Victoria Coates of Heritage Foundation to Address 2026 PA Leadership Conference

Register TODAY at www.paleadershipconference.org

(Harrisburg, PA) Victoria Coates, Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation, will speak on national security issues at the 2026 Pennsylvania Leadership Conference which will be held April 9-11, 2026 at the Penn Harris Convention Center in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

The featured dinner speaker will be Newsmax founder/CEO Chris Ruddy. Washington Examiner columnist and Fox News contributor Joe Concha will be the luncheon speaker. Speakers include Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid “JD” Longo; State Treasurer and Republican gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity, U.S. Representative Scott Perry, Cliff Maloney of the Citizens Alliance, U.S. Senator David McCormick, Pennsylvania Attorney General David Sunday, Commonwealth Foundation President & CEO Andrew Lewis, Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry President & CEO Luke Bernstein, and state Senator Doug Mastriano. Additional speakers will be announced.

The Pennsylvania Leadership Conference is the premiere gathering of public policy conservatives each year in the Keystone State. It is the largest and longest-running of the state-based conservative conferences regularly attracting a long list of conservative elected officials, scholars, journalists, and activists for three days of speeches, panel presentations, workshops, and networking.

Registration for the 2026 Pennsylvania Leadership Conference is NOW OPEN at www.paleadershipconference.org.

The full conference agenda is posted at www.paleadershipconference.org

This year’s Pennsylvania Leadership Conference will provide attendees with an expanded menu of workshop sessions on Thursday and a new welcome reception on Thursday evening.

Workshop sessions include: From Community to the Capitol: Recruiting the Right Leaders; Stop Shapiro’s Tax Hikes; Getting Stuff Right: Protecting Life, Families & Religious Liberty; Are Your Ready to Run: Questions to Ask Yourself Before Running for Office; Show Me the Money: Putting the Fun in Fundraising; Faith & Politics: Appealing to Conservatives of Faith; Social Media: Battling the Keyboard Warriors; Public Speaking: Overcoming the World’s # 1 Fear; Capturing the Youth Vote: Engaging a New Generation: The Real Nature of Politics; Powering Pennsylvania: Energy Policy, Prices and Jobs; Roadmap to an America First Immigration System: Election Integrity & Litigation: Inside and Outside the Commonwealth; Pennsylvania’s Shifting Coalitions; A History of the Republican Party.

The 2026 Pennsylvania Leadership Conference will feature five panel presentations including: The Health Care Check Up: Why Competition Beats Bureaucracy; Ain’t Got Stuff Done: Examining Governor Shapiro’s record; Ideas to Impacts: Entrepreneurship in Pennsylvania; Protect Women’s Sports; and Powering the Future: Energy and AI in Pennsylvania.

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Victoria Coates is Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation. She is a former deputy national security advisor to President Donald Trump. With decades of experience as a national security advisor in Congress, federal agencies, and the White House, Coates leads the Davis Institute in designing and promoting policies that prioritize the security of American citizens while protecting our interests around the world.

In 2007, Coates left academia to become the director of research in former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s personal office. Coates then joined then-Governor Rick Perry’s primary campaign for president as senior advisor. In 2013, Coates became senior national security advisor for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). In the Senate, Coates oversaw planning, strategy, and communications for Cruz’s participation in writing the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

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