Job Creators Network


The Job Creators Network is a conservative U.S. advocacy group. It was founded by Bernie Marcus, the co-founder and former CEO of Home Depot.
The organization has received significant funding from the Mercer Family Foundation, a private grant-making foundation that invested about $70 million into conservative causes between 2009 and 2014.

Overview

The organization advocates for free-market solutions, lower taxes and fewer government regulations. The organizations motto is: "We are the Voice of Main Street."
The organization also runs the "Information Station" website, which offers "explainer" type videos and articles from a pro-business perspective.

Activities

In 2015, JCN and Carly Fiorina launched a “National Women’s Coalition,” with the goal of “giving added voice to women business leaders around the country.”
JCN launched a "Bring Small Businesses Back" campaign in 2016. In April 2016, JCN hosted a BSBB event in Orlando featuring Frank Luntz, Mike Gallagher, and a panel of small business owners.
Throughout 2017, JCN advocated for tax reform through a campaign dubbed “Tax Cuts Now”, and offered the group’s support to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Tax Cuts Now campaign included a bus tour that made stops across the country.
In addition to the bus tour, the campaign included advertising in the mediums of print, digital, and television. Notable public figures voiced their support for the campaign including billionaire Steve Forbes and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who penned an op-ed in USA TODAY with Brad Anderson, former CEO of Best Buy and a member of JCN.
JCN launched another bus tour in 2018, with the goal of touting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a success. Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan joined JCN at stops on the tour, including one hosted at a small business in Clinton, Wisconsin.
In February 2019, the group put up a billboard in New York City's Times Square blaming U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Amazon's decision to abandon the building of the company's second headquarters in Queens. After the congresswoman tweeted that the billboard was "wack", JCN put up two more billboards, one saying "Hey AOC, saw your wack tweet", the other, "Hey AOC, this billboard cost about $4,000. But you cost NY 25,000 jobs and $4,000,000,000 in annual lost wages."
In October 2019, JCN Foundation, the 501 of JCN, released a framework for an affordable care act rollback under their lobbying group Healthcare For You. Other groups in the Healthcare For You coalition include Physicians for Reform, Americans for Fair Taxation, American Hotel and Lodging Association, Young Americans Against Socialism, and Colorado Business Roundtable.

COVID-19 experimental drug lobbying

JCN and related entities have promoted experimental drugs as part of the COVID-19 pandemic, through their lobbying group Healthcare For You. They have placed Facebook ads to generate support for a petition, texted physicians, and lobbied the White House to encourage chloroquine as an experimental treatment for COVID-19, the disease responsible for the pandemic. Its use has been promoted by Donald Trump, Sean Hannity, and Rudy Giuliani, among others. Their spokesperson, Elaine Parker, stated that over 700 doctors had signed the petition. JCN's president, Alfredo Ortiz, has been in direct contact with Steven Mnuchin, speaking with him three times in one day during stimulus package discussions. Trump and other White House staff have financial ties to drugmakers that are ramping up production of the drug.

Membership

JCN was founded by Bernie Marcus, the co-founder and former CEO of Home Depot. Since January 2014, the organization's president and CEO is Alfredo Ortiz, a former Pepsi and Kraft executive, while the president and director of communications for the JCN foundation is Elaine Parker. Its members include: