Move America Forward

About Move America Forward

Move America Forward is a controversial conservative non profit political action group based in California in the United States. Through media-saturation campaigns that include television and radio commercials; lobbying politicians at the local, state, and federal levels; and by encouraging grass-roots activism, Move America Forward has sought to advance a conservative agenda that includes the removal of the United Nations headquarters from the United States, the recalling of state governors it deems too "liberal," restricting what it terms "liberal" or "activist" media, the closing of the U.S.-Mexico border and the deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin, opposition of what it deems "liberal" political candidates and political action groups, and advocacy for conservative political candidates and appointees. Move America Forward vocally supports and advocates the policies of the Bush Administration.

Move America Forward was established in May 2004 by political consultant Sal Russo, former Republican assemblyman Howard Kaloogian and Melanie Morgan, a talk show host at Disney-owned KSFO 560 AM, both of whom now serve as Move America Forward's co-chairmen. Both Russo and Kaloogian served in key roles in the successful Recall Gray Davis Committee that prompted the California's 2003 gubernatorial California recall election—Kaloogian as chairman of the recall campaign, Russo as chief strategist. In November 2003, one month after the recall election, Russo told the Los Angeles Daily News of the 120,000 recall supporters in his database. "We took on the political establishment and won, and they feel empowered, ... They want to be involved. ... We'll change the name to something like 'Move America Forward,'" and go national, he predicted. A week later, the domain name MoveAmericaForward.com was registered to Russo's public relations firm, Russo Marsh & Rogers. Both Kaloogian and Russo continued on with Move America Forward in essentially the same roles as in the Recall Gray Davis Committee.

Russo Marsh & Rogers is Sacramento-based political public relations firm, with strong ties to the Republican Party. Russo, a principal in Russo Marsh & Rogers, worked on the political campaigns of Ronald Reagan, Alfonse M. D'Amato, George Pataki, Jack Kemp, and Orrin Hatch.