American Majority

American Majority (AM) is a right-wing 501(c)(3) organization that offers training to conservative political candidates and activists. According to the organization's website, it's mission is to "identify and mold the next wave of liberty-minded candidates, grassroots activists and community leaders. AM is headquartered in Purcellville, VA, with additional offices located in Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

American Majority was founded in 2008 as an affiliate of the Sam Adams Alliance, a Tea Party group associated with Eric O'Keefe. According to a 2010 article in AlterNet, 75% of the funding for American Majority came from the Sam Adams Alliance at that time. Founders Drew and Ned Ryun are the sons of former Kansas Republican Representative Jim Ryun, who served in the House of Representatives for 10 years. Drew Ryun was a deputy director at the Republican National Committee, while Ned was a writer in the George W. Bush White House. As of July 2024, Ned Ryun is still formally involved with the organization, serving as AM's CEO.

American Majority Action (AMA) is the 501(c)(4) arm of American Majority, and therefore "can engage in more politically tinged activities."

On its 2020 IRS filing, American Majority claimed to have "conducted training for 3,998 participants."

News and Controversies

Public Watchdog Complaint Accuses AM and AMA of Violating Federal Tax Code, Concealing Donor Information

In 2020, Campaign for Accountability (CfA) filed a complaint accusing American Majority and its advocacy arm, American Majority Action (AMA), "of unlawfully putting more than half its expenses toward political activity and concealing donor information from regulators." The complaint also alleges that Ned Ryun, the organization's founder and CEO, "has engaged for years in inappropriate self-dealing through a complex web of transactions." Campaign for Accountability claimed that AMA spent about 85% of its 2016 expenses on "direct and indirect political campaign activities", violating the federal law that disallows 501(c)(4) nonprofits from "engaging primarily in political activity."

Additionally, CfA alleged that American Majority mislead regulators about the sources of two identical $500,000 donations in 2015 and 2016. While the 2015 donation came from Leonard Leo, the second was attributed to Donors Capital Fund (DCF). CfA alleged that neither Leo nor DCF was the true source of the $500,000 donations.

In 2011, American Majority and American Majority Action created a holding company called AM Action LLC and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the company. AM Action LLC set up a for-profit data firm, Voter Gravity, Inc., which works with conservative campaigns. Voter Gravity is also part of CfA's complaint. As described by CfA's executive director, "Mr. Ryun appears to have built a network of organizations designed to funnel money to his for-profit companies and pay himself a salary. State and federal regulators should not allow Mr. Ryun to take advantage of nonprofit tax laws designed to support organizations that benefit the public, not private individuals."

42 Trainees Elected in Spring 2020 Elections

American Majority claimed to have successfully placed 42 of its trainees into local and state public office in Wisconsin in the Spring 2020 elections. The 68 percent that won include “1 County Executive, 2 Judges, 23 County Board Supervisors, 8 School Board Members, and 8 Municipal Leaders.”>

In a blog post on its website, Wisconsin Executive Director of American Majority Nate Nelson boasts that, since it opened shop in the Badger State in 2010, 194 candidates have won office, demonstrating that “American Majority is helping to ensure that solid conservative candidates have the tools to become successful in their campaigns.”

Training Of Republican Candidates and Operatives Raises Questions Regarding Nonprofit Status

CMD's 2017 expose on the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation included American Majority, as a key component of the right-wing "infrastructure" Bradley was building nationwide.

From the CMD series:

Bradley funds conservative groups that operate a lot like political parties themselves. Bradley has given large grants to a little-known group called American Majority contributing $1.8 million between 2010-2016 (American Majority, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/16), and $220,000 was recommended for Wisconsin for 2016.

American Majority was founded by the sons of Rep. Jim Ryun (R-KS) specifically for the purpose of training people to run for office. “Today’s county commissioner, tomorrow’s congressman. You’ve got to feed the system,” said Ned Ryun (Jim Ryun’s son) at the time. Wisconsin dark money man, Eric O’Keefe, took credit for helping create American Majority while working with his Sam Adams Alliance. In documents listing matching grants, Republican industrialist “Barre Seid” is listed as an anonymous source of additional funds for American Majority, $2.1 million in 2011 alone.

American Majority says on its website that it has trained 38,000 people. The Bradley files describe its electoral activities in Wisconsin: “American Majority’s purpose is to train citizens and grassroots activists in the rules and methods necessary to run a successful political campaign.” “American Majority has trained 3,853 pro-freedom individuals at more than 100 training events. 208 trained candidates have run for state or local office, 181 advanced out of their primaries to the general election. 104 went on to win their elections. These include state legislators, 45 county board supervisors, 27 municipal office holders, 22 school board members and 5 judges.” “In the spring 2014 election American Majority trained New Leaders flipped the Menomonee Falls Village Board and the Kenosha School Board” (American Majority, Grant Proposal Record, 8/19/2014).

In its IRS filings, the group identifies itself as “nonpartisan,” but the institute was set up by Republicans to train Republicans.

Campaign schools have been tried before. In 1986, the National Republican Campaign Committee set up a school to train people for careers as campaign managers, communications directors, finance directors, and other political campaign professionals. They argued that the school offered broad benefits to American society and sought to make the school a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization. A U.S. Tax Court took a look at the situation and told them they could not. A school operating for the private benefit of the Republican Party was not a charity, ruled the court.

CMD talked to former IRS official Marcus Owens about these grants and Bradley’s infrastructure investments.

“In the American Campaign Academy v. Commissioner case, the Tax Court held that an organization that offered educational classes on election law and similar subjects for campaign workers, but which was focused on supporting the candidates of one particular political party, was operated for the private benefit of the political party in question and thus not entitled to tax exempt status under section 501(c)(3),” said Owens.

Tampa Tea Party Rally

At the "Tampa Bay Tax Day Tea Party" rally in April 2011, Ken Mayo of American Majority "encouraged the crowd to get involved in local elections and stop in-party fighting before the 2012 Republican presidential primary." Florida Senator Marco Rubio also spoke at the event attended by an estimated 5,000.

American Majority's Sponsoring of Media Trackers

Main article: Media Trackers

Media Trackers is an investigative non-profit launched in 2011 in Wisconsin. The organization was sponsored by American Majority, to "dig up dirt on the left" rather than continuing to be "on the receiving end of damaging stories developed by liberal groups such as Media Matters and the Center for American Progress."

According to Politico, Media Trackers "has gotten considerable in-state pick-up on quick-hit videos and pieces aimed at what it says are errors, hypocrisy or offensive behavior by labor unions and their Democratic allies." According to Mother Jones, Ryun formed Media Trackers as a "nimble attack blog . . . that could quickly capitalize on the latest missteps by big-government politicians or the "liberal" media -- essentially hard-hitting, opposition-research-style shops that prize scoops, speed, and scandal over policy briefs and press conferences."

But Media Trackers has a history of "mangl[ing] the truth," according to Mother Jones and such media outlets as PolitiFact and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: An "exclusive" that "a labor-backed progressive group had violated Wisconsin state law by handing out free BBQ to Milwaukee residents in exchange for pledges to vote early in a closely fought state Senate recall election . . . turned out to be dead wrong; the DA found no evidence of wrongdoing." In November 2011, "in another splashy post that was quickly amplified by the right-wing blogosphere, Media Trackers' Wisconsin outlet claimed there were 'no privacy protections' for people who signed a recall petition to recall Walker, leaving them open to harassment and abuse. PolitiFact rated the claim 'Mostly False,' and noted that Media Trackers had given no evidence that harassment was taking place." And in March 2012, "soon after the Wisconsin Judicial Commission filed an ethics complaint against conservative state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, Media Trackers published a story claiming four of the commission's nine members had signed Walker recall petitions. In fact, none had."

According to Mother Jones, "After seeing Media Trackers in action, its anonymous donors shelled out enough fresh cash for Ryun to expand into Colorado, Florida, Montana, and Ohio." Indeed, Media Trackers announced its expansion into Colorado and Montana with two similar press releases on May 9, 2012. Media Trackers Florida and Ohio seem to have been started in a slightly earlier wave, with organizational "about" pages on each of their websites dated March 16, 2012.

In 2017 it was revealed that the Bradley Foundation was providing significant funding to Media Trackers.

Shaping Online Content and Discussions

According to George Monbiot, in the 2010 film (Astro)Turf Wars, Taki Oldham secretly recorded a training session organized by American Majority. The trainer, Austin James, was instructing Tea Party members on how to “manipulate the medium” of the Internet, “Here’s what I do. I get on Amazon; I type in “Liberal Books”. I go through and I say “one star, one star, one star”. The flipside is you go to a conservative/ libertarian whatever, go to their products and give them five stars. … This is where your kids get information: Rotten Tomatoes, Flixster. These are places where you can rate movies. So when you type in “Movies on Healthcare”, I don’t want Michael Moore’s to come up, so I always give it bad ratings. I spend about 30 minutes a day, just click, click, click, click. … If there’s a place to comment, a place to rate, a place to share information, you have to do it. That’s how you control the online dialogue and give our ideas a fighting chance.”

Wisconsin 2011 Supreme Court Race

Kenneth P. Vogel of Politico credited the organization with providing "deep-pocketed backing" of groups involved in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in 2011, and grouped them with the Tea Party Express. He noted that American Majority Action, the political arm of AM, funneled money into "local tea party groups" for "get-out-the-vote activities."

Activities

American Majority Action

American Majority Action (AMA), AM's sister organization and 501(c)(4) arm, is listed as a "related tax-exempt organization" on its 2022 IRS 990 form. AMA's primary activity is listed as "mobilizing and get-out-the-vote in support of candidates and issues."

Political Training Programs

As of July 2024, American Majority offers the following training programs:

• New Leaders Campaign Training, "America is in dire need of principles leadership. American Majority's flagship training gives you the practical know=how necessary to go beyond activism to affect policy as an elected official."
• Activist Training, "Learn the best on-the-ground and online organizing basics to accomplish your goals."
• Campaign-In-A-Day, "Team oriented, hands-on simulated campaigns to learn and practice campaigning concepts and analyze what works and what doesn’t work on the campaign trail."
• Campus Training, "Learn about the foundational values that built our nation as well as how to practically approach advocacy and activism both on and off campus."
• Election Integrity Training, "American Majority is pleased to announce a brand new training series on Election Integrity. This training seeks to equip individuals with the tools to be successful in defending voting rights."
• Social Media Training, "Learn the best on-the-ground and online organizing basics to accomplish your goals."

In April 2011, the Wisconsin planned "seven 'Instant Activism' seminars... across the state," the first taking place in New Richmond, Wisconsin on April 9, 2011, attended by State Rep. Dean Knudson (R-Hudson) as well as local American Majority personnel and representatives of other local conservative activist groups. American Majority's Matt Batzel explained, "We do the training in a non-partisan way.... We want to help organizations achieve their political goals. The training sessions have been very well received.”

Brett Farley, executive director of the Oklahoma office, said with regard to the 2011 local Tulsa election, "We intend to play a role in the Tulsa election... I don't think there's going to be anything like this again in our lifetimes." The Oklahoma affiliate claims to have "trained more than 125 candidates last year, including state Sen. Josh Brecheen, R-Olney, and state schools Superintendent Janet Barresi."

Ties to the Bradley Foundation

Between 2010 and 2019, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation gave $2,568,720 to American Majority, with the Bradley Impact Fund contributing $142,000 between 2013 and 2017.

According to a May 2017 report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), "The Bradley has given large grants to a little-known group called American Majority contributing $1.8 million between 2010-2016 (American Majority, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/16), and $220,000 was recommended for Wisconsin for 2016." See the August 2016 grant proposal here.

Bradley Files

In 2017, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), publishers of SourceWatch, launched a series of articles on the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, exposing the inner-workings of one of America's largest right-wing foundations. 56,000 previously undisclosed documents laid bare the Bradley Foundation's highly politicized agenda. CMD detailed Bradley's efforts to map and measure right wing infrastructure nationwide, including by dismantling and defunding unions to impact state elections; bankrolling discredited spin doctor Richard Berman and his many front groups; and more. Find the series here at ExposedbyCMD.org.

Funding

American Majority is not required to disclose its donors. However, the following contributors were identified through an analysis of tax filings:

• Bachman Foundation: $500 (2022)
• Bailey Family Foundation: $5,600 (2011-2020)
• Bradley Impact Fund: $142,000 (2013-2017)
• Deramus Foundation: $96,747 (2010-2020)
• Donors Capital Fund: $6,563,500 (2008-2016)
• DonorsTrust: $1,324,830 (2009-2018)
• Ed Uihlein Family Foundation: $2,660,000 (2015-2021)
• Einhorn Family Foundation: $32,000 (2012-2016)
• Farrell Family Foundation: $10,000 (2021-2022)
• Gero Foundation: $1,000 (2021)
• Glacs Endowment Fund: $3,000 (2012)
• Harry E Bovay Jr Foundation: $1,500 (2022)
• Hayden Foundation: $10,000 (2010-2011)
• Hendry Family Foundation: $6,000 (2020-2021)
• Jobs First Coalition: $187,000 (2014)
• John N. & Kathleen S MacDonough Foundation: $1,000 (2013)
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $2,568,720 (2010-2019)
• Motion Picture Association: $20,000 (2015)
• National Association of Broadcasters: $10,000 (2014)
• National Christian Charitable Foundation: $20,000 (2014-2017)
• National Philanthropic Trust: $91,500 (2017-2020)
• Retail Industry Leaders Association: $125,000 (2014)
• Snider Foundation: $5,000 (2015-2017)
• The John Hicks Family Foundation: $1,000 (2014)
• Thirteen Foundation: $2,114,100 (2012)
• Thomas D Klingenstein Fund: $10,000 (2011)
• Wisconsin Alliance for Reform: $57,051 (2018)

According to a 2010 article in AlterNet, and American Majority President Ned Ryun, 75% of the funding for American Majority came from the Sam Adams Alliance, a Tea Party group associated with Eric O'Keefe. In 2008, the year in which American Majority was founded, 88% of the Sam Adams Alliance's money came from a single donation of $3.7 million.

Core Financials

2022

• Total Revenue: $2,599,964
• Total Expenses: $2,223,107
• Net Assets: $1,263,594

2021

• Total Revenue: $3,348,292
• Total Expenses: $2,559,660
• Net Assets: $886,737

2020

• Total Revenue: $2,369,517
• Total Expenses: $2,398,344
• Net Assets: $98,105

2019

• Total Revenue: $1,724,649
• Total Expenses: $1,725,296
• Net Assets: $126,932

2018

• Total Revenue: $584,024
• Total Expenses: $646,430
• Net Assets: $127,579

2017

• Total Revenue: $1,187,443
• Total Expenses: $1,351,228
• Net Assets: $391,985

2016

• Total Revenue: $1,114,072
• Total Expenses: $1,140,609
• Net Assets: $555,770

2015

• Total Revenue: $1,598,256
• Total Expenses: $1,279,940
• Net Assets: $582,307

2014

• Total Revenue: $945,581
• Total Expenses: $1,154,170
• Net Assets: $263,991

2013

• Total Revenue: $1,209,490
• Total Expenses: $1,393,707
• Net Assets: $459,070

2012

• Total Revenue: $5,221,383
• Total Expenses: $5,366,064
• Net Assets: $757,069

2011

• Total Revenue: $2,957,701
• Total Expenses: $2,499,074
• Net Assets: $902,033

Personnel

Staff

As of July 2024:

• Ned Ryun, Founder and CEO
• Lonny Leitner, Chief of Staff
• Matt Batzel, National Executive Director
• Lauren Farrell, Director of Operations
• Emily Baer, Director of Communications
• Nate Nelson, Wisconsin Executive Director
• Jennifer DeJournett, Minnesota Executive Director
• Dallas Woodhouse, North Carolina Executive Director
• Tracy DuCharme, Arizona Executive Director
• Liz Dickinson, Virginia Executive Director
• Rebecca Wood, Nevada Executive Director
• Dawn Schween, Arizona Field Coordinator
• Jaden Smith, North Carolina Field Coordinator
• Tami Romo, Nevada Field Coordinator

Former Staff

• Courtney Hahn, Virginia District Coordinator
• Andrew Looker, Virginia Intern
• Mike Morrison, Director of Communications
• Nick McIntyre, Colorado Executive Director
• Micah Pearce, American Majority Wisconsin Youth Director
• Kelly Amorin, Chief Financial Officer
• Angela Kelley, Director of Operations
• Victoria Snitsar, Virginia Field Coordinator
• Scott Ellis, Wisconsin Campus Director

Board of Directors

As of July 2024:

• Nate Ryun
• Paul Bonicelli
• Chris Buskirk

Former Directors

• Matt Robbins
• Merrick Carey
• Peter Samuelson, Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer
• Kelly Amorin

Contact Information

American Majority Inc.
P.O. Box 87
Purcellville, VA 20134

Employer Identification Number (EIN): 26-1501154
Phone: (540) 338-1251
Fax: (540) 338-2326
Email: Team@AmericanMajority.org
Website: americanmajority.org
Facebook: American Majority
Twitter: @AM_National
Instagram: am_national
LinkedIn: American Majority

Articles and Resources

IRS Form 990 Filings

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

IRS Tax-Exempt Application

1023 Filing

Related SourceWatch articles

• 501(c)(3)
• American Liberty Alliance
• American Majority Action
• Americans for Limited Government
• Bradley Impact Fund
• Center for American Progress
• Donors Capital Fund
• DonorsTrust
• Drew Ryun
• Ed Uihlein Family Foundation
• Einhorn Family Foundation
• free market
• FreedomWorks
• George Monbiot
• George W. Bush
• Jobs First Coalition
• Leonard Leo
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• Media Matters
• Media Trackers
• Michelle Malkin
• Ned Ryun
• RedState.com
• Sam Adams Alliance
• Smart Girl Politics
• Snider Foundation
• Tea Party
• Tea Party Express

External Articles

• "American Majority offers activist training in at Austin Library on Saturday", A Bluestem Prairie, January 07, 2009.
• "OTR on the Record with Ned Ryun", The Missouri Record, September 21, 2009.