PAY DIRT

Paul Ryan’s Political Machine Dumps $7M Into New Nonprofit

Spurned by virtually everyone in Washington, the former House speaker is creating a forum for his own thoroughly pre-Trump brand of conservatism.

Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.

Paul Ryan spent the last two years of his speakership insisting that he remained a man devoted to conservatrive principles even as he became more and more immersed in the stench of Trumpism. Few believed him. But now that he’s out of office and back home in Wisconsin, he’s looking for ways to elevate ideas considered central to the GOP brand before President Trump’s takeover.

Spurned by virtually everyone in Washington, Ryan is creating a forum for his own thoroughly pre-Trump brand of conservatism through the establishment of a nonprofit financed by millions of dollars left over from Ryan’s formidable political apparatus. 

In the past few months, Ryan’s campaign committee, his leadership PAC, and his joint fundraising committee have transferred $7.2 million to an entity called the American Idea Foundation. The nascent nonprofit, led by Ryan’s former chief of staff, is the vehicle the Wisconsin politico plans to use to continue doing policy work after his departure from electoral politics.

PAY DIRT has learned that the foundation will be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, indicating that it plans to steer clear of political contests. But it has not yet applied for tax-exempt status, and will officially launch later this year.

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The group is expected to focus on issues aligned with Ryan’s vision of conservative policy, particularly on issues such as education and economic mobility. Based in Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, American Ideas plans to partner with academics and others to craft and promote its policy work.

The decision to go with a c3 structure instead of a 501(c)(4), which would allow for direct politicking and legislative lobbying, as well as the massive sums being transferred from his political entities, suggest a reticence to jump back into the Beltway fray that besieged Ryan’s tenure as speaker.

It also mirrors the work of other influential ideological fellow travelers, whose more libertarian-minded vision for the Republican Party is very much on the outs in the Trump era in Washington. 

Most notably, the network of organizations spearheaded by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch has also recently signaled moves toward more educational and philanthropic activities, and away from direct political advocacy on behalf of a GOP increasingly inseparable from Trump’s brand of populist nationalism.

As Ryan told a crowd in Janesville a few months ago, “There is a whole cottage industry in Washington of people who make a lot of money getting you mad, getting you upset.”

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