Exclusive — Scott Walker: YAF Targeting 30 “Most Radicalized Cities” to Combat Socialism; ‘We Didn’t Want to Go to Safe Places’

Young America’s Foundation (YAF) is launching a multiyear nationwide initiative to counter the growing appeal of socialism among young Americans, with plans to bring conservative speakers and educational events to what its president describes as the 30 “most radicalized cities” in America, beginning with Los Angeles.

YAF’s “Freedom Not Socialism” initiative, a nationwide campaign for “2027 and beyond,” will officially launch during the organization’s November Freedom Conference at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, California.

The conference will bring together “hundreds of young conservative students” from across the country to hear from speakers including former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin; Congressman-elect Michael Alfonso, who is set to become the youngest member of the U.S. House of Representatives; and YAF President and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Over the next year, YAF plans to bring conservative leaders, scholars, and other speakers to cities nationwide to counter “socialism’s growing influence” and promote the principles of “freedom, conservatism, free markets, and American exceptionalism.” The initiative is “bigger than a series of events,” according to YAF, which aims to encourage young Americans to “reject the failed promises of socialism” and defend individual liberty.

Los Angeles will serve as the first stop on the organization’s “big blue city tour” following the election of a Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) mayor there.

In early 2027, YAF will also host a Freedom Conference in Dallas, Texas, aimed at teaching young Americans “what conservatism truly stands for” and equipping them with the tools to advocate for free-market principles upon returning to their campuses.

“Young Americans are increasingly being sold the promises of socialism without understanding the devastating consequences that follow,” Walker said in a statement announcing the initiative. “As socialism gains ground in cities and states across the nation, we must teach the next generation what it truly is and act today.”

The announcement comes one week after the November 3 midterm elections, when the left won 75 percent of the youth vote, according to YAF, representing a “double-digit swing from 2024.”

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Walker detailed the organization’s “five-part, multi-year plan,” which includes doubling the number of speakers YAF brings to campuses, expanding student training programs, and organizing educational events aimed specifically at high school students.

Walker described one component of the initiative as “freedom on the front lines,” explaining, “It’s this idea of picking the top 30 most radicalized cities in America and taking it right to the cities.”

“We’ll go to New York, Minneapolis, Portland, and Seattle, Chicago, places all across the country, where radical democratic socialists have taken hold,” Walker said.

The YAF president explained that the organization deliberately selected predominantly Democratic cities rather than conservative strongholds because, “It might be easier to go to places that are ruby red, but we wanted to go to places where the students are in urgent need of help.”

The events will also feature speakers and activities tailored to each location. “We didn’t want to go to safe places,” Walker emphasized, calling that decision “one of the most exciting things about the Freedom Not Socialism plan.”

He said YAF hopes to attract between 500 and 1,000 high school students to each event and will work with Dr. Daniel Di Martino, who he said has a “powerful message about growing up in Venezuela, where a democratic socialist took control and ruined the country’s economy,” and warning about “what could happen here in America.”

 

Beyond the city-focused events, Walker said YAF intends to strengthen its conference programs with training designed to “do more than just inspire, but equip people to go out and take action.”

He revealed that planning for the initiative began months before the November 3 midterm elections, explaining, “Midterm elections historically are not great for the party in the White House. We had no idea how bad it would be, but we thought there’d be a challenge.”

However, Walker traced the initial motivation for the initiative to concerns about declining national pride, saying, “It really started this summer when, for the second year in a row, we saw pride in America at an all-time low.”

YAF deliberately waited until after the midterms to make its announcement, Walker said. “We thought we’d get past all the election results so the announcement wouldn’t get lost in all that clutter. But we also didn’t want to wait.”

“You can’t wait two years and then hope that a few ads will correct years of people not hearing the truth,” Walker added, stressing that conservative organizations should begin reaching younger Americans well before the 2028 presidential election.

Addressing the shift among young voters toward Democrats, he attributed the results partly to economic frustration and a perception that elected officials “were just not listening to them.”

“Even the war wasn’t so much about a war as it was about why you focused on the war and not about gas prices,” Walker said, questioning why political leaders were focusing on issues such as the White House ballroom instead of addressing affordability.

Despite the election results, he expressed optimism about conservatives’ ability to regain support among younger voters. “I don’t think at least a portion of those young people are lost forever,” he said. “I think as conservatives, we just need to make a good case over the next two years that freedom, true free markets, are far better.”

Walker clarified that his support for free markets does not mean “defending the status quo” or “crony capitalism,” contending that conservatives must demonstrate how economic policies based on less government intervention could address younger voters’ concerns.

“We’re obviously frustrated about what’s going to happen over the next two years,” he said, predicting that Democratic policies could increase costs and maintaining that conservatives must respond by demonstrating why “free markets always are better.”

The YAF president also addressed Republicans’ approach to younger voters, saying, “I think too many Republican candidates sat back and talked about the stock market and GDP as opposed to recognizing and hearing concerns young people had.”

Walker pointed specifically to housing affordability, saying, “It’s just a lot of young people feeling like their piece of the American dream is slipping away.”

“When I left school, the median age for new home buyers was 30. It’s now up to 40,” he said.

During the interview, conducted Monday on the 37th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Walker discussed the historical lessons he believes younger Americans are missing about communism and socialism.

“I think we’ve taken a lot of things for granted, and it’s not just young people,” he said. “We forget why there was a wall in this place, and the reason there was a wall was because instinctively people want to flee, whether it’s communism or socialism, which is just a similar form of failure.”

“The reason the wall came down wasn’t just a political protest; it was years of failure that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union,” he added.

Walker pointed to Venezuela and Cuba as contemporary examples of what he considers the consequences of socialist economic policies, noting that those failures are “not ancient history.”

“It just does not work when the government takes over the economy, and people suffer, and they will suffer here,” he said. “But we’ve got to remind them of that because it’s typically not taught in the schools, certainly not taught in the colleges, and we’ve got to tell that story over and over again.”

He also identified the American education system as a major factor in socialism’s appeal, saying that some college instructors actively promote Marxist ideas while other institutions lack instruction about the benefits of free enterprise.

“Even in areas where you don’t have an aggressive advocate for socialism, you all too often at least have a void,” Walker said.

“We’re not going to sit back and allow socialism to take over America,” Walker said, explaining that YAF intends to “educate and equip students to go up and make the case to their fellow students” about why free markets are preferable to socialism.

“The time to start working is now,” he said.