Terry Wear, Fairfax Co., Virginia Activist, Wins Reagan Award

ALEXANDRIA, VA - Terry Wear, a grassroots activist from Annandale, Virginia, was presented with the 2005 Ronald Reagan Award at the 32nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday, February 19th. The award was presented at the annual CPAC Reagan Banquet.

"The annual Reagan Award is meant to recognize one of the foot soldiers of the conservative movement, not one of the generals," American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene said in presenting the award. "Terry Wear is a longtime activist on behalf of conservative ideals and the sanctity of life. He embodies exactly the commitment and dedication of the grassroots activist that the award was established to recognize."

Wear, an attorney, was nominated for the award by Virginia State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli of Centerville. In his nominating statement, Sen. Cuccinelli said Terry Wear "is the quintessential conservative activist. Aside from his complete commitment to the conservative cause, Terry has brought a degree of focus and perseverance to efforts both here in Northern Virginia and in the battleground states during the last election that leaves him almost without peer."

Becky Norton Dunlop of the Heritage Foundation, and a member of the ACU Board of Directors, cited Wear's efforts at organizing Roman Catholic churchgoers as part of a voter turnout program he devised. Wear was instrumental in helping to defeat a 2002 transportation sales tax increase in northern Virginia, and for helping to increase the Catholic vote for President Bush in key battleground states last November.

"Terry is truly one of the most effective conservative soldiers that I've ever had the honor to work with," Dunlop said.

ACU selects the Reagan Award winner at its annual Board of Directors meeting held during CPAC. Several dozen activists were nominated for the award. The Reagan Award comes with a $10,000 stipend.

CPAC is a project of the American Conservative Union Foundation, in association with Young America's Foundation and Human Events. The conference is co-sponsored by over 70 of the nation's leading conservative organizations.

 

"CPAC" is not a "political action committee (PAC)" as defined by federal law. The conference name and initials predate the creation of those entities and is merely coincidental.