The institute was founded in 1979 by four students of Harry V. Jaffa, a professor emeritus at Claremont McKenna College and the Claremont Graduate University, although the Institute has no affiliation with any of the Claremont Colleges. The institute came to prominence under the leadership of Larry P. Arnn, who was its president from 1985 until 2000, when he became the twelfth president of Hillsdale College. The current president is Ryan Williams, who previously served as the organization's Chief Operating Officer from 2013 until being named president in September 2017. Williams succeeded Michael Pack, who served from 2015 to September 2017. Today, approximately 20 staff members now coordinate conferences, lecture series, and other projects. The Institute also publishes the Claremont Review of Books, a quarterly journal of political thought and statesmanship, as well as other books and publications, including reprints of Jaffa's works. The organization was an early defender of then-candidate Donald Trump; the Daily Beast stated Claremont has "arguably has done more than any other group to build a philosophical case for Trump’s brand of conservatism." During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the institute received between $350,000 and $1 million in federally backed small business loans from Chain Bridge Bank as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The group stated it would allow them to retain 29 jobs.
The Institute publishes the Claremont Review of Books, a quarterly journal of political thought and statesmanship founded in 2000. The CRB is edited by prominent scholar and Institute mainstay Charles R. Kesler and features regular columns by Boston College faculty member Martha Bayles, as well as novelist and journalist Mark Helprin.
Publius Fellows program
The Publius program is the Institute's oldest fellowship program. Since 1979, the Institute has hosted a number of young conservatives for seminars and symposia on American politics and political thought. Publius fellows, usually college seniors, recent college graduates, and graduate students meet with the Institute's fellows and other distinguished scholars for several weeks during the summer.
Lincoln Fellows program
Since 1996, the internship has offered fellowships to young professionals serving elected officials or appointed policy-makers in the federal government, as well as staff members of national political parties and non-profit institutions that research and publish on public policy and constitutional issues. Among the 60 alumni of the program are senior staff members of U.S. Representatives and Senators, White House speech writers, legal counsel and senior advisors in the U.S. Departments of Justice and State, as well as political editorialists for the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard. Notable alumni of the Lincoln Fellowship include former California State AssemblymanChuck DeVore, now a vice president with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, political commentator Carol Platt Liebau, editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez, attorney and talk radio hostMark Levin, and Delaware politician Christine O'Donnell. More recently Claremont has come under heavy criticism "for beclowning itself with embrace of the smarmy underside of American politics" by naming certain fellows such as Mytheos Holt and the conspiracy theoristJack Posobiec.
2010 Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Medallion from the Claremont Institute in 2004 a year after she hired John C. Eastman of the Claremont Institute to fight the Supreme Court decision when then Governor Kenny Guinn sued the Legislature to nullify the state constitution and allow a simple majority of the legislature to pass an $836 million tax increase in Angle v. Guinn. In 2006, the state supreme court reversed its 2003 decision and restored the Nevada Constitution's two-thirds vote provision.
