Dallas City Wire

The official reason given for the last-minute cancellation of the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) Mobilize 2020 event in Dallas was “force majeure,” unforeseen circumstances that were out of the city’s control.

YAL officials can think of a handful of other terms that would better describe the poor handling of the situation. The event was scheduled to be held from Thursday through Sunday, but three days before it was to open at the Omni Hotel, the city pulled the plug. 

YAL President Cliff Maloney said the city didn’t even bother to let the group know that its event had been canceled.

YAL President Cliff Maloney | Contributed photo

“We were actually notified by the venue, which informed us of the city’s order right after it came out – only 72 hours before the event was scheduled to begin,” Maloney told Dallas City Wire.

However, other political activities have been allowed to continue in the city, he noted.

“The fact that our event was cancelled while violent riots and protests have been allowed to continue in Dallas for well over 40 days is incredibly infuriating,” Maloney said. “The students we planned to bring had been looking forward to Mobilize 2020 for months. They wanted to gather peacefully for an educational training event, and – for political reasons – were told 'no' at the very last minute. This makes the entire decision seem biased and hypocritical.”

Maloney said the event was to feature several prominent conservative speakers, including former Texas state Rep. Ron Paul, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Kentucky state Rep. Thomas Massie, Michigan state Rep. Justin Amash, Nick Freitas, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs (a.k.a. WWE star Kane), Fox News host Kat Timpf and Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, host of “Kennedy” on Fox News.

In addition, training and educational workshops were slated in preparation for YAL’s fall campus programs and its grassroots movement, Operation Win at the Door.

“We had been planning the event for over a year,” Maloney said. “Throughout the event, we had planned on a wide array of training workshops, breakout sessions, panel discussions, presentations and lectures from our esteemed strategic partners.”

YAL had spent nearly $200,000 to plan the event, he said.

“The timing of the city’s cancellation of our event is absolutely unacceptable and unprofessional,” Maloney said. “They waited until we had all of our staging, banners and A/V equipment at the venue before they made this decision. If they were going to cancel, they should have done this weeks ago.

“We want to thank Omni Hotels for working with us and trying their best to work with the government tyrants at the city who threw constant roadblocks and challenges at us every step of the way.”

Young Americans for Liberty is a national college grassroots organization with 20,119 official members. YAL's mission is to identify, educate, train and mobilize youth activists to make liberty win, according to Maloney.

In 2020, YAL plans to deploy 1,000 door-knockers across America and knock on over 1 million doors in targeted elections, he said. 

Intended as an educational event, Mobilize 2020 did leave Maloney with a hard-earned lesson.

“If you give a bureaucrat an inch, they’ll take a mile of your freedom,” he said. “We worked with them every step of the way. They said, ‘You have to wear masks,’ and we said, 'Okay.' They said, ‘You have to do boxed lunches.’ We said. 'Okay.' They said, ‘Travel mates have to be roommates,’ and we said, 'Okay.' Yet they still waited until the last minute to pull the plug and put us in an un-winnable situation.”