I did not attend CPAC 2023 this year for various reasons, mostly time and cost. Compared to Florida, Washington D.C. is prohibitively expensive, with fewer food and lodging options. Also, after two years of a popular, and well-received (not to mention warmer) event, I wasn’t interested in wasting energy, money, and time dealing with the cold, crime-ridden, and freedom-restricted swamp that is D.C. From attendee and news reports, my instincts were right, and apparently, others felt the same. The Washington Examiner unpacks the bad news for the Conservative Political Action Conference.
According to reports, approximately 4,000 tickets were sold. It was estimated that attendance was a little over 2,000, which is almost half that did not attend the event. According to the Washington Examiner, attendees were also underwhelmed.
Losing Fox News as a high-profile sponsor must have hurt. While the network is no longer an arbiter of the grassroots, they do still carry the media juice that helps coalesce others in media within its orbit. According to the Palm Beach Post, Club for Growth didn’t even bother to invite former President Donald Trump, choosing instead to spotlight what it deemed, “new talent.”
No matter how much Schlapp likes to posit CPAC as “grassroots,” the event, and the Schlapps, are as establishment as it gets. This push to get it back to D.C. was only confirmation of this, and the young conservatives and activists want no part of it. The sexual assault allegations against Matt Schlapp are only more icing on this cake.
Boom, Boom, and Boom. In unpacking factors one and two, it is factor number three—the competitor events—which will ultimately be the nail that seals CPAC’s coffin. Turning Point USA’s Amfest 2022 happened in December, and I was in attendance. RedState had a booth on media row, and the atmosphere had the electricity and energy of past CPACs. Electricity and energy that was sorely lacking at CPAC 2023. In my Amfest 2022 coverage, I noted:
The ReAwaken America tour, headlined by Lt. Colonel and former Trump National Security Advisor Michael J. Flynn, also occurred in January, before CPAC. No doubt, this also contributed to siphoning the conference crowd that CPAC normally draws. Even the Leftist magazine Rolling Stone noted the reduction in attendance, despite Trump’s presence. When they interviewed CPAC’s vice chairman, he pretended to be nonplussed.
Yeah, even he smells what he’s shoveling. Along with its organizational woes, CPAC needs to redefine who it is and fast, as it is already being overshadowed by more true grassroots, and essentially more relevant conservative events. Washington, D.C. has never been a popular place in the conservative imagination, and under the Biden presidency and the radical deep state apparatus, it is even less so. As my colleague Duke pointed out, aside from the history and political necessity, it’s not a place anyone wants to be any time of the year. Most conservatives view the government and many blue states as hostile and inherently suspect. CPAC’s insistence on continually aligning to the model that props up and promotes D.C. only marginalizes the grassroots conservative activists, and everyday citizens across the U.S. who are making a difference in their local communities, and thereby nationally. These other conferences are welcoming them with open arms (and less expensive environs), and they are leaning into that embrace. With high inflation and resources in short supply, conservatives no longer wish to pour their time, energy, and money into any organization that does not support them or the American values they wish to see restored and upheld. |
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