The Ruling Class at Stanford

Ryan P. Williams has served as President of The Claremont Institute since 2017, following more than a decade of leadership roles within the organization as Chief Operating Officer, Director of Programs, and Director of Special Projects. A 2004 Publius Fellow, he has been central to shaping Claremont’s strategic direction and expanding its influence as the foremost intellectual institution in American conservatism—revitalizing the Founders’ principles, mentoring rising statesmen, and generating scholarship that shapes national discourse.

Under his leadership, Claremont launched the Center for the American Way of Life in Washington, D.C., its first permanent presence in the nation’s capital, and established The American Mind, a digital publication devoted to recovering and defending American political thought. In 2019, the Institute was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Donald J. Trump, only the second think tank ever to receive this presidential honor.

Mr. Williams holds a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Hillsdale College and an M.A. in Politics from Claremont Graduate University. He has taught American politics and political philosophy as an adjunct professor at California State University, San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona. His commentary and analysis have appeared widely, and he frequently speaks on constitutionalism, statesmanship, and the challenges facing modern American political life.

Dr. Charles R. Kesler is a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, Editor of the Claremont Review of Books, host of Claremont’s The American Mind video series, and the Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College.

Dr. Kesler also teaches in the Claremont Institute’s Publius Fellows Program and Lincoln Fellows Program. He received his B.A. in Social Studies and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. From 1989 to 2008, Dr. Kesler was director of CMC’s Henry Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World.

He is the recipient of the prestigious 2018 Bradley Prize, a high honor bestowed upon distinguished individuals who have influenced American scholarship and debate.

From September 2000 to March 2001, he served as vice chairman of the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Congress’s James Madison Commemoration Commission.

He was selected in June 2000 as a member of the Scholars Commission on the Jefferson-Hemings Issue sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society.

Dr. Kesler is the author of I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism (Broadside Books); the editor of Saving the Revolution: The Federalist Papers and the American Founding (Free Press); co-editor, with John B. Kienker, of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Ten Years of the Claremont Review of Books (Rowman & Littlefield); and co-editor, with William F. Buckley, Jr., of Keeping the Tablets: Modern American Conservative Thought (HarperCollins). He has written extensively on American constitutionalism and political thought, and his edition of The Federalist Papers (Signet Classics) is the best-selling edition in the country.

Anton is the Jack Roth Senior Fellow in American Politics at the Claremont Institute, where he teaches in the Institute’s fellowship programs and writes for the Claremont Review of Books. 

In President Trump’s first administration, Anton served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication on the National Security Council Staff at the White House. He also served for four years on the NSC staff in the George W. Bush administration.

Anton is the author of Dispatches from the Late Republic and the forthcoming Studies in Machiavellian Political Philosophy. He is also the author of three other books and co-editor of one essay collection. 

In addition, Anton has been widely published in both mainstream and academic press, including in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Interpretation, and Perspectives on Political Science. He is perhaps best known as the author of “The Flight 93 Election,” the 2016 viral essay that galvanized many to support then-candidate Trump. 

Steven Hayward is a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute; the Thomas Smith Distinguished Fellow at the John M. Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, where he directs the Ashbrook Center's new program in political economy; and is also the William Simon Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Public Policy.

For the last decade, Hayward was the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow in Law and Economics at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a Senior Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco.

Hayward frequently writes for Powerlinelineblog.com and serves as a guest host for Bill Bennett’s national radio show “Morning in America” on the Salem Broadcasting Network, which is carried by 230 stations with an average daily listenership of 3 million. His most recent book is The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents, From Wilson to Obama.

Hayward received a Ph.D. in American studies and M.A. in government from Claremont Graduate School and a B.S. in business and administrative studies from Lewis and Clark College.