Round One For the RedState Gathering

I hope you have gotten your tickets to the RedState Gathering, because with this post today I suspect we are going to see them start going quickly. Backers of the various candidates want to see their preferred pick and with Atlanta being an easy place to get to, well . . . I hope you got your ticket. You can register at this link.

This morning I want to tell you about the first wave of 2016 Presidential candidates who are speaking at the RedState Gathering. They will not be the only speakers. We have some really awesome candidates and elected officials coming. But I promised to release the names of the 2016 candidates first.

While the complete list of speakers isn’t being released at this time, as of this morning, I can announce that the RedState Gathering will get to hear from Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina and Jeb Bush. We have also extended invitations to Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, [mc_name name=’Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’P000603′ ], and Marco Rubio but have not yet confirmed their attendance.

There are a few special surprise guests heading to the Gathering as well, but mentioning them right now would ruin the fun.

The RedState Gathering started in 2009 in Atlanta and we’ve returned to that city for the 2015 Gathering. The event has always been a very grassroots event. The speakers cover their costs, which helps keep your cost low. They take questions, which will happen this year. But most of all, you get to see and hear from them up close.

This year, the RedState Gathering will kick off on the evening of August 6, 2015, with a very special party that will feature a discussion with Joe Scarborough. The Presidential candidates will take center stage on August 7th. There will be even more on August 8th.

When we did the first RedState Gathering in 2009, we heard from some relatively unknown candidates: [mc_name name=’Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001098′ ], [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ], and Nikki Haley to name a few. This year there will be few unknowns, but a lot of people the RedState grassroots have helped over the years. I am asking the 2016 candidates to do one thing, though, which we rarely do.

Though I am loathe to ever suggest a topic for speakers, I have asked each of the 2016 candidates to focus on one thing: if they become President, their re-election would be in 2020. I’d like them to present their 2020 vision for what the nation should look like after their first four years. We do not need Obama bashing. We need to know what they would do differently and how they would shape the nation. They should be elected not on their ability to bash the opposition, but their ability to sell a vision for the future that resonances with the base and the nation as a whole. We do not, right now, need a 50 point plan. We need to know what they see as the areas that need fixing and how their fixes will reshape the country.

Please join Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, and me in Atlanta on August 6th to August 9th at the Intercontinental Buckhead Hotel for the 2015 RedState Gathering.

More exciting announcements to come soon.