TAMPA, Fla. — The presidential election is less than two weeks away and one big concern for many voters is "Project 2025."
It's a controversial set of conservative policies the Heritage Foundation would like the next administration to consider.
Project 2025 is more than 900 pages long. The plan is just recommendations, but some see it as a blueprint.
In Tampa’s oldest Black church, Hillsborough County's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hosted an event on Sunday to educate voters about some of the policies within the Heritage Foundation document, including ultimately eliminating the Department of Education.
“This is very hurtful that you have a certain group of people who are pushing this hatred towards people and yet they say land of the free home of the brave,” Yvette Lewis, Hillsborough County’s NAACP branch president said.
It's also pushing for stricter abortion regulations.
“Whether we're talking about the impact on women's reproductive freedom, whether we're talking about affordable housing, whether we're talking about education, there is absolutely nothing positive that will be of impact for Tampa Bay,” Laurell Jones, Beulah Baptist Institutional church member said.
People with ties to Donald Trump oversaw portions of the plan.
“I mean, some of them I know who they are, but they are very, very conservative. They're sort of the opposite of the radical left. You have the radical left and then you have the radical right,” Trump said.
The former president has distanced himself from this initiative.
“I don't know anything about it. I don't want to know anything about it,” Trump said.
But, Vice President Kamala Harris isn't buying it.
“His DNA is all over it. All over it. In Project 2025, it is a blueprint. A detailed blueprint that is about the danger and the detail for what Donald Trump and his allies plan if he is in the white house again,” Harris said.
It worries some local leaders like Rep. Fentrice Driskell.
“Anytime I think you're talking about Donald Trump look at his actions and look at his words in the greater context,” Rep. Driskell said.
Others are not moved.
“They try to make a boogeyman out of Project 2025. The problem is the person who is deciding what policies we'll be pushing for the next for years should or when President Trump wins, he's going to drive that ship and he's going to decide what those policies are. He already listed 20 major policy issues. Those are going to be his priority,” Tom Gaines with the Hillsborough County Republican Party said.
This is not the first time the Heritage Foundation has released a list of policies for the president. The foundation said some of its recommendations have been adopted as far back as the Reagan administration.