Reform Conservatives believe the right needs new policy thinking to address 21st-century challenges while remaining true to conservative principles. Against both libertarian orthodoxy that ignores market failures and progressive statism that expands bureaucracy, they seek creative conservative solutions to problems like healthcare costs, family decline, and wage stagnation.
This strain emerged in the early 2010s through thinkers and politicians who saw the GOP trapped between unpopular libertarianism and reflexive opposition to everything. They argued conservatives needed an affirmative agenda addressing voters' actual concerns—not just tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation, but policies that help working families and rebuild social capital.
Key Reform Conservative themes include: pro-family policy (child tax credits, paid leave, work-family balance), healthcare reform that reduces costs and expands access without single-payer, wage subsidies over minimum wage increases, education reform emphasizing skills and vocational training, and industrial policy to create good jobs in struggling regions.
Reform Conservatives occupy interesting terrain—they're more willing to use government than libertarians, more focused on working families than establishment Republicans, but more market-friendly than progressives. They've influenced policy discussions around child benefits, healthcare, and industrial policy, though their movement identity has somewhat merged into broader post-Trump realignments.
At roughly 3% of the population as a distinct type, Reform Conservatives are more an intellectual tendency than a mass movement. They're found in think tanks like American Compass, among younger conservative policy experts, and in the orbit of politicians trying to develop post-Reagan conservative policy. They bridge old-guard conservatism and new populism through policy innovation.