Protect The Harvest | Conservative Group Hires Animal Rights Operative

FreedomWorks is a well-known name in conservative politics in Washington, DC—which makes its recent hire baffling.

News broke on Tuesday that FreedomWorks is hiring animal rights activist Marty Irby to be its Chief Operating Officer. It’s a bizarre hire because Irby’s politics don’t remotely seem to fit the FreedomWorks mission. Marty Irby has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars working to elect liberals to federal office, and has worked to undermine many of the principles that FreedomWorks stands for.

Irby’s background is a lobbyist for the legislative arm of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), an animal liberation group that attacks farmers, ranchers, and hunters. Following HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle resigning in 2018 over sexual harassment allegations, Irby followed Pacelle to help run two new animal rights groups founded by Pacelle: Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. (Apparently, the serious allegations reported in the New York Times weren’t too off-putting to Irby.)

Irby is executive director of Animal Wellness Action, and AWA’s political spending reveals the organization has spent huge amounts to defeat conservatives and elect liberals, according to OpenSecrets tracking of AWA’s independent expenditures:

• AWA spent $312,000 in 2018 against Republicans, including attacks on Rep. Pete Sessions.