GOPAC

---

title: "GOPAC" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["republican-party-(united-states)-organizations", "527-organizations", "memoranda", "united-states-national-recording-registry-recordings"] description: "Republican political training organization" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOPAC" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Republican political training organization ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

Field	Value
name	GOPAC
native_name_lang
logo	GOPAC_logo_2017.png
predecessor
successor
founded	1978
founder	Governor Pete du Pont
defunct
hq_location	1201 Wilson Ave Suite 2110 Arlington, VA 22209
num_locations_year
area_served
key_people
industry	Politics
genre
production_year
revenue	$400,057
revenue_year	2013
income_year
net_income
net_income_year
aum
assets_year
equity_year
owner
members_year
num_employees_year
module
website	www.gopac.org
intl
::

::callout[type=note] the American Republican local political training organization ::

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GOPAC is a Republican (GOP) state and local political training organization. Although often thought of as a PAC, or political action committee, it is actually a 527 organization.

History

GOPAC was founded by Delaware Governor Pierre S. du Pont, IV in 1978 in "an effort to build a farm team of Republican officeholders who could then run for congress or higher state offices later".

Others who have chaired GOPAC include former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, former Georgia Representative and Secretary of the Army Bo Callaway, California Representative David Dreier, Arizona Representative John Shadegg, former Oklahoma Representative J.C. Watts, Gay Gaines, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia.

Instructional tapes used to train aspiring Republican politicians from 1986 to 1994 were selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry for their influence in "shaping political discourse". The Library of Congress selects recordings annually that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

GOPAC memo of 1990

Drawing rhetorical inspiration from Newt Gingrich, GOPAC wrote and distributed a memo to Republican Party legislative candidates in 1990. The memo, which came from a list drawn up by Frank Luntz, called "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control", contained a list of "contrasting words" and "optimistic positive governing words" that Gingrich recommended for use in describing Democrats and Republicans, respectively. For example, words to use against opponents include decay, failure (fail), collapse(ing), deeper, crisis, urgent(cy), destructive, destroy, sick, pathetic, lie, radical, liberal, they/them, unionized bureaucracy, betray, consequences, limit(s), shallow, traitors, sensationalists,"compassion" is not enough; words to use in defining a candidate's own campaign and vision included share, change, opportunity, legacy, challenge, control, truth, moral, courage, reform, prosperity, crusade, movement, children, family, debate, compete, active(ly), we/us/our, candid(ly), humane, pristine, provide.

The cover page of the memo said: "The words in that paper are tested language from a recent series of focus groups where we actually tested ideas and language."

The comic strip *Doonesbury * mentions the memo in a strip, calling it the "Magna Carta of attack politics." Al Franken, a comedian and later a U.S. senator from Minnesota, wrote that GOP candidates were drilled to adopt three basic techniques in debating: "Go Negative Early"; "Don't Try to Educate"; "Never Back Off". Minor details were relevant only to 'demolish the opposition'.

References

References

1. "Chairman's Corner".
2. Moughty, Sarah. (December 21, 2011). "The Long March of Newt Gingrich: Part Five". PBS.
3. "The National Recording Registry 2010". Library of Congress.
4. "Political Memo; For G.O.P. Arsenal, 133 Words to Fire".
5. Al Franken 1996 p.253.
6. (February 1995). "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control". [[Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting]].
7. "GOPAC Memo on Language (1990)". UTK.edu.
8. Trudeau, Garry. (September 21, 2008). "Doonesbury". G.B. Trudeau.
9. Franken, Al. (1996). "[[Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations]]". [[Bantam Books]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::