Republicans and conservative activists have made much progress over the years combating the progressive agenda, from major Supreme Court decisions to nationwide boycotts. But a new report is shedding light on the “shadow government” promoting “woke” policies in red states, threatening to undo what conservatives have achieved. According to the State Leadership Initiative (SLI), professional associations and non-government organizations (NGOs) have been quietly shaping policy at the state level, injecting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), environmental, social, and governance (ESG), and LGBT initiatives into state-level regulations and standards.
SLI identified organizations like the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST), the National Association of State Medicaid Directors (NAMD), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), and the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) as some of the chief culprits in running the progressive “shadow government” at the state level, although SLI noted that the organizations named “are just examples — there are dozens more organizations representing what effectively amounts to a left-wing shadow government guiding states in an increasingly leftist direction.”
“There is no function of state (and often local) government that is too obscure to warrant a national association for that function,” wrote SLI founder and president Noah Wall. He continued, “Virtually all these associations (which are often standard-setting organizations for best practices and serve as de facto regulators and lobbyists for their departments) are ideologically captured by the left. But in virtually all cases, there is no ideologically neutral alternative.” Wall added, “What that means is that the organizations that set standards and regulations and draft legislation for critical state government functions are tools of the left. That translates to left-wing policies becoming the norm across state governments, regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans govern the state.”
NAST has maintained a DEI committee, which has been responsible for implementing DEI principles in hiring and state treasury operations. NAMD established standards in 2022 on “equity,” demanding that state Medicaid policies rectify “health disparities” by prioritizing groups based on race. In 2023, AASHTO developed a program to address “race, equity, diversity, and inclusion” by basing transportation planning decisions on race and DEI. SLI noted that AASHTO also promotes “race-driven government contracting, which is how you end up with most states in America — even red states — maintaining race-based mandates for transportation contracts.” The NAIC has controversially opposed auto insurance ratings that include sex as a factor, claiming that the practice is “unfairly discriminatory.” NASBE has targeted schools with “gender-inclusive” curricula, pronoun mandates, and pro-transgenderism policies in the context of school sports and bathrooms.
“These groups are part of a broader ecosystem, backed by billionaire-funded NGOs and progressive think tanks that amplify their reach,” SLI warned in its report. The conservative-led organization continued, “Grant funding, often tied to these progressive policy requirements, pressures red state agencies to comply, even when it contradicts the conservative mandates of their constituents. This network operates with sophistication, embedding itself in state bureaucracies and eroding the federalist principles that protect state sovereignty.”
SLI’s report examined the 23 largest associations of the sort and found that each of them promoted some form of DEI, ESG, or LGBT initiatives. “It is an interesting question as to why the left has near-universally captured these organizations, and answering it points to the solution. There are two primary reasons. First, bureaucratic entities tend to veer left naturally, and this has been a subject of empirical study going back decades,” Wall wrote. Second, he said, “The left pays far more attention to process than those on the right — who may find it mind-numbingly tedious — but with decades of work, you can end up capturing an entire system and have it reflect your values, as the left has done.” [Emphasis original.] Wall added, “The solution is crystal clear: Treat these organizations like the political entities the left assumes them to be. Lobby them, get involved, pay attention, and work to make them better.”
In comments to The Washington Stand, FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter said, “Anyone familiar with routine yard work knows pulling up weeds is not a single task, it is ongoing. A weed will pop up in the same place you pulled one up by the roots the previous week.” He continued, “The same goes for the woke agenda, rooting it out with executive orders must be done, but that’s not the end of the story. Congress must get involved, and federal agencies responsible for doling out grants to these NGOs must get involved, voters must get involved to ensure the anti-woke movement continues, and so on.”
“This report serves as a lesson for conservatives; one election does not change a country. Sure, it helps, it can even change the trajectory of the country — as I think is the case with the second Trump administration,” Carpenter observed. “But if we truly want to return America to greatness it will require a commitment to keep pulling up those woke weeds every day, for years, and even decades.”
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told The Washington Stand, “This is a frightening and at the same time completely unsurprising report. Frightening because it shows to what lengths the Left will go to thwart the will of the voters and undermine democracy. Progressives just think they are motivated by higher values and have nothing but scorn for average Americans.” He continued, “Unsurprising for the same reasons. Because of their sense of superiority — not based on better outcomes for their policies, on the contrary — progressives think they have the right to impose their policies on everyone else.”
Gonzalez further observed, “It is also unsurprising that the national organizations behind this scheme brand themselves as nonpartisan. This is, after all, how NPR and PBS also brand themselves. Lastly, this report also shows the truth of the adage by the late and dearly missed Heritage Founder Ed Feulner that ‘in Washington there are no permanent victories or permanent defeats.’ We must be forever vigilant.”
SLI has announced that a second, more in-depth report on the subject will be published in the coming months.
AUTHOR
S.A. McCarthy
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
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