The interior of the North Carolina Capitol Building in Raleigh, North Carolina. | Wikimedia Commons/Riokausa
The interior of the North Carolina Capitol Building in Raleigh, North Carolina. | Wikimedia Commons/Riokausa
John Warren, a Greenville businessman, has launched South Carolina's Conservative Future, an organization designed to hold career politicians responsible for their actions.
The group is targeting the South Carolina Legislature, which proposes to spend an additional nearly $2 billion in the new proposed budget and not cut taxes. Included in additional spending are tens of millions of dollars in what Warren's group calls "corporate welfare packages," including for some out-of-state firms, according to FITSNews. Will Folks, founding editor of the news outlet, said that the current state budget includes $1.8 billion in new funding that he calls a "pork-a-palooza" without any refunds for state taxpayers.
"Career politicians love nothing more than hiding the truth about how they spend our money," Warren said in an email to supporters. "That is about to change."
Warren, who calls himself honorary chairman of the group, told viewers of the internet site South Carolina's Conservative Future that a goal is recruiting and training conservative candidates who will "provide accountability to taxpayers."
Warren's new organization "is focused on advancing freedom, economic opportunity, and accountability at the state level through policy advocacy, empowering grassroots leaders to support reforms and direct electoral engagement," he wrote on the website.
He was successful in endorsing candidates in the 2020 election cycle, when 13 of the 15 candidates he supported won. Warren said on the group's website that he was able to defeat four Democratic state legislators through a combination of mass mailings, door knocks, radio advertising, phone calls and 1.2 million social media impressions.
"We need to send more conservative, courageous and capable Republicans to Columbia to fight for taxpayers and get results," Warren wrote.
Warren vowed that the group he leads will endorse legislative and statewide candidates in the Republican primaries, which will take place in June 2022.
He said online that the first step in bringing conservative change to state government is not only winning elections, but in finding quality people willing to run for office.
In a Facebook post, Warren said he was "disgusted" watching politicians in Washington waste tax dollars and is seeing the same thing happen in South Carolina.
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