The 2026 Young America's Foundation Cruise

The Occupy Movement didn't start on Wall Street. It started in Madison, Wisconsin, when 100,000 protestors descended onto the grounds of the State Capitol soon after Scott Walker took office as Governor. Their goal was to intimidate him and his allies, but he did not back down. He was unintimidated.

Scott's reforms took power from the hands of big government special interests and put it firmly into the hands of the hard-working people of Wisconsin and those whom they elect to run their local governments. Those reforms, known as Act 10, have saved taxpayers more than $16 billion. During Governor Walker's tenure, Wisconsin enacted more common-sense conservative reforms than any state in the nation. They targeted him, and he won, becoming the first governor in American history to win a recall election.

Now, Scott serves as president of Young America's Foundation, which trains the next generation of leaders in the fight for freedom. YAF conducts programs at the Reagan Ranch, Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home, its national headquarters in Northern Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and regional sites nationwide. YAF also hosts more conservative campus lectures than any other organization and has a digital presence with more than one billion online video views.

Scott has been married to Tonette for more than 30 years. They live on Pewaukee Lake in Wisconsin while also spending time in Virginia and California. Scott and Tonette have two adult children.

Born the son of a pastor and a part-time bookkeeper and raised in a small town, Scott understands the value of hard work and community. He is a proud Eagle Scout and an alumnus of the American Legion's Badger Boys State and Boys Nation programs. When he's not working, Scott can be found riding on his Harley Davidson Road King, on their pontoon boat out on the lake, or cheering on the Packers or one of Wisconsin's other sports teams. Most importantly, he is a follower of Christ.

Larry O’Connor is a nationally recognized radio host, journalist, editor, and conservative commentator. He serves as editor at Townhall Media and hosts the influential morning drive-time show O’Connor & Company on WMAL 105.9 FM in Washington, D.C. In 2026, his program expanded nationally on the Salem Radio Network and Salem News Channel. He also hosts the daily video podcast LARRY on Townhall Media.

In May 2026, O’Connor was named a permanent co-host of Mark Halperin’s The Morning Meeting on the 2WAY platform, joining Halperin and Kevin Walling for daily live discussions on politics and current events. The program has quickly gained attention for its balanced, high-level discourse and interactive format, further expanding O’Connor’s national reach and influence in political media.

With over a decade on Washington, D.C. airwaves, O’Connor has become a trusted voice in conservative media, known for his sharp analysis, insider perspective on politics and policy, and ability to break down complex issues with clarity and wit. He has been a frequent television commentator on Fox News, News Nation, and Newsmax, and has appeared across major networks, including ABC, PBS, and even MSNBC.

Prior to Townhall, O’Connor was part of the early wave of digital-first conservative media. He served as editor-in-chief of Breitbart.tv, worked with Andrew Breitbart on platforms such as Big Hollywood and Big Government, and held editorial roles at HotAir, The Federalist, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard. He is the author of Shameless Liars: How Trump Defeated the Legacy Media and Made Them Irrelevant.

Before entering political media, O’Connor had a successful career in theater, serving as general manager of the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles, where he worked on major Broadway productions, including the American premiere of Sunset Boulevard starring Glenn Close.

A Michigan native, with deep roots in Southern California, O’Connor lives in Maryland with his wife, Meredith, and intermittently their four adult children: Quinn, who is pursuing a Master’s degree in theatre management at Yale Drama School; Veronica, a U.S. Navy officer married to a Marine Corps officer; Christian, who is beginning his senior year at UC San Diego; and EJ, their 19-year-old special needs superstar. 

T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr. is a native of South Carolina. Currently, he is a trustee and counselor to the Federalist Society, chairman of the board of trustees for the Brevard Music Center, chairman of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, and a trustee of the Sarah Scaife Foundation. Kenneth also serves on Young America’s Foundation’s Board of Directors as treasurer and as the chairman of YAF’s National Journalism Center Board of Governors.

Mr. Cribb has served in many leadership positions over the years. From 1971 to 1977, he served as national director for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). He became president of ISI and served from 1989 to 2011. He was also the founding publisher of ISI Books, and retains the title of president emeritus of ISI. Kenneth is the past president of the Collegiate Network, the Council for National Policy, and the Philadelphia Society and a former senior fellow of the Heritage Foundation.

He was deputy to the chief counsel of the 1980 Reagan campaign. During the Reagan transition, he was deputy director of the Legal and Administrative Agencies Group, Office of the Executive Branch Management. Kenneth went on to serve the Reagan administration for almost the entire eight years of its existence, beginning in 1981 as assistant director for the Office of Cabinet Affairs. He served next as assistant counselor to the President, in which capacity he assisted Counselor Edwin Meese. When Mr. Meese became attorney general, Mr. Cribb accompanied him to the Justice Department where he became counselor to the attorney general of the United States. In 1987, Kenneth returned to the White House as assistant to the President for domestic affairs, serving as President Reagan’s top advisor on domestic matters, supervising four White House offices: policy development, cabinet affairs, public liaison, and welfare reform. He held this position until the fall of 1988.

Mr. Cribb has received numerous awards, including the Edmund Randolph Award, the highest honor given by the US Department of Justice, and the Charles H. Hoeflich Lifetime Achievement Award, an honor rarely awarded by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

Kenneth received a BA from Washington and Lee University and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. He also has honorary doctorate degrees from Thomas Moore University, Oklahoma Christian University, and Universidad Francisco Marroquín.

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is the editor-in-chief of The Federalist, senior journalism fellow at Hillsdale College, and a fox news contributor.

She is a New York Times bestselling author of three books, including Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution.

Hemingway is a recipient of The Bradley Prize, awarded for extraordinary contributions to American scholarship and debate, as well as the Dao Grand Prize for Journalism for her series on the Russia Collusion Hoax.