New Vance-friendly group launching to push GOP toward younger hardliners

A new Republican group thinks their party is too old, too moderate and too weak. So they’re launching an effort to replace the outgoing generation of politicians with a younger crop of America First-aligned lawmakers.

American Ascent launches Monday with an eye toward building a bench of young conservatives that could flip some of the dozens of congressional seats that will be held by aging lawmakers in 2028.

The 501(c)(4) will be run by Ryan Neuhaus, the former Heritage Foundation chief of staff. Its partners include an array of new-right allies of Vice President JD Vance, including Turning Point Action, which has already endorsed Vance for president in 2028, as well as the conservative think tank Claremont Institute and the watchdog group Oversight Project.

A PAC that has backed challenges to other GOP incumbents led by Andy Surabian, a longtime aide to both Vance and Donald Trump Jr., will also partner closely with the effort.

The effort was in the works before last week’s GOP washout. Still, its leaders say those results show Republicans must double down rather than shrink back from an aggressive populist agenda on issues from immigration to the economy.

“For too long, the Republican Party has relied on rerunning candidates over and over again,” Neuhaus said. “The American people told us pretty clearly that they want to see younger, more energetic politicians leading in America, representing them. They want to feel closely connected to them, and American Ascent is going to accomplish that.”

When asked if their recruits would primary incumbent Republicans, Neuhaus demurred. “That’s up to them,” he said, referring to the candidates. “But I’ll prepare any young and able and competent American to run for higher office.”

Neuhaus is the former Heritage Foundation chief of staff whoshouldered the blame forKevin Roberts’ controversial video defending Tucker Carlson last year, after the podcaster hosted a friendly interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

He pointed to the 42-year-old Vance, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Rep.-elect Jace Yarbrough (R-Texas) as Republicans who are “inspirational to the base.”

The organization will scout young conservative leaders and enroll them in a leadership training program called the “Fellowship for American Ascent.”

The group has also compiled data suggesting the best opportunities to flip House, Senate and governors’ seats in 2028, based on candidate age, whether they plan to seek reelection, fundraising history and other factors.

While the new organization is not affiliated with Vance — Neuhaus was adamant it is not a “Vance political project” — the effort parallels the new-right conservatism championed by the vice president.

The American Leadership PAC, led by Surabian, a key political adviser to Vance, will operate in tandem with American Ascent, Neuhaus said. The PAC helped defeat anti-redistricting Republicans in Indiana’s statehouse earlier this year. Surabian’s PAC will focus on open seats in safe red districts, a person familiar with the group’s plans said. Surabian did not return a request for comment.

The effort is being bankrolled by an initial $12 million by GOP megadonor Thomas Klingenstein, the septuagenarian chair of the Claremont Institute’s board of directors and a major donor to Surabian’s American Leadership PAC as well as Trump-aligned Club for Growth and the socially conservative American Principles Project. Klingenstein has long argued that a “cold civil war” is underway in the U.S. between conservatives and their opponents.

“America needs statesmen who understand we are fighting against an enemy that wants to destroy us,” Klingenstein said in a statement to POLITICO. “Our statesmen must understand in such a situation reaching across the aisle is a sucker’s game. American Ascent shall find such leaders and then develop them.”

This new initiative’s organizers want to see a Republican Party aligned to the conservatism that Vance, a close ally of the Claremont Institute, has come to represent. They argue that today’s elected Republicans are largely out of touch with the economic needs of young Americans, and like Vance, blame the Iran war for much of the GOP’s current political problems.

“[Tuesday] was a cataclysmic loss for Republicans,” said Noah Wall, whose State Leadership Initiative will help scout future candidates as part of the effort. “If we want a resurgence, you need strong, bold leaders. … Quite literally the biggest opportunity in history of the Republican Party of the modern era is what we’re going to be going through over the next two years.”

They also argue that mass deportations are a key motivator for young voters, not a deterrent.

“Republicans lost on the economy. They did not lose on the immigration agenda, which voters time and time again say is the number one best issue for Republicans to run on,” said Bradley Devlin, the former Daily Signal editor who will lead American Ascent’s communications, pointing to exit polling that showed immigration as a major motivator for Republicans.

Republicans face a serious problem with young voters and Latino voters, who both shifted hard to the left in last week’s midterms. Voters ages 18-29 backed Democrats 70% to 28% — a 33-point shift from 2024, per the New York Times’ data. A September POLITICO Poll found that nearly one-third of non-MAGA Republicans said that Trump’s deportation push has been “too aggressive.”

Vance’s office did not return a request for comment.

“We watched a complete rebuke of the type of Republicans that were in Congress. Old ideas are for old people,” said Jackson Hines, the nephew and former bodyman of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who joins the organization as vice president.

The key to resolving the GOP’s malaise, supporters say, is recruiting strong, young candidates who are true believers on populist economics and a staunch America First foreign policy.

“[Young voters] liked what was promised on the campaign trail in 2024 — no new wars, mass deportation, end of corruption in government — and they still want those things,” said Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, who will partner with Klingenstein’s new group. “And so we need to have people committed to doing them in positions of power.”