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America 21 is an evangelical Christian political action committee based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is headed by J. Thomas Smith, and funds Republican candidates.

Corruption and Tom DeLay/Jack Abramoff

America 21 was subpoenaed by federal investigators to produce records that tie them to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.<ref>Kate Howard and Anita Wadhwani, Abramoff probe looks to Nashville-based PAC, Tennessean, August 2, 2006.</ref> A memo Abramoff wrote in 2001 to a Native American tribe telling them to contribute to America 21 was made public last year. The article reported:

<blockquote>In a letter sent to the Coushatta Indian tribe in Louisiana in 2002, Abramoff wrote that a $10,000 check the tribe contributed to the political action committee Texans for a Republican Majority needed to be canceled and the money reissued to America 21.

Abramoff directed the tribe to make tens of thousands of donations and once directed leaders to cancel $55,000 in checks to then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and divert them to other groups.

The stated purpose of America 21 is to "educate, engage, and mobilize Christians to influence national policy at every level." The conservative, nonprofit lobbying organization was active in the 2002 elections that maintained a Republican majority of the U.S. House of Representatives. America 21 ran an outreach program in 2002 that targeted voters with conservative religious ties. The group maintains a public charity and a civic organization that is involved in political lobbying.

America 21 has been called a "critical friend" by Abramoff allies in e-mails obtained by the National Journal.

</blockquote>

Alexander Strategy Group

America 21 had ties to the Alexander Strategy Group, a now-closed lobbying firm run by Ed Buckham, a former chief of staff to House majority whip Tom DeLay. America 21’s president, J. Thomas Smith, was the lawyer for Buckham's U.S. Family Network, and the secretary-treasurer for the Republican Majority Issues Committee, a DeLay political action committee run by another ASG employee.<ref>Barbara T. Dreyfuss, "Poison Pill: How Abramoff's cronies sold the Medicare drug bill", Washington Monthly, November 2006</ref>

Footnotes

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External links

America 21- Official website

America 21 is a Tennessee non-profit corporation organized and approved as a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization, with an affiliated 501(C)(3) subsidiary. Founded in 1989, its spiritual fathers were from many different denominations and were pastors of some of the largest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, the Presbyterian Church in America, the Churches of Christ, the Nazarenes, the Pentacostals, and the Interdenominational churches. America 21 served as one of the first chapters of the Christian Coalition and lectured on organization at the first “Road to Victory” conference in 1989. It sponsored many pro-family legislative projects at the Tennessee Legislature.
In 1992, the state level work was assumed by a new organization that became an affiliate of Focus on the Family. America 21 became a non-governmental organization that lobbied for pro-family issues at the United Nations. The general counsel of America 21, J. Thomas Smith, held a series of meetings in Washington DC after the 1994 ICPD conference in Cairo, Egypt recruit pro-family evangelical lobbyists for the meetings in Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul, and Rome. Proposals to extend abortion and homosexual rights and the liberal agenda have been defeated at the UN by the pro-family coalition America 21 helped start. During this process, America 21 became a registered non-governmental organization at the United Nations. In September of 2001, America 21 helped sponsor an undercover mission to Beijing that brought back evidence that the UNFPA was supporting coerced abortions in China. In June of 2002, the Bush Administration sent its own team to China which confirmed the findings by America 21 and led to permanent halt to $34 million in U.S. funding for the UNFPA.
The 2002 Margin Of Victory Project
In 2002, Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, a congressman from the first district of Idaho, who had retired after three terms, assumed the role of Chairman of America 21. The 2002 Margin of Victory project under her leadership with J. Thomas Smith serving as President, targeted issues in key 2002 political contests and turned out Christian voters to elect Godly leaders to the U.S. Congress With the challenges our country faced, moral leadership for America was more critical than ever, yet at that very crucial time, Christians seemed to be retreating from the political arena. America 21 believed it was part of the duty of every Christian, regardless of political party affiliation, to work for the election of Godly leaders. According to a number of researchers, the Christian vote had declined by 20 percent since 1994, and 9 million Americans failed to vote in the 2000 elections.
America 21 launched “The Muhlenberg Challenge,” to appeal to this demographic and encourage them to vote through the use of various media outlets and the website, www.America21.us. The website offered a variety of resources to inform and mobilize Christian voters. Among them:
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