The loose confederation of Tea Party and other conservative organizers, the most consistently active grassroots movement in decades, believes that President Trump is making good on his campaign promises despite media and congressional opposition.
In its inaugural survey of 4,081 conservative grassroots leaders, the Convention of States Project found that 67 percent gave Trump an “A” for keeping his promises to them on issues they care about, from cutting regulation to repealing Obamacare.
But the media and Congress, including Republicans, took a hit in the survey. On the media, 79 percent gave it an “F” when “it comes to covering the new administration,” and 41 percent gave Republican leaders a “C” for working with the new president.
The survey is significant because those polled are among the most engaged conservative activists in the nation but are typically ignored or undervalued in polls and the media, according to Mark Meckler, a Tea Party co-founder and head of the Convention of States, a group advocating for a constitutional convention to restrict federal overreach.
“Why that matters is because they always vote, and they influence everyone around them, intentionally,” he told the Washington Examiner. “These people are the driving force in conservative American politics, and our organization works specifically to give them a voice. These people are the core of the self-governance movement in America,” added Meckler, also the head of Citizens for Self-Governance.
Meckler, who is building up a polling unit to keep tabs on the 4,081 outside-the-Beltway influentials, said the group is one of the few that nailed the 2016 election results and will be key to the midterm and 2020 presidential elections.
“If you want to know the future direction of American politics, you have to know what they are thinking. These people are part of the reason the press was so wrong about the last election,” he said, adding, “they have a disproportionate impact on both public opinion and the results of elections.”
In addition to gauging their reaction to Trump’s first 50 days, the survey also asked the leaders to list their top issues. Ranked in importance, they were:
— Appointing constitutionalists to the courts.
— Repealing and replacing Obamacare.
— Making the military stronger.
— Tax reform.
— Rolling back former President Obama’s regulatory executive orders.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
