American Conservative Union

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The American Conservative Union (ACU) is a large conservative political lobbying group in the United States. They are well-known for their annual ranking of politicians according to how they voted on key issues, providing a numerical indicator of how much the lawmakers agreed with conservative ideals. These scores are often used in political science research. The ACU publishes Battleline magazine quarterly to inform its members of issues important to the conservative movement.

Perhaps the ACU's most famous event is the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). CPAC has an annual attendance of over 6,000 people from around the world. Speakers regularly include sitting and former presidents and other famous conservatives. Lisa De Pasquale is the director of CPAC.

The ACU was founded in December of 1964 following the defeat of Barry Goldwater in that year's presidential election, with Donald C. Bruce serving as its first chairman. The current chairman of the ACU is David Keene, who has held that position since 1984.