ProPublica wrote recently about a powerful organization of far-right conservatives that carefully avoids public scrutiny. They are wealthy, powerful, and networked, thanks to the Federalist Society and its mastermind Leonard Leo. Leo is the guy who picked judges for Trump and engineered the selection of Brett Kanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Please read this article about Teneo, an organization with long tentacles and a goal of crushing liberal ideas, ideas that are central to our democracy.
A few tidbits:
ProPublica and Documented have obtained more than 50 hours of internal Teneo videos and hundreds of pages of documents that reveal the organization’s ambitious agenda, influential membership and burgeoning clout. We have also interviewed Teneo members and people familiar with the group’s activities. The videos, documents and interviews provide an unfiltered look at the lens through which the group views the power of the left — and how it plans to combat it.
In response to questions for this story, Leo said in a statement: “Teneo’s young membership proves that the conservative movement is poised to be even more talented, driven, and successful in the future. This is a group that knows how to build winning teams.”
The records show Teneo’s members have included a host of prominent names from the conservative vanguard, including such elected officials as U.S. Sens. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Missouri’s Josh Hawley, a co-founder of the group. Other members have included Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, now the fourth-ranking House Republican, as well as Nebraska’s attorney general and Virginia’s solicitor general. Three senior aides to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, are members. Another is the federal judge who struck down a Biden administration mask mandate. The heads of the Republican Attorneys General Association, Republican State Leadership Committee and Turning Point USA — all key cogs in the world of national conservative politics — have been listed as Teneo members…
Teneo co-founder Evan Baehr, a tech entrepreneur and veteran of conservative activism, said in a 2019 video for new members that Teneo had “many, many, many dozens” of members working in the Trump administration, including in the White House, State Department, Justice Department and Pentagon. “They’re everywhere….”
Soon after Leo took an interest in Teneo, the group’s finances soared. Annual revenue reached$2.3 million in 2020 and nearly $5 million in 2021, according to tax records. In 2021, the bulk of Teneo’s income — more than $3 million — came from one source: DonorsTrust, a clearinghouse for conservative, libertarian and other charitable gifts that masks the original source of the money. In 2020, the Leo-run group that received the Chicago business owner’s $1.6 billion donation gave $41 million to DonorsTrust, which had $1.5 billion in assets as of 2021.
Teneo’s other funders have included marquee conservative donors: hedge fund investor Paul Singer, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, the Charles Koch Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, and the DeVos family, according to Baehr.
As the group’s finances improved, its videos became much more professionally produced, and its website underwent a dramatic upgrade from previous iterations. All of this was part of what Baehr called “Teneo 2.0,” a major leap forward for the group, driven in part by Leo’s guidance and involvement….
Many of the connections happen at Teneo’s annual retreat, which brings together hundreds of members and their spouses, plus allies including politicians like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and DeSantis as well as business leaders and prominent academics. Speakers at past Teneo retreats have included luminaries spanning politics, culture, business and the law: New York Times columnist David Brooks, federal judge Trevor McFadden, Blackwater founder Erik Prince, “Woke, Inc.” author and 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, former Trump cabinet official and 2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, ultrawealthy donors and activists Dick and Betsy DeVos, and Chick-fil-A board chair Dan Cathy.
These are the only posts today. Read them. Think about it. What did you learn? What should we do? None of us is a billionaire. How can we save our democracy?
Organize. Be informed. Vote.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“winning teams” (greed & ego)….that’s the biggest problem. It’s no longer about what is good for the greater society.
We really have to get out of the habit of using the word Conservative when we’re really talking about Old World Anti-Democratic Fascists.
Agreed
Yes!
These groups are “conservative” only in the sense of returning the social order to the state it held prior to 1776.
Yup
Citizens United has facilitated almost limitless corruption in our political system. Check out this link to see how Leo, personally, has siphoned millions from these “nonprofits” to amass a personal fortune. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/01/dark-money-leonard-leo-judicial-activism-00084864
Mr. Leo’s tentacles run deep. He is part of the NAPA group. Check this out: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/04/the-next-america
Here’s another link that describes in great detail how right wing extremists are rigging our political system to ultimately squelch democracy. https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/10/teneo/
Diane and All: If you read the ProPublica article, you will remember the reference to the Teneo group being the “Silicon Valley” of political influence. After the recent bank failing, we can all agree with the metaphor. . . as we recognize the greedy rot at the center of Silicon Valley Banking.
However, you will also remember this wishful scenario: *”‘Imagine a group of four people sitting at the Harvard Club for lunch in midtown Manhattan,’ he said in a 2020 Teneo video: ‘a billionaire hedge funder,’ ‘a film producer,’ ‘a Harvard professor’ and ‘a New York Times writer.'”
“”The billionaire says: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if middle school kids had free access to sex-change therapy paid for by the federal government?’ Baehr continued.'” “‘Well, the filmmaker says, ‘I’d love to do a documentary on that; it will be a major motion film.’ The Harvard professor says, ‘We can do studies on that to say that’s absolutely biologically sound and safe.’ And the New York Times person says, ‘I’ll profile people who feel trapped in the wrong gender.’”
“After a single lunch, Baehr concluded,elite liberals can ‘put different kinds of capital together’ and ‘go out into the world’ and ‘basically wreck shop.'”
Now use your imagination to replace Baehr’s (false) example of “government paid . . . kids . . . access to sex-change therapy” WITH censorship and his reference to “elite liberals” with “elite fascists” and you have an accurate picture of what they are actually doing. It’s Pure Projection. CBK
To understand what ALEC, the Walton Family Foundation, the Federalist Society and its mastermind Leonard Leo advocate and support, all we have to do is know what liberal beliefs are in the United States. The opposite of liberal thinking is THEM.
“Liberalism believes in equality and individual liberty. supporting private property and individual rights. supporting the idea of limited constitutional government. recognising the importance of related values such as pluralism, toleration, autonomy, bodily integrity and consent. The Democratic Party is primarily social liberal, supporting redistribution but sceptical of increasing the power of the state, emphasising the link between equality and liberty.”
The opposite of liberalism is autocracy, theocracy, and fascism where most of the wealth is held by the few who decide what the many are allowed to think and how we live our lives. When THEY say choice, they mean the choices that will make for the rest of us.
yes
“Organize. Be informed. Vote.”
Yes.
Thank you for sharing this information.