ABOUT THE 1848 PROJECT

The 1848 Project is the premier organization for turning conservative ideas into action in the Badger State. Founded by Wisconsin’s former lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, the 1848 Project recruits, trains and does continuing education for the candidates who become Wisconsin’s conservative policy leaders.

The project started out with a simple mission: Listen, Learn, Lead. Our goal was to listen to people across the state, learn about the issues they faced every day, and then put forward sound policy proposals to improve our future. Over the course of our initial phase, we consulted experts and scholars and considered the experiences of other states alongside the dozens of town halls and roundtables held with Wisconsinites. The result was the Forward Agenda, a conservative policy path for Wisconsin’s future.

Today, Rebecca Kleefisch, with the expertise of Executive Director Bonnie Lee, is expanding the 1848 Project’s impact with a focus on equipping conservative candidates for policy leadership.

As former candidates, Kleefisch and Lee know that conservatives who are united behind a single, common purpose can have great momentum. They also know that people are energized when they understand why leaders advance policies. Convinced that conservative principles are good, sound, economically empowering, and life-affirming, the organization will equip candidates with those principles through training sessions, policy papers, videos, social media, and online forums with state and local leaders.

As we look to the future, we are confident in Wisconsin because we have a boundless belief in her people. And we’ll continue to listen to their stories and put what we learn into action as together we lead our state into the next decade. As our flag proclaims: Forward.