When the American Principles Project was founded in 2009, our nation was entering a period of transition. Barack Obama had just been sworn into office as the 44th President of the United States. The conservative movement was still recovering from a series of difficult election defeats, with the Tea Party uprising still about a year away. The political Right was in need of fresh ideas.

APP founder and Princeton University Professor Robert P. George speaks at an event in Washington

It was at this time that noted conservative intellectual Prof. Robert George and veteran political strategist Frank Cannon joined together to establish APP. Its mission was to bring back into the spotlight issues critical to human dignity that had long been undervalued and ignored by both political parties: issues such as developing an economic plan focused on empowering working Americans, reforming our education system to better preserve the innocence of our children, and advancing the debate surrounding immigration policy.

APP’s president Frank Cannon (center) with Jeff Bell (right) and John D. Mueller

The goal across each area would be to connect the best academic thinking on each topic with a sound political strategy geared toward changing policy. However, although APP itself may have been a new arrival to the political scene, the ideas behind it had been developing for some time.

APP’s president Frank Cannon, then Chief of Staff for Rep. Duncan Hunter, meets with a conservative leader