Category: Blaze Media
Democrats are running as Bush-era Republicans — and winning
Republicans have given voters no reason to support them beyond the claim that Democrats are dangerously radical.
Well, sure. But when voters look around and see rising prices, rising crime, and no clear plan from the party in power, they turn to the other side. That’s what happened in Virginia, and it will keep happening as long as life stays unaffordable and Republicans offer nothing but excuses.
Republicans can still win — but not with hollow slogans or billionaire donors. They need to fight for affordable living, strong families, and safe communities.
Democrats’ victories in Virginia and New Jersey shouldn’t shock anyone — Trump didn’t need either state to win the presidency in 2024. What should alarm Republicans are the margins. Democrats crushed their opponents by 15 points in Virginia and 13 in New Jersey, performing better than Kamala Harris did against Trump in New York.
The blue wave swept deep into Republican territory. Democrats unseated Virginia’s attorney general — a respected conservative — with Jay “Two Bullets” Jones, a radical, scandal-prone candidate, and still won by nearly seven points. They gained at least 13 legislative seats, leaving Republicans with half the representation they held just eight years ago.
In Georgia, Democrats flipped two public service commission seats — their first statewide wins since 2006 — and won them by 24 points. They broke the GOP supermajority in the Mississippi Senate, flipped a state House seat, and took local races across Pennsylvania. In New Jersey, where Republicans didn’t even see the blowout coming, Democrats regained a supermajority in the General Assembly.
Taken together, these results point to a coming wipeout. Democrats have outperformed their 2024 presidential baseline by an average of 15 points in special elections this year, according to Ballotpedia — more than double the overperformance seen during Trump’s first term. In 45 of 46 key contests, Democrats either held or improved their position.
All liabilities, no benefits
Republicans now face the worst possible political scenario: They hold power, which unites and energizes Democrats, but they’ve done almost nothing with it to inspire anyone else.
The first year of Trump’s second term has been defined by trivial fights and tone-deaf priorities: tax favors for tech investors, special deals for crypto, and zoning disasters for rural and suburban voters. The data center explosion in Virginia, which has raised utility bills and wrecked communities, could have been an easy populist target. Instead, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed a bill to rein it in.
Despite cozying up to Big Tech, Republicans haven’t reaped any benefit. The Virginia Republican Party is broke, its candidates are outspent, and the grassroots are demoralized. The GOP keeps selling out to special interests that will never back the party. How have the ties to crypto, Big Tech, and Qatar paid off?
The reality is, Republicans don’t need those donors — they need a message to inspire a new generation of activists.
How Democrats outflanked the GOP
Democrats have learned to look like the party of normalcy while Republicans drift between populist posturing and corporate servitude. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger ran on cutting costs, lowering taxes, and fighting crime — and she did it in the language of moderation. Republicans, who should own those issues, barely showed up for the debate.
Spanberger’s ads promised relief from inflation and touted her background in the CIA and law enforcement. She presented herself as steady and practical while Republicans floundered. Once again, Democrats outflanked the GOP on the right.
Republicans could have drawn blood by hammering Democrats on crime in Northern Virginia. Instead, they ran away from tough-on-crime policies. Winsome Earle-Sears even toyed with “criminal justice reform” while voters begged for accountability and order.
The result: Democrats ran as Bush-era Republicans, while Republicans looked like corporate consultants. Democrats talked about affordability and safety. Republicans talked about crypto and zoning boards.
The Trump paradox
The GOP’s reliance on one man has hollowed it out. Trump won the presidency in 2016 by talking about forgotten workers and American industry. But his divided message, personal vendettas, and fixation on media attention have since consumed the movement.
RELATED: Here’s what exit polls reveal about Tuesday’s electoral bloodbath
Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Now the party gets the worst of both worlds — all of Trump’s baggage, none of his appeal. Democrats use him to rally turnout. Independents recoil. The GOP lacks infrastructure, vision, and discipline. The movement that once promised to fight the establishment has become addicted to social media applause.
A party in search of conviction
If Virginia had a commanding figure like Ron DeSantis at the top of the ticket, Republicans might have dampened the blue wave. But without an inspiring message, voters in an economic crisis will always drift to the other side.
The problem isn’t demographics; if it were, Democrats would campaign in Virginia the same way they do in California or New York City. Instead, they skate by on empty promises because Republicans, trapped by special interests and lacking a winning message, have become easy targets — and surrendered the very issues that could win back suburban voters.
Republicans can still win — but not with hollow slogans or billionaire donors. They need to fight for affordable living, strong families, and safe communities. They need a moral and economic vision that reaches beyond social media and into the lives of working Americans.
The question conservatives must ask is the one George Patton once put to his men in another context: When will we finally fight and die on our own hills instead of dying on someone else’s?
Twitter is not America. And unless Republicans start acting like they know the difference, they’ll keep losing — and keep deserving it.
America’s longest shutdown breaks records and starves Americans
Americans across the country are overwhelming food bank and hunger relief organization lines after SNAP benefits were halted on November 1 — with nearly 42 million Americans losing their benefits all at once.
In Phoenix, one woman waiting in a devastatingly long line at St. Mary’s Food Bank told a reporter that she wants the men and women in Washington, D.C., to “hurry up and get the job done” and “worry about the people, not about themselves.”
Reportedly, 900,000 Arizonans were gearing up to lose their benefits.
And in Los Angeles County it’s even worse, as over 1 million families are on EBT — which is out of 3.2 million families total, amounting to about one-third of the population.
However, two U.S. judges have ordered the Department of Agriculture to release contingency funding to restart the SNAP benefits, but those funds may not reach families who are hungry for up to a week.
“Our elected officials are letting us down because, you know, we vote and put these people in office, and they tend to get a personal vendetta going with each other and forget about the main thing, which is the people,” one woman in L.A. County told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
Because of the amount of people on EBT, the food banks helping out are expecting to run out of food.
“That is not sustainable,” executive producer of “Pat Gray Unleashed” Keith Malinak comments, shocked. “Even in good times.”
“That’s staggering,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray agrees.
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Newly elected Idaho mayor says ‘evil’ far right took his comments out of context to appear as if he hates Christians
The newly elected mayor of Coeur d’Alene in Idaho was accused of making hateful comments against Christians in a video spliced together from the many rants he posted to social media.
Councilman Dan Gookin garnered 34.2% of the vote to defeat the incumbent mayor as well two other opponents. Gookin had been a member of the city council since 2011 and ran as a Republican but has a history of tangling with the local GOP.
‘I admit that my language is salty. For that I apologize. I am a passionate man. I get worked up, especially when extremists are trying to destroy my community.’
After Gookin won the mayoral election, a video of his comments about Christians resurfaced on social media. The video contains multiple clips, many of which are unrelated phrases.
“Christians, they tend to be the rudest, most disrespectful jerks I have ever seen,” he said in the video.
“I seriously think if Jesus were here today he would have a message for everyone who’s a Christian, and he would just say, ‘Get the f**k!” he says in another clip.
The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee reposted the video in Oct. 2024 along with a statement of condemnation.
We have received multiple complaints from community members regarding Dan Gookin, Precinct Committeeman, Coeur d’Alene City Councilman, “North Idaho Republican” member. … It has been reported that he has engaged in verbally abusive behavior towards Christians, including the use of insults and defamation. The KCRCC rejects ALL forms of racial, religious, sexual, and political supremacy; and ALL political violence; and ALL political weaponization of mislabels.
However, Gookin responded at that time with a video explaining the context of many of the spliced clips and showed that they were misleading.
For instance, the second comment quoted was actually from a rant against Facebook but was cut off to make it appear that he was simply criticizing Christians.
“I seriously think if Jesus were here today he would have a message for everyone who’s a Christian, and he would say, ‘Get the f**k off Facebook!'” reads the full quote in context.
He said that some of the other clips had to do with comments he saw from people identifying as Christians but mocking the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“It’s obvious to anyone with a brain that this stuff is taken out of context! But the far right lack brains,” Gookin said.
“I admit that my language is salty. For that I apologize. I am a passionate man. I get worked up, especially when extremists are trying to destroy my community,” he adds.
He went on to post other clips with more context.
“I’m sure the Pharisees back in Judea would have loved this technology and used it to take Christ’s teachings out of context and do a video like the local far right has done to me,” he continued. “Evil hasn’t changed much in 2,000 years.”
RELATED: Liberal feminists melt down on Twitter over one tweet from a Christian pastor
Gookin complimented the voters for choosing to elect him mayor.
“The citizens of Coeur d’Alene made a good decision, and I look forward to serving them,” he said.
In Oct. 2023, the KCRCC sued Gookin for defamation related to accusations of “money laundering, election fraud, and campaign finance violations.” That lawsuit was dropped after they reached a mediated settlement to receive $25,000 from Gookin’s insurance company.
Gookin also defended a local ice cream shop from critics who attacked it for showing support for Charlie Kirk after his assassination.
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DHS crushes Democrat for claiming preschool teacher was detained without warrant in front of children
A Democratic congressman tried to criticize a deportation operation, but the Department of Homeland Security said he was “deliberately misrepresenting” the incident.
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) posted a video on Wednesday of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents dragging a woman out of a preschool.
‘ICE law enforcement did NOT target a daycare and were only at this location because the female illegal alien fled inside.’
“ICE isn’t going after the worst of the worst. This morning, they took a preschool teacher without a warrant IN FRONT OF CHILDREN in my district,” he added to the post.
Only hours later, DHS responded from its official social media account and completely undermined Quigley’s version of the incident.
“Congressman, you are deliberately misrepresenting the facts,” the agency wrote. “ICE law enforcement did NOT target a daycare and were only at this location because the female illegal alien fled inside.”
DHS said that officers were trying to perform a “targeted traffic stop” of the female because she was an illegal alien from Colombia. The driver of the car refused to pull over, and the officers gave chase.
The couple abandoned the car at a shopping mall and then went into the day care and preschool.
“They ran into a daycare and attempted to barricade themselves inside the daycare — recklessly endangering the children inside,” the statement continued. “The illegal alien female was arrested inside a vestibule, not in the school. Upon arrest, she lied about her identity.”
RELATED: ICE officer shoots at driver who tried to run over agent during vehicle stop in California, DHS says
“Facts including criminality and information on the male assailant are forthcoming and we will update the public with more information as soon as it becomes available,” DHS added.
Quigley responded with just two words.
“They’re lying,” he wrote.
A WGN-TV report claimed to confirm that a day care teacher had been detained from the Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center in Chicago. The school indicated in a statement that the officers did not present a warrant and were following the woman, who was arriving for work.
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Judicial Watch Sues Illinois Gov. Pritzker for Records on ‘Safe Haven’ for Texas Democrat Lawmakers
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) for records on the state’s role in providing refuge to Texas Democrat legislators, who fled their state in an attempt to deny quorum and block a redistricting vote (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Office of the […]
The post Judicial Watch Sues Illinois Gov. Pritzker for Records on ‘Safe Haven’ for Texas Democrat Lawmakers appeared first on Judicial Watch.
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