Speaker: Jason Riley
March 12, 2026
Drew Johnson is a senior scholar at the National Center for Public Policy Research and serves as a columnist at Newsmax and the Daily Caller. He is a candidate for Nevada State Treasurer.
As a government watchdog at The Washington Times, the National Taxpayers Union, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, Drew is credited with saving taxpayers more than $60 billion.
Raised in a trailer in rural Appalachia by a single mother, Drew earned a Master of Public Policy from Pepperdine University. While living in his car, Drew founded the Beacon Center of Tennessee, one of America’s most influential free market think tanks. As president of the organization, he authored legislation creating school choice for tens of thousands of students and slashed occupational licensing burdens for entrepreneurs.
In 2024, Drew was the Republican nominee in Nevada’s 3rd congressional district, becoming the best-performing GOP challenger in America.
He and his wife, Sarah, have called Nevada home for over a decade.
Topic
Drew Johnson will share his journey from a frustrated think tank president to one of America’s top government watchdogs, using simple journalistic tools to obtain government records. He’ll recount high-profile scoops, including forcing corrupt officials from office, uncovering a massive Pentagon recruitment scheme, and famously exposing that Al Gore’s hypocritical home energy consumption was 20 times that of the average American household.
You will learn to file targeted public records requests for budgets, emails, audits, and more, while avoiding common pitfalls such as overbroad requests and delays. You’ll gain Nevada-specific strategies to expose state and local corruption and wasteful spending.
By learning these easy techniques, you’ll have the tools to motivate policy changes and earn media attention to combat waste, reduce taxes, and safeguard liberty right where you live.
Presentation video
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