Charles Koch launches marketing firm in major overhaul of political empire
WASHINGTON — Billionaire industrialist Charles Koch is launching a new, for-profit communications agency to push his free-market agenda as his political empire gears up to shape policy in a Republican-controlled Washington and wage battles in state legislatures next month on issues from collective bargaining to occupational licensing.
The new firm, In Pursuit Of, will handle marketing and communications for the network of conservative advocacy groups funded Koch and hundreds of like-minded donors. The agency also may take on paying clients, in the mold of another Koch venture, a data giant called i360, which has amassed hundreds of bits of information about every American voter in an effort to shape elections.
The new agency will be run by James Davis, who also is a top official in the Koch’s umbrella organization, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce. In an interview, Davis said the firm will help “drive ideas and shape debate in pursuit of a free and open society.”
The firm is part of the major Koch reorganization that began earlier this fall with the merging of several Koch conservative advocacy organizations under the network’s largest grassroots group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP). Under that change, three groups that aim to spread Koch’s message to millennials, veterans and Latinos, have become part of AFP.
David said Wednesday that 81 positions, out of 1,700 across the network, will be eliminated as a result of the consolidation.
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Davis and other network leaders have cast the changes as helping the organization to run more efficiently, rather than a retreat from Koch’s agenda. “We’re always looking at how we can do things better,” Davis said.
The Koch advocacy groups have chapters in 36 states, and Davis said the network is considering expanding into North Dakota, a Republican stronghold where Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is up for re-election in 2018.
Although Koch refused to back President-elect Donald Trump’s candidacy, his network is poised to have big sway in his administration and with the Republican-controlled Congress. Vice President-elect Mike Pence forged close ties with the Kochs and people who have attended Koch gatherings or donated to Koch groups are helping to raise money for Trump’s inauguration or serving in his transition.
Marc Short, a longtime Pence aide who oversaw Freedom Partners, is among the transition staff. A consultant to a veteran-focused Koch group also has provided advice to the Trump transition.
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Davis said network officials see “lots of opportunities” to work with Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress on an array of issues, such as overhauling the tax code, repealing the Affordable Care Act, reducing federal regulations and overhauling the Department of Veterans Affairs to give veterans medical options outside the system.
He said the Koch advocacy groups plan to “aggressively engage” in state legislative sessions that open in January and will push their agenda in states such as Kentucky, Iowa, Alaska, North Carolina and Missouri, where the network supported Republican Eric Greitens' successful bid for governor this year.
The Koch network has been pushing Missouri officials to enact a “right-to-work” law, which forbids union contracts that require dues from workers. Missouri’s outgoing Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon has vetoed right-to-work legislation.
Davis said the network also plans to lobby on measures dealing with education, criminal justice and occupational licensing. Koch has worked to dismantle state and local rules that require licenses for businesses.
Charles Koch's network plans to take aim at job-licensing laws