Populism – a philosophy that opposes slavery and aristocracy, that sees all people as created equal, that puts the interests of the working-class and small-business-class people ahead of the interests of the privileged and well-connected

 

The Bill of Rights, especially with regard to rights currently under massive threat such as Freedom of Speech, Religious Liberty, the Right to Self-Defense, Freedom from Mass Surveillance, and Freedom from Political Persecution

 

Opposition to Abuse of Power such as that committed recently by federal law enforcement officials, the Intelligence Community, and the President and Attorney General

 

Parents’ Rights, School Choice, and Freedom from Indoctrination in Schools

 

The Family as the most important unit of society

 

Localism – decisions made, whenever possible, by (in this order) individuals and families, neighborhoods and localities, state elected officials, and federal elected officials – not by unelected bureaucrats or international authorities

 

Honest Elections, using the Secret Ballot

 

Nonviolence 

 

Equality for All, not so-called “equity” as a euphemism for bigotry and discrimination, and an end to Identity Politics (racism, sexism, orientationism, etc.)

 

Respect for All, treating all people fairly, without regard to their beliefs, backgrounds, or their circumstances of birth

 

Opposition to Wokeness and other forms of ignorance and authoritarianism

 

The Right to Life

 

Free Trade/Fair Trade, policies that promote free markets while protecting national security and our supply chain

 

Peace Through Strength, with a military sufficiently strong to protect our country and its just interests, and Prudent Noninterventionism (avoiding foolish entanglement in conflicts in other countries)

 

Affordable, Reliable Energy

 

Free Enterprise and Opposition to ‘Crony Capitalism’

 

Fighting Inflation by stopping deficit spending and by opposing policies that hurt economic growth

 

Lower Taxes, Less Bureaucratic Regulation, and a Balanced Budget except in times of war or short-term emergency

 

Term Limits for Members of Congress

 

Real Science, not pseudoscience such as promoted by “green” extremists, “trans” extremists, and authoritarian officials pushing harmful policies in the name of “public health”

 

Being Tough on Crime

 

Legal Immigration, not Open Borders

 

The Rule of Law, with courts following the law as it’s written rather than as judges would like it to be

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