Tag Archive for: Republican Party

FLORIDA: State Representative Announces Switch From Democrat To Republican Party

Florida State Rep. Hillary Cassel announced Friday that she is switching her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

Cassel, who represents Florida’s 101st House district, announced the switch in a Twitter post. She cited concerns over the Democratic Party’s “failure to unequivocally support Israel” and what she calls its disconnect from everyday Floridians. Cassel is now the second Florida Democrat to join the GOP, along with Rep. Susan Valdés from Tampa.

“Today, I am announcing my decision to change my party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. This decision was not made lightly but comes from a deep sense of responsibility to my constituents and my commitment to the values that guide my service. I will be joining the Republican Conference of the Florida House of Representatives because I believe in their vision for a better, more prosperous Florida,” Cassel wrote in a statement.

“As a proud Jewish woman,” she continued. “I have been increasingly troubled by the Democratic Party’s failure to unequivocally support Israel and its willingness to tolerate extreme progressive voices that justify or condone acts of terrorism. I’m constantly troubled by the inability of the current Democratic Party to relate to everyday Floridians. I can no longer remain in a party that doesn’t represent my values.”

Cassel seemed to signal the switch earlier in December, tweeting an infographic depicting the overwhelming Republican majorities in Florida’s upcoming legislative session.

“Understanding the makeup of our State Legislature is key to navigating the upcoming session and addressing the needs of Floridians,” she wrote.

Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez endorsed the move, writing, “I am proud to share that @RepCassel has joined our House Republican Conference. Welcome to the team!”

House District 101 includes Dania Beach and portions of Broward County. Cassel won the seat in 2022 with 53% of the vote, defeating Republican challenger Guy Silla, who won 46% of the vote. Her current term expires in November 2026. The 101st District also swung 16 points towards the GOP, shifting from Joe Biden +14 in 2020 to Donald Trump +2 in 2024, according to a tweet from @Uncrewed, who writes about statewide elections on Substack.

AUTHOR

Henry Rodgers

Chief national correspondent.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

More Americans Identify as Republican than Democrat as November Draws Nearer

For the first time in recorded history, more Americans are identifying with the Republican Party in the third quarter of a presidential election year than the Democratic Party — and are aligning with the GOP on key issues heading into November. Gallup released an in-depth analysis this week revealing that 48% of adults in the U.S. either identify as Republican or lean towards the Republican Party, compared to only 45% who identify as Democrat or lean towards the Democratic Party.

“Party affiliation and voting are strongly predictive of individuals’ vote choices, with the vast majority of identifiers and leaners voting for the candidate of their preferred party,” Gallup noted. The analytics giant continued, “At the aggregate level, there are typically more Democrats and Democratic leaners than Republicans and Republican leaners in the U.S. adult population.” In observing prior elections, Gallup pointed out that Democrats have typically won the White House when they have had “larger-than-normal advantages in party affiliation.”

For example, 52% of Americans identified with the Democratic Party in 1992, as opposed to 40% who allied themselves with the Republican Party, and Bill Clinton, then the Democratic Governor of Arkansas, won the presidency. The margin was a little lower in 1996, when 50% of Americans identified with the Democratic Party and 41% with the GOP, but Clinton won reelection. The margin was significantly narrower in 2000 (48% Democrat, 43% Republican) when Texas Governor George W. Bush, a Republican, beat incumbent Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat. In 2004, the nation was evenly split (47% identifying with the Democratic Party, 47% with the Republican Party), yielding another Bush win.

From that point forward, the margins between the two party identifications stayed fairly close, but still with a decided Democratic advantage. Barack Obama took the White House in 2008 (49% identifying with the Democratic Party, 41% with the Republican Party) and was reelected in 2012 (47% identifying with the Democratic Party, 43% with the Republican Party). Donald Trump ascended to the presidency four years later, with 46% of Americans identifying with the Democratic Party and 43% with the GOP, the slimmest margin seen since 2000. In 2020, 48% of Americans affiliated themselves with the Democratic Party and only 43% with the Republican Party and former Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in as president.

Now, more Americans not only identify with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party, but more Americans identify with the Republican Party than have identified with the Democratic Party over the past 16 years. Gallup noted, “Republicans previously have not had an outright advantage in party affiliation during the third quarter of a presidential election year, and they have rarely outnumbered Democrats in election and nonelection years over the past three decades.”

Beyond party identification, Gallup discovered that Americans have greater confidence in the GOP’s handling of issues voters consider important — namely, the economy and inflation, immigration, and government — than in the Democratic Party’s, by a five-point margin, which Gallup classifies as a “strong” advantage in the context of previous presidential elections.

The Republican Party is also leading on economic issues. As Gallup noted, “Americans currently give the Republican Party a six-percentage-point edge, 50% to 44%, as the party they think would do a better job of keeping the country prosperous.” The party which has held an advantage on this question in the past has won 12 out of 16 presidential elections. Americans also give the economy a rating of -28, with only 22% saying that economic conditions under President Joe Biden are “excellent” or “good.” Gallup added, “Republicans hold a more substantial advantage of 14 points (54% to 40%) as the party Americans believe is better able to keep the nation safe from terrorism and other international threats.”

Additionally, only 22% of Americans say that they are satisfied with how things are going in the U.S. currently, a low unrivaled since 13% said the same in 2008. Gallup observed, “Satisfaction levels this low have been associated with incumbent presidents losing their reelection bids in 1980 (19%), 1992 (22%) and 2020 (28%).” Biden’s low favorability ratings (39%, significantly lower than former President Donald Trump’s 46% heading into the 2020 election) are less likely to impact the 2024 election, Gallup anticipates, since he dropped out of the presidential race. But Gallup noted, “Biden’s unpopularity could still affect the election to the extent voters transfer their frustrations with the Biden administration to Vice President Kamala Harris.”

The survey analysis from Gallup follows news that Republican voter registration is on the rise, outpacing Democratic voter registration in several historically-Democratic districts, and Republicans are accounting for a significantly higher percentage of early voting turnout than in previous years. Historically, early voting and mail-in voting have been dominated by Democrats, with Republicans voting on election day itself.

In its analysis, Gallup concluded, “The political environment suggests the election is Trump’s and Republicans’ to lose. Nearly every indicator of the election context is favorable to the Republican Party, and those that aren’t are essentially tied rather than showing a Democratic advantage.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Republicans Outpacing Dems in Voter Registrations, but Election Integrity Concerns Persist

A crucial county in the swing state of Pennsylvania is flipping red for the first time in nearly 60 years, following a statewide and nationwide trend. Luzerne County, the most populous county in the Keystone State’s northeastern region, has officially registered more Republican voters than Democrats for the first time since 1970.

According to local WFMZ-TV 69 News, there are 87,415 registered Republicans in Luzerne County, against 87,332 registered Democrats, as of Monday morning. There are also 22,414 unaffiliated voters and 6,160 third-party voters. Luzerne had been a Democrat stronghold for decades, but former President Donald Trump won the county by eight points in 2020 and is poised to do so again by wider margins in November.

In comments to The Washington Stand, FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter said, “Pennsylvania is known as the Keystone state, and that moniker could not be more fitting for its role in the 2024 election. Without the state’s 19 electoral college votes, the paths to 270 for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump get much more difficult.” He added, “But, with a closely divided Congress, all eyes are on the state’s contested Senate race and competitive House races as well.”

Carpenter continued, “Luzerne County is probably the swingiest county in arguably the most crucial swing state, and with the news that Republicans outnumber Democrats in this key county for the first time in decades, suddenly the prospect of turning this state red at the presidential level, defeating longtime Democrat Senator Bob Casey, Jr., and Democrat Representative Matt Cartwright, is a real possibility.”

Just 10 years ago in 2014, Democrats held a lead of 47,322 registered voters over Republicans, with 111,233 Democrats registered to vote and only 63,911 Republicans. That lead has increasingly diminished over the past decade and Republicans now lead by 83 registered voters. This trend is not isolated to Luzerne County. According to Early Vote Action founder Scott Presler, Democrats have also lost their lead in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County. In 2020, there were 201,254 Democrats registered in Bucks and 185,672 Republicans, giving the Democrats an advantage of 15,582 registered voters. Now, there are 199,359 Democrats registered and 201,479 Republicans, giving Republicans a lead of 2,120 registered voters. Last year, Pennsylvania’s Beaver County was also flipped red.

Other states, like Virginia, have seen similar shifts away from Democratic Party enthusiasm. According to former state senator Glen Sturtevant (R), early voting has seen a significant uptick from prior years, with roughly 30,000 more ballots having been cast early than the same time in 2020, with a heavy Republican lean. Virginia’s solidly-red Washington County has reportedly seen a 150% early voting increase compared to 2020, Bland County has seen a 200% increase, and Smith County has seen an even greater increase.

While some battleground states are more hotly-contested, Trump has made inroads among Democrats. In Michigan, the Democratic mayor of Hamtramck, the most densely-populated municipality in the state and the nation’s only majority-Muslim city, formally endorsed Trump over Harris. “President Trump and I may not agree on everything, but I know he is a man of principles,” said mayor Ameer Ghalib. “I believe he is the right choice for this critical time. I’ll not regret my decision no matter what the outcome would be, and I’m ready to face the consequences.”

Additionally, a poll of Teamsters Union members showed that Trump is leading among the historically-Democrat-aligned voting bloc, especially in battleground states. Trump is leading Harris among the Teamsters by 18.6 points in Arizona, 15.6 points in Georgia, 33.9 points in Pennsylvania, nearly 30 points in Michigan, and 16.5 points in Wisconsin. This follows the Teamsters Union refusing to endorse Harris — the first time in decades that the union hasn’t endorsed a Democrat — after internal polling revealed that nearly 60% of union members supported Trump’s reelection campaign.

However, the Virginia Project, a voter outreach and election integrity organization, warned that polling data and voter registrations need to be accompanied by election integrity safeguards and lawyers. “Pennsylvania isn’t going to stop a 3AM ballot dump with voter registrations. The longer the question remains open and nobody can proffer a responsible party with a real plan, the more disturbing the situation is and the less likely we will carry that state,” the group warned.

The Virginia Project asked, “When Philly illegally kicks out observers, covers the windows of the polling place, and stuffs the ballot box, who exactly is going to do what exactly to stop it?” Pointing to the election integrity measures used in Virginia elections, the organization explained, “Here’s what would happen in Virginia. An observer would see something improper, and would immediately call the legal hotline. Inside 15 minutes lawyers would strike like a bolt of lightning and put everything on hold until a court can decide.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Who Is J.D. Vance? Ohio Senator Tapped as Trump VP Candidate

Former President Donald Trump announced Monday that he had selected Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his vice presidential running mate, touching off rounds of praise and occasional statements of condemnation from the pro-life community.

Vance, who is presently serving his first term in the U.S. Senate, mirrors President Trump’s views on immigration and the importance of elevating the American middle class. The two men made a surprise appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, shortly after delegates nominated the ticket.

Vance memorialized his underprivileged upbringing and chaotic family life in his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which was made into a well-received movie directed by Ron Howard in 2020. After joining the Marines, Vance graduated from Yale Law School and worked at Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm before starting his own, where he raised more than $90 million. He has become a critic of Wall Street, called for higher corporate taxes, and supported raising the minimum wage.

Vance’s supporters say he has never lost touch with the struggling region of Appalachia that formed him. “There are few leaders in America that understand the challenges our families and children are facing today like Senator J.D. Vance,” Aaron Baer, president of the Ohio-based Center for Christian Virtue, told The Washington Stand. Jeremy Carl, author of the best-selling “The Unprotected Class,” has noted that “Vance comes from the forgotten white working class, and he has made concern for the people he came from the centerpiece of his career from the beginning. That’s incredibly important.”

David Closson, the director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, congratulated Vance on Monday, noting that “Senator Vance was one of only five senators who received a perfect score on FRC Action’s scorecard for votes taken in 2023.” Vance once compared abortion to slavery. Vance also scored an A- from Students for Life Action and an A+ from SBA Pro-Life America. Michael New of the Charlotte Lozier Institute highlighted positive aspects of Vance’s abortion record, including his opposition to Ohio’s Amendment 1 and his decision to speak at the Ohio March for Life.

While running for office in 2022, Vance said the states could “have different abortion laws” but that there should also be a reasonable “minimum national standard.” He viewed the “Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions,” which would limit abortion to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, or longer in the cases of rape or incest, as such a reasonable bill. The measure would allow more than nine out of 10 abortions in the United States to take place. Yet he attacked his opponent, former “pro-life Democrat” Tim Ryan, for supporting abortion until birth. “As much as you call me an extremist, you’re the extremist on this issue,” Vance told him in 2022.

As Trump’s vice presidential list narrowed to Vance, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum (R), Vance stepped back from his pro-life voting record to match the nominee.

“On the question of the abortion pill, what so many of us have said is that … the Supreme Court made a decision saying that the American people should have access to that medication. Donald Trump has supported that opinion. I support that opinion,” said Vance on the July 7 episode of “Meet the Press.” He went on to praise Trump’s view that Dobbs returned the issue of abortion to the states alone. “Donald Trump is the pragmatic leader here. He’s saying most abortion policy’s going to be decided by the states,” said Vance.

That outraged some pro-life leaders. “Both J.D. Vance and President Trump support the legalization of abortion pills,” said Lila Rose, founder of Live Action. “This is heartbreaking and wrong. Vance was once strongly against the murder of all preborn babies. Both men can still change their positions, and we will pray and work for them to do so.”

“The reality is this: we are dealing with two pro-abortion legalization tickets, with the Biden/Harris ticket supporting abortions on babies through all nine months of pregnancy as well as the political persecution of pro-life people,” Rose noted.

Yet abortion lobbyists decried Vance as an alleged right-wing crank on abortion. Planned Parenthood Action derided Vance as an “unqualified, anti-abortion politician who won’t protect any of your rights.” (Bold in original.) Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL) called Vance “an anti-abortion extremist” who is “out of step with the majority of Americans.” EMILY’s List said erroneously that Trump and Vance constitute “the most anti-abortion presidential ticket in history,” although President Ronald Reagan supported a Right to Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have protected all children from abortion. (Joe Biden voted for the amendment during the Reagan administration.) The pro-abortion PAC insisted, “a vote for Trump is a vote for a national abortion ban and an end to access to other essential forms of reproductive health care,” possibly a reference to Vance’s opposition to childhood transgender surgeries.

The Ohio senator has strongly opposed the transgender industry’s profit-fueled desire to carry out procedures on underage children. Last July, Vance introduced the Senate version of the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which would protect minors from transgender surgeries and chemical injections, in an effort “to save countless young Americans from a lifetime of suffering and regret.” He also urged Ohio lawmakers to override the veto of a similar house bill, H.B. 68, by Governor Mike DeWine (R), which legislators proceeded to do.

“He is strong on this issue, and I support him, because I believe he will stop other kids from facing the harm that has plagued my childhood and has forever altered the course of my life,” said detransitioner Chloe Cole.

Vance became a longstanding and outspoken advocate for increasing the birthrate of native-born U.S. citizens, pointing out the political and economic problems of lower population. Vance has called for introducing economic incentives for families to have more children, such as making births “free” at the point of service.

“Students for Life Action has been proud to work with the senator’s team to provide additional benefits for young families and pregnant mothers, which is part of the hard work of protecting life in law and in service at every stage of life,” Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins told TWS. “But it will be important to talk with this ticket about the realities of how the Biden administration has weaponized policy and the law against pro-life Americans and the preborn children.”

At a time of record-breaking illegal immigration, Vance scored an A (90%) from the immigration watchdog, NumbersUSA.

Vance has admitted that his Christian faith has grown in recent years. He grew up in a family that identified as Christian but did not regularly attend church. Yet he learned lifelong lessons attending his father’s evangelical congregation. “I saw people of different races and classes worshipping together. I saw that there were certain moral expectations from my peers of what I should do,” Vance told Deseret News. When he entered Yale Law School in 2010, Vance revealed, “I would have called myself an atheist.” In 2015, he began seeking clarity about his Christian views. Vance selected the Roman Catholic faith due to its importance in the life of people close to him, as well as its intellectual depth. He was baptized for the first time in his life as a Roman Catholic in August 2019, according to his friend, Rod Dreher.

“I’ve seen how his sincere Christian faith gives him courage to stand for what’s right, even when it doesn’t make him popular with the most powerful forces in culture,” Baer told TWS.

If elected, J.D. Vance would be only the second Roman Catholic vice president in U.S. history. (Former Vice President Joe Biden also identifies as Catholic.) Vance, who will turn 40 years old on August 2, would also rank as the third-youngest vice president in U.S. history, behind former Vice Presidents Richard Nixon (who had just turned 40) and John C. Breckenridge (36 years old).

Vance met his wife — Usha Chilukuri Vance, who was born in San Diego to Indian immigrant parents — when both were students at Yale Law School. They got married in 2014 and have three children: Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel. Like her parents, Mrs. Vance is a Hindu. “That was one of the things that made them such good parents, that made them really good people,” she told Fox News. Yet Senator Vance described his wife as “very supportive” when he began to “reengage with my own faith.”

“I knew that JD was searching for something. This just felt right for him,” said Mrs. Vance.

The couple seemingly has little trouble raising their sons and daughter in an interfaith home, because they “agree a lot” on family rearing and “talk a lot,” said Mrs. Vance.

Pro-life supporters hope Vance will take a strong stand for the unborn if elected. “With approximately 750,000 babies in states like California and New York still lacking basic protections, we need champions whose boldness will not waver,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, in a statement emailed to The Washington Stand. Her organization has committed to spending $92 million to reach 10 million voters in eight battleground states this election cycle.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Vivek Ramaswamy floated as possible Senate replacement for JD Vance in Ohio

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

GOP platform pledges to stand with Israel, deport ‘pro-Hamas radicals,’ fight anti-Christian bias

It should be obvious to all by now, although it isn’t, that there tends to be a bias against Israel on the left. This is despite the well-documented history of persecution that Israel has endured since 1948, as well as the jihad waged against Jews even prior to Israel’s founding. The GOP platform also intends “to fight anti-Christian bias as well as ‘gender insanity.’”

The Republican platform is consistent with the longstanding policies of the Republicans; whereas the Democrats have been unpredictable in their position on Israel, as well as ruinous to American interests.

An outstanding question remains, however, regarding the logistics of the Republican pledge to “DEPORT PRO-HAMAS RADICALS AND MAKE OUR COLLEGE CAMPUSES SAFE AND PATRIOTIC AGAIN.”

Does this mean also, for example, that groups that were designated unindicted co-conspirators for their support for Hamas, which were uncovered in the Holy Land Foundation trial, might be further investigated? Many of these groups have been driving the stealth jihad and have escaped accountability since that trial, and perpetuate a false Palestinian victimhood perspective, while concealing what the “resistance” is really about.

Another question for the GOP: what happens if those “pro-Hamas radicals” are American citizens?

The GOP commitment to fight Hamas and protect Christians is a good start.

America needs to get tough and root out stealth jihadist enemies from within, which are a threat to freedom. But it is a complex task.

GOP platform pledges to stand with Israel, deport ‘pro-Hamas radicals’ from US

by Jacob Majid, Times of Israel, July 7, 2024:

The 2024 Republican Party platform pledges to fight antisemitism and to keep Israel safe. It promises to fight anti-Christian bias as well as “gender insanity.”

And it vows, in all-caps, to “DEPORT PRO-HAMAS RADICALS AND MAKE OUR COLLEGE CAMPUSES SAFE AND PATRIOTIC AGAIN.”

Parties traditionally publish platforms in election years ahead of their national conventions, as a statement of its values and a wish list of policies should their candidate win the White House.

The Republican platform, posted Monday and subject to a vote at next week’s convention in Milwaukee, is heavily influenced by the priorities and language of the nominee, former United States president Donald Trump — down to the capitalization style he’s favored in his social media posts. It also repeatedly attacks the Biden administration.

While quarrels over platforms have sometimes made waves among party insiders, they are largely symbolic, non-binding documents that have little practical implication.….

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Launch of Platform Integrity Project Seeks to Keep Conservative Planks ahead of GOP Convention

A new conservative coalition is mobilizing to ensure that the Republican Party’s platform maintains its strong commitment to socially conservative principles. On Monday, FRC Action partnered with a host of other conservative organizations to form the Platform Integrity Project, an initiative to ensure that when Republican delegates gather in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention next week, they will write a party platform that includes, according to a press release shared with The Washington Stand, “longstanding pro-life, pro-family, and pro-Israel planks.”

The initiative is the first ever to track and score how delegates vote on the Republican Party’s platform. In addition to FRC Action, Platform Integrity Project partners include WallBuilders, Faith Wins, American Principles Project, Family Policy Alliance, AFA Action, Liberty Counsel Action, Pro-Family Legislative Network, The Family Foundation of Kentucky, Center for Arizona Policy Action, Frontline Policy Action, Maryland Family Action, Human Coalition Action, Palmetto Family Council, and the North Carolina Values Coalition.

“Party platforms matter. They state a party’s principles and their priorities,” FRC Action Chairman Tony Perkins, an elected member of the Republican National Committee (RNC) Platform Committee from Louisiana, said in a statement. He noted that research has found that, historically, elected Republicans follow their party’s platform over 80% of the time. “America is in an unprecedented place of moral and cultural confusion and is in dire need of leadership and moral clarity,” Perkins continued. “The Republican Party must once again communicate a clear and hopeful contrast between the parties by painting a message for voters on the foundational issues — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — not in pale pastels but in bright, bold colors.”

“Voters need to see a contrast between the two parties on their policy priorities. Voters want and need a choice,” Perkins concluded. “The message to Platform Committee delegates is clear: preserve life and family values in the Republican Party platform so that social conservatives can continue to find a home in the GOP.”

FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter told The Washington Stand, “The party platform is an important document for voters to understand what policies a public official is likely to support if elected.” He continued, “The Platform Integrity Project is an effort to organize like-minded organizations, officials, delegates, and individuals to keep pro-life and pro-family language in the GOP platform. Drawing a clear contrast is important for Christian voters to see where the parties are on the issues that we care about.”

Since the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled Roe v. Wade in 2022, there has been a push from moderate Republicans to abandon the life issue altogether and remove pro-life commitments from the GOP platform. Even some more hardline conservatives, like former President Donald Trump, have taken a more tentative position on abortion. While Trump touts the pro-life record established in his first term and proudly takes credit for his Supreme Court appointees overturning Roe, he has repeatedly shot down any notion of using the federal executive branch to craft pro-life protections at the national level, instead saying that the issue should be left to the states. A memo from the Trump team has suggested that the GOP “streamline” its platform to be more “easily digestible.” Concerns have mounted among Republicans and conservatives that this “paring down” may result in tacit Republican support for abortion, same-sex marriage, and even transgenderism.

With the party platform debate taking place behind closed doors — a novelty, given that the debate is typically public — on July 8 and 9, the Platform Integrity Project commitment to “an open process that will help ensure the preservation of the GOP’s solidly conservative platform” will allow Republican voters to ensure that their party represents their values. The Platform Integrity Project’s website encourages Americans to sign up to pray for their delegates when they meet next week.

In a letter sent Monday and seen by The Washington Stand, Perkins suggested to RNC Chairman Michael Whatley that the platform deliberations not be a secret, noting that the “gag rule” is “unprecedented and appears to violate RNC rules.” Perkins quipped that the gag rule cannot be the will of Trump, especially since the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has himself been targeted by such “un-American” tactics from the Left. He added that the gag rule “heightens speculation that the GOP platform will be watered down to a few pages of meaningless, poll-tested talking points. This contrasts sharply with Ronald Reagan’s call for a party platform, ‘a banner of bold, unmistakable colors with no pale pastels,’ challenging the nation with a clear vision for the future.”

“These bold principles on life, family, and freedom have served the GOP well for over a half-century, starkly contrasting with the other Party and attracting many God-fearing Americans to the GOP,” Perkins wrote. “There is great concern that the foundational efforts of patriots like Phyllis Schlafly and countless others who have built the Republican Party into a majority, pro-life, pro-family, pro-ordered liberty party will be undermined by these unprecedented changes in the process.”

The letter was sent not only to Whatley, but to all RNC leadership. Perkins pledged that if the gag rule were not rescinded, he would elevate the issue to all GOP platform stakeholders. “This process will likely result in an outcome that jeopardizes the Party’s ability to continue being a stabilizing force for freedom in this nation, as it has been for nearly 175 years,” Perkins averred. “I respectfully request that you reject the imposition of the Gag Rule. If you decide to proceed, I formally request the RNC meeting minutes that recorded the motion and the vote, which allowed this unprecedented Gag Rule to be implemented.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, former Congressman and FRC Senior Vice President Jody Hice stated, “In the world of politics, few things are more important than the party platform. A written ‘platform’ delineates the differences between parties, and is the track upon which elected representatives generally vote. Moreover, its impact goes far beyond the federal government, it also provides guidance for the various state legislatures. Further yet, the voters themselves align with one party or the other based upon the stated values expressed in the platform.”

Hice concluded, “The importance of a statement that clearly identifies core values and the foundational worldview upon which the GOP will be guided cannot be over-emphasized. As the platform debate begins, we cannot afford to compromise or water down the essential elements of conservatism and morality.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Latest Polls and Primaries Spell Disaster for a GOP that Abandons Life and Marriage

With just two weeks left until the GOP platform committee meets in Milwaukee, conservatives are preparing for what many believe will be an all-out war for the party’s soul. Rumors have been swirling for months that a quiet army of moderates is assembling to overthrow key Republican pillars on life and marriage. And while delegates are used to having to defend core principles, insiders say this time is different. They’re coming for the GOP’s most basic beliefs, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said somberly. “I hate to tell you this, but it’s true. … The Republican Party Platform is under assault.”

While most of the attention is on the bright lights of the convention itself, the majority of conservatives realize that the lead-up to the big television bonanza is what makes or breaks the party. “If you change the platform,” Perkins warned, “you change the party.” July 8 and 9, when the document is hashed out for the first time in eight years, are “critical to keep at least one party aligned with biblical truth,” he insisted.

Fortunately, a few stories are bubbling up that should cast some serious doubt on the wisdom of diluting the life and marriage planks. For one, Republican support for same-sex marriage is cratering. After creeping upward for the last decade or so, the bottom fell out of the issue for the GOP, dropping almost 10 points in the last two years. Only 46% of Republicans favor the idea now, down from 55% in 2022 according to Gallup.

Some of that pushback was obvious in the aftermath of the House and Senate votes on the far-left Respect for Marriage Act, when 51 Republicans abandoned their base and sided with Democrats. Together, they helped bulldoze natural marriage and gutted religious freedom — a decision that resulted in a stunning amount of backlash at home. The grassroots outrage was so intense after the first vote in July that eight fewer House Republicans supported it on final passage in December.

Over in the Senate, the 12 Republicans who betrayed natural marriage faced blistering criticism in their states. Across IowaWyoming, AlaskaIndiana, and North Carolina, the urgency to “do something” about the Republicans’ vote intensified in the following months , as counties moved to censure and publicly excoriate members who set fire to the party’s principles. Senator Thom Tillis (N.C.) even lost the party’s financial backing. A year and a half later, Gallup’s numbers show that the fury over these traitorous moves is still very much alive.

As for the suggestion that watering down the GOP’s life position would win over more voters, the primaries in South Carolina are one in a long line of stories that should put that logic to rest. Three Republican state senators who tried to filibuster the chamber’s pro-life protections lost their reelection bids this month — including the longest-serving female in the senate GOP. The women, who became known as “Sister Senators,” refused to back the Palmetto State’s lower abortion threshold, eventually costing Sandy Senn, Penry Gustafson, and Katrina Shealy their jobs.

PBS points out, “Billboards saying Shealy was not ‘pro-life’ were all over her district in Lexington County, which led the charge to flip the state from Democratic to Republican control over the past five decades.”

FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter, who watched the state’s primary with interest, told The Washington Stand, “Ultimately, the takeaway from the defeat of these three South Carolina senators who defected from the rest of the conference on the issue of protecting the unborn is that Republican primary voters are paying attention to who is truly pro-life, and who will side with the pro-abortion Left. Protecting the unborn is just as salient an issue for Republican primary voters today as it has ever been, they won’t allow the Overton Window to move left on the protection of life, and they’re willing to throw out incumbents to make that point.”

Let’s hope national leaders are paying attention to these signs. As Perkins pointed out on “Washington Watch” Tuesday, a lot of things were pivotal to Donald Trump’s 2016 support among evangelicals: releasing a list of pro-life nominees he would pick for the Supreme Court, choosing a known conservative as his running mate, and the embrace of the most conservative Republican Party Platform in history. “Those three things galvanized his support.”

Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, agreed. “I think we absolutely need a repeat” in 2024, he said. “We’re at an inflection point in this campaign, and in many ways, the foundation for the fall is going to be laid in the next three weeks. We have a debate taking place here in Atlanta. … And how well the president does, meaning former President Trump and how well Biden does is going to determine a lot. It’ll be a key moment.”

The second, Reed explained, “is the selection of his vice presidential running mate. And the third will be the gathering in Milwaukee and the adoption of the platform. And I’ve said repeatedly … and I know that you’ve said similar things — that if the Republican Party and the Trump campaign send a message of equivocation or retreat on the historic defense of innocent human life by the Republican Party — [which] I believe [is] the most important position of this party other than its opposition to slavery — it will make it harder to turn these voters out in the fall.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Republican Support for Same-Sex Marriage Drops to 5-Year Low

Support for same-sex marriage is on the decline among Republicans, while still trending high among the rest of the nation, according to a new survey. Gallup’s polling for May revealed that a majority (69%) of Americans support legalized same-sex marriage, but that support among Republicans has dropped sharply over the past two years. In 2021 and 2022, 55% of Republicans approved of legalized same-sex marriage, but that number fell to 49% in 2023 and has fallen even lower to 46% as of last month. Support for same-sex marriage is still high among Democrats (83%) and Independent voters (74%).

Meanwhile, the share of Republicans who see same-sex relations as “morally acceptable” has plummeted even further, from 56% in 2022 to a mere 40% as of last month. Over 80% of Democrats and nearly 70% of Independents reported that they view same-sex relations as “morally acceptable.” Between 2012 and 2022, Republicans’ support for same-sex marriage increased fairly steadily, rising from 22% and peaking at 55% in 2021 and 2022. However, Republicans’ endorsement of same-sex relations as “morally acceptable” did not cross the majority threshold until 2020. It fell from its 2022 peak to a low unrivaled since 2014.

As Gallup noted, barely a quarter (27%) of Americans supported legalized same-sex marriage when the organization began surveying the question in 1996, while over two-thirds (68%) of Americans opposed same-sex marriage. In 2011, support finally broke above 50% and, just a few years later, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Since 2016, general support has remained consistently above 60%, although 2024’s 69% represents a two-point drop even just since last year.

“There are a couple of important factors involved with the decline of GOP support for gay marriage. First, Americans broadly embrace the concept of American liberty, and they will usually push back whenever their freedoms are threatened,” said former congressman and Family Research Council Senior Vice President Jody Hice, in comments to The Washington Stand. Hice noted that the LGBT agenda has become increasingly militant, insinuating itself into classrooms, hospitals, and all over. He explained, “Instead of endearing people to the LGBT movement, this strategy has had the opposite effect. … This type of activity has resulted in many who now view the LGBT community as being harmful to existing families rather than a personal preference unto themselves.”

“Another reason for the decline of support is more deeply rooted and even more problematic for the Left. It is founded within the principles of a worldview, specifically a biblical worldview,” Hice stated. “Just as ‘freedom’ is cherished by many, even more so, deeply held religious beliefs will not be compromised by those who possess them.”

Joseph Backholm, FRC’s senior fellow for Biblical Worldview, also weighed in on that point. “Obviously the trend in recent decades has been in the wrong direction on this issue, but a correction is inevitable for a couple reasons. The whole premise of same-sex marriage is that there is no difference between men and women,” Backholm explained. “Most of the people didn’t quite see it this way, but since then we’ve seen how the logic of genderlessness is playing out in the rest of culture. At least a few are probably recognizing that the world is not better.”

“In addition to that, same-sex marriage was sold to the public as the tolerant choice, but what we’ve seen since then is that the political movement that brought us same-sex marriage is anything but tolerant,” Backholm continued. “It has brought us lawsuits against churches and small businesses, pronoun laws, cancel culture, and general intolerance of those who still claim children should have both a mother and father or deny men can get pregnant. Everything about the campaign for same-sex marriage was a lie and every day since has, in its own way, helped make that clear for anyone interested in seeing it.”

“This may or may not be the beginning of a long-term correction on how the public sees this issue, but it is inevitable,” he concluded. “Since there will always be a meaningful difference between men and women, the only possible, long-term outcome is lamenting the time in our lives we pretended there wasn’t.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Inside Trump’s Meeting With House Republicans

Former President Donald Trump gathered Thursday morning with House Republicans at the Capitol Hill Club to talk politics and strategy just five months out from the election, according to lawmakers in the room who spoke with the Caller.

Trump was greeted by House Republicans singing him Happy Birthday one day before he turns 78 years old, and was gifted the game ball from the Republicans’ 31-11 victory in Wednesday’s Congressional Baseball Game before he spoke.

Trump joked that the performance of the Democrats’ outfield in the game was a bigger help to Republicans than anything they could have done themselves.

During Trump’s remarks, he mentioned The Washington Post’s readership being down 50 percent, and was met by cheers.

Trump then mentioned that he plans on doing 100 tele town halls for House candidates, and called the tele town halls a “secret weapon,” according to a source familiar in the room.

At one point during the discussion, Trump took a shot at political operative Jeff Roe, saying Roe does surgery on candidate’s wallets. Roe backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ primary bid against Trump and was widely criticized for racking up big dollars without delivering positive results.

The former president also made an interesting remark about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Trump claimed that Pelosi’s daughter told him the two would’ve made a good pair had they not been involved in politics, but Trump joked that he thinks Pelosi is much older than he is. The California Democrat is 84.

Trump then took a jab at those who voted to impeach him, saying all but one had been removed from office. The source told the Caller that Trump was forgetting about Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse.

The 2024 frontrunner also told House Republicans that tariffs will be a top priority.

Trump weighed in on the changes to the Republican National Committee (RNC), saying Michael Whatley and Lara Trump have totally transformed the RNC, and noted that he chose Whatley because of his performance as NCGOP Chair.

Since the changes, the RNC and the Trump campaign have seen their best fundraising success of the cycle so far, shattering their own donation website following Trump’s conviction in Manhattan.

After his remarks, Trump took questions from the lawmakers, many of whom just thanked and praised him.Trump will now meet with Senate Republicans at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).

(This is a developing story. More information will be added as it becomes available.)

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

PERKINS: An Open Letter to the Republican Party

The stresses on America both internationally and domestically are immense. We face the brute reality of war in Ukraine, which could easily spill into a NATO country. The Middle East is more volatile than at any time since the founding of Israel 76 years ago. There are grim warnings from some people of civil war here at home as the cancel culture seeks to silence and even eradicate voices with which they disagree. Political invective has become personal and ugly — even among friends.

These challenges we face have been entrusted to us, this generation, by God. We have no reason to fear the difficulties we face because as 2 Timothy 1:7 says “… God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

While there are many things that deserve Americans’ attention, there is one topic that many political leaders are doing verbal gymnastics to avoid talking about. It’s an debate that has been, is, and will be a defining issue for our nation.

Two years ago next month, the Supreme Court reversed the calamitous 1973 abortion rulings that led to the taking of nearly 64 million lives. But what should have been the fulfillment of decades of effort to heal a blot on the Constitution and our national conscience has become a flashpoint of conflict. In the past 23 months, tens of thousands of infants have been saved in pro-life states — but perhaps two million more have been lost as the Biden administration and the abortion industry have combined to end all pretense that abortion is about health care and begun promoting do-it-yourself abortions by mail.

The Dobbs decision has given America a second chance. An opportunity to repent. The times call for a new campaign for life, but instead, we see sign after sign of a retreat among our fellow Republicans on this defining issue. And now, there are rumors and reports of an organized campaign to weaken or remove altogether from the GOP Platform language that insists every boy or girl in the womb has a right to life. Having written a large portion of the last two Republican Platforms and elected to the upcoming platform committee, I am involved in those conversations, and I am hopeful we will end in the right place.

But I want to be clear: The right to life transcends other political debates and the interests of any and all political parties and candidates. It is truly the right without which no other right has any meaning.

In his last speech before his death on April 11, 1865, Abraham Lincoln said, “Important principles may and must be inflexible.”

Please don’t mistake my words as partisan. Advocates for the sanctity of human life want all political parties to embrace what our Founders declared as the first among the rights with which we are endowed by our Creator. On this, we are and must be inflexible.

It’s time for us to reflect on what one political party did right — and now risks getting completely wrong. And it is fitting to go back to the very beginning of the Grand Old Party nearly 170 years ago to understand the stakes that loom today.

All of us are familiar with the high drama of the mid-19th century, the turmoil that would divide a nation. The focus of the debate was not at first slavery itself but the extension of slavery into the territories of a rapidly expanding nation. The times compelled America’s representatives to take a stand. Many did so at odds with the political parties that brought them to office.

One of them, Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot, was first elected as a Democrat in 1844. Two years later, he stood on the floor of the House of Representatives and offered what became known as the Wilmot Proviso. The Proviso set the condition that no addition to U.S. territory resulting from the Mexican War would permit either “slavery or involuntary servitude.”

Democrat Lewis Cass replied with the idea that became known as popular sovereignty. He wrote of this idea to a colleague, “Leave it to the people, who will be affected by this question to adjust it upon their own responsibility, and in their own manner[.]” This manner of dealing with a matter of profound and universal significance, leaving it to one segment of the public or state to determine whether other men could be owned as property, should sound familiar to our ears right now.

Thus was laid out the core debate between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, between the Democratic Party and the newly forming GOP.

Wilmot re-emerged in time as a Republican. In 1856, the newly formed party met in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence. The Convention adopted a platform that tracked the text of the Declaration, then proceeded to make its applications clear. It said: “[I]t is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism — Polygamy, and Slavery.” Those twin relics of barbarism. From the very beginning, the Republican Party concerned itself with moral questions — and rejected the idea that these were merely matters for local debate and resolution.

Four years later in Chicago, in May 1860, Wilmot was among the first to take the floor of the Republican Convention. Speaking of the reigning Democrats, he said, “A great sectional and aristocratic party, or interest, has for years dominated with a high hand over the political affairs of this country. That interest has wrested, and is now wresting, all the great powers of this government to the one object of the extension and nationalization of slavery. It is our purpose, gentlemen, it is the mission of the Republican party and the basis of its organization, to resist this policy of a sectional interest.”

Wilmot went on to cite the Constitution and hail the Revolutionary era, saying of the Founders: had they thought that “they were called upon to endure the hazards, trials and sacrifices of that long and perilous contest for the purpose of establishing on this continent a great slave empire, not one of them would have drawn his sword in such a cause.”

To the delegates gathered in the Windy City, these were not mere catchphrases, tossed among the “real issues” of commerce and taxation. They were the embodiment of the ideals of Washington and Jefferson. They were the very reason the party existed. And the reason was no mere, to use Wilmot’s expression, “sectional interest” — it was the principle that all men are created equal and that governments exist to protect their unalienable rights.

Now, we could spend hours discussing the history that followed these events in the 19th century. For my purposes, I will only note that our Republic developed rapidly in that era, and the direction was almost uniformly toward protecting fundamental, natural rights. The century saw the abolition of slavery and the adoption of three constitutional amendments to ensure its demise. The century saw the rise of the women’s suffrage movement, events an ever-growing body of scholarship shows were led by women who decried abortion as the ultimate exploitation of women.

The 19th century brought another band of progress: the great wave of states acting to protect the unborn child. These policies were advanced and adopted not by extremists, or Christian nationalists or whatever the slurs of our day might furnish, but by the newly formed American Medical Association. These forces converged in proposing and ratifying the 14th Amendment in 1868.

I urge us all to take a fresh look at the scholarship of people like Professor Robert George at Princeton and John Finnis at Oxford. They persuasively argue that “[T]he 14th Amendment’s guarantees of due process and equal protection apply to human beings, as persons, at all developmental stages — pre-natal as well as post-natal — and in all conditions.”

Some might say, “This is well and good, Tony, but what has this got to do with the 21st century and the role of the parties and legislatures of our day?” My answer is straightforward. It has everything to do with it.

Let’s begin with the stark reality of the world as it revealed itself in the 20th century. For all the progress in science and technology — we can debate whether that includes the invention of the cell phone, the internet, and the “Barbie” movie — the 20th century was unparalleled in the development and use of mass violence.

There were two world wars, dozens of smaller conflicts, the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, the development and dropping of two atomic bombs, the H-bomb and long-range nuclear missiles, the millions of victims of Stalin and Mao. There was also something new to humanity — the top-down imposition of coercive population control, beginning in China but spreading worldwide. If the Republicans were right about slavery, how should we respond to this latest manifestation of a dismissive view of human life?

The start of the 21st century has seen the emergence of a related issue. Is it surprising that once man is free to end the life of a helpless child in the womb, then he will next turn to the weak, elderly, or vulnerable who are outside the womb?

To find our way forward in the 21st century, we only need to look back to America’s debates on slavery. The Democratic Party once embraced “popular sovereignty,” which held that issues of profound significance, such as slavery, were private decisions for the plantation owner and his state. The Republicans of those days passed the 13th Amendment, ending slavery; the 14th Amendment, providing that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” or “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”; and the 15th Amendment, providing that the rights of citizens to vote shall not be “denied or abridged … on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

That Democratic Party was wrong then. And its ideology of “privacy” has been wrong for the past 50 years. To see abortion and assisted suicide as merely matters of private conscience is a cynical misreading of American history and a threat to the foundations of our American Republic.

I said at the outset that the life issue is not a partisan one. We would, of course, like to see the party of Lincoln stand firm on what it has held as a matter of principle since 1856. We’d like to see it do so because it’s the right thing to do, and the party’s pro-life position has brought it more and more support from young people, African-Americans, and Latinos.

In the first GOP Platform to be written after Roe v. Wade in 1976, the Republicans took a stand that has remained to this day. Let me quote that platform verbatim:

We protest the Supreme Court’s intrusion into the family structure through its denial of the parents’ obligation and right to guide their minor children. The Republican Party favors a continuance of the public dialogue on abortion and supports the efforts of those who seek enactment of a constitutional amendment to restore protection of the right to life for unborn children.

In 1980, the GOP took another and even bolder step. Ronald Reagan was engaged in a nip-and-tuck primary contest with George H.W. Bush. To salvage his campaign, Reagan sought to resolve a controversy over his signing of a liberal California abortion law in 1967 by sending a strong letter of commitment to pro-life leaders. They responded with endorsements and Reagan marched to victory. Once again, Michigan was at the center of the drama. The action moved to Detroit, where a triumphant Reagan selected Bush as his running mate and crafted a platform built on the 1976 language, unifying the party.

You know the rest of the story. Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter handily. Carter, for his part, was deeply uncomfortable with abortion and supported the Hyde Amendment. In 1984 the GOP Platform took another massive step forward, going beyond endorsing a constitutional amendment and actively asserting that the Constitution, properly understood, already protects unborn human life. It said:

The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We therefore reaffirm our support for a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.

From that point forward, the Republican Platform has not only consistently affirmed the unborn child’s “fundamental individual right to life,” it has expanded its language to include issues from adoption and defunding of abortion providers to opposing cloning and supporting federal protections for infants born alive after induced abortion. Likewise, abortion has not stood alone in these platforms, because the issue is transcendent in other ways too. Attacks on human life have led to some of the most egregious assaults on the family and on religious freedom and conscience. To these the GOP has consistently said a vigorous “no.”

As the last four decades have now shown, when these principles are celebrated, the Grand Old Party prevails at the ballot box. When the messaging or the candidate deviates from these principles, failure is assured — look at the results in 1996, 2008, and 2012.

What are we to think when Republican leaders suggest reconsidering the party’s stance on the sanctity of human life, on constitutional protection for the unborn, and on a commitment that has lasted over half a century? That the Republican Platform, for the first time in half a century, may sound a retreat on this core principle?

In such a situation, the alarm cannot be sounded too soon or too loud.

We, champions of the God-given right to life, are under no illusions. The ravages of the Sexual Revolution are all around us. Today, we even debate whether mutilating the bodies of children in vain attempts to change their sex is a good thing. Shame on us. Under these circumstances, standing for the sanctity of each and every human life is hard.

But, “Important principles may and must be inflexible.”

I don’t dismiss this challenge, as ballot initiatives in various states have shown. All I can say is, we are not doing this for ourselves. We are seeking the protection of law and public policy for the most vulnerable among us, the unborn, and for their mothers, who either did not expect to be pregnant or did not expect the man in their lives to reject them when they got the news.

Praying, standing, and voting for justice is always the hard road, the way of the cross.

Justice is never won easily. The fight for justice is never time-limited. A single presidential election settles a country’s policy for four years. But our nation’s policy on the right to life is timeless. Like millions of conservative voters and activists, the issue of life is the issue above all others that drew me into the world of politics and policy three decades ago. To abandon it now, to adopt a platform that declares this issue of no national significance, that leaves the unborn completely exposed to dismemberment, cardiac injections, and poisoning in the womb, that sets the stage for a national policy of abortion on demand by a Democratic majority, would be a tragedy of historic proportions.

After all is said and done, what is being asked of us? For me, it is no more than that we be faithful. To not fear, but to respond in the spirit of power, and of love and of the sound mind we’ve been given.

Being faithful is all that is being asked of us. Luke, the Great Physician, records Jesus’s words, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Let’s rededicate ourselves to this battle for true freedom — the freedom that celebrates life and refuses to destroy it. Over the next two months, this battle will play out over a single document, the national Republican Platform, but its object and prize are the soul of a nation. Let’s stir the spirit of the American people, of every party and persuasion, to rediscover the gift of life and our duty to uphold it in every sphere.

My friends, we must be inflexible on this important principle of the sanctity of human life — the future depends upon it.

Adapted from a speech given at the 2024 Lincoln Day Dinner in Muskegon County, Michigan on May 21.

AUTHOR

Tony Perkins

Tony Perkins is president of Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: UPDATED Explainer: WHO Pandemic Agreement Threatens National Sovereignty, Free Speech, and Life

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

The Uni-Party Socialist Congress returns to work April 9th 2024. Conservatives must fire House Speaker Mike Johnson!

The do nothing socialist Republican Party return to the Washington swamp on Tuesday April 9th, 2024 to continue their symbiotic traitorous relationship with their Communist Democrat pals.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) the poster child for the Democrat Communist Party will once again prepare legislation to print more money and or borrow money from Communist China to fund the corrupt government of Ukraine.

The majority of the House of Representatives ran by fraud republicans will continue to protect the borders of Ukraine while totally ignoring the borders of our constitutional republic allowing Biden to continue his invasion foreign nationals into the United States.

On Friday April 12th, 2024 the fraud republicans will also no doubt reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before its April 19th 2024 deadline.

This will allow the U.S. government to continue spying on American citizens in gross violation of our 4th Amendment rights using AT&T equipment and assistance in secret data collection buildings all over the USA.

A skyscraper in New York City 500 feet tall, with 29 stories and no windows and no lights located at 33 Thomas Street is one of many NSA listening posts funded by the Republican controlled congress used to spy on Americans.

Thanks to great American patriot Edward Snowden we would never have learned about this. The entry to this building is identified as an AT&T telecommunications building but what it really is an NSA mass surveillance spy hub. It’s code name is Titanpointe.

This unconstitutional spy hub is funded by the uni party communist/socialist congress so they can read your Emails, listen to your phone calls and collect data on Americans internet web surfing without any oversite. At night you can’t even see the building it disappears onto the darkness.

If you have an AT&T cell phone provider don’t bank on any privacy. General Clapper the former director of the NSA lied to congress repeatedly about his surveillance of Americans. Why is he not in jail?

AT&T was given the code name Luthium in all its contact with the National Security Agency. This building is also just a short walk away from the FBI field office in New York City.

If you are a fan of the US constitution and privacy under the 4th amendment you won’t like what goes on inside this building. The NSA has collected over 150 million phone records in the past on American citizens. There are over 59 NSA spy hubs all over our republic all funded by the Republican led Congress.

This illegal and unconstitutional FISA Act will no doubt be reauthorized by the uniparty socialist / communist congress and Americans will continue to be spied on at the building located at 33 Thomas Street in New York City and at 58 other buildings all over the republic.

Facebook, Google, AT&T all work closely with the NSA and if you still have AT&T and Facebook accounts you have surrendered your freedom as you freely give the US government access to your privacy.

The conservative members of congress in the Republican Party who must suffer the indignity of having an “R” after their name must take action to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from his leadership position when they return to their 4 hour tax payer funded work weeks and replace him with a real leader and conservative constitutionalist.

Then in November we must return president Trump back to the White House so he can get to work restoring constitutional law. Trump must also grant a full pardon to Mr. Edward Snowden on day one as our president in January 2025.

©2024. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

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ROOKE: D.C. Republicans Prove The Swamp Is As Infested And Useless As Ever

After losing over and over again, state after state, to former President Donald Trump, Nikki Haley finally won a Republican Primary race in the District of Columbia.

If Republican voters were ever in doubt about whether Republicans in D.C. understand them and the issues facing everyday Americans, Haley’s win should solidify in their minds that they don’t. In the 2020 general election, D.C. voters overwhelmingly voted for President Joe Biden. Trump garnered just 5% of the vote in the district. The 2024 GOP primary was more of the same. Only about 2,000 people voted, and of that sampling, Haley won 63% of the vote to Trump’s 33%.

In open primary states, Haley has been able to hang on because Democrats are willing to jump the aisle to side with the “anyone but Trump” option in hopes their failing candidate, Biden, will be able to sneak out a win in November against a candidate adamantly rejected by the Republican base.

However, D.C. is not an open primary. Only registered Republicans can vote in the D.C. primary, making her win an eye-opener for voters about who is running the offices of the most important officials in the country.

Haley is not the base’s choice in Iowa, South Carolina, Michigan, Missouri, Idaho, New Hampshire, etc., but the D.C. political class overwhelmingly supports her. The people who think they know better than the Republican base about what issues and policies are good for them love Haley.

Chair of the D.C. Republican Party Patrick Mara and Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors Dan Schuberth perfectly encapsulated this point with their quotes about Haley’s win to Politico.

“This universe is a little more sophisticated than just about any universe in any other state,” Mara told the outlet. “I listen to the political podcasts in the morning. I read the newsletters throughout the day. That’s probably, like, half the people showing up at this.”

“You’ve got a really dialed-in political class,” Schuberth, who hosted Haley’s D.C. campaign stop, said. “You know, folks read POLITICO. They read The Hill. Folks here are reading the Washington Post.”

Mara and Schuberth are among the Republicans living inside the D.C. echo chamber who believe that reading mainstream media newsletters and political punditry, knowing all the people working on the campaigns and living in the district gives them a better understanding of what’s good for Americans. In the political class system, they would consider themselves at the top, while a family of six burdened by the economic and social repercussions of their hubris is an uninformed lemming.

Haley’s presidential campaign has been nothing short of a wish list for the old guard of the Republican Party that flies in direct contrast to the new GOP. Middle America does not want to send their boys to fight in another endless war in the desert, where death is inevitable. Parents are disgusted with the state of the U.S. education system, which acts as an indoctrination camp for far-left policies. Working-class Americans can not only see but feel how illegal immigration puts their families at risk, lowers their wages, and makes them compete for jobs that are rightfully theirs.

Trump captures the angst of everyday Americans in the way the Democrats used to do, while Haley campaigns like a Reagan-era Republican devoid of this insight. He stands up for these people, tells them it’s okay to recognize how these policies affect them, and promises to right the wayward ship once he’s back in office.

To disregard this reality the way the GOP political class does is why the base will take two steps forward and one step back. While at the state level, Republicans are fortifying election integrity, fighting back against open borders and killing the infestation of DEI, the D.C. swamp is terrified even to admit these issues are a problem, much less take the fight to the radicals implementing them.

It takes a level of ignorance and arrogance to tell Republican voters they can’t have the safe, prosperous country they grew up in. That their wish to have policies focused on putting Americans first isn’t popular or winnable when Trump beats their preferred candidate, Haley, into the ground in every state, gaining momentum with each victory. He’s a political force not just because of his one-liners and smash-mouth style of campaigning but because he gave a voice to the base when everyone else told them to forget their patriotism, forget their American dream and instead bow down to the global machine ruining their country.

AUTHOR

MARY ROOKE

Commentary and analysis writer.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

ROOKE: Trump Needs An Ultimate Wingman As His VP — The Pick Couldn’t Be More Obvious

Who former President Donald Trump picks as his running mate is one of the most anticipated announcements in the 2024 election season.

It can’t be just anyone because Trump can’t afford to have another vice president serving in the role who doesn’t wholeheartedly embrace the America First movement. It’s his entire platform. The policies are as important to Trump as they are to the base pushing him through his primary race.

Former Ambassador Nikki Haley, the last obstacle to Trump’s nomination, lost to the “none of these” option on the ballot in Nevada, erasing any doubt that no matter how many “Independents” or “Democrats” show up to vote in the GOP primary, the old Republican Party is dead on arrival.

The base wants Trump. They want him to come back into the executive branch and wreak havoc on the entitled ruling class that jailed political prisoners, sent billions overseas while our economy collapsed, closed down pipelines, pushed DEI over safety and left the U.S. border wide open for terrorists to enter.

To them, it’s 2016 again, but on steroids. Trump’s VP pick needs to reflect this. Enter Vivek Ramaswamy.

After his defeat in Iowa, he dropped out of the race and immediately endorsed Trump for president. On the campaign trail, he’s an asset. He knows how to talk to the base in ways they connect with and want to listen. As far as optics go, Ramaswamy is handsome, and his wife is beautiful. Their family picture is wholesome. His young children mean he’s got skin in the game. Whatever happens to America, happens to them. It’s everything that most politicians wish to portray but can’t because they rely on the corrupt Washington D.C. echo chamber for their image.

Still, similar to how America got former Vice President Mike Pence, Trump needs someone who speaks to the middle. This is where Ramasway will thrive. On the campaign trail, when activists would crash his events, Ramaswamy calmed them and invited them into the fold. Trump needs someone to settle the ruffled feathers for him without diminishing him.

While Trump is the general moving the chess pieces and being the face of the war the base wants to rage, Ramaswamy would be the major ensuring the men follow orders. No one galvanizes the base like Trump, and Ramaswamy seems to know his role would be to support, not overshadow.

While these other candidates for the VP position have shown they can use the power of the America First movement to get elected in their respective states, most of them still lack the understanding that to be effective, Trump can’t be undercut. The movement can’t afford another defector.

On the presidential campaign trail, Ramaswamy took a different approach to all the other candidates. He embraces all the parts of Trump that were good for the American people. He talked about the issues surrounding the former president without demonizing him. It was essentially a masterclass in handling a base scorned by the ruling class.

Most of the Republican candidates seemed to be confused about how to approach Republican voters when it came to the political indictments against Trump. But one thing is sure: the last thing a candidate should do to the people who were forced to eat the pain of the 2020 election and all its integrity issues is to pretend it wasn’t happening.

Ramaswamy came out fighting. He promised to stay off the ballot in Colorado as long the state refused to allow Trump to run as a candidate. He not only pledged to pardon Trump if he was convicted of any of the charges against him, but he vowed to wage war against the people and agencies responsible for the political persecution.

His fellow Republican candidates could be correct in their attacks that Ramaswamy’s presidential campaign was essentially him auditioning for the open vice president position.

But the jokes on them.

The biggest shock is that any of them ran at all. For those outside the D.C. consultant class, there was never anything more obvious than the reality that Trump would always be the nominee. Whether it’s Ramaswamy or not, the important thing Trump’s VP needs to know with every part of him is that he isn’t there to run the country for Trump but to be the enforcer.

AUTHOR

MARY ROOKE

Commentary and analysis writer.

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EDITORS NOTE:  This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Conservative Jeff Landry Inaugurated as Louisiana’s 57th Governor

The Bayou State has a new governor — a stalwart conservative Christian dedicated to faith, family, and freedom. On Sunday, former Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) was sworn in as the state’s 57th governor, succeeding Democrat John Bel Edwards. Landry was elected governor in an October primary election, winning with 52% of the vote and averting a runoff election.

Family Research Council President and former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives Tony Perkins delivered an inaugural prayer for Landry Sunday night, praying, “Father, we break with the ways of the past, where we leaned on governmental schemes and political power; today, we declare we look to You and the power of your Holy Spirit!” He prayed for Landry and all of Louisiana’s elected officials, saying, “Above all, we pray that the words and deeds of our leaders would glorify you so that your blessing upon our state will be so bountiful it will be undeniable to the rest of the nation.”

Speaking on “Washington Watch” Monday night, Perkins explained that when he first moved to Louisiana as a young man, “We didn’t have any Republicans to speak of.” Even when elected to the Louisiana state legislature, Perkins noted that there was only one statewide Republican in office and Republicans “were in the extreme minority in the legislature.” Now, he said, Republicans hold “supermajorities” in both chambers of the legislature. “Every statewide elected official is Republican,” he declared. “But it’s not just Republican. It’s about policy initiatives. It’s about ideology. It’s about commitment.”

As Louisiana’s attorney general, Landry fought hard for pro-life and pro-family values. He supported the state’s 2022 abortion ban, and urged Louisianians to “simply respect the legislature and Louisiana’s constitution,” adding, “And if you don’t like Louisiana’s laws or Louisiana’s constitution, you can go to another state.” He opposed the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates, calling the requirements an “unconstitutional and immoral attack” on Americans.

In 2018, Landry teamed up with now-speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) to support Christian prayer in public schools, following lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State alleging that school districts were “teaching” Christianity. The attorney general has also been a vociferous opponent of the LGBT agenda, including encouraging the state legislature to override the governor’s veto of a bill banning transgender surgeries for minors.

Landry announced his gubernatorial campaign in 2022 and was endorsed by the Republican Party of Louisiana, former President Donald TrumpMike Johnson, U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and others. In Louisiana, all candidates for governor appear on the ballot, regardless of party affiliation; if no candidate receives a majority of the vote, a runoff election is triggered between the top two contenders. Landry won handily with 52% of the vote, with Democrat Shawn Wilson placing second with about 26%. In his victory speech, Landry declared, “Today’s election says that our state is united.” He continued, “It’s a wake-up call and it’s a message that everyone should hear loud and clear, that we the people in this state are going to expect more out of our government from here on out.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson attended Landry’s inauguration on Sunday, saying in a press release, “Governor Landry has been a longtime friend and champion for the people of Louisiana, and he will serve our state with dignity and a steadfast commitment as he tackles the many challenges we face.” He added that he hopes to work with Landry to “restore” Louisiana “as the best place to work, live, and start a family.”

Perkins said that Christian conservative values are core to the new governor, saying, “If you believe it, say it. And if it’s really who you are, you should not, quite frankly, you can’t hold it back. And this is who Jeff is. He spoke it. He was unafraid of it.” The FRC president also noted that mainstream media is not giving much focus to the first governor inaugurated in 2024. “It does not fit the national media’s narrative, it’s not what the Left is telling us America is, it is the total opposite,” he said. “But there’s hope that if all of us will vote, will stand, will pray, we’re going to see these same results across the nation in 2024.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITOR NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Texas Republicans Ask All School Districts To Immediately Leave Texas Association Of School Boards

Several members of the Texas legislature sent a letter to every school district in the state asking them to immediately leave the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB).

Texas state Representatives, led by GOP Rep. Brian Harrison, are asking school districts to leave the TASB, claiming recent decisions the association made regarding school board protests and transgender students prove to Texas parents that the TASB “work[s] against their values and potentially place[s] their children in harm’s way,” according to the letter shared exclusively with the Daily Caller.

The nine signatories — GOP Reps. Brian Harrison, Briscoe Cain, Richard Hayes, Terri Leo-Wilson, Matt Schaefer, Nate Schatzline, Bryan Slaton, Mark Dorazio and Tony Tinderholt — said that although they “appreciate” that TASB left the National School Boards Association in May 2022, the amount of time the decision took to make was troubling.

January Letter to School Board Presidents Re TASB Vf-2 by Mary Rooke on Scribd

“We were shocked last year that it took the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) almost an entire year to leave the National School Boards Association (NSBA) after it sent an indefensible letter equating parental involvement at school board meetings to ‘heinous actions’ which ‘could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism’ and called on federal law enforcement to potentially target parents,” the letter stated.

The Texas lawmakers also took issue with TASB’s “radically pro-transgender” guidance released in January, which they claim undermines parental rights and violates Texas law.

“This dangerous legal advisory appears to encourage school districts to refrain from reporting child abuse and to obscure information regarding children exhibiting gender dysphoria from their parents,” the letter stated. “In the guidance, TASB also may be encouraging schools to violate Texas’s recent law, the ‘Save Girls’ Sports Act,’ and allow biological males to participate in girls’ sports. We feel duty bound to make sure all elected officials charged with overseeing the education of Texas student[s] are aware of this.”

Harrison told the Daily Caller that Texas parents shouldn’t be responsible for funding “woke ideology” with their tax dollars.

“It’s bad enough that harmful woke ideology is being pushed on Texas students over the objection of their parents, but worse that local elected officials are forcing those same parents to fund it with their tax dollars,” Harrison told the Caller. “That must end. I appreciate my colleagues joining me in fighting to stop the continued weaponization of our constituents’ tax dollars against them.”

Texas school districts are not required to be part of TASB or any school board organization. The representatives have directed their offices to help provide school districts with alternatives for the services TASB currently handles.

AUTHOR

MARY ROOKE

Commentary and analysis reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Texas Representatives Demand Review Of ‘Radically Pro-Transgender’ State School Board Guidance

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.