From Training to Triumph: The Leadership Institute’s Secret to Conservative Wins Across America

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(Carol Cocks) – I’ve mentioned before the Leadership Institute’s ambitious goal to train 70,000 grads in three years. Well, I’m here to report that we did it. All that and more!

It wasn’t easy.

In 2024 alone, LI trained more than 42,000 grads, bringing the total trained for three years to more than 88,000. This dramatic growth is possible thanks to generous donors.

I’m still stunned at the impact.

Right now, more than 310 LI grads are school board members. They represent 4,179,819 students across the United States.

Over the past three years, Leadership Institute has trained 456 conservatives to run effective campaigns as senior campaign leaders. They’ve gone out and helped conservatives win… some even ran for office and won themselves!

I have Hawaii and warm breezes on my mind, so I’ll share two success stories from there.

Leadership Institute grad, Representative Garner Shimizu, ran for HD32, representing Moanalua, Oahu. This year’s race was a rematch of his 2022 contest against a well-funded opponent.

Shimizu and his campaign team, including campaign manager (and CLC grad) Kaulana Lee, took 19 total LI workshops.

After narrowly losing in 2022 by 246 votes, Shimizu won the State Representative seat by just 78 votes in 2024!

Leadership Institute faculty, Representative Diamond Garcia, is Hawaii’s House Minority Floor Leader.

He took the Leadership Institute’s Campaign Leadership College in 2024 to sharpen his skills, secured a decisive reelection victory, and continues to volunteer as Leadership Institute faculty to help other conservatives succeed.

Rep. Garcia has contributed to an impressive 11 LI Hawaii workshops.

Those are just a few small highlights of what conservatives can accomplish when they take the time to study how to win.

Let’s keep up the great work in 2025!

Leadership Institute’s January trainings highlight an option to attend the inauguration and school board opportunities. You can find the details for many, many opportunities to study how to win at https://www.leadershipinstitute.org/training.

Ms. Cocks is Director of External Affairs for the Leadership Institute