In August of 2013, The National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee was launched to convince Dr. Ben Carson to run for President of the United States.
We collected and delivered more than 550,000 petitions and clamorings to Dr. Carson.
At first he laughed our efforts off, but with the help of more than 200,000 supporters and more than 36,000 volunteers, as well as our paid staff whose numbers rose to more than 100 during the height of the campaign, eventually he heard our call and announced his candidacy in May of last year.
That’s when we changed our name to The 2016 Committee.
Unfortunately, Ben Carson pulled out of the race in March, stating:
“You know, there’s a lot of people who love me, they just won’t vote for me.”
The 2016 Committee and the Victory Project
We, and his hundreds of thousands of supporters were disappointed, but feel proud that we pulled off the second successful true draft effort in the history of the United States.
And though we began this effort with only one goal: electing Dr. Ben Carson as the next President of the United States, when Donald Trump became the GOP nominee, we made a commitment to keeping Hillary Clinton from occupying the White House. That’s why we launched what we called, The Victory Project.
The goal of the Victory Project was to propel Donald Trump into the White House by appealing to African American voters. In the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election, we strategically placed black radio ads in five key swing states: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina. In these five states, Trump outperformed Romney in the African American vote by a combined 7.8%!
In the five states where we placed black radio ads, Trump outperformed Romney in the African American vote by a combined 7.8%.
Stars & Stripes Forever and Our 2020 Strategy
Upon Trump's win in the presidential election, we saw an opportunity to cement his victory and conservative agenda. So we've renamed the 2016 Committee to Stars and Stripes Forever, harkening back to the values espoused by John Philip Sousa, grandfather to our National Chairman, John Philip Sousa IV. We're now gearing up for a long-term, sustained campaign to promote conservative candidates for the Senate.
The time is right for Conservatives to take back our Country.
The Democratic Party of today is not your parent's Democratic Party. It doesn’t bear any resemblance to the party of John Kennedy or Tip O’Neil. Today the mainstream of the Democratic Party prefers socialism to free enterprise.
And frankly, their policies are not helping Black Americans improve their lives. On the contrary, their handouts just keep generation after generation dependent on the government for survival. And the Democrats know they need to keep it that way if they are going to win elections.
Year after year (2019 included), Democrats spend hundreds of millions of dollars every election cycle on advertising that claims conservative Republicans are evil … that we want to repeal anti-lynching laws — or ship Hispanic Americans to some other country … or that we are racists who want to keep minorities down.
But Republicans continue to ignore them at election time and instead spend millions trying to persuade a tiny percent of the electorate who are undecided, and spend absolutely nothing trying to add more voters to their coalition.
That's why we're launching our 2020 strategy where we'll continue our work to expose the Liberal's lies and communicate openly, honestly, and often with the Black community.
It is imperative that we continue to work to win over Black voters. Our success is the key to making America great again and crafting a long-lasting, Republican majority in America.
But because Republicans have ignored this trend to the extent that Black voters' support of Democrats has increased election after election beginning in 1968, we won't win them over that quickly or easily. It could take years to dispel the Democrats lies and prove conclusively to Black Americans that conservative Republicans are their true friend and want to see them prosper, and liberal Democrats are their real enemy and want to keep them on the Black Plantation.
We've made progress over the last two years as the Black approval rating for President Trump increased from 8% in 2016 to 35% in 2018.
We must continue to reach out to Black Americans and break the Democrats' stronghold over them.
Remember, the Democrats depend on receiving 90% of the African American vote. If it falls to 70%, they lose.
You can bet they know this and George Soros and his far left organizations will be pouring money into the 2020 Elections and fighting tooth and nail against President Trump and his Conservative allies.
The battle for America continues…
Will you join us? With your help we will be able to enact a truly conservative agenda for America—a return to constitutional government and the rule of law.
