Morton C. Blackwell

Professionally, ACU Board member Morton Blackwell is the president of the Leadership Institute, a non-partisan educational foundation he founded in 1979. His institute prepares conservatives for success in politics, government and the news media.

In youth politics, Mr. Blackwell was a College Republican state chairman and a Young Republican state chairman in Louisiana.
He served on the Young Republican National Committee for more than a dozen years, rising to the position of Young Republican National Federation vice chairman at large.

From1965-1970, Blackwell worked as executive director of the College Republican National Committee under four consecutive College Republican national chairmen.
He served on the Louisiana Republican state central committee for eight years.

First elected to the Arlington County (Virginia) Republican Committee in 1972, Blackwell is a member of the Virginia Republican state central committee and was first elected in 1988 as Virginia’s Republican National Committeeman (RNC), a post he still holds. In 2004, he was elected to the Executive Committee of the RNC.

Mr. Blackwell was Barry Goldwater’s youngest elected delegate to the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco.

He was a national convention Alternate Delegate for Ronald Reagan in 1968 and 1976, and a Ronald Reagan Delegate at the 1980 national convention.

In 1980, he organized and oversaw the national youth effort for Ronald Reagan.
He served as Special Assistant to President Reagan from 1981 to 1984.

Mr. Blackwell is something of a specialist in matters relating to the rules of the Republican Party. He served on rules committees of the state Republican parties in Louisiana and Virginia. He also currently serves on the RNC’s Standing Committee on Rules and has attended every meeting of the Republican National Conventions’ Rules Committees since 1972.

Mr. Blackwell has published articles in Human Events, The Washington Times, and The Washington Post. He has also appeared on major radio and television network news programs including Fox News and CNN’s Crossfire.

In addition to serving on the Board of the ACU, Mr. Blackwell is a Board Member for the Free Congress Foundation, Conservative Leadership PAC, the Legislative Studies Institute, and the National Right to Work Committee.