The Koch Network’s main political arm is mounting a national ad campaign supporting Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Americans for Prosperity is not taking the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge’s appointment for granted, even as Senate Republicans remain confident they have the votes to confirm Judge Barrett before Election Day.
“I talk to senators on a consistent basis and every senator I know has a constant spreadsheet that they can pull out of their pocket and look at the number of people from their state calling or emailing or contacting them on a particular issue — they keep track of it, it matters to them,” said AFP President Tim Phillips on a Facebook broadcast boosting Judge Barrett. “So we urge you: Go into the comments section on this link, make your voice heard. Tell them to confirm this really well-qualified judge to the Supreme Court.”
Americans for Prosperity’s ad campaign boosting Judge Barrett is national in scope but focused on 11 states in particular: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.
The Trump-skeptical group’s support for the president’s Supreme Court nominee underscores the appeal of Mr. Trump’s court picks among anti-Trump conservatives.
Casey Mattox, vice president for legal and judicial strategy at AFP, said he hopes Judge Barrett’s confirmation will help keep policymaking decisions away from the purview of the federal judiciary.
“Ultimately, we should be in a place where the court really doesn’t matter that much. Where it’s, as the founders intended, the ’least dangerous branch,’” Mr. Mattox said on the Facebook broadcast with Mr. Phillips. “It’s the branch of our government that simply applies the law to the people in front of it and the people we elect are the ones who are actually the ones making the law and we can hold them accountable.”
AFP was involved in the previous battles to confirm Mr. Trump’s Supreme Court picks and said it reached 1 million supporters for Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s appointment in 2018 through door-knocking, phone-banking, and other advocacy efforts. In 2020, AFP has committed the “full weight of its permanent grassroots infrastructure” to get another justice appointed by Mr. Trump to the Supreme Court.
AFP has created a website, UniteForBarrett.com, for its activists to contact their senators through the conservative advocacy group.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.