Task Force designed to stop far-right government takeover outlined in ultra conservative manifesto

Washington, DC — Today, after U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA-02) announced the formation of a new working group designed to stop Project 2025, a far-right roadmap for a future Presidential administration to seize “supreme” powers and radically undermine reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, racial justice, free speech, and other democratic institutions and freedoms. The Stop Project 2025 Task Force will serve as a central hub for pro-democracy Members of Congress, civil society, and affected communities to coordinate on examining, highlighting, preempting, and counteracting this rightwing plot to undermine democracy.

As The Guardian reported, the Task Force comes as groups like Democracy Forward are “preparing counter-measures including litigation to disrupt any effort to implement the radical plans” and defend our democracy from right-wing attacks.

“From dismantling quality education to cutting wages for workers to compromising our national security and making it harder for Americans to make ends meet, Project 2025 is the far-right’s playbook that threatens the wellbeing of the American people and undermines our democratic values and institutions,” said  Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, in support of the Task Force. “Project 2025 seeks to thwart the ability of the government to work for all people and presents threats to the basic protections millions of people rely on every day. We’re grateful for the leadership of Representatives Huffman and Raskin in creating the Stop Project 2025 Task force to bring awareness to these threats and commit to confronting them.”

“Project 2025 is more than an idea, it’s a dystopian plot that’s already in motion to dismantle our democratic institutions, abolish checks and balances, chip away at church-state separation, and impose a far-right agenda that infringes on basic liberties and violates public will. This is an unprecedented embrace of extremism, fascism, and religious nationalism, orchestrated by the radical right and its dark money backers. We need a coordinated strategy to save America and stop this coup before it’s too late,” said Rep. Huffman. “Through this Task Force, leaders across the ideological spectrum and experts in every policy area that’s under attack are uniting to protect democracy as we know it. Donald Trump and those behind Project 2025 are ready to turn America into a theocratic regime if they get the chance – and we are going to be ready to stop them.” 

Members of the Task Force represent the diversity of the Democratic Caucus and are leaders on many of the issues currently under attack by Project 2025. Founding members joining Rep. Huffman are Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Ted Lieu (CA-36), Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Judy Chu (CA-28), Equality Caucus and Labor Caucus Chair Mark Pocan (WI-02), Pro-Choice Caucus Co-Chair Diana DeGette (CO-01), Co-Chair of the Congressional Freethought Caucus and Ranking Member of Oversight Jamie Raskin (MD-08), and Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (WA-07).

Outside of Democracy F0rward the new Task Force is supported by many partner organizations, including leading civil society groups dedicated to the defense of democracy, good government, reproductive freedom, gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, workers rights, and racial, economic, environmental, and social justice. Click here to see what supporters are saying. 

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Additional Background on Project 2025

The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank funded by shady dark money interests, has been plotting Project 2025, an unprecedented scheme to help the next conservative president quickly enact the most radical agenda in the history of the country. The plan is laying the groundwork for a new president to seize power and enact broad changes that are deeply unpopular with the American people. This includes vastly expanding the ability of the president to purge civil servants who are not sufficiently loyal to this extreme right-wing agenda.

Within the first 180 days of taking office, the plan calls for attacks on reproductive rights, the rule of law, and the expansion of the cruel and inhumane immigration policies from the Trump administration. Project 2025 is a comprehensive plan that would touch every department of the federal government and fundamentally reshape the lives of the American people. The Project’s four-pronged strategy that includes:

  • A laundry list of extreme policies to be enacted across the federal government;  
  • A blueprint for how to use existing authority – or expand the power of the presidency – to implement right-wing policy proposals;
  • A database of right-wing ideologues who wholeheartedly endorse this power grab and far-right policies;
  • Training for staff so they can more efficiently enact this extreme agenda.

While Project 2025 is being run out of the Heritage Foundation, its advisors include former Trump White House aides like Stephen Miller, and more than half the groups supporting the effort have received $21.5 million in funding from Leonard Leo’s dark money network.