Goldwater 2026 Freedom Gala: Freedom’s Next 250 Years

For 250 years, the United States has been a beacon of freedom and liberty for the world. This year, the Goldwater Institute commemorated that national milestone while successfully fighting for those same critical principles in courts and statehouses around the country.

On Friday, champions of liberty from every corner of the nation descended on the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix for the Goldwater Institute’s annual Freedom Gala where we celebrated all the ways we’re winning for individual liberty. Over the last year, Goldwater has worked in 43 states and won more than 50 legislative and litigation victories, Goldwater Institute President and CEO Victor Riches told attendees.

“And all of them with one objective in mind: to get the government out of our lives,” he said.

This past year, Goldwater and its allies successfully defended the nation’s leading school-choice program from a full-scale union assault, fought unconstitutional government business mandates and taxpayer-funded giveaways, and exposed universities for continuing to push their activist agendas on students and staff. We defeated Arizona’s illegal water restrictions that halted housing construction in Phoenix. We stood up for a Missouri grandma’s right to have her neighbors over for breakfast without the government’s permission. And we advocated in the nation’s capital for the right of rare-disease patients to cut through government red tape to try potentially life-save treatments.

Of course, those are just a handful of examples of how Goldwater has advanced freedom for Americans from coast to coast. And while it’s important to reflect on recent victories, Friday’s gala was also about looking boldly to the future to ensure that American freedom and liberty endure for another 250 years.

“Any time the government at any level—whether it’s the executive branch or a school board—tries to trample on the rights of individuals and businesses, we will be there to stop it,” Riches said. “There is no greater cause than defending liberty, and that’s what the Goldwater Institute does best.”

Goldwater’s success is not just driven by the institute’s generous donors and talented staff—we also rely on the unwavering courage of everyday Americans who are willing to fight alongside us to safeguard freedom. Jenny Clark, an Arizona mom and school-choice champion, is one of those courageous Americans. That’s why Jenny is Goldwater’s 2026 Freedom Award winner.

“To me, this award represents a truth far greater than any single individual,” Jenny said. “It points to the defining principle of the American experiment: that freedom is not a privilege rationed out by the government. Freedom is an inherent, God-given unalienable right belonging to ever American.”

Jenny first joined the fight for education freedom in 2018 after her oldest son was evaluated for dyslexia and she learned her local school district had no special programming for him. That’s when she found out about Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts school-choice program, a Goldwater innovation which provides parents with state funding to customize their kids’ education. At the time, the ESA program was only available to select students, including those with special needs.

“I thought, this program is so amazing, it’s so incredible. More families need to have access to an ESA,” she said.

With her young kids in tow, Jenny became involved in the fight for Proposition 305, Arizona’s first attempt to make the ESA program universal. The 2018 measure didn’t pass, but Jenny used the momentum she’d built to launch Love Your School, a nonprofit that informs parents about their education options and promotes education freedom in Arizona and around the country. In 2022, with Jenny’s help, Arizona became the first state in the nation to expand its ESA program to every student. Jenny is a special kind of leader who took Goldwater’s innovation and turned it into a grassroot movement to uplift countless kids.

Jenny’s leadership in the education-freedom world was vital this year when teachers’ unions in Arizona and Washington D.C., teamed up to put a disingenuous measure on November’s ballot aimed at gutting the ESA program to sending tens of thousands of Arizona children back to failing government schools. The unions spent more than $7 million to gather signatures to qualify for the ballot—they even enlisted dangerous felons to do it, a clear violation of state law.

Jenny was a leader in the Decline to Sign campaign, informing voters about how the union measure would hurt Arizona kids. She was also the lead plaintiff in the Goldwater Institute’s successful signature challenge, which ultimately disqualified the union measure from the ballot.

“Through her unyielding tenacity, Jenny has proven that no array of entrenched interests can match a mother’s grit,” said Goldwater Institute Executive Vice President Christina Sandefur. “Jenny embodies the true spirit of the Freedom Award because she remains, at her core, a relentless force fighting for kids.”

And the fight must go on—the fight for school choice and the fight for freedom generally—because the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, said Jon Riches, Goldwater’s Vice President for Litigation.

“At the Goldwater Institute, we will use every tool at our disposal—in legislatures, in courtrooms, and in the court of public opinion—to stand with the individual against the state,” he said. “We fight for the right to speak freely, to earn an honest living, to own and use property, to direct our children’s education. And ultimately, for the most fundamental freedom of all: the right to live our own lives, according to our own judgment, free from government interference.”

Actor, comedian and New York Times best-selling author Adam Carolla closed the evening with an impassioned defense of American ideals and a takedown of progressive insanity.

A key lesson of history is that freedom and liberty are essential ingredients for human flourishing. And yet, threats to these key principles never end—overreaching governments and bureaucratic busybodies will always seek new ways to squelch freedom and empower themselves. That’s why the Goldwater Institute will never cease in its mission to ensure that American liberty endures for generations to come.

Thank you, donors!