For many years, the AHA has believed that its advocacy works best when it is informed by experts in governmental affairs work. We have always been open about these partnerships, but as misinformation has been circulating recently, we want to provide accurate information about the experts we employ, the work they do, and how we use the advice they provide.
Background on the AHA’s Work with Governmental Relations Experts
Support for federal advocacy is a commitment the AHA has made to our discipline since at least the Reagan Administration. For more than four decades, we have ensured that history is supported by an experienced lobbyist, who is able to make connections on Capitol Hill and help us navigate federal policies affecting historical research and education. From 1982–2024, that work was done in collaboration with other leading history organizations through the National Coalition for History (NCH), a nonprofit whose executive director was a registered lobbyist hired to advocate for federal, state, and local legislative and regulatory issues. The AHA was a founder of and the largest financial contributor to the NCH from its inception in 1982 until its dissolution in December 2024, when its executive director retired.
To ensure continuity of advocacy efforts after the dissolution of the NCH, the AHA and other NCH member organizations worked to identify the most effective and economical approach for lobbying services for the discipline. After wide consultation among experts with government relations experience in Washington, DC, the AHA and three other NCH member organizations decided to hire a government relations and lobbying firm. The AHA shifted funds previously budgeted for the NCH and joined these partner organizations to pay for these services. (Because the AHA is the official contracting organization, lobbying disclosure records attribute those shared costs solely to the AHA.)
Thorn Run Partners was awarded the contract after an extensive process that included a request for proposals and interviews with the partnering history organizations. Thorn Run was selected because of its bipartisan connections, reputation for integrity, familiarity with our discipline, and widely recognized expertise in higher education and federal grantmaking agencies. Education is among the firm’s top areas of focus, and universities and other nonprofits are among its clients.
What Is Government Relations?
Government relations is the broader work of developing an organization’s relationship with public officials. Lobbying is a subset of government relations and focuses on influencing specific policies (such as the recent OMB proposal that would give political appointees control over federal grantmaking). Hiring government relations experts is not a political choice; it is a standard strategy used by major educational organizations and nonprofits across the country. Given the current environment in Washington, DC, and at the state level, and our advocacy on behalf of our members and the discipline, having access to that expertise is now more important than ever.
What Sort of Work Does Thorn Run Do for the AHA?
Thorn Run provides services typical of lobbying and government relations firms, such as monitoring legislative and agency developments, providing analysis of emerging policy and appropriations issues, coordinating outreach to Congressional offices, and facilitating engagement with policymakers around issues relevant to historians. They provide, for instance, guidance on our official comments on proposed federal policy submitted to the Federal Register.
Thorn Run also provides advocacy training for members of the partner associations. At the AHA, this has included a federal advocacy webinar open to the public, as well as an annual meeting session that was covered in Perspectives on History. These efforts are designed to help our members understand the AHA’s work in Washington and to help them undertake their own advocacy about issues they care about.
Thorn Run also provides for the AHA Council a periodic report summarizing the federal outlook, which includes perceived vulnerabilities for the discipline and the Association. AHA members will appreciate that in 2025–26, these risks are considerable, and recently have included administrative, legislative, and nonprofit threats related to the very real and increasing federal use of financial and tax-exempt oversight to scrutinize the operations of mission-driven nonprofits. In 2026, Thorn Run’s assessment briefly referenced the Council’s prior veto of resolutions passed at the business meeting, noting that the decision was aligned with the Association’s duty to its mission and its Congressional charter. But, like all the materials Thorn Run produces for Council and staff consideration, this assessment was purely advisory. The Council alone has made, and will continue to make, policy decisions for the AHA. When doing so, the Council considers Thorn Run’s advice alongside that of other experts and in the wider context of the AHA’s mission, legal responsibilities, and the needs of AHA members.
Thorn Run does not advise on AHA elections. They do not craft AHA communications to our members. They do not make any decisions for the AHA, including decisions on the making of statements or the acceptance or vetoing of resolutions.
Addressing Member Concerns About Gaza
Misinformation is also circulating that suggests that Thorn Run has prevented the AHA from speaking out on the atrocities that have been, and continue to be, perpetrated in Gaza. This is false. In 2025, the AHA condemned the “intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities, and archives in Gaza.” In January 2026, the Council issued a statement that reads:
“We recognize and deplore the killing of scholars and students and the destruction of archives, libraries, museums, and universities in Gaza. Numerous AHA members as well as international humanitarian and human rights groups have concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. We also express our horror at the violence unleashed by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The loss of life and the destruction of educational and historical resources are matters of grave concern to us as people and members of the historical community.”
Moreover, in our publications and programming, including the annual meeting, we provide opportunities for members and other historians to address issues relating to Gaza, and we continue to invite engagement.
What Has the AHA Achieved Through Its Federal Advocacy Efforts?
The AHA’s advocacy work is extensive. For example, in the past year we have:
- Fought executive orders related to history and historians, as well as attempts to close archival facilities, remove museum exhibits or signage, and institute policies that would have devastating effects for history and history education
- Helped members make their own voices heard on proposed policies that would affect historians, such as “patriotic” education priorities, a proposal to rescind international education programs, and threats to the peer review of federal grants
- Written advocacy guides to provide members with tools and information on issues ranging from policies affecting international scholars to defending tenure
- Sued the National Endowment for the Humanities alongside the American Council of Learned Societies and the Modern Language Association and won on behalf of our members
- Mounted another lawsuit against the Trump administration alongside American Oversight to preserve presidential records. This case is consequential not just for our discipline but for American democracy. It is supported in amicus briefs by 106 members of Congress, 25 former senior national security officials who served under presidents of both parties, and seven former senior leaders of the National Archives and Records Administration, including former archivists of the United States.
- Filed two amicus briefs, one in support of Harvard University’s lawsuit over the university’s ability to host foreign scholars and students, and another in support of the City of Philadelphia’s lawsuit challenging the removal of the Freedom and Slavery Exhibit at Independence National Historical Park
- Collaborated with other organizations to try to make a difference for historians and humanities scholars generally
As we pursue this work, Thorn Run Partners has supported the AHA and our partner organizations in defending and championing our discipline on Capitol Hill.
The AHA is actively engaged in addressing the crucial issues and urgent challenges facing our members and the work of historians. And we could not do this work without the analysis provided and connections facilitated by government relations experts. We undertake these efforts to support all historians and to advance the importance and integrity of the history discipline overall.