Conservatives Leave 2024 With a Long List of Wins
The times are a-changing! We have a lot to celebrate as we begin 2025. After four tough years of the Biden administration, the American people came out in droves and voted for a more conservative agenda. All across the country, Americans rejected the extremist ideology of the Democrats in favor of common-sense policies. The incoming Trump administration working with Republican majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate will provide a real opportunity to repair the damage that the Left has inflicted on every sector of the government. But we did not lose every battle in 2024 — let’s look at some of our hard-fought wins over the last year.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) started in 2024 with only two months of experience in that role. Without previously being in leadership, he was met with several challenges: a razor-thin Republican majority in the House, a Democrat majority in the Senate, and an incapacitated Democrat President in the White House. Being the only conservative, he was the lone voice at the “Four Corners” negotiations with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). While he had the majority of Republicans behind him, a small minority of dissenters could upend his agenda. Throughout the year, he accumulated a list of wins for the American people all while campaigning coast to coast to keep the House in Republican control.
Eagle Forum weighed in on 24 bills that moved in the House in 2024. These bills aimed to repeal regulations, stop the “wokeness” of the Left, secure our border, stop Chinese Communist Party infiltration, especially from communist China, and preserve America’s sovereignty. House Republicans chipped away at the Biden regulations to restrict our ability to choose the dishwashers, gas stoves, clothes washers, light bulbs, and gasoline-powered cars that are best for our families. The House acted to protect our nation by passing strong border security policies and limiting China’s control over American lands, manufacturing, and technologies. We successfully lobbied Congress to ensure the Department of Defense isn’t funding gender transition surgeries or permitting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology in the military. Additionally, the House voted to ensure the White House does not enter into any agreement with the World Health Organization on pandemic preparedness without first getting the constitutionally required advice and consent from the U.S. Senate.
One of the biggest highlights of the year was the House’s work to protect women and girls. Biden’s Department of Education gutted the protections of Title IX that for over 50 years has given girls access to education and the ability to play in female sports. The new regulations expanded the definition of “sex” to include “gender identity” thus allowing boys to compete against girls and declared the use of “incorrect pronouns” to be gender discrimination. While the bill to overturn this rule passed in the House, it never received a vote in the Senate. President-elect Trump has promised to restore Title IX to its original intent.
A major part of the Speaker’s job is to make tough decisions on the strategy to be used to pass must-pass legislation. We haven’t always agreed with Leadership’s decisions. Regardless of our differing opinions on strategy, Speaker Johnson has continuously welcomed Eagle Forum and other conservative groups to the discussion table. We have been able to elevate grassroots voices directly to the Speaker — an opportunity that previous Speakers have been reluctant to provide. To ensure a seamless transition into the Trump administration, we echoed President-elect Trump’s endorsement of Speaker Johnson’s re-election to the top position of the House. You can read our statement here.
With the Senate having a Democrat majority, we had to adopt a more defensive posture against Majority Leader Schumer’s agenda. Unlike the actions in the House, Senate Democrats seemed to declare a war on women. They attempted to pass bills to mandate abortion until birth with no limits, require young women to register for the selective service, and remove all health and safety regulations from birth control, in-vitro fertilization (IVF), and abortion. Thankfully, these dangerous ideas all died in the House of Representatives.
Earlier this year, the Senate tried to muddy the House efforts on the Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2), the conservative border security bill. Minority Leader McConnell tapped Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) to negotiate a compromise bill with Democrats. The resulting bill would have permitted more illegal immigration and limited the President’s ability to close the border. Eagle Forum joined with like-minded immigration groups to successfully thwart this bill before it even made it to a floor vote.
In 2025, not only will we have a Republican majority in the Senate, but we will also have a new Majority Leader. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who held the top Republican position in the Senate for nine years, has stepped down to make way for new leadership. In November, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) was elected by his colleagues to assume the role of Senate Majority Leader in the 119th Congress. He has promised to implement the Trump agenda and confirm Trump’s Cabinet as swiftly as possible.
The wins we experienced would not have been possible without your support! Any time we asked for your help — whether through contacting your elected officials, giving financially, sharing important information, or attending events — you responded to our call and made your voices heard. We deeply appreciate all our happy warriors! We will publish the full End-of-the-Year Report in the February Eagle Forum Report that will detail these legislative victories as well as our Eagle Forum PAC successes. Make sure you are a dues-paying member of Eagle Forum to receive our monthly mailing as well as our Legislative Alerts and Capitol Hill updates. Join or renew your membership today! Thank you for your continued support and may God continue to bless the United States of America.
