Heritage Basis co-founder Edwin J. Feulner dies at 83 in Virginia

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Edwin J. Feulner, a outstanding determine within the American conservative motion and co-founder and former president of the Heritage Basis, died on Friday on the age of 83.

Feulner served because the group's president from 1977 to 2013 and once more from 2017 to 2018. He was well-known for remodeling the once-obscure assume tank into one of the influential coverage powerhouses in Washington, D.C.

He was its longest-serving president after serving to to create the Washington, D.C.-based assume tank in 1973.

"Ed Feulner was greater than a frontrunner—he was a visionary, a builder, and a patriot of the very best order," Heritage President Kevin Roberts and Board of Trustees Chairman Barb Van Andel-Gaby mentioned in a joint assertion. "His unwavering love of nation and his dedication to safeguard the rules that made America the freest, most affluent nation in human historical past formed each fiber of the conservative motion—and nonetheless do."

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Heritage Basis co-founder Edwin J. Feulner died on the age of 83. (Getty Photographs)

The group had organized Undertaking 2025, a controversial initiative that supplied right-wing coverage suggestions for the second Trump administration. Feulner co-wrote the initiative's afterward and he and Roberts met with President Donald Trump forward of final 12 months's election. Feulner was additionally on Trump's transition group forward of his first time period.

Beneath his management, Heritage instituted a brand new mannequin of conservative coverage advocacy. This helped form Reagan-era reforms and pushed market-based concepts into political mainstream. Feulner has remained lively by Undertaking 2025 and a transition plan for a second Trump time period which is drawing reward and criticism for its hardline coverage proposals.

An writer of 9 books and a former congressional aide , he was additionally concerned in numerous different conservative organizations.

Edwin J. Feulner, co-founder of the Heritage Basis, served because the group's president from 1977 to 2013 and once more from 2017 to 2018. (Getty Photographs)

"Whether or not he was bringing collectively the assorted corners of the conservative motion at conferences of the Philadelphia Society, or launching what's now the Heritage Technique Discussion board, Ed championed a daring, 'big-tent conservatism,'" Roberts and Andel-Gaby wrote. "He believed as well as, not subtraction. Unity, not uniformity. Considered one of his favourite mantras was 'You win by multiplication and addition, not by division and subtraction.' His legacy is not only the establishment he constructed, however the motion he helped develop—a motion rooted in religion, household, freedom, and the founding. "

"His 'Feulnerisms' nonetheless resonate within the halls of Heritage—the place they are going to at all times be remembered. 'Individuals are coverage,' as an illustration— the heartbeat of his mission—to equip, encourage, and elevate a brand new technology of conservative leaders, not simply in Washington, however throughout this nice nation," the assertion continued. "And we nonetheless bear in mind his adjuration to by no means be complacent or discouraged: 'In Washington, there aren't any everlasting victories and no everlasting defeats.'"

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Edwin J. Feulner is survived by his spouse Lina, in addition to their youngsters and grandchildren. (Getty Photographs)

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Roberts and Andel-Gaby vowed to honor Feulner's life by "carrying his mission ahead with braveness, integrity, and dedication."

"Thanks for displaying us what one devoted, fearless man can do when he refuses to cede floor within the combat for self-governance," the leaders mentioned of Feulner.