AFP has recognized that to make lasting change in US politics, the Koch network would need to permanently weaken the organizations that support liberal candidates and causes – and above all, the labor movement. Reflecting on why conservatives failed to build power in earlier decades, AFP’s national president, Tim Phillips, explained that the Democrats “had the public employee unions … which have only gotten stronger, have only gotten better-funded, have only gotten better organized”. To succeed in electing conservative candidates and promoting right-leaning policy, then, AFP would need to hobble unions, especially those in the public-sector that were powerful state-level allies of Democrats.
