Christopher Rufo

Christopher Ferguson Rufo (born August 26, 1984) is an American conservative activist, New College of Florida board member, and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research known for his opposition to critical race theory in institutions. Rufo is a former documentary filmmaker and former fellow at the Discovery Institute, the Claremont Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism.

Rufo has been involved in Republican efforts to restrict critical race theory instruction or seminars, Rufo's appearances with Tucker Carlson on Fox News reportedly influenced President Donald Trump to issue an executive order in 2020 banning some topics from diversity training for the government and contractors; President Joe Biden rescinded the order in 2021.

Rufo is a contributing editor of the conservative policy magazine City Journal, and a distinguished Fellow of Hillsdale College.

Early life and education Rufo was born on August 26, 1984. He was raised in Sacramento, California. His father was born in San Donato Val di Comino, Italy.

Rufo received a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 2006. a Christian think tank, where he was a director of its Center on Wealth, Poverty, & Morality.

Rufo was a documentary filmmaker in his twenties and early thirties, As a filmmaker he generally "focused on urban areas".

In 2017, Rufo was one of 30 plaintiffs in a lawsuit that successfully prevented Seattle from imposing a 2.25% income tax on sums above $250,000 a year for individuals and over $500,000 for couples. In 2018, he briefly ran for city council. In 2021, Rufo spoke at the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando. In April 2022, he was reported to have 2,500 paid subscribers to his newsletter. In 2022, the SPLC called Rufo a "far-right propagandist".

Rufo was one of several conservative education activists Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed to the board of trustees of New College of Florida in 2023.

In 2025, he won the Bradley Prize. Rufo said that the 2016 United States presidential election challenged ineffective establishment responses to poverty and drew attention to these cities. with the "compassion brigade" calling for social justice using terms such as "compassion, empathy, bias, inequality, root causes, systemic racism". In 2020, he said, "critical race theory has pervaded every institution in the federal government". Rufo has said he has intentionally used the term "critical race theory" for various race-related ideas to create unfavorable associations: Rufo has called intersectionality "a hard left academic theory that reduces people to a network of racial, gender and sexual orientation identities and intersect in complex ways and determine whether you are an oppressor or oppressed". The administration called such programs "divisive, anti-American propaganda". Rufo has repeatedly appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight and The Ingraham Angle. According to New Yorker writer Benjamin Wallace-Wells, Rufo's story on racially divided bias-training sessions in Seattle "helped to generate more leaks from across the country" about the contents of courses and diversity training programs. The Post wrote, "This report has been changed to clarify the sequence of events that followed Rufo's appearance on Fox News last summer. In addition, the story adds a clarification from the Cupertino superintendent that a lesson was presented once before it was canceled." He said that schools were "hunting grounds" for sexually predatory teachers and that parents had "good reason" to worry about grooming. American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten has said that Rufo and others who wish to privatize "public education are using Big Lies to undermine public schools."

Rufo opposes "socio-emotional learning", saying it "serves as a delivery mechanism for radical pedagogies such as critical race theory and gender deconstructionism." Socio-emotional learning, which promotes self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, social awareness and relationship building, was a fairly uncontroversial pedagogical technique before being criticized by Republicans and Rufo.

Claudine Gay campaign In December 2023, Rufo and co-author Christopher Brunet investigated the past research of Harvard University president Claudine Gay, who had recently attracted controversy for her handling of antisemitism at the university and her defense of Harvard's handling of the situation at a congressional hearing. Rufo and Brunet alleged that many of her articles, including her dissertation, were plagiarized. After further investigation of the plagiarism allegations in mainstream media outlets, Gay announced her resignation on January 2, 2024. In an interview with Politico, Rufo said that Gay's resignation "was the result of a coordinated and highly organized conservative campaign". Rufo has offered a $5,000 reward for proof supporting the unsubstantiated allegation.

Personal life Rufo is married to Suphatra "Kip" Paravichai, a Thai American. She was once a computer programmer at Amazon Web Services. He is Catholic.

Books