#Utah Republican Primary

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The only reason John Arthur is able to be a public school teacher is because his wife makes much more money than he does.

Arthur — the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year — testified on Thursday at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the challenges facing public school teachers.

Arthur, who is also a member of the National Education Association and holds National Board Certification, pointed to pay as the main reason for both teachers leaving the profession and parents not wanting their children to become teachers.

“The No. 1 solution to addressing the issues we face must be increasing teachers’ salaries,” said Arthur, who teaches at Meadowlark Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Gemayel Keyes, a teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School in Philadelphia, told the committee that even as an educator, he still has an additional part-time job.

The special education teacher spent most of his career in education as a paraprofessional. At the time he moved into that role, the starting annual salary was $16,000 and the maximum was $30,000.

“It’s still pretty much the same,” he said.

MINIMUM TEACHER SALARY

Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, introduced a bill in March 2023 that would set an annual base salary of $60,000 for public elementary and secondary school teachers.

“We understand that the children, young people of this country, are our future and there is, in fact … nothing more important that we can do to provide a quality education to all of our young people, and yet, for decades, public school teachers have been overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and maybe most importantly, underappreciated,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.

“Compared to many other occupations, our public school teachers are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety, stress and burnout, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic,” he said.

Sanders said 44% of public school teachers are quitting their profession within five years, citing “the extremely low pay teachers receive” as one of the primary reasons for a massive U.S. teacher shortage.

For the 2023-24 school year, a whopping 86% of K-12 public schools in the country documented challenges in hiring teachers, according to an October report from the National Center for Education Statistics.

MARYLAND SETS $60,000 MINIMUM

But a minimum annual teacher salary of $60,000 is not far off for every state.

In Maryland, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future raises the starting salary for teachers to $60,000 a year by July 2026.

William E. Kirwan, vice chair of Maryland’s Accountability and Implementation Board, said the multi-year comprehensive plan, passed in 2021 in the Maryland General Assembly, “addresses all aspects of children’s education from birth to high school completion, including most especially, the recruitment, retention and compensation of high quality teachers.”

Kirwan said the “Blueprint’s principle for teacher compensation is that, as professionals, teachers should be compensated at the same level as other professionals requiring similar levels of education, such as architects and CPAs.”

AN “ALLOCATION ISSUE”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the committee, dubbed Democrats’ solution of creating a federal minimum salary for teachers as a “laudable goal.”

But he noted that “the federal government dictating how states spend their money does not address the root cause of why teachers are struggling to teach in the classroom.”

“More mandates and funding cannot be the only answer we come up with. We must examine broken policies that got us here and find solutions to improve,” the Louisiana Republican said.

Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, a parents’ rights group, argued that “schools don’t have a resource issue” but rather an “allocation issue.”

“There’s a saying: ‘Don’t tell me where your priorities are, show me where you spend your money, and I’ll tell you what they are.’ Education leaders routinely choose to spend money on programs and personnel that don’t directly benefit students,” said Neily.

Neily pointed to a 2021 report from the Heritage Foundation, which found that “standardized test results show that achievement gaps are growing wider over time in districts with (chief diversity officers).” Such staff members commonly encourage efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion in schools.

Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said “higher pay does not ease the burden we place on teachers or add hours to their day.”

“By all means, raise teacher pay, but do not assume that it will solve teacher shortages or keep good teachers in the classroom. Poor training, deteriorating classroom conditions, shoddy curriculum and spiraling demands have made an already challenging job nearly impossible to do well and sustainably,” he added.

[beardedmrbean]

The U.S. Department of Justice said an illegal immigrant has reached an agreement to plead guilty to charges related to stealing a U.S. citizen's identity to vote in multiple elections and fraudulently obtain an American passport. 

Angelica Maria Francisco, a 42-year-old undocumented individual who most recently resided in Russellville, Alabama, is facing a nine-count information filed in federal court for false claims of citizenship in connection with voting, false statements in application for a United States passport, use of a United States passport obtained by false statements, and aggravated identity theft.  

A plea agreement was filed as well, indicating that Francisco has agreed to plead guilty to all nine counts, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Prim F. Escalona and Resident Agent in Charge Joseph R. Wysowaty of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Atlanta Resident Office announced on Thursday. 

Francisco is accused of assuming the identity of a U.S. citizen in or around 2011. Prosecutors say she used the false identity to get an American passport in 2011. She then allegedly used the passport to travel to and from her native Guatemala in 2012, 2015 and 2018. Using the same identity, she allegedly also registered to vote in Alabama in 2016, before voting in the 2016 and 2020 primary and general elections.

In 2021, Francisco allegedly used the same false identity to apply for and receive a renewed passport, which she used to travel to and from Guatemala in 2022.

The State Department's Diplomatic Security Service investigated the case, with assistance from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the East Metro Area Crime Center, and the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office. 

"I have been very clear that a top priority of this Office is ensuring only eligible American citizens are voting in Alabama elections," Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said in a statement. "I want to thank the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Alabama for their diligent efforts investigating and charging this individual. We will continue to assist law enforcement in every way possible as they prosecute individuals who vote illegally in Alabama elections to the fullest extent of the law." 

Allen, a Republican, has made election integrity a top priority this cycle and previously sounded the alarm to Fox News Digital about how state agencies receiving federal funding are required under Executive Order 14019 to send out voter registration information to anyone who comes into contact with those agencies without any verification of citizenship. President Biden signed the order in 2021 as a way of "promoting access to voting," but Republicans argue that its broad interpretation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 essentially mobilizes the federal government apparatus to become voter registration agencies. 

At the Republican National Convention in July, Allen told Fox News Digital that he had also spoken with House Speaker Mike Johnson regarding a piece of legislation called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which aims to require states to obtain proof of citizenship – in person – when registering an individual to vote and require states to remove non-citizens from existing voter rolls. 

Last month, prominent conservative Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, pushed for the SAVE Act to be attached to a spending bill extension to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year. 

"Punting new government spending into 2025 when we have a new President and attaching the SAVE Act ensures House Republicans avoid a Biden-Harris lame duck omnibus and secures our elections at the same time," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said in a statement on Friday. "The Senate can either ensure only eligible American citizens are voting in our elections – or shut down the government. To me, it’s a no-brainer."

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alex Bollinger at LGBTQ Nation:

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) declared June the “Month of Bridge Building” instead of saying that it’s Pride Month, and he’s facing criticism for shifting the focus from LGBTQ+ awareness and Pride to the nonexistent oppression of anti-LGBTQ+ people. Cox issued a declaration for the Month of Bridge Building this past Saturday, June 1. His declaration said that LGBTQ Utahns “have experienced marginalization and isolation as a result of their differences.” In the next paragraph, his declaration says that “those who do not identify with, celebrate or support Pride celebrations… nevertheless share the experience of being marginalized.” His declaration goes on to say, “In Utah, we love our children and we hope to live in such a way that our children will forever love us even if at times we may disagree over deeply-held personal views or beliefs.”

[...] He also issued straightforward Pride Month declarations in 2021 and 2022. But in 2023, he got criticized by conservatives for issuing a Pride Month declaration, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, who called it “disgraceful” and “disgusting.” On the left, some criticized his Pride Month declaration for coming just after he signed the gender-affirming care ban. He considered himself “an ally to the LGBTQ community” in a 2023 interview, saying, “We have great relationships, I am very close with the advocates in our state.” He’s now facing a serious primary challenger from the right in state Rep. Phil Lyman as he runs for governor again. This past April, Cox was booed when he spoke at the Republican State Nominating Convention. Delegates at the convention overwhelmingly supported Lyman. “Maybe you’re booing me because you hate that I signed the largest tax cut in Utah history,” Cox said. “Maybe you hate that I signed constitutional carry into law. Maybe you hate that we ended CRT, DEI, and ESG. Or maybe you hate that I don’t hate enough.” Cox was attacked for suggesting that he was getting booed because the state Republican delegates were hateful, even though his veto of the sports ban in 2022 has been one of Lyman’s main criticisms of him.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R) issued a bothsiderist declaration that June is Month Of Bridge Building instead of declaring Pride Month by pushing the baseless trope that anti-LGBTQ+ Utahns “share the experience of being marginalized.”

This is a far cry from the days in which Cox was at least somewhat an LGBTQ+ ally (or what passes as one) for a GOP politician.

[gwydionmisha]

Presidential Primaries are ongoing:

NOTE: There is now a call for people to vote "uncommitted" in the Democratic primary as a protest against Biden's Israel policy, I have voted that way in my up coming primary. The time to pressure Biden with your vote is now, not in November. The more of us who do this the more likely he'll actually do something.

North Dakota: (Republicans), 3/4/24

Alabama, Alaska (Republicans), Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa (Democrats), Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, American Samoa (Democrats): 3/5/24

Hawaii: (Democrats): 3/6/24

American Samoa (Republicans): 3/8/24

Know your state's schedule and where to vote. Make sure you and your friends are registered. If you are voting in person, plan how to get there.

If you live in an open primary state consider voting strategically. Otherwise, vote your heart in the primary. Remember how all those votes for Sanders and Warren pushed Biden and the party platform further left?

Remember to vote in all the races, not just the top of the ticket even if it's in a separate primary (as it is in my state). Who runs congress, your state, and your local government really matters. In some states this is a separate primary. Check the rules for your state.

Never, ever sleep on a chance to vote.

It is always better to vote for someone who will listen to us than to let someone who is actively trying to kill us.

[darkmaga-retard]

When Rudy Giuliani ran for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, he had already flip-flopped on abortion once. Having switched from pro-life to pro-choice in his first New York City mayoral campaign, he didn’t think he could plausibly change back for the Republican presidential primaries.

Still basking in the glow of being “America’s Mayor” on 9/11, Giuliani sought the presidential nomination of a pro-life party as a pro-choice candidate. But he did make a few modifications to his position: He defended the partial-birth abortion ban, which he had opposed during his short-lived 2000 Senate campaign in New York, backed parental-notification laws, and vowed to appoint “strict constructionists” to the Supreme Court who might someday vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Giuliani sat atop the national polls for most of 2007, making him the Republican frontrunner. But his pro-choice position ultimately proved fatal, as it informed his disastrous political strategy of skipping the early states. Iowa and South Carolina were too socially conservative for a New York abortion rights advocate. New Hampshire might have more fertile ground, but he feared losing to Mitt Romney, then of neighboring Massachusetts.

Romney switched from pro-choice to pro-life and was rewarded with the Republican presidential nomination four years later. (He would later have to switch states from Massachusetts to Utah to continue his political career, but that’s another story.) So did Donald Trump four years after that.

Unlike Romney, Trump was elected president. And unlike Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, the judges Trump appointed did overturn Roe v. Wade. If Robert Bork as well as Clarence Thomas had been confirmed, it might have happened 30 years earlier—but he wasn’t, and it didn’t.

[byler-alarmist]

HERE IS THE LIST OF PRIMARY ELECTION DAYS FOR ALL US STATES AND TERRITORIES

For several states, you must submit your ballot BY TODAY (March 5th) (Alabama, American Samoa Democratic presidential caucuses, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa Democratic caucus mail vote, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah Democratic presidential primary and Republican presidential caucuses, Vermont, and Virginia)

Here is where you can find the deadlines to cast a ballot (local times)

Vote down the ballot with special attention paid to your local offices and ballot measures!

IT'S SUPER TUESDAY; GO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!!!!

[mariacallous]

NEW YORK (AP) — Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel will leave her post on March 8, having been forced out of the GOP’s national leadership as Donald Trump moves toward another presidential nomination and asserts control over the party.

McDaniel announced her decision in a statement on Monday morning.

“I have decided to step aside at our Spring Training on March 8 in Houston to allow our nominee to select a Chair of their choosing,” McDaniel said in the statement. “The RNC has historically undergone change once we have a nominee and it has always been my intention to honor that tradition.”

The move was not a surprise. Trump earlier in the month announced his preference for North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley, a little-known veteran operative focused in recent years on the prospect of voter fraud, to replace McDaniel. Trump also picked his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to serve as committee co-chair.

The 50-year-old McDaniel was a strong advocate for the former president and helped reshape the GOP in his image. But Trump’s MAGA movement increasingly blamed McDaniel for the former president’s 2020 loss and the party’s failures to meet expectations in races the last two years.

In addition to McDaniel, RNC co-chair Drew McKissick said he would also leave.

The leadership shakeup comes as the GOP shifts from the primary phase to the general election of the 2024 presidential contest. While former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has remained in the race, Trump has won every state in the primary calendar and could clinch the Republican nomination by mid-March.

Trump cannot make leadership changes without the formal backing of the RNC’s 168-member governing body, but McDaniel had little choice but to acquiesce to Trump’s wishes given his status as the party’s likely presidential nominee and his popularity with party activists. RNC members from across the country are expected to approve Trump’s decision in March.

McDaniel was the the committee’s longest-serving leader since the Civil War. The niece of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and a former chair of the Michigan GOP, she was Trump’s hand-picked choice to lead the RNC chair shortly after the 2016 election. Her profile as a suburban mother was also considered especially helpful as the party struggled to appeal to suburban women in the Trump era.

McDaniel easily beat back criticism from opponents within the “Make America Great Again” movement to win reelection as party chair a year ago. But her opponents’ voices are carrying more weight. The party is also struggling to raise money. The RNC reported $8.7 million in the bank at the beginning of February compared to the Democratic National Committee’s $24 million.

As Trump’s grip on a third presidential nomination tightens, his allies are moving to direct the party’s resources and activists around his campaign.

Lara Trump has suggested that GOP voters would likely want the RNC to cover her father-in-law’s legal bills given that they see the 91 felony counts against him as an example of political persecution. It’s unclear whether the RNC’s 168 members will eventually agree.

And Trump also wants allies who echo his false theories of voter fraud.

That’s a key reason why Trump is believed to have tapped Whatley, currently the North Carolina GOP chair and general counsel to the RNC.

Trump won North Carolina in 2020 by just over 1 percentage point and the state is expected to be highly competitive again this year.

Whatley has taken credit for hiring an army of lawyers ahead of the 2020 election, which he has said stymied Democratic efforts to commit voter fraud that year. There was no evidence of any intentional efforts to commit widespread voter fraud in multiple investigations and court cases.

Whatley also has strong connections to the political establishment. His resume includes experience as an oil and gas lobbyist and links to establishment figures like George W. Bush and former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C.

[inkandguns]

So if you’re crossing the border illegally Utah is the best state to head to. It’s so beautiful and apparently welcoming. I might have to show up as a migrant from Washington for these benefits.

[nerdlog]

Why is no one talking about the new porn ID laws in the US?

In order to "keep kids safe," several states including Mississippi, Virginia, Louisiana, and Utah have passed laws requiring for porn sites to ask for your ID to access their content.

I am not hyperbolizing when I say this might be the most dangerous law I have ever seen passed since the Patriot Act. The issue is that these laws are being passed by old guys who haven't gotten an erection since Bush was president.

The primary use of this new system is to prevent minors from accessing porn sites. However, think about what your first experience to porn was. Mine was just looking up "boobs" on google and scrolling until I saw something. Turning off safe search makes this method work even easier:

Unless these laws are going to lock EVERY form of web scrubbing besides safe search behind an ID then I have already found 1 of many ways for a curios kid to find porn.

One of the other ways is something that no law maker has ever thought of: going to the second fucking page of Google!

The law just went into effect in my state, so I just looked up "porn" in my browser to see what sites I couldn't access:

Only one website on desktop actually blocked my search: Pornhub. On mobile, xhamster also blocked me from accessing but I don't see it as often. XNXX is French, so I don't think my state can do anything to force them to check my ID, so what will happen is that anyone choosing between a site that has them take a picture of their ID and a website that doesn't will pick the path of least resistance.

This is pretty bad when you realize that most porn on XNXX and other foreign and niche porn sites steal their content from onlyfans, official porn accounts, and paywall porn sites like Brazzers. This law will destroy sex workers' bottom line as more people move to porn scrubbing sites with shady names like maxiporn or zzztube.

The third group this will effect is the consumer. I know you horny bastards probably love your porn as much as I do so this is what will most likely happen within the next few years. The second that republicans take control of the senate, a federal version of this law will take place because no 65 year old Democrat wants to be labeled as "pro-porn" or a groomer. Every US based porn site will require your ID tied to your account. One day, a site you have visited will get hacked, and they will get a picture of your ID. With it, they can use it to make fraudulent purchases, like what happened in this Reddit post from 2 years ago. What is more likely is that millions of americans will be pushed onto sites not worried with the law that allow malware ads to run freely during every video. We will be pushed back into the dark age of porn online, where every click could install a worm.

I tried contacting my senators, but all they could muster was a half assed automated response. If anyone has a better way to protest, please rb with your suggestions.

[algebraicvarietyshow]

7 p.m. ET: Polls close in the Virginia and Vermont primaries.

7:30 p.m. ET: Polls close in North Carolina.

8 p.m. ET: Polls close in Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee and most of Texas.

8:30 p.m. ET: Polls close in Arkansas.

9 p.m. ET: Polls close in Colorado, Minnesota and the rest of Texas.

11 p.m. ET: Polls close in California and in Utah's Republican caucuses.

éjszakai menetrend a legunalmasabb szuperkeddhez amióta ilyeneket tartanak

[awkwardpariah]

Most American political historians will say that the Second American Civil War was the result of a radicalization spiral of the American Conservative movement, beginning roughly with Barry Goldwater's campaign in 1964. They'll also say it was fundamentally the inevitable result of the legacy of White Nationalism pointing to the failure of Reconstruction, the 3/5ths Compromise, the Founders' permissiveness toward slavery during the Revolution, the beginning of the slave system itself in 1619 or 1526, or with Columbus's landings. For most ordinary people today, Civil War II was the result of the election of 2028 and the chaotic events immediately leading up to said election.

On Election Night 2024, Donald Trump watches nervously from his Florida campaign headquarters as the results come in. At midnight on November 6, ten states are still too close to call, and Biden has 241 electoral votes to his 139. Worse still, several states that were a lock for Republicans remain in the too-close to call camp including Alaska and Utah of all places. Like everyone else in the country, Trump has been told repeatedly that its unlikely the election will be decided tonight given the backlog of mail-in ballots. Still the 78 year former President nervously shifts in his seat, periodically reaching to scratch at the ankle monitor forced on him by the Southern District of Florida and the New York State Supreme Court.

The former President has managed to avoid jail for now through a complex web of continuances, arraignment conditions, and in the case of the Southern District of Florida a unique parole deal that has allowed him to avoid serving his prison sentence until after the elections. He is intimately aware of what failure tonight will mean: He will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Even so, the conditions for all these deals have made traditional campaigning difficult, if not impossible. His eldest son, Don Jr. has taken the lead as the primary campaign surrogate, and despite him being coked out of his mind half the time, and facing down his own various criminal investigations, its been enough to keep the base of MAGA diehards energized.

And then it all falls apart. Simply put: overturning Roe, attacking the LGBT community, and the GOP's overt hostility to democracy and the rule of law was more than enough to turn most of the country against the Republicans. Meanwhile a near full employment economy and the defeat of Russia has endeared Joe Biden as America's happy warrior. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are called for Biden, securing him the necessary 270 electoral votes. Texas, Georgia, Utah, Alaska, North Carolina, Ohio, and even Florida remain too close to call, meaning there's a very real chance the final tally will be a Biden Blowout. In a fit, Trump suffers a stroke and falls into a coma, effectively leaving Don Jr. as his successor in the MAGA movement.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz tore into Republican leadership for blowing what he called a "generational opportunity" to win control of Congress in the midterms, calling for fellow Republicans to "fire" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"Just like with a football coach, where you would fire a football coach if the team loses when they should’ve won — we should’ve won," Cruz said.

The comments come as a growing number of Senate Republicans have called for the GOP to delay leadership elections set for this week after Democrats won control of the Senate over the weekend.

A victory in a Georgia runoff, meanwhile, would expand the Democratic majority to 51, and Democrats still have a shot at holding onto the House, though it appears likely the GOP will gain a slim majority there.

"I am so pissed off, I cannot even see straight," Cruz said on his podcast, which was recorded after Democrats clinched the Senate. "The rage Americans are feeling across this country, the rage I am feeling — there are almost not words to describe it."

"This opportunity was screwed up. It was screwed up badly," he said. "And the people who are going to pay the price are the American people. The country is screwed for the next four years because of this."

The Texas Republican is one of at least seven Senators who have urged a delay in the leadership elections. The group also includes Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Josh Hawley of Missouri, according to Politico.

Cruz urged voters to call every Republican in the Senate to push them to get on board. That would include Cruz's fellow Texas Republican, Sen. John Cornyn, who is a close ally of McConnell's.

"It would be insane if we re-elect the same leadership two days from now, if we say, 'Hey nothing happened. Everything’s good. Keep rowing off the waterfall, crash into the rocks, everything’s awesome,'" Cruz said.

McConnell's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Cornyn, meanwhile, gave a speech on the Senate floor on Monday in which he called for a "frank, meaningful conversation, debate even" about the party's priorities.

"I know many of my Republican colleagues are eager to have a frank discussion about the path forward for our party, and it's essential that we do so," Cornyn said. "We need to ensure that in two years, our policies and our message will resonate with the voters.”

Cruz has said he would make another run for the White House "in a heartbeat" after coming in second to former President Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican primaries. Cruz has also put down a marker on 2024 by noting that “the runner-up is almost always the next nominee."

Trump, who has also suggested he will run in 2024, has repeatedly called for Senate Republicans to oust McConnell, though the Kentucky Republican has insisted he has the votes to hold onto his leadership post.

Cruz specifically blamed McConnell for criticizing the quality of Republican candidates in August, though he said he agreed some Republicans were "not very good candidates."

"It’s really dumb for the Republican leader to take a two-by-four to them while they are running," Cruz said. "Once they're our damn nominees, don’t stand up and kneecap them when they’re running."

Cruz also slammed a McConnell-linked super PAC for canceling millions of dollars worth of TV ads in Arizona, where Republican Blake Masters was outspent by Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly. Despite those cancellations, One Nation, a McConnell-aligned PAC, spent $13.1 million in Arizona.

Still, Cruz accused McConnell of using the PAC to fund only GOP candidates who would back his leadership of the party.

"Mitch made a decision: It’s more important to him to have Republicans who will back him than it is to have 51 Republicans," Cruz said. "There’s a certain selfishness that justifies that. It just doesn’t make any sense if you give a damn about the country."

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jonathan Blitzer at The New Yorker:

One evening in April of 2022, a hundred people milled around a patio at Mar-a-Lago, sipping champagne and waiting for Donald Trump to arrive. Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, stood in front of an archway fringed with palm trees and warmed up the crowd with jokes about the deep state. The purpose of the gathering was to raise money for the Center for Renewing America, a conservative policy shop whose most recent annual report emphasized a “commitment to end woke and weaponized government.” Its founder, Russell Vought, a former head of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump, and a leading candidate to be the White House chief of staff in a second term, was in attendance, chatting amiably with the guests. He is trim and bald, with glasses and a professorial beard. His group is a kind of ivory tower for far-right Republicans, issuing white papers with titles such as “The Great Replacement in Theory and Practice.” In 2021, he wrote an op-ed for Newsweek that asked, “Is There Anything Actually Wrong with ‘Christian Nationalism’?”

The Center for Renewing America is one of roughly two dozen right-wing groups that have emerged in Washington since Trump left office. What unites them is a wealthy network based on Capitol Hill called the Conservative Partnership Institute, which many in Washington regard as the next Trump Administration in waiting. C.P.I.’s list of personnel and affiliates includes some of Trump’s most fervent backers: Meadows is a senior partner; Stephen Miller, Trump’s top adviser on immigration, runs an associated group called America First Legal, which styles itself as the A.C.L.U. of the maga movement; Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department lawyer facing disbarment for trying to overturn the 2020 election, is a fellow at the Center for Renewing America. All of them are expected to have high-ranking roles in the government if Trump is elected again. “C.P.I. has gathered the most talented people in the conservative movement by far,” someone close to the organization told me. “They have thought deeply about what’s needed to create the infrastructure and the resources for a more anti-establishment conservative movement.”

C.P.I. was founded in 2017 by Jim DeMint, a former adman from South Carolina who spent eight years in the Senate before resigning to lead the Heritage Foundation. During that time, he was one of Washington’s most notorious partisan combatants. As a senator, he attacked his Republican colleagues for being insufficiently conservative, tanking their bills and raising money to unseat them in primaries. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, called him “an innovator in Republican-on-Republican violence.” With C.P.I., DeMint wanted to create a base of operations for insurgents like himself. “If you’re not getting criticized in Washington,” he once said, “you’re probably part of the problem.”

Other conservative groups have defined Republican Presidencies: the Heritage Foundation staffed the Administration of Ronald Reagan, the American Enterprise Institute that of George W. Bush. But C.P.I. is categorically different from its peers. It’s not a think tank—it’s an incubator and an activist hub that funds other organizations, coördinates with conservative members of the House and Senate, and works as a counterweight to G.O.P. leadership. The effort to contest the 2020 election results and the protests of January 6, 2021, were both plotted at C.P.I.’s headquarters, at 300 Independence Avenue. “Until seven years ago, it didn’t exist, and no entity like it existed,” Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, told me. “It’s grown by leaps and bounds.”

C.P.I. and its constellation of groups, most of which are nonprofits, raised nearly two hundred million dollars in 2022. The organization has bought up some fifty million dollars’ worth of real estate in and around Washington, including multiple properties on the Hill. A mansion on twenty-two hundred acres in eastern Maryland hosts trainings for congressional staff and conservative activists. Four political-action committees have rented space in C.P.I.’s offices, and many more belonging to members of Congress pay to use C.P.I.’s facilities, such as studios for podcast recordings and TV hits. The House Freedom Caucus, a group of three dozen hard-line anti-institutionalist Republican lawmakers, and the Steering Committee, a similar group in the Senate, headed by Lee, hold weekly meetings at C.P.I.’s headquarters. Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, called the organization a “gathering site” that offered “regular contact” with the power brokers of the conservative movement. He told me, “You walk into the building and you can talk to Mark Meadows or Jim DeMint if they’re there, or Russ Vought.”

[...] Still, one aspect of the speech caught the attention of C.P.I.’s executives. Ever since Trump was acquitted in his first impeachment trial, in 2020, he has threatened to purge the government of anyone he considered disloyal. His defenders are united in the belief that career bureaucrats foiled his first-term plans from inside the government. C.P.I., which has spent years placing conservative job seekers in congressional offices, is now vetting potential staffers for a second Trump term. One of its groups, the American Accountability Foundation, has been investigating the personal profiles and social-media posts of federal employees to determine who might lack fealty to Trump. “The key throughout the speech was that Trump complained about his personnel,” the attendee said. “He said he had these bad generals, bad Cabinet secretaries. That was a big signal to the people there.”

[...] As early as January, 2016, DeMint predicted that Trump would win the Republican nomination. It was an unpopular position among conservatives, many of whom felt more ideologically aligned with Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas. In a conference room at Jones Day, Trump gave a brief speech and opened the floor to questions. Leo asked him whom he’d nominate for federal judgeships. Antonin Scalia, the conservative stalwart on the Supreme Court, had died the previous month. Trump replied, “Why don’t I put out a list publicly of people who could be the sort of people I would put on the Supreme Court?” DeMint immediately volunteered Heritage for the job of drafting it. The Heritage Foundation was founded in the nineteen-seventies by Edwin Feulner, a Republican operative with a doctorate in political science. Under his direction, the think tank became the country’s leading bastion of conservative policy, with an annual budget exceeding eighty million dollars. When DeMint took over, in 2013, traditionalists on the organization’s board were concerned that his rebellious style would diminish the group’s reputation for serious research. He confirmed their suspicions by hiring several of his Senate aides. The former Heritage staffer said, “There were cultural differences between existing leadership and the DeMint team.”

But DeMint’s arrival reflected changes already under way at the organization. In 2010, as the Tea Party emerged as a force in conservative politics, the think tank launched an advocacy arm called Heritage Action, which issued scorecards evaluating legislators’ conservatism and deputized a network of local activists as “sentinels” to enforce a populist agenda. Vought, who’d previously worked as a staffer in House leadership, helped lead the operation. Under DeMint, the group became merciless in its attacks on rank-and-file Republican lawmakers. “Heritage Action was created to lobby the Hill, but they took it one step further,” James Wallner, a lecturer in political science at Clemson University, who worked with DeMint in the Senate and at Heritage, told me. “They had a grassroots army. They used tens of thousands of activists to target people.”

After the meeting with Trump, in 2016, some of DeMint’s staff objected to the task of drawing up a list of potential judges, arguing that Heritage was overcommitting itself. This was typically the domain of the Federalist Society, which was putting forth its own list of judicial nominees. But DeMint, sensing an opportunity to maximize his clout with Trump, dismissed the concerns. That August, after Trump became the Party’s nominee, Heritage was enlisted to participate in the Presidential transition in the event of a Trump victory. Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey at the time, was overseeing the effort and put Feulner, who was then the chair of Heritage’s board of trustees, in charge of domestic policy. Feulner later told the Times that Heritage saw a greater opportunity to influence policy under Trump than it had under Reagan. “No. 1, he did clearly want to make very significant changes,” Feulner said of Trump. “No. 2, his views on so many things were not particularly well formed.” He added, “If he somehow pulled the election off, we thought, wow, we could really make a difference.”

[...] A few weeks after Trump was acquitted, on a party-line vote in the Senate, a C.P.I. executive named Rachel Bovard addressed an audience at the Council for National Policy, a secretive network of conservative activists. They’d assembled for a board-of-governors luncheon at a Ritz-Carlton in California. “We work very closely . . . with the Office of Presidential Personnel at the White House,” Bovard said, in footage obtained by Documented, a Washington-based watchdog group. “Because we see what happens when we don’t vet these people. That’s how we got Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, O.K.? That’s how we got Marie Yovanovitch. All these people that led the impeachment against President Trump shouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

By then, conservative activists, including Ginni Thomas, the wife of the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, were assembling lists of “bad people” in the government for Trump to fire or demote. Government officials on the lists were often identified as either pro-Trump or anti-Trump. But behavior that counted as anti-Trump could be little more than an instance of someone obeying the law or observing ordinary bureaucratic procedure. In one memo, in which a Trump loyalist argued against appointing a former U.S. Attorney who was up for a job at the Treasury Department, a list of infractions included an unwillingness to criminally investigate multiple women who had accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, according to Axios. In October, 2020, Trump issued an executive order that was largely overlooked in the midst of the pandemic and that fall’s election. Known as Schedule F, it stripped career civil servants of their job protections, making it much easier for the President to replace them with handpicked appointees.

The following month, when Trump refused to accept his election loss, “there were people in the White House who operated under the assumption that they were not leaving,” a former aide said. One of them was John McEntee, a caustic thirty-year-old who’d once been Trump’s personal assistant and was now in charge of the Presidential Personnel Office. (In 2018, John Kelly, who was then Trump’s chief of staff, had fired McEntee for failing a security clearance owing to a gambling habit, but Trump rehired him two years later.) Young staffers were scared that McEntee might find out if they started interviewing for other positions. “There was fear of retribution if it got back to him,” the former aide said. Other White House officials, such as Meadows, were clear-eyed about the election results but vowed to fight them anyway. Meadows discreetly told a few staffers that, when Trump’s term was over, they should join him at the Conservative Partnership Institute. “C.P.I. was his ticket to be that pressure point on Capitol Hill,” one of the staffers told me. “He wanted to be the guy who held Congress to the maga agenda.”

[...] The structure of these groups could seem both byzantine and incestuous to an outsider, but the idea, Denton told me, was “to insure mission alignment.” Stephen Miller formed America First Legal, a public-interest law group that has primarily targeted “woke corporations,” school districts, and the Biden Administration. Vought started the Center for Renewing America, which generated policy proposals as though the Trump Administration had never ended. Corrigan and Denton were on the board of Vought’s group; Vought, Corrigan, and Denton sat on the board of Miller’s group. As more organizations joined the fold, their boards increasingly overlapped, and the roster of ideologues and Trump loyalists grew. Gene Hamilton and Matthew Whitaker, key figures from the Trump D.O.J., worked at America First Legal. Ken Cuccinelli, from the Department of Homeland Security; Mark Paoletta, from the Office of Management and Budget; and Kash Patel, from the Department of Defense, became fellows at Vought’s group. By the end of 2021, C.P.I. had helped form eight new groups, each with a different yet complementary mission. The American Accountability Foundation focussed on attacking Biden’s nominees. The State Freedom Caucus Network helped state legislators create their own versions of the House Freedom Caucus in order to challenge their local Republican establishments. The Election Integrity Network, run by Mitchell, trained volunteers to monitor polling places and investigate state and local election officials. American Moment concentrated on cultivating the next generation of conservative staffers in Washington.

C.P.I. connected the founders of these groups with its network of donors and, in some instances, helped support the organizations until they could raise money for themselves. As American Moment waited for the I.R.S. to formalize its nonprofit tax status, for example, C.P.I. served as a fiscal sponsor, allowing donors to earmark money for the new group by giving it to C.P.I. The organization also offered its partners access to an array of shared resources: discounted real estate, accounting services, legal representation. “This all had an in-kind value of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars,” the person close to C.P.I. told me. C.P.I.’s accounting firm, called Compass Professional, was run by Corrigan’s brother; its law firm, Compass Legal, was headed by Scott Gast, a lawyer in the Trump White House. Aside from C.P.I., Compass Legal’s most lucrative client to date, according to F.E.C. filings, has been Trump himself, whose campaign and political-action committees have paid the firm four hundred thousand dollars in the past two years. Another major client was the National Rifle Association, which paid the firm more than three hundred thousand dollars in 2022. Compass Legal was established in March, 2021, two months after C.P.I.’s lead lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, was forced to resign from her job as a partner at the law firm Foley & Lardner. Her participation in Trump’s phone call to the Georgia secretary of state had caused too much controversy. She blamed her departure on a “massive pressure campaign” orchestrated by “leftist groups.” In a subsequent C.P.I. annual report, the group said that a large part of its mission was helping conservatives “survive the Leftist purge and ‘cancel-proof’ conservative organizations.” This was not simply the rhetoric of conservative victimhood. Andrew Kloster, a former employee of Compass Legal who is now Representative Matt Gaetz’s general counsel, described one of C.P.I.’s goals as “de-risking public service on the right.” For anyone who might run afoul of mainstream opinion, C.P.I. had created an alternative, fully self-sufficient ecosystem. One part of it was material: recording studios, direct-mail services, accounting and legal resources, salaried jobs and fellowships. The other element was cultural. C.P.I. was demonstrating to Trump allies that, if they took bold and possibly illegal action in service of the cause, they wouldn’t face financial ruin or pariah status in Washington.

[...] Vought and Clark, meanwhile, have been advancing a formal rationale to break the long-standing expectation that the D.O.J. should operate independently of the President. The norm has been in place since Watergate, but they have argued that Trump could run the department like any other executive agency. Clark published his case on the Center for Renewing America’s Web site under the title “The U.S. Justice Department Is Not Independent.” In early 2021, while Trump was fighting the results of the election, he wanted to make Clark the Attorney General, but the entire senior leadership of the department threatened to resign en masse. Now, if Clark gets a top job at the D.O.J., he is expected to use the position to try to remake the department as an instrument of the White House.

Stephen Miller, at America First Legal, has been devising plans to enact a nationwide crackdown on immigration, just as he had hoped to carry out on a vast scale in the first Trump term. The impediment then was operational: a lack of personnel to make arrests, a shortage of space to detain people, resistance from Democratic officials at the state and local levels. Miller has since vowed to increase deportations by a factor of ten, to a million people a year, according to the Times. The President would have to deputize federal troops to carry out the job, because there wouldn’t be enough agents at the Department of Homeland Security to do it. The government would need to build large internment camps, and, in the event that Congress refused to appropriate the money required, the President would have to divert funds from the military. Many of the other agenda items related to immigration that were delayed, blocked, or never fully realized during the chaos of the first term would be reinstated to more extreme effect in a second: an expanded ban on refugees from Muslim-majority countries, a revocation of visas for students engaged in certain forms of campus protests, an end to birthright citizenship. “Any activists who doubt President Trump’s resolve in the slightest are making a drastic error,” Miller told the Times last November. “Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown.”

The overarching scheme for the second Trump term, called Project 2025, follows an established Washington tradition. It is being organized by the Heritage Foundation and has taken the form of a nine-hundred-page policy tract. But the scale of this undertaking, which is costing more than twenty million dollars, is bigger than anything Heritage has previously attempted. The organization has hired the technology company Oracle to build a secure database to house the personnel files of some twenty thousand potential Administration staffers. Kevin Roberts, the current president of Heritage, has also enlisted the participation of more than a hundred conservative groups, as well as top figures from C.P.I.: Vought, Corrigan, Miller, and Saurabh Sharma, the president of American Moment. “These were the key nodes,” the person close to C.P.I. told me. “Roberts was paying Center for Renewing America, American Moment, and America First Legal to do parts of the project.” (Heritage did not respond to requests for comment.)

The fact that Heritage was helping to staff a full-fledged maga operation, the person went on, was a reflection of C.P.I.’s mounting influence. Two years ago, Roberts addressed the National Conservatism Conference, an annual gathering of far-right activists, which was hosted by an organization that is now associated with C.P.I. “I come not to invite national conservatives to join our movement but to acknowledge the plain truth that Heritage is already part of yours,” he said. Last year, Corrigan, who is on the steering committee of Project 2025, was invited to speak at Heritage’s fiftieth-anniversary conference. “The leadership at Heritage has brought back the C.P.I. folks even though they got pushed out six years before,” the person close to C.P.I. told me. “Kevin is being realistic. He needs to make peace with these guys.”

My source, who has been involved in Project 2025, outlined a few immediate actions that Trump would take if he won. Christopher Wray, the director of the F.B.I., would be fired “right away,” he told me. Even though Trump nominated Wray to the position, the far right has blamed Wray for the agency’s role in arresting people involved in the insurrection. (As Vought told me, “Look at the F.B.I., look at the deep state. We have political prisoners in this country, regardless of what you think about January 6th.”) The other hope in getting rid of Wray is that, without him, the Administration could use the agency to target its political opponents.

The person close to C.P.I. considered himself a denizen of the far-right wing of the Republican Party, yet some of the ideas under discussion among those working on Project 2025 genuinely scared him. One of them was what he described to me as “all this talk, still, about bombing Mexico and taking military action in Mexico.” This had apparently come up before, during the first Trump term, in conversations about curbing the country’s drug cartels. The President had been mollified but never dissuaded. According to Mike Pompeo, his former Secretary of State, Trump once asked, “How would we do if we went to war with Mexico?”

[...] The Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from the most radical aspects of Project 2025. There are no benefits—only political liabilities—to endorsing so many specifics. Trump’s supporters already know what he stands for, in a general sense. And there is the more delicate matter of the former President’s ego. “He wouldn’t want to be seen as taking guidance from any other human being,” the former senior White House official told me. “He doesn’t like to be seen as someone who doesn’t know everything already.” On July 5th, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” He said that he wished them luck.

The New Yorker has a report on how a network of far-right activists from the likes of Conservative Partnership Institute are helping plan Donald Trump’s potential 2nd term.

Read the full story at The New Yorker.

[gwydionmisha]

Presidential Primaries are ongoing:

NOTE: Michigan Republicans are having a Schism so are running competing primaries.

Michigan (other Republicans), Idaho Republicans, Missouri Republicans: 3/2/24

District of Columbia: (Republicans), 3/3/24

North Dakota: (Republicans), 3/4/24

Alabama, Alaska (Republicans), Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa (Democrats), Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, American Samoa (Democrats): 3/5/24

Hawaii: (Democrats): 3/6/24

American Samoa (Republicans): 3/8/24

Know your state's schedule and where to vote. Make sure you and your friends are registered. If you are voting in person, plan how to get there.

If you live in an open primary state consider voting strategically. Otherwise, vote your heart in the primary. Remember how all those votes for Sanders and Warren pushed Biden and the party platform further left?

Remember to vote in all the races, not just the top of the ticket even if it's in a separate primary (as it is in my state). Who runs congress, your state, and your local government really matters. In some states this is a separate primary. Check the rules for your state.

Never, ever sleep on a chance to vote.

It is always better to vote for someone who will listen to us than to let someone who is actively trying to kill us.

[harriswalz4usabybr]

Tuesday, August 27, 2024 - Kamala Harris

Tonight Vice President Harris is hosting a Down Ballot Strategy dinner with those who are running for Governors offices, US Congressional offices, or US Senatorial offices. She is hosting this event at the Conrad Washington, DC hotel. This event is bringing together an extensive invite list (see below). While we understand that not all candidates have interest in working with the Harris-Walz campaign to ride down-ballot coattails, we wanted to bring together those races we saw as critical to make sure we were using resources how we should and how down ballot candidates need us to. The dinner will be semi-formal and have some responses being made by candidates, including Vice President Harris, as well as some of our campaign surrogates—all of whom will be attending as well, but are not necessarily on the list below. Please note a full-text of the remarks made by VP Harris will be made available at the conclusion of the event. The event is being held from 19:00 - 22:30 ET.

We have decided to showcase a few campaign videos as well during the dinner, which will be shared out later.

Attendee List

Gubernatorial Candidates 

Jennifer McCormick (Indiana) Crystal Quade (Missouri) Ryan Busse (Montana) Jon Kiper and Cinde Warmington (New Hampshire)✝ Josh Stein (North Carolina) Merrill Piepkorn (North Dakota)*  Jenniffer González-Colón (Puerto Rico) Brian King (Utah) Esther Charlestin (Vermont) Steve Williams (West Virginia)

US House Congressional Candidates

Shomari Figures (AL-2) Amish Shah (AZ-1) Kirsten Engel (AZ-6) Adam Gray (CA-13) Rudy Salas (CA-22) George Whitesides (CA-27) Will Rollins (CA-41) Adam Frisch (CO-3) Yadira Caraveo (CO-8) Jared Golden (ME-2) Curtis Hertel (MI-7) Kristen McDonald Rivet (MI-8) Donald Davis (NC-1) Gabriel Vasquez (NM-2) Mondaire Jones (NY-17) Josh Riley (NY-19) John Mannion (NY-22) Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) Emilia Sykes (OH-13) Janelle Bynum (OR-5)*  Susan Wild (PA-7) Matt Cartwright (PA-8) Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez (WA-3)

US Senatorial Candidates

Ruben Gallego (Arizona) Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Florida) Valerie McCray (Indiana) Elissa Slotkin (Michigan) Jon Tester (Montana) Jacky Rosen (Nevada) Sherrod Brown (Ohio) Bob Casey Jr. (Pennsylvania) Colin Allred (Texas) Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin) Glenn Elliott (West Virginia)

US Congressional Delegates

Louise Kuaea (American Samoa)*  Kim Teehee (Cherokee Nation) Ginger Cruz (Guam)*  Edwin Propst (Northern Mariana Islands)*  William Villafañe Ramos (Puerto Rico) Stacey Plaskett (Virgin Islands)

✝There are two candidates from this state as the primary has still yet to occur.  *This candidate does not have a campaign Twitter account, their website is shared.

Again the attendance of these candidates or delegates does not equate to an endorsement of our campaign. We understand some swing districts have democrats who are more moderate than the Harris-Walz campaign, which means we may not necessarily be the best to coordinate, but we fully support all candidates on this list and want Americans to vote democrat (note Puerto Rico candidates are Republican, but the Harris-Walz administration is dedicated to Puerto Rican statehood, and these candidates reflect that commitment) we also encourage that you donate, organize, and volunteer for these candidates. We are not going back, we are moving forward as one party!

~BR~

[anonymousaccount1015]

Understanding Republican Governance on the State Level and What It Can Tell Us About a Possible Republican Presidency

One of the best ways to understand how a party plans to govern on a principle and policy level is via analyzing how their party-controlled states are governed.

Under the current compositions of states and state legislatures, Republicans have unrestricted party control (trifectas) in twenty-three states. These states are kind of the proving ground for policy that might one day become part of the party's platform.

So let's talk about how the issues of our time are being handled on the state level.

Abortion Access

The issue of abortion is undoubtedly important in the upcoming Presidential election, where Republican candidate for President Donald Trump has indicated that the extent of his position has been accomplished, he thinks the issue should be left up to the states (which was the verdict reached by the conservative Supreme Court), however, there has been speculation that he's privately indicated he supports a unilateral federal ban (potentially with or without the support of Congress), and additionally that he will implement provisions of Project 2025, which on this issue calls for sweeping abortion access restrictions across the nation, to prohibit funding for Planned Parenthood (which Trump previously indicated he was against, stating he thinks it's a "good organization" in the primary debates of 2016).

Undoubtedly women's health is impacted even if "the states" are allowed to make their own choices, women living under the poverty line lose access when they're unable to travel across state lines to nearby "sanctuary" states, which can have a significant impact on their health outcomes. This is all pretty widely accepted.

Using the map created by the Center for Reproductive Rights, the states where abortion is outright illegal (https://reproductiverights.org/maps/abortion-laws-by-state/) (pending referendums) include the Republican states of Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. It's worth noting that in these states, which again, comprise a vast number of those where Republicans have unrestricted control, "illegal" means there are few if any exceptions, including for pregnancies from rape, incest, or which pose a threat to the mother's life. When people cite that the most popular stance on abortion access is actually one that supports "(x amount of weeks) restriction," thereby excusing some post-Roe laws passed in red states, it's actually the case that many red states have passed total bans, which are themselves wildly unpopular. And in spite of how the populace feels, there's little reason to think the political establishment shares their beliefs (in fact, in these states, there's every reason to think the opposite).

Using the aforementioned map, the states that are hostile (https://reproductiverights.org/maps/abortion-laws-by-state/) (pending referendums) towards abortion include the Republican states of Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, Utah (sometimes only "restricted," not "severely restricted"), and Wyoming, as well as Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which each have state legislatures wholly (AZ, WI) or in part (PA) controlled by Republicans.

The issue of IVF treatments ("in vitro fertilization") is another issue that is intricately related, the procedure of IVF treatments typically involves the pregnant person having their eggs removed, then inseminated externally, then implanted at will, this is often used by women who are infertile or otherwise struggle to get pregnant. It's often advised to implant several fertilized eggs, since the success rate is not sufficient for just one to guarantee a pregnancy, which is one of the primary sticking points for anti-abortion activists, citing "wrongful death" of the embryo. The widely publicized Alabama court ruling that "ended" access to IVF was a rallying cry for many abortion advocates who recognized the importance of this for public health.

It's worth noting that in response to the ruling, Governor Ivey (R-AL), with the support of the state legislature, signed a bill to protect IVF providers and patients, which was similarly replicated in nine other states (https://www.guttmacher.org/2024/05/first-quarter-2024-state-policy-trends). She happens to be one of the most conservative Governors in the country, which indicates that while a vocal contingent of anti-abortion activists oppose IVF access, it will struggle legislatively. It's still the case that many IVF providers are terminating their services, anticipating further litigation and further legal confusion (same source).

Gun Violence

The issue of answering for gun violence is another one that permeates the public discourse, there has been an uptick in gun violence over the years, particularly school shootings, which has led to some activists calling for stricter gun legislation, an issue where Republican candidate for President Donald Trump has indicated his intent to "protect the second amendment."

Under the current legislation in the vast majority of states, regardless of partisan leaning, owning a gun is widely accessible, with "assault weapon" bans and other stringent policies only being implemented in very liberal states.

In states where there are few if any restrictions on guns (no recording of sales by law enforcement, no permits and/or background checks required to purchase handguns, no firearm trainings required for buyers, and where open carry is legal, oftentimes without a permit), there seems to be higher rates of homicides, suicides, and overall violence with guns, and states like Alabama, Alaska (which is governed by coalition in the state legislature), Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee, all red states, as well as New Mexico, typically have the highest per capita rate of gun deaths, at least according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm), with their most recent map published in 2022.

It's true that the vast majority of gun deaths result from either suicide or homicide, with a relatively small proportion as a result of mass shootings (i.e., according to the FBI definition, events in which a shooter kills four or more innocents), though these mass shooting events have quickly become more common year over year as well, which is an important consideration (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/). One explanatory factor (though there are many and this is not intended to mislead) is places where shooters have ease of access to firearms.

It's possible if there were sweeping reforms passed (such as "common sense" reforms popular across the establishment left, things like universal background checks, "red flag" laws, etc.) on the federal level, specific states would oppose their implementation under their jurisdictions, and this would become another avenue of the "states' rights" argument.

If we presume that under another Trump Presidency, we will not see comprehensive gun reform passed (e.g. passing things like universal background checks, "red flag" laws), on the whole, that will contribute to a less safe country (see previously mentioned statistics for why this is my conclusion).

State Education

The issue of state education is one that has become pretty widespread in the public discourse as well, particularly when it comes to what is actually being taught in schools, in terms of teaching about identity, whether there's "indoctrination" taking place or not, and on this issue, the Republican candidate for President Donald Trump has voiced his support for cutting funding for the federal Department of Education, which would eliminate federal oversight for education systems across the country. This also happens to be one of the proposals from Project 2025, though it's been something talked about at various points prior, for example, cutting the Department of Education was a proposal of former Texas Governor Rick Perry. Of course, this aligns with their wishes for a smaller federal government, so it's unsurprising.

Under the current governances of these states where Republicans have unrestricted control, we've seen their vision for what education looks like, they've tied in a lot of what kids are being taught with their "culture war" talking points, cutting support snd funding at an unprecedented level in opposition to schools which teach about identity, and there's almost nowhere in the country where this vision is clearer than in Florida, where their Governor has been feuding with schools all throughout his state.

To give just one example, his vision for how schools should teach about slavery, in the interest of trying to shift the paradigm about how we understand slavery, it's the case that their new educational standard suggests that slaves learned valuable skills from enslavement, and that slavery served as a net positive for slaves. While this was an issue that received widespread attention a while back and isn't central to the election, it underscores the point well of to what extent Republicans want to use schools for their political narratives too.

It's widely said that critical race theory in particular is being taught on the public school level (which is broadly untrue, by the way, though there's some nuance, see this article (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/so-much-buzz-but-what-is-critical-race-theory) around the time of the Virginia Governor's race, which brought it into the national spotlight, some of the central ideas are taught, such as the long-lasting impacts of slavery, but as a whole it's largely reserved for collegiate academia). It's practically become a proper noun. It's vernacular. But it also serves as a convenient boogeyman for the Republicans. Not unlike "the beast" in Lord of the Flies, it's meant to instill intangible, uninformed fear which is used as a vehicle to motivate their base.

This part will probably read somewhat partisan, but it's worth noting that absolutely nothing has been accomplished in regards to pushing the culture war into schools. It's certainly not helping students learn, but of course, the intent was keeping kids uninformed and trying to demonize the outgroups.

The issue of state education was often an issue where, with occasional oversight from the federal government, state governments were given primary responsibility (with the exception of federal funding/civil rights enforcement), under President Bush, who introduced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the federal government intervened to an unprecedented level, particularly with trying to measure education attainment through standardized test scores.

So to what extent have these states been successful when it comes to student learning outcomes? When you consider public school graduation attainment, the vast majority of states post pretty high percentages, out of all fifty states, California happens to have the worst statistic, though it's followed by Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Nevada (which really struggles), New Mexico (which posts low ratings pretty frequently in various facets of quality of life), Alabama, Kentucky, New York, Arkansas, Oklahoma. When you look at post-secondary attainment, you see a much starker contrast, the worst statistic this time is West Virginia, then Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Nevada again, Oklahoma, Indiana, Wyoming, New Mexico again. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_educational_attainment#cite_note-CensusData-1). You can see a trend (with some notable exceptions, for example, California struggling with high school attainment) of some of the poorest states in the country, and some of the reddest states, for that matter, struggling with attainment.

So those are just three issues viewed at some level of depth as it pertains to what state-level Republican governance can show us for how they might try to run our country.

Thank you for reading.