John Tillman is a conservative activist who runs the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI), a libertarian

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

, and the American Culture Project, which seeks to advance Republican Party interests.

Career

Tillman held roles with

Americans for Limited Government Americans for Limited Government (ALG) is a conservative 501(c)(4) non-profit organization "dedicated to restoring the constitutional, limited powers of government at the federal, state, and local level... by fighting to reduce the size and sco ...

and the

Sam Adams Alliance Sam Adams Alliance (SAM) was a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 2006 and disbanded in 2012. The president was Eric O'Keefe. SAM launched three wiki-style websites: Judgepedia, Ballotpedia, and Su ...

. He serves on the board of the

National Taxpayers Union The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) is a fiscally conservative taxpayer advocacy organization and taxpayers union in the United States, founded in 1977 by James Dale Davidson. NTU says that it is the oldest taxpayer advocacy organization in t ...

. In 2011, Tillman won the

Roe Award The Roe Award is an annual award given by the State Policy Network that "pays tribute to those in the state public policy movement whose achievements have greatly advanced the free market philosophy" and "recognizes leadership, innovation and acco ...

from the

State Policy Network The State Policy Network (SPN) is a nonprofit organization that serves as a network for conservative and libertarian think tanks focusing on state-level policy in the United States. The network serves as a public policy clearinghouse and advi ...

. The annual award "pays tribute to those in the state public policy movement whose achievements have greatly advanced the free market philosophy." He also runs the Franklin News Foundation, which obtained funding during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

to push for opposition to COVID-19 public health restrictions. Tillman sued the State of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, alleging that it took on more debt than permissible under the state constitution, and seeking to halt payments on municipal debt. In 2020, a state appeals court allowed the lawsuit to proceed. Tillman runs the American Culture Project, founded in 2019. The group is ostensibly a non-political non-profit and is organized as such for tax and funding disclosure purposes, but internal emails showed that the organization sought to advance the Republican Party's prospects in the 2022 elections. The organization runs Facebook pages that present themselves as non-partisan local news and community-building hubs, but which are intended to promote content that advance Republican Party interests. In communications with wealthy donors, the organization specifically states that it seeks to help the Republican Party in the 2022 elections. By 2021, the organization ran Facebook pages in Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia, as well as sought to expand to Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tillman, John Activists from Illinois Living people People from Fremont, Michigan Wayne State University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)