Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty

CCATDP launches at CPAC 2013!

CCATDP booth at CPAC

We’re still abuzz from our exciting launch last month at the CPAC 2013 conference.

Grassroots leaders from Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, and Montana joined our national coordinators at the conference. Our booth was swamped with supporters. Over and over, we heard: “Where have you been for so long? I thought I was the only conservative who supported repealing the death penalty.”

Our supporter list grew more than tenfold over those two days, and we talked to so many others who wanted to follow up.

The reaction of CPAC attendees – those young and old, from north and south, men and women – confirmed what we already knew: conservatives do not universally support the death penalty. Far from it! Our ranks of conservatives who are openly questioning capital punishment is increasing.

But don’t take it from us!

U.S. News and World Report covered our launch, saying that the stereotype of conservative support for the death penalty “no longer holds true.” The piece continues:

Several bigger names have also jumped aboard the CCADP team, including Jay Sekulow, a top litigator of free speech and religious liberty cases. Sekulow tells Whispers he’s been concerned about the death penalty from a legal perspective for years, but that there was never one conservative group that concentrated on the issue.

“We’re in the infancy stages of a movement to galvanize awareness,” says Sekulow, noting that several Republican governors have come out against the issue in recent years, such as Gov. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. “This issue now crosses political lines.”

Religion News Service wrote about our launch, noting, “…one has to wonder if this new effort signals the genesis of a renewed debate in the coming years.”

Conservative talk radio shows from Missouri to Virginia covered our launch, as did television stations like the Tea Party Network.

Catch our live interview on FTR networks…

…and Virginia’s WGMU radio:

 

You can also watch some of our other media interviews on CCATDP’s YouTube channel.

And don’t forget to check out all our photos on Facebook!