After a fraught campaign cycle, The Heritage Foundation is proudly showing its allegiance to Donald Trump.
The conservative think tank, which was on the outs with Team Trump over Project 2025 backlash not long ago, is spending $1 million to ensure Republicans give blanket approval to the president-elect’s cabinet nominees. It’s launching a grassroots petition, running digital ads backing some of Trump’s most controversial nominees and mounting pressure campaigns in senators’ home states.
So far, those senators aren’t giving it much thought.
“I don’t know about the Heritage campaign,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is one of Heritage’s targets, told NOTUS. “The National Heritage trails?”
Sen. Rick Scott, a Trump ally who is not on Heritage’s hit list, told NOTUS that the campaign could only help the confirmation process.
“It’s always good to have someone supporting what you’re trying to get done,” Scott said. “I’m sure Trump supports it.”
But inside Trumpworld, one operative who believes the relationship between Trump and Heritage is largely repaired doubted the campaign would move the needle on Senate confirmations.
“I’m not sure he’ll even notice it,” the operative said, referring to Trump. “The senators know this is the party of Donald J. Trump, and that’s more powerful.”
Trump, the operative added, is at his “all-time high in popularity and that means the grassroots are with him every step of the way.”
In an interview with NOTUS, Ryan Walker, the executive vice president of Heritage Action, described the effort as a “soft campaign” targeting senators who’ve not explicitly supported Trump’s nominees.
“We are urging the American people to be civically engaged with their senators and call them and urge them to confirm these folks in a timely fashion,” Walker said.
The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America, the foundation’s advocacy arm, announced the “public education and advocacy campaign” last month. The organization said it would “target the home states of key senators who could make or break the confirmation process” for Trump’s nominees. Its list includes Sens. Thom Tillis, Susan Collins and Murkowski.
Ironically, three hours after Heritage announced its campaign, Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration as Trump’s attorney general nominee after a handful of senators — ones Heritage is now targeting — made it clear he couldn’t win their votes.
A key component of the campaign features a petition for constituents to sign that will be presented to senators in January. The petition urges a rapid confirmation of all of Trump’s nominees. Walker said tens of thousands have already signed.
“That can be very helpful for senators to understand that there is a base of support in their state to do exactly what we’re urging them to do,” Walker said.
As Axios reported last week, the first part of the campaign included digital ads that launched last week in the home states of Sen. John Thune, the incoming majority leader; outgoing leader and Trump antagonist Mitch McConnell; perpetual swing vote Collins and Murkowski; and Sen. Todd Young, who never endorsed Trump during the campaign.
“I don’t pay attention to any of that,” Young told NOTUS. “Naw, I don’t have any thoughts about it.”
Collins, who had heard about the ads, was similarly dismissive.
“They’re obviously welcome to do whatever they want to do. It’s not gonna have an influence on me,” Collins said, adding that Heritage should spend the $1 million “wherever they want to.”
On Dec. 6, more than two weeks after announcing the campaign, The Heritage Foundation dropped an ad separate from Action’s campaign as momentum seemed to build against secretary of defense pick Pete Hegseth. The one-minute ad, which focused on Hegseth’s military background, added Heritage’s public voice to pressure from grassroots conservatives on GOP senators dubious of Hegseth. Much of the ire was directed at Sen. Joni Ernst, a military veteran and victim of sexual assault.
Ernst has since said she would support Hegseth through the nomination process.
New waves of the campaign will roll out in the coming weeks. In the new year, Heritage will expand to ads that will appear before shows or movies on services like Roku TV. Walker also said they’re likely to run a TV ad emphasizing that “there is support from the American people, there’s a mandate to President Trump and we’ve got to get the job done.”
More digital ads, similar to the Hegseth spot, are being prepared by the foundation side.
When NOTUS asked Sen. Chuck Grassley, Ernst’s fellow Iowan, about the Heritage campaign that appeared to target Ernst, he dodged the question and defended Ernst.
“Senator Ernst is doing exactly what the Constitution requires: to vet and confirm,” Grassley said. “She knows the results of last election, and she’s going to do everything she can to make sure that Trump doesn’t fail.”
When NOTUS asked Indiana Sen. Mike Braun about the campaign, he suggested being hounded by constituents could be enough to sway GOP senators on the fence about a nominee.
“That would probably push them over the edge,” Braun said. “That’s all the way this place works.”
The relationship between Heritage and Trump came under the microscope over the summer, when the president-elect forcefully distanced himself from Project 2025, a transition plan that Democrats repeatedly used against Trump. Since Trump won, the relationship has thawed. He has picked several nominees with ties to Heritage to be part of his administration, including Russell Vought.
The tension extended to the relationship between Trump and Heritage President Kevin Roberts, particularly after Roberts showed support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during the infant stages of the presidential primary. But there are signs that it has also relaxed, with Roberts recently appearing at an event at Mar-a-Lago.
As for whether the campaign on Trump’s cabinet is part of Heritage’s moves to gain more points with the incoming administration, one former senior staffer attributed it to standard grassroots activism.
“I don’t think this is Kevin begging to get back to Mar-a-Lago. This is just how things work,” the former staffer said. “I do not get the sense that he’s shriveled up in the corner saying, ‘Please, please, please like me again.’”
It’s just not entirely clear if the campaign is having the desired effect.
“Wow, they want to spend their money on that?” Tillis asked when NOTUS asked him about the pressure campaign last week. Tillis, who had heard about the ads, added that the last time Trump was elected, he voted to confirm 100% of his nominees.
“Is there a way to vote 110%?” he joked.
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Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.