John Tate is a life-long political and public policy activist.  He started working the polls at age 8 and managed his first campaign at age 14. 

He is the founder and President of JFT Consulting, Inc., a political non-profit consulting firm specializing in political strategy and management, fundraising, strategic planning, and grassroots lobbying.  He’s worked on hundreds of campaigns at the local, state and federal levels in more than 40 states.

John has over 40 years of political experience in fundraising, direct mail, political strategy, and grassroots activism.  A long-time convention operative, John has worked conventions for races from County Supervisor to U.S. Senate, including Oliver North for Senate, where he also served as Chairman of the Convention Rules Committee, and Mike Farris for Lt. Governor (the two largest assembled political conventions in American history). 

He has worked conventions in more than 40 states, including for presidential races like Pat Robertson’s 1988 run.  John was the Campaign Manager for the Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign and served as National Political Director for the 2008 Ron Paul Presidential Campaign.

Previously, John served as President of Campaign for Liberty, a 501(c)4 grassroots lobbying organization that he founded and grew out of the 2008 Ron Paul Presidential Campaign.

After its founding in June of 2008, Campaign for Liberty grew to over 700,000 active members nationwide, with 23 state chapters and an annual budget of over $8 million.

Prior to joining Campaign for Liberty, John served as a Vice President at Leadership Institute and spent 14 years at the National Right to Work Committee, including five years as Vice President.

In 1996, John was the GOP nominee for Congress in Virginia’s 2nd District.

John is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a B.A. in History.  He has five children and five grandchildren (and counting).  He and his wife, Beth, currently live in Ruckersville, Virginia with their three rescue dogs and a 29-year-old Goffin’s cockatoo.

Austin Hein is a conservative, libertarian activist who first became involved in politics as a freshman in high school and  has worked in the conservative movement ever since.

His first grassroots activism occurred in 2013 when he organized student groups which helped defeat a bill that would have banned concealed carry permits on college campuses.

Austin currently serves as the Director of Political Operations with the National Association for Gun Rights. In this role, he manages and directs the political team to influence and shape national gun policy. He works to oppose gun grabs from federal politicians and punish those who don't get in line.

Before working for NAGR, Austin served as the Communications Director for the Colorado House Republican Caucus under Representative Patrick Neville. In this role, he helped guide the Republican resistance to COVID lockdowns and mandates in the Legislature.  Austin also served as an executive staff member for Congressman Thomas Massie in Washington, D.C. and worked on Sen. Rand Paul’s Senate and Presidential campaigns.

In 2022, Austin primary challenged the sitting House Republican Leader, causing his campaign and their allies to spend nearly $750,000 to save his seat. Using the tools taught to him by FACL, Austin earned more than 70% of the vote in the county Assembly process.

He lives in Weatherford, Texas with his wife, Shaina, and baby Heston.

Due to his uncompromising and relentless thirst for Liberty, Austin is becoming one of the most feared young activists in conservative politics.

Barrett Young is a Reformed Baptist, Libertarian, and conservative from Nixa, Missouri (the home of Jason Bourne).

Prior to his involvement in confrontational politics, Barrett was named “The Next Great Communicator” by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, participated as a Normandy Scholar at the Albert H. Small Normandy Institute, and served as a “Young Ambassador” through the Lafayette Debates program.

Starting as a member of Young Americans for Liberty’s (YAL) George Washington University chapter, Barrett would go on to serve as Chapter President and intern for Congressman Dave Brat on the Hill. Through the Koch Internship Program, Barrett interned at YAL before being hired as a Regional Director.

Barrett worked at YAL for four-and-a-half years before ending his time there as the Vice President of Grassroots, overseeing YAL’s Operation Win at the Door Program and YAL’s Hazlitt Action Program. By electing champions in the election season and conducting robust outside operations in the legislative season, Barrett has seen the FACL model succeed first-hand.

During Barrett’s time at YAL, he helped elect over 170 legislators to join YAL’s Hazlitt Coalition and helped pass Liberty legislation across the country, ranging from Constitutional Carry in Texas to School Choice in Missouri.

Barrett currently serves as the Executive Director of Make Liberty Win, a Liberty Carey Committee dedicated to electing Liberty legislators at the state legislative level. To date, Barrett has been directly involved in over 350 independent expenditure programs and political campaigns.

Bethany Young is the Legislative Director for Texas Gun Rights and a Regional Director at the National Association for Gun Rights, where she mobilized gun owners to pass Constitutional Carry in Texas and Georgia.

Bethany got her start volunteering for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s campaign, helping transition her Students for Rand chapter into a Young Americans for Liberty chapter after his reelection.  She is a proud college dropout, quitting school to manage Young Americans for Liberty’s northeast region full-time.

She has carried out legislative and electoral programs across Texas, Louisiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Virginia, organized over two hundred college activism events across the Midwest and the Northeast, and recruited for campaigns nationwide.

While working for Let Them Live, a pro-life charity, Bethany raised funds to save 27 children from abortion.

In the wake of the great COVID freak-out (and the associated tyranny), Bethany organized a successful mask mandate repeal in her childhood hometown.  Bethany applied the confrontational model at the local level by mobilizing over 100 people to attend the County Board of Commissioners’ meeting and applied immense pressure in the form of phone calls, emails, and petitions.  Ultimately, the COVID tyrant County Chairwoman lost reelection over this issue, bringing the model full- circle.

She now lives in Kyle, Texas with her husband, fellow FACL Instructor Barrett Young, and their gaggle of animals.

Hannah Hill is an experienced activist, policy analyst, and legal program director from South Carolina.

Over the years, Hannah worked on multiple state and federal campaigns, including managing her brother’s successful 2014 campaign for State Representative.

Hannah spent the next five years blowing the whistle on all the bad ideas proposed by the State Legislature.

Since then, Hannah has directed the National Foundation for Gun Rights, defending gun owners’ Second Amendment rights against legal attacks from the radical Left and knocking down unconstitutional local gun control laws across the United States.

Hannah resides in Colorado, but she slips back to South Carolina as frequently as possible for civilized weather, biscuits and gravy, and good times with her family.

Mary Nisly has been involved in both local and state-level politics for more than a decade in her home state of Indiana, proving herself a force to be reckoned with in her own right, as well as in her work alongside her husband, State Representative Curt Nisly.

She has helped secure multiple victories in her work planning and managing campaigns for State Senate and State House legislators.

Mary was Elkhart County Republican Party Chairman in Indiana from 2013-2017. She supervised more than a dozen caucuses to elect candidates in unexpired terms for public office. Mary also helped her county introduce voting centers and restored her county Republican Party Committee to sound financial footing. She worked with the County Clerk’s office during elections, hiring election workers, and was a resource for Republican candidates.

She has become a valuable ally and mentor for activist groups looking to make a difference across the Hoosier State. Mary is the author of much of the content on her husband’s website, keeping constituents up-to-date on what is happening on the inside with legislation and their elected officials.

Mary works with the Liberty Caucus on legislation, bringing in activist groups throughout Indiana to help cause political pain to legislators who don’t vote the way they should on Life, the Second Amendment, and Medical Freedom -- the latter of which is of personal concern as she’s seen the threats to our medical freedoms in her job as a nurse and Certified Health Coach.

She serves on the Executive Board of Bible Memory Ministries in Goshen, as well as on the Executive Board of the Elkhart County 4-H Fair -- the largest county fair in the state of Indiana.

Mary continues to be instrumental in helping activist groups get started across the state of Indiana. She and her husband, Curt, have four adult children and reside in northern Indiana.

Tommy Dimsdale works as the Executive Director of Palmetto Gun Rights, South Carolina’s largest no-compromise Second Amendment organization.  He also works as a Regional Director for the National Association for Gun Rights.  With the help of NAGR, Tommy led a fiery grassroots campaign to pass Constitutional Carry in South Carolina, a battle that had been raging for over 10 years.  He continues to mobilize gun owners across the nation in defense of the Second Amendment.

 Tommy began his activism with local Tea Party efforts in 2010, volunteering on dozens of campaigns, both local and national.  He served as the Spartanburg County GOP Secretary in 2016 and ran for State House in 2018.  During his race, he met DJ Parten (also a Foundation Instructor), who later hired him to join NAGR in 2020.  Tommy says he’s thankful to have lost his race for State House, learning that the indirect path to power in politics serves as a far more effective method for working the levers of government and instill real change. 

Aside from gun rights, religious liberty and energy independence are among his top issues. Tommy continues to live in South Carolina with his wife, Alison, and enjoys going to stock car races and car shows, visiting historic battlegrounds, and playing video games in his downtime.