The Governing Board of Take Back Our Republic Action (www.takebackaction.org) voted unanimously, with support from the non-voting President and Treasurer, to close the doors of the organization after 10 successful years of operation. In an era where most non-profits shut down in the first two years, team members and supporters are celebrating a strong decade of accomplishments highlighted by our groundbreaking victory at the FEC forcing Facebook to run disclaimers on political ads. 

​

Personnel at Take Back Our Republic Action have been increasingly sharing their work time with the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition (www.wisconsinffc.com), a 501(c)(3) that focuses on voter education efforts. While both groups share conservative roots, interest in Take Back’s conservative public policy focus has been eclipsed by enthusiasm for Wisconsin Faith and Freedom’s conservative education and organizing efforts. In addition, as the team and Board discussed achievable bill passage in our 2-year session plan, it was clear that conservative policy makers are increasingly coalescing around further advancing issues like school choice that are advocated by both groups. However, continuing to have team members split time with www.takebackaction.org would not be efficient, since issues exclusive to TBOR Action, like Final Five, simply are not in the cards for 2025 or 2026. 

​

A quick look back on the last decade of our work is cause for great pride in what the Take Back team has accomplished. After pulling off two of the most significant political upsets of my career in 2014 - Dave Brat’s stunning victory over Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Virginia and Larry Stutts’ win over former Appropriations Chair Roger Bedford in Alabama - I turned my focus to establishing Take Back Our Republic Action. From 2014 through 2021, I dedicated myself entirely to the work of this 501(c)(4) and its related 501(c)(3). Below is a reflection on 18 MVPs who helped us succeed, 7 biggest accomplishments, 2 disappointments, and a single regret that still stands out after all of our successes.

​

7 Biggest TBOR Action Accomplishments

Starting with the accomplishments:

 

1. FEC Win
   We achieved a groundbreaking victory at the Federal Election Commission (FEC), successfully outlawing Facebook from running political ads without revealing who was funding the ads, one of two steps required to stop the undue influence of Facebook (the other was outlawing Zuckerbucks) and other similar attempts to influence critical election operations.
    

2. Exposing ActBlue
   We exposed the illicit practice of ActBlue processing billions of dollars in unverified contributions to liberal causes. This led to President Trump tweeting about our investigation, thanks to the outstanding research by Matt Braynard, our Data Guru MVP. Additionally, the first of the “Tri-Federal Affairs MVPs” Chuck Cunningham (formerly with the Christian Coalition and NRA) helped us secure 83 co-sponsors for the measure, while the other two (Diane Cullo and Beatrice Torralba Shakal) made sure that one of the three of us, and/or our lit, made it to every Congressional office in just three days to secure 83 co-sponsors.
    

3. Biden-UPenn
   We were able to call out Joe Biden in a 2021 Newsweek piece, two years prior to the scandal becoming a national story, and sent a letter demanding the Pennsylvania Attorney General investigate the controversial China-UPenn deal, particularly before Biden appointed the University of Pennsylvania president as Ambassador to Germany, China’s second-largest economic rival. Blair Fitzgibbons, our Media Guru, played a key role in this victory (see also Accomplishment #7).
    

4. Ballot Referenda Wins
   Our efforts on ballot referenda were successful, including a win that allowed voters to continue electing their State School Board members. We also helped pass a critical ballot referendum led by our Southern Youth MVP, Ashley Sellers, who also gave one of the most impressive impromptu TV interviews on CBS.
    

5. Conservation Efforts
   Our team successfully advocated for common-sense conservation measures, such as flood mitigation, and converted an entire coastal governing board on the issue. This victory included rejecting liberal environmental policies that would have increased pollution by outsourcing production and costing American jobs. Lars Wiechmann, our Most Overqualified MVP, who is truly, at the very least, Pudner’s peer nationally, and yet was willing to take on a staff role for us to win this and other major wins.
    

6. VA & OH Redistricting
   We supported fair redistricting proposals in Virginia and Ohio. Our work in Ohio, supported by the Republican legislature and voters, and in Virginia, which prevented Democrats from gerrymandering, helped secure the Republican takeover of the House in 2021.
    

7. Major Media Exposure
   Blair Fitzgibbons was instrumental in securing hundreds of media placements for TBOR Action. Our most significant media hit was appearing with Sean Hannity, who has a 28 million-strong audience, after the 2020 election. Credit also goes to Peter Schweizer, our Advisory Board Chair, who provided invaluable policy insights and pulled together the groundbreaking research on Hunter Biden’s corrupt deals as well as ActBlue. Peter was also always willing to privately tell me when he strongly disagreed with me on issues such as the following two disappointments.

-

2 Disappointments

-

1. Final-Five Voting System
   We were unable to garner widespread conservative support to implement Final-Five to prevent left-wing donors from recruiting conservative spoiler candidates to siphon votes from the GOP nominee in Wisconsin. We were surprised this fight became so contentious among fellow Republicans, and disappointed regarding the number of Republican sponsors of an RCV ban that lost either their primaries and general elections - reducing the Republican Senate Majority to one Senator.
    

2. Citizens United
   While we foresaw that liberal billionaires would outspend conservatives following the Citizens United ruling, limiting money in politics was a non-starter. However, after being outspent dramatically for years, figures like Elon Musk now entering the political fray give conservatives a better chance of balancing the spending power of liberal billionaires like George Soros.

​

1 Regret

​

1. Michigan Redistricting
   Our single regret is investing in a measure to change how redistricting is done in Michigan. We netted ZERO dollars on this effort, but did run ads that helped the measure pass, and ultimately it proved to be a mistake as it did cost Michigan Republican seats and our belief that it would be balanced by a Democratic-controlled state passing a similar measure was misplaced. To make matters worse, we then watched in horror as a follow-up deceptive measure passed in Michigan, further skewing the numbers in favor of Democrats by eliminating Photo Voter ID requirements. We deeply regret our involvement in this effort now that we know the results.
    

 

The 18 All-Time Take Back Our Republic Action MVP Team
 

So many people contributed to our successes, and TBOR Action Chair Charles Hellwig and I wanted to recognize the following. These individuals have been crucial in keeping the mission alive and driving progress forward, as we tried to limit our recognition below to those who are both still in regular contact with us and put in multiple years to help as opposed to some who gave incredible efforts during one-year projects. Because most of our teams have worked political campaigns, normal stays with an organization are a couple of years between campaign opportunities - but we start with our all-time MVP who has been the backbone of the organization for all 10 years:
 

• Anna Carter – MVP
  By far the MVP of the TBOR Action decade is Anna Carter. Coming from a major accounting firm, Anna expertly managed an incredibly complex operation, overseeing not only TBOR Action’s 501(c)(4), but also the two 501(c)(3)s (Take Back Our Republic and the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition) and our LLC campaign efforts.
   

• Ashley Sellers – National Youth MVP
  Ashley played a pivotal role in our referendum victories (see Accomplishment #4 above).

 

• Beatrice Torralba Shakal – Tri-Federal Affairs MVP
  Beatrice was instrumental in the efforts to expose ActBlue (see Accomplishment #2 above).

 

• Blair Fitzgibbons – Nationwide Impact MVP
  Blair’s media efforts helped us secure national coverage (see Accomplishments #4 and #7 above).

 

• Camille Solberg – Coalition Builder MVP
  Camille’s work on the RNC Catholic Task Force in 2004 began a long partnership, and she has served on every board I’ve been part of over the last 20 years, including TBOR Action and the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition.

 

• Chuck Cunningham – Tri-Federal Affairs MVP
  Chuck’s work in securing 83 co-sponsors for legislation to stop ActBlue was critical (see Accomplishment #2 above).

 

• Diane Cullo – Tri-Federal Affairs MVP
  Diane’s organizational efforts were key in pushing through important political measures before and after she served in the Trump Administration (see Accomplishment #2 above).

 

• Jack Anderson – Midwest Youth MVP
  Jack, a recent college student leader, became a key player in Wisconsin, joining us in several high-profile appearances, helping organize statewide efforts, and eventually serving as Statewide CR Vice Chair.

 

• Josh Naponiello – Most Improved
  We tease Josh about transforming from a below-average TBOR Action intern in 2016 (just as I was for Senator Bob Kasten in the 1980s) to a powerhouse by 2020, securing major speeches and legislative committee appearances for me.

 

• Kathy Hayden – Best Field Operation
  My peers who ran the largest political convention turnout operations in the history of the world (13,000 to 17,000 delegates paying $35 each to attend) alongside me in the 1990s were key to the 2024 election. Chris LaCivita (Trump), Phil Cox, Aaron Liebowitz and Dave Rexrode (Elon Musk’s PAC), but the best field person ever was Kathy Hayden - who was invaluable as our Board Member for years to get me around RNC meetings. Sitting with her at an RNC meeting in 2015, I asked if she could get my Comms guy into an exclusive Texas meeting and she did - charming the gatekeeper to let none other than Ric Grenell attend.

 

• LaNell Morold – Most Impressive Resume
  While LaNell was serving as Deputy ED we almost closed a couple of donations that could have kept her with us long-term, and if so I believe we’d have 50 employees today and continued another 50 years. I’ve never been as efficient as when we were lucky enough to have the first woman President of the largest title company who worked with a well known sports organization and was able to talk freely with the first Trump administration at that time.

 

• Lars Wiechmann – Most Overqualified MVP
  Lars’s qualifications and expertise were pivotal in driving our conservation and legislative efforts - and he was certainly overqualified to be a staffer for me - but maybe I will do the same for him one day! (see Accomplishment #5 above)

 

• Matt Braynard – Data Guru MVP
  Matt’s research on ActBlue was groundbreaking (see Accomplishment #2 above).

 

• Noel Wilkins – Most Versatile MVP
  Noel’s adaptability made him invaluable to the TBOR Action team in various roles. In a small organization, his ability to cut and edit incredible video and audio one day, to knock on doors another day, to manage-hire-fire many other canvassers other days and probably sweep the floors and take out the trash if he thought that was the most important task that needed to be covered.

 

• Perry O. Hooper Jr. – VIP Connector
  Perry’s unmatched network opened doors to important political figures nationwide.

 

• Peter Schweizer – Largest Policy Impact MVP
  Peter’s policy insights and critiques have had a massive impact on our direction, particularly in media appearances (see Accomplishment #7 above) and giving us honest opposition on issues such as our two disappointments.

 

• Shaaya Ellis – MVP in a Boston-NY Meeting
  Shaaya called his move “to the quaintness of Auburn, the privilege of a lifetime,” but we learned we couldn’t send him to a meeting alone for one reason … 20-something New Yorkers do not drive cars. But in a meeting with a donor or investor in Boston or New York, no one was more valuable as he seemed to know money like Tim Draper. Same in DC, where White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany walked past Pudner and Ellis one day, and U-turned to yell, “Shaaya!” and the two started talking political communications strategies. Shaaya was nice enough to tell McEnany who Pudner was.
   

• Tori Sorg – Most Gracious MVP
  Imagine you give up a 9-year job to come work for an organization (our former sister organization the 501c3 TBOR) and after working two months of miracles for your new organization, TWO major funders unexpectedly stop funding, and you are let go? My guess is 99% of people would then block my phone number – so to see just the opposite – no complaints but rather continuing to help turn me from a terrible fundraiser to an average fundraiser and even invite me as a VIP to a major event across the country to help bolster TBOR Action was so far beyond the call.

 

Thank you to these 18 MVPs and the hundreds of others who have supported our state chapters and contributed in countless ways over the past decade. I remember staying at the home of an initial donor during our first year, who admitted that most of our early donors were doubtful we could survive even a year. 

​

To have achieved so much in a decade has been truly rewarding, and I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has helped or taken an interest in our cause. As the current team turns their focus to www.wisconsinffc.com, thank you all for this wonderful decade.