About Grover Norquist

Grover Norquist (Twitter: @GroverNorquist) is president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a taxpayer advocacy group he founded in 1985 at President Reagan’s request. ATR works to limit the size and cost of government and opposes higher taxes at the federal, state, and local levels and supports tax reform that moves towards taxing consumed income one time at one rate.

ATR organizes the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which asks all candidates for federal and state office to commit themselves in writing to the American people to oppose all net tax increases. In the 115th Congress, 212 House members and 45 Senators have taken the pledge.

Norquist chairs the Washington, DC - based Wednesday Meeting, a weekly gathering of more than 150 elected officials, political activists, and movement leaders. The meeting started in 1993 and takes place in ATR's conference room. There are now 60 similar center-right meetings in 48 states.

Mr. Norquist also:

• Serves on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association of America, the American Conservative Union, the Parental Rights Organization and Center for the National Interest (formerly The Nixon Center.) 
• Serves as a Contributing Editor to the American Spectator Magazine. 
• Serves as president of the American Society of Competitiveness. 
• Authored four books: Rock the House; Leave Us Alone – Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives; Debacle: Obama’s War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future (with co-author John Lott) and End the IRS Before it Ends Us — How to Restore a Low Tax, High Growth, Wealthy America — published April 7, 2015.  

Previously, Mr. Norquist served as:

• A commissioner on the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. 
• A commissioner on the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service. 
• Economist and chief speech-writer, U.S. Chamber of Commerce (1983-1984.) 
• Campaign staff on the 1988, 1992, 1996 Republican Platform Committees. 
• Executive director of the National Taxpayers’ Union. 
• Executive director of the College Republicans. 

Mr. Norquist holds an MBA and a BA in Economics, both from Harvard University. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Samah, and two daughters.

Who is Grover Norquist?

"The Dirty Harry of tax and government reform is Grover Norquist.” – Ted Nugent

“No one in modern times has fought harder to shrink the state than the founder of the group Americans for Tax Reform.” — John Stossel

“The dark wizard of the Right's anti-tax cult.” — Arianna Huffington

“Hands down the most powerful tax advocate in Washington.” -The Hill

“Since creating Americans for Tax Reform at Ronald Reagan’s behest back in 1985, Norquist has been responsible more than anyone else for rewriting the dogma of the Republican Party.” – CBS 60 Minutes  

“Grover is a force of nature. Political scientists could study how Grover networked and masterminded becoming the single most influential conservative in Washington or, for that matter, the United States.” — Charlie Cook, Editor and Publisher, The Cook Political Report

"The high priest of Republican tax-cutting." -- New York Times

“The high priest of anti-tax orthodoxy.” — POLITICO

“The person who I regard as the most innovative, creative, courageous and entrepreneurial leader of the anti-tax efforts and of conservative grassroots activism in America . . . He has truly made a difference and truly changed American history.” — Newt Gingrich

"It’s because of soldiers like Grover that the conservative movement is so vibrant today.” — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

"There's been no organization in our country who's kept the issue of high taxes and IRS abuse more in the public eye than ATR.” — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

“Grover Norquist is Tom Paine crossed with Lee Atwater plus just a soupçon of Madame Defarge.” — P.J. O’Rourke

"The right's shrewdest strategist." —  Robert Kuttner, Co-founder and Editor, The American Prospect

“Historically, Norquist and his organization have been the Good Housekeeping seal of approval for fiscal conservatives.” — Dan Schnur, Director of the Jesse Unruh Institute of Politics, University of Southern California

The Hill newspaper named Grover one of the Top Grassroots Lobbyists of 2014 saying, “They say nothing is certain but death and taxes. In Washington, the third certainty is Norquist trying to kill the second.”

“If there was a Hall of Fame of Common Sense, a huge statue of Grover Norquist would be at the front door.” – Ted Nugent