Alabama’s Rainy Day Patriots (RDP) announced this afternoon that today marks their 5th anniversary as one of the state’s most active conservative grassroots groups.
“It all started on Feb. 27, 2009 when 15 or so us original folks stood in a storm holding signs with no idea what we were getting into and how hard the fight was going to be,” RDP president Zan Green told Yellowhammer. “We left that day laughing at ourselves for being ‘rainy day patriots.’ The name stuck and we are still in the fight today.”
Rainy Day Patriots has become the most recognizable Tea Party group in the state over the last few years. Along with the Wetumpka Tea Party, RDP was named one of Yellowhammer’s “Top 5 conservative groups in Alabama” last year.
Here’s what we wrote about them at the time:
The Birmingham-based Rainy Day Patriots tea party group bussed conservative activists into swing states during the 2012 presidential campaign. They also work closely with Americans for Prosperity, drawing the ire of Alabama liberals who accuse them of having ties to the (gasp!) Koch Brothers.
Last year RDP’s “Legislative Watchdogs” were omnipresent in the halls and committee rooms of the Alabama state house. Common Core was the biggest issue of the last session for a lot of grassroots conservative groups, but RDP stood out by engaging on a broad range of issues thanks in large part to their commitment to learning the legislative process.
Central Alabama Republicans go out of their way to keep the lines of communications open to their region’s most active grassroots group.
Green said today that the credit for RDP’s success over the past five years belongs to the group’s members.
“I for one never foresaw or planned on this 5 year stint, but the movement has taken on a life of its own, it runs us, not the other way around,” she said. “My name is on the paper work, I am the founder, but the force is the members, the Patriots, the doers and those determined to press on. Happy Anniversary to all the Patriots that have been involved over the past 5 years with the Rainy Day Patriots, a Tea Party. Many have come and gone, but the impact of their time and efforts have made a difference.”
Here are a few photos from the first time RDP members met to wave signs in the rain exactly five years ago today.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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