Grover Norquist

Early life and education Norquist was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania and grew up in Weston, Massachusetts. He is the son of Carol (née Lutz) and Warren Elliott Norquist, a vice president of Polaroid Corporation, His younger brother, David Norquist, has served in senior posts in Republican administrations at both the United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of Homeland Security and is president and CEO of the National Defense Industrial Association. Norquist became involved with politics at an early age when he volunteered for the 1968 Nixon campaign, assisting with get out the vote efforts. Norquist represented the France-Albert Rene government of Seychelles as a lobbyist from 1995 until 1999. Norquist's efforts were the subject of Tucker Carlson's 1997 article in The New Republic, "What I sold at the revolution."

Americans for Tax Reform

Norquist founded Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) in 1985, which he says was done at the request of then-President Ronald Reagan.

As a nonprofit organization, Americans for Tax Reform is not required to disclose the identity of its contributors. Critics, such as Sen. Alan Simpson, have asked Norquist to disclose his contributors; he has declined but has said that ATR is financed by direct mail and other grassroots fundraising efforts. According to CBS News, "a significant portion appears to come from wealthy individuals, foundations and corporate interests."

In November 2011, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blamed Norquist's influence for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction's lack of progress, claiming that Congressional Republicans "are being led like puppets by Grover Norquist. They're giving speeches that we should compromise on our deficit, but never do they compromise on Grover Norquist. He is their leader." John Fund of The Wall Street Journal dubbed Norquist "the Grand Central Station" of conservatism and told The Nation: "It's not disputable" that Norquist was the key to the Bush campaign's surprising level of support from movement conservatives in 2000. Comprehensive immigration reform is an interest of Norquist's, who believes that the United States should have "dramatically higher levels of immigration" than it does.

Involvement with Jack Abramoff

According to a 2011 memoir by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Norquist was one of Abramoff's first major Republican party contacts. an organization that wishes to add a Parental Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In 2010, Norquist joined the advisory board of GOProud, a political organization representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender conservatives and their allies, for which he was criticized by the Family Research Council. In business, Norquist was a co-founder of the Merritt Group, later renamed Janus-Merritt Strategies. In 2020, Norquist signed the Madrid Charter, a document drafted by the conservative Spanish political party Vox that describes left-wing groups as enemies of Ibero-America involved in a "criminal project" that are "under the umbrella of the Cuban regime".

Views on government Norquist favors dramatically reducing the size of government.

Journalist William Greider quotes Norquist saying his goal is to bring America back to what it was "up until Teddy Roosevelt, when the socialists took over. The income tax, the death tax, regulation, all that." He has endorsed a non-interventionist foreign policy and cuts to the U.S. military budget.

Personal life Norquist has described himself as a "boring white bread Methodist." Humorist P. J. O'Rourke has described Norquist as "Tom Paine crossed with Lee Atwater plus just a soupçon of Madame Defarge".

Writings Rock the House. Ft. Lauderdale, Fla: VYTIS Press, 1995. Taxes: The Economic & Philosophical Necessity of Real Reform. Minneapolis, MN: Center of the American Experiment, 1996. "America is freedom" chapter from Deaver, Michael K. Why I Am a Reagan Conservative, Chapter New York: W. Morrow, 2005. Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives. New York, NY: W. Morrow, 2008. Debacle: Obama's War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012.