New Extremist “Freedom Caucuses” Are Pushing State Governments Right Across US

The ultra-right State Freedom Caucus Network (SFCN) now has at least 15 state affiliates, with new caucuses announced last month in Minnesota and West Virginia.

The first action taken by the Minnesota Freedom Caucus was to file articles of impeachment against two state Democratic officeholders, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Governor Tim Walz.

“Minnesota Republicans could have filed impeachment articles at any time. The numbers were there,” wrote SFCN President Andrew Roth in a recent letter to supporters. “What was missing was organization and discipline. It took a Minnesota Freedom Caucus to turn talk into action.”

The SFCN umbrella group gives the new affiliates in Minnesota and West Virginia, along with other state freedom caucuses — in Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming — a policy playbook with directives and support staff to help move their extreme right-wing agenda forward. Mississippi and Nevada were publicly part of the network in the past, but are no longer listed on the SFCN site.

At least 167 lawmakers are members in the 15 states, according to a Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) review. “Total representation may not be shown as some members are anonymous,” SFCN notes on its website.

The network’s extreme right-wing agenda includes keeping undocumented residents from using state social services, enforcing strict rules on voting that constitute voter suppression, preventing public schools from teaching the history of slavery, systemic racism, and social justice or what the Right labels critical race theory (CRT), and preventing state pensions from investing in funds that promote environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.

Rapid Growth of SCFN

The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) launched SFCN in 2021 and shares leadership and office space with the organization. Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff and one of the founders of the congressional House Freedom Caucus, is a senior partner at CPI and is on the board of SFCN.

For Republicans, freedom caucuses that have emerged in state legislatures in the past few years have played the same obstructionist role as the House Freedom Caucus in Congress, slowing or stopping initiatives by more traditional members of the party through political maneuvering.

In newly available IRS filings, SFCN disclosed $1.73 million in revenue in 2024 and just over $1 million in expenses. In 2023, it reported $1.02 million in revenue and just over $730,000 in expenses.

SFC Foundation, SFCN’s sister organization, reported revenue of $1.86 million and expenses of $1.92 million in 2024. In 2023, the foundation disclosed $1.22 million in revenue and $1.55 million in expenses. SFC Foundation shares office space, staff, and board members with SFCN.

Much of the funding for SFCN is untraceable, but a CMD review of hundreds of IRS filings identified four sources in 2024: the American Federation for Children (established by Trump’s former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos), $25,000; the National Christian Charitable Foundation, $80,000; Renew Massachusetts Coalition Foundation, $100,000; and the Robert S and Star Pepper Foundation, $5,000.

RMC is registered at the same address as SFCN and CPI and, like SFCN, is also led by Andy Roth.

Through a similar analysis of hundreds of IRS filings, CMD has been able to uncover several key sources of funding for the SFC Foundation, including its biggest known contributors: CPI, $1.03 million (2022–23); Consumers’ Research, $200,000 (2022; 2024); the Koch political network’s preferred donor-advised fund DonorsTrust, $240,000 (2024); and Cleta Mitchell’s Foundation for Accountability, Integrity & Research in Elections Fund (FAIR Elections Fund), $300,000 (2023).

Like CPI, Mitchell’s voter suppression group is registered at the same address. (A full list of CMD’s identified sources of funding for both SFCN and the foundation is available on SourceWatch.)

Network State Affiliates

The strongest state freedom caucus is in Wyoming, where the group controls the state house. During this year’s legislative session, caucus members proposed a controversial $40-million budget cut to the University of Wyoming, which sparked funding fights among legislators.

A conference committee that included members of the state Senate, which is not controlled by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, ultimately restored the funding.

But the proposed funding cut would have required the university to use some of its state funds to review its “organizational structure and staffing patterns, identify positions and degree programs that could be eliminated, and recommend opportunities to further restrict any diversity, equity, and inclusion programming.” Under pressure from the state’s House Freedom Caucus, the university had already eliminated its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in 2024.

In Idaho, the freedom caucus is pushing a package of anti-immigrant legislation starting with House Bill 659, which would give local law enforcement the authority to arrest and remove immigrants through a “memorandum of agreement” with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

House Bill 660 would require local law enforcement to check the immigration status of all arrested individuals, and House Bill 592 would similarly require hospitals to ask about the immigration status of those seeking medical care. The bill would not require hospitals to report undocumented patients to ICE. Still, it would require releasing information about the person to the legislature and the governor to determine the cost of uncompensated care for undocumented residents.

All three bills will be subject to hearings and committee votes before moving on to consideration by the full House and Senate.

In Oklahoma, the freedom caucus has introduced a similar package of anti-immigration bills. One of them, Senate Bill 1554, would prohibit “nongovernmental organizations” — which presumably includes churches, schools, and hospitals — from “knowingly or recklessly” providing aid of any sort to “asylum seekers and “illegal immigrants.”

“Any organization that breaks the law would be permanently barred from receiving any state or local funding, and any employee who knowingly participates in or directs a violation of the law would be guilty of a felony,” according to The Frontier.

“Illegal immigration is draining our state’s resources and undermining the opportunities for hardworking Oklahomans,” said Senator Shane Jett, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, in announcing the legislative package. “These bills provide immediate solutions to real problems, from accelerating deportations to stopping the flow of taxpayer dollars to those who are here unlawfully. We’re putting Oklahoma first.”

In South Dakota, the GOP leadership in the House temporarily suspended Freedom Caucus Chair Phil Jensen from its caucus last month after he spoke out of order and accused Democrats of automatically opposing a resolution urging South Dakotans to “seek the Lord Most High for His healing presence and mercy.”

The nonbinding resolution also encouraged people to partake in prayer and Christian fasting during July. It passed in the GOP-controlled House and Senate despite opposition from all five Democrats and 18 Republicans concerned about First Amendment rights. The Freedom Caucus objected to Jensen’s suspension, saying that it “appeared to be an effort to silence people from speaking out on their beliefs.”

The Louisiana legislature is just convening, but last June, the Freedom Caucus posted an alert on X telling drivers that they could use their cars in “self-defense” if they felt threatened by street protestors and not face civil or criminal penalties.

As Big Easy magazine opined, “By framing demonstrations as threats and leaning into the idea that drivers can act on fear, the [Freedom Caucus] is fueling a narrative where protest is treated as provocation — and fear as justification for violence.”

In Maryland, the Freedom Caucus wants voters in state and local elections to show proof of citizenship. The caucus justifies the need for this by pointing to the arrest of Iowa school superintendent Ian Roberts, an illegal immigrant who was registered to vote in Maryland for years but doesn’t appear to have ever actually voted there.

In Georgia, a Freedom Caucus member introduced a bill in the Senate that would preempt local governments (such as the city of Savannah) from requiring that a car be locked if there’s a gun inside.

In introducing the legislation, Senator Colton Moore said: “We are the supreme law-making authority in this state, not some liberal municipality.”

Moore is one of many candidates running in the crowded congressional special election primary on March 10 to replace former U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA-14), who stepped down in January.

The state senator, whose state legislative district sits within Greene’s congressional district, was arrested in January 2025 when he tried to force his way onto the state house floor just before Republican Governor Brian Kemp’s annual State of the State address.

“In every state where they appear, freedom caucuses cause headaches for the so-called establishment Republicans in charge,” according to a piece in Governing.

David Armiak contributed research to this report.