Article from Town Hall by Lindsay Marie.

Generation Z may be the heir to a bankrupt social security system and over $21.6 trillion of debt, but unlike generations before them, they aren’t buying into socialism, and they aren’t kicking the can down the road.  A student army, nine years in the making, descended into state house districts across the United States, knocked on over 1 million doors, and clinched 35 midterm wins for libertarian-leaning candidates as part of a project called “Operation Win at the Door.”

Operation Win at the Door was the brainchild of Young Americans for Liberty (“YAL”) President Cliff Maloney Jr. Originally developed from the Students for Ron Paul movement, YAL is the largest, most active, and fastest-growing pro-liberty organization on college campuseswith over 900 chapters and 300,000 activists nationwide.

Historically, YAL focused on expanding their campus footprint and educating students on the principles of liberty; however, in 2018 Maloney thought it was time for action.  After YAL’s sister organization receivedstatus as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, allowing activists to engage in lobbying and the promotion of candidates, Maloney laid out an ambitious plan to elect 250 principled state legislators by 2022.

First, the plan called for identifying candidates running on liberty-based principles and vetting them via survey. The survey contained 29 questions related to taxes, spending, civil liberties, regulation reform, etc. to determine which candidates supported free minds, free markets, and limited government.  Notably missing from YAL’s selection criteria was party affiliation.  Maloney told me “When principles come first, party is nothing but a vehicle.  Real reform is possible when people are led by more than blind party loyalty.”

Read the entire article at Town Hall.

Image Credit: By David Shankbone (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons