Let’s get this out of the way. What’s happening in France has been quite remarkable. These aren’t your usual French union-led protests that seemingly break out every summer in Paris and maybe lead to a car or two being overturned. 

These are large-scale violent riots taking place across the country. Historic buildings have been torched. Statues have been defaced. And the country is dealing with the existential problem of mass agitation by leftist groups supercharged by the large numbers of mostly unassimilated Muslims who have little investment in France as a French country.

When you combine cultural disintegration with a stagnant economy and buckling social welfare system, this is what you get. The globalist order peddled and propped up by EU elites is simply going up in flames as its torn apart by its own contradictions.

And that’s why the media have gone into spin mode.

President Donald Trump initially got to the heart of the matter by unabashedly noting how much of this problem was caused by the open borders mentality of French President Emmanuel Macron and the powers that be in Europe.

Oh, but the media insist—much like the French government—that mass immigration has absolutely nothing at all to do with what’s happening.

But that’s obviously nonsense as so many of the videos are of young men of very recent arrival, holding foreign flags. Some outlets, like The New York Times, even acknowledged the immigration factors driving the riots but buried deep below the fold as we say in the news business.

“If you read the paper with a magnifying glass you might occasionally get a hint of the underlying reality,” Ira Stoll wrote in the Washington Free Beacon. “Buried at the bottom of page A12 is a story about ‘a strange new slogan’ that the Times describes as a ‘somewhat mystifying rallying cry.’ The slogan, ‘bismillah c’est les ténèbres,’ is not actually ‘new’—photos of it amid the riots date back more than a week now. The Times describes it as ‘a mash-up of the Islamic blessing ‘In the name of God.’’

Imagine that: an Islamic blessing. It’s only ‘strange’ and ‘mystifying’ to anyone clinging to the belief that these are protests about education reform or ‘populism’ or driven by ‘nebulous groups’ rather than by, as President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, Muslim immigrants.”

Denying the role large-scale immigration without corresponding large-scale assimilation at play here just doesn’t pass the smell test.

And besides, whether these protests lean more into the Red or Green side of the Red-Green alliance means a lot less than the fact that they’ve collectively created a street coalition that’s capable of totally overwhelming authorities and causing uncontrolled chaos.

That much is clear to see, even if again the media have tried to obscure that too.

They’ve been using the playbook they tried to pull off during the Black Lives Matter protests turned riots in the U.S. in 2020. Initially they tried to pawn the French riots off as “mostly peaceful,” narrowly focused, and mainly driven by factors exactly in line with Democrat midterm messaging about “affordability.”

But that’s been even less believable than it having nothing to do with immigration.

Given the scale of what’s happening, given the pictures and videos of burning and destruction that are all over X, and the absurdity of thinking Louis Vuitton and Hermes are being pillaged because class sizes are a little too big, the media is having a hard time spinning this as peaceful set of gatherings with just one or two, violent outliers.

What’s happening in France has breached the narrative containment, it’s that simple.

So now the media spin phase will likely draw to a close as the cope phase takes over.

Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald noted on X that the “mainstream media” are “fuming” because, like those dastardly Republicans in America, France’s right-wing party—the largest party in the country, by the way, that’s been craftily kept out of power—is seizing on this very real news story to say, “I told you so,” or whatever the phrase is in French.

Instead of acknowledging that there’s a problem and tangling with the thorny issue of how to get immigration correct in the Western world, they’ve flipped to moaning about how awful it is that right-wing and right-leaning political actors are using this opportunity to engage in a debate about the issue they’ve suppressed for decades.

Frankly, this is the bed they’ve made for themselves.

Perhaps, had they been more forthcoming from the beginning, they wouldn’t be looking at the possibility of a dramatic political counterrevolution that may eventually sweep the Right into power throughout Europe.

That’s the silver lining in all this.

Now that reality is staring the people of the West in the face, sweeping changes may come quickly. Let’s hope those changes are positive and don’t lead to an implosion or a descent into full socialism.

In an unsigned order released Thursday, the justices paused Oct. 2 and Oct. 5 orders by U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante, a George W. Bush appointee, that prevented the state from enforcing its restrictions on student IDs.

Justices cited past precedent, noting, “This Court has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election.”

They added, “Here, the District Court did not point to anything that would justify deviating from that principle.”

In April, the state Legislature passed a bill, HB 323, to prevent student IDs from being used as valid identification to obtain a ballot. Lawmakers noted that student IDs often lack expiration dates and can remain in circulation after they are no longer valid, and generally lack the address verification, citizenship confirmation, and security features associated with government-issued identification.

The law went into effect in June. The Coalition for Open Democracy sued, alleging the law put an undue burden on the right to vote and discriminated against young voters.

Laplante’s order declined to block HB 323’s provision on student ID cards, SCOTUSblog reported. However, his ruling prevented the enforcement of Secretary of State David Scanlan’s April directive to local election officials extending that restriction to the law’s “safety-valve provision that permits a voter without qualifying photo identification to establish identity by other means.”

In his brief to the Supreme Court, Scanlan said election training on the new procedures had been underway for months.

“Over the next five months, local election officials were trained on the new identify-verification rules consistent with that guidance,” Scanlan’s petition said. “During that same timeframe, the secretary’s office published student voting guides, updated polling place posters, updated its website, conducted social media outreach, produced and ran radio ads, and spoke at public events to explain how identity verification would work.”

New Hampshire is among a few states that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate, as Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas takes on former Republican Sen. John Sununu, the son of a former governor and brother of another former governor.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter Thursday, writing, “Consequently, here, the District Court’s injunction was reasonably designed to address alleged misinformation, not to change the law.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit had declined to pause Laplante’s ruling, so Scanlan appealed to the high court for the emergency ruling with days to go before the midterm election.

Hallmark’s “Countdown to Christmas” kicked off last Friday night with “’Tis the Season for Setups.” A heartwarming holiday romance. This was followed Saturday night by “Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story.” A heartwarming holiday romance. Sunday brought “Mr. & Mrs. Christmas.” A heartwarming holiday … well, you know.

Meanwhile, on Great American Family, it’s new lineup of Christmas flicks opened a week earlier, with former Hallmark Christmas Queen Candace Cameron Bure starring in “A Second Chance Christmas,” a faith-based … wait for it … heartwarming holiday romance.

The Rules of Hallmark Christmas Movies

Before you sit down with a warm mug of hot chocolate to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie, you must understand that certain rules apply to these films. Shall we look at a few?

For example, one character in each Hallmark Christmas flick must have a special family recipe for said hot chocolate, with special bonus points for cups of cocoa with more goodies on top than a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade float.

Second: The guy you’re dating at the beginning of the movie who is obsessed with his career you will dump by movie’s end. The guy you meet at the start of the movie who is obsessed with his career you will fall in love with.

Third: Never leave your current partner alone with their ex.

Fourth: All pickup trucks must be red … and vintage.

Fifth: Choruses and carolers only know “Silent Night.”

While the list goes on and on, my personal favorite concerns a scientific fact that has now been confirmed by the National Weather Service: Kissing makes it snow.

It’s true. Even if our lovey-dovey—if chaste—leads are in the Bahamas, flakes will fall from the sky like manna when they first lock lips.

Why the Obsession?

You don’t have to be a widowed detective with a precocious daughter who’s moved to a quaint mountain town from the big city to rebuild his life but isn’t ready to recommit to deduce why people can get obsessed with cable Christmas films.

It’s hot cocoa for the soul. Sure, it’s sugary and far from nutritious, but it warms the insides, and for two hours allows viewers to believe that good and magical things happen at Christmas, and love triumphs in the end.

And while Hallmark, unlike Great American Family, tends to avoid the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus is rarely even a day player in these films—their holiday offerings do contain hope, and light, and joy, and love, and generosity, along with reconnection, renewal and rebirth, all of which together we can label “The Christmas Spirit.”

They’re also snow boots for your feet. Pure escapism. As “Countdown to Christmas” was getting underway, rioters were burning down France. A U.S. senator was talking about persecuting the political opposition to intimidate young conservatives from entering public service. More mothers were charged with murdering their children.

Is it any wonder people would want to race to sleepy northern hamlets that may or may not be home to Santa, where the snow is never muddy, the Christmas lights are always on, and the TVs can only play “It’s a Wonderful Life”?

Christmas movies can also be an exorcism for the ghosts that haunt so many of us during the holidays. Having lost my father at a young age on Christmas, I annually undergo a desperate journey to recapture the feeling of the holidays of my youth. Hence, the Hallmark channel being on in the background.

Yes, in a real sense, the light out of that tiny manger in the vast dark of the Bethlehem sky is my truest comfort, but Christmas movies provide an extra push, like the song says, “to muddle through somehow.”

So make fun of us like classmates would make fun of the adorable, but shy kid who stumbles through the first part of her Christmas performance before magically putting Beyoncé to shame with the help of the newly arrived stranger who had long ago given up her own musical ambitions.

We’re not changing that channel.

And we’re going to laugh right back at you with the numbers. Hallmark during “Countdown to Christmas” habitually becomes the most watched or second-most watched cable channel of all. And that’s even on days they’re screening movies fans likely have watched over and over again.

Yeah. Gimme the Brenner family from the “Three Wise Men and a Baby” trilogy over the Kardashians. Gimme the “Holiday Touchdown” movies over whatever craziness the WNBA is doing. Gimme Danica McKellar’s “Crown for Christmas” over Harry and Meghan any day of the week. (Actually, give me a toothache over Harry and Meghan. Bad example.)

True, there is no excuse for not sweating like an elf in your real life to bring about Christmas cheer to your own life and the lives of those around you, rather than spend all your time in make-believe villages. In that case, use the films for inspiration to bake, to volunteer, to give, to sing aloud, to take a chance again on love. Perhaps buy a red vintage pickup to deliver toys.

I’m thinking of a Scrooge-y former colleague who wrote passionately against Hallmark Christmas movies because they often operate counter to the true meaning of Christmas.

Perhaps all he really needed was that warm cup of cocoa whipped up from grandma’s secret recipe, to slip into that Santa suit that just happened to fit him perfectly, and to kiss his true love under the mistletoe.

And feel his cares of the moment fall down like snow.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

But voters’ anger should not be mistaken for amnesia. Americans clearly remember who started the affordability fire burning through families’ wallets.

My new League of American Workers poll of likely Arizona voters, conducted earlier this month, captures the mood. A 44% plurality of voters say their personal finances got worse over the past year, while just 17% say they improved. Among independents, it’s 48% worse versus 16% better.

Yet here is the key caveat the corporate media keeps missing or deliberately ignoring. Despite their frustrations, only 38% of voters say they would be better off with Kamala Harris as president. Ten percent say it would make no difference and 44% believe they would be worse off with a Kamala Harris in the Oval Office. Moreover, Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, sit at a dismal 34% approval against 64% disapproval.

The Biden-Harris record was truly awful, which is why Democrats are counting on short memories at the ballot box this Nov. 3.

In March 2021, at the very start of the Biden-Harris administration, Democrats rammed through their $1.9 trillion so-called American Rescue Plan without a single Republican vote, dumping gasoline on an economy already flush with pandemic stimulus. Joe Biden also killed the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day, waged an all-out war on American energy, and piled on expensive, unworkable fuel-economy mandates designed to force families into electric vehicles that weren’t reliable or affordable.

The results were predictable and devastating. In June 2022, Biden’s inflation hit 9.1%, the highest since November 1981. That same month, the national average for a gallon of gasoline hit a record $5.02.

Over Biden’s four years in office, consumer prices rose 21.5%. Gasoline alone rose 31%. Home prices soared 37.4%. And after adjusting for inflation, private-sector average weekly earnings shrank 4%. Americans worked harder only to end up poorer.

Democrats loudly object when Republicans cite these figures. But these are not my improvised numbers. They are the final Biden tallies from FactCheck.org, which no one would ever confuse with a right-wing outlet.

The pain hit hardest where nearly every family shops each week: the grocery store. Grocery prices jumped 23% overall. Butter rose 35%, sugar 49%, and a dozen eggs a staggering 237%. Meanwhile, rent climbed 25%, car insurance 29%, and a night out at a restaurant 25%.

To make matters worse, the Biden-Harris administration surrendered our sovereignty and threw our southern border wide open. According to the Congressional Budget Office, illegal immigration added at least 7 million people to our population from 2021 to 2024.

Of course, these millions of illegal invaders needed homes. A Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas working paper found that unauthorized immigrant worker flows during the Biden-Harris border crisis explained roughly 30% of home price growth and 20% of rent growth in the average local market, without adding new housing supply. Young couples priced out of a first home can thank Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and congressional Democrats.

And most tragically, many families paid for the Biden-Harris border crisis in blood. Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was horrifically murdered in 2024 by an illegal alien who crossed in 2022 and had been arrested twice, including once in sanctuary New York City, and released. Her death was entirely preventable and woke the nation up to the scourge of illegal immigration. Yet 156 House Democrats voted against the Laken Riley Act at the start of the Trump-Vance administration.

But despite this dreadful record, these same radical, shameless Democrats pose as the party of affordability? In reality, they are affordability frauds.

The Democrats’ new economic model is New York City’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani: rent freezes, city-run grocery stores, and zero cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest violent illegal alien criminals. That is a recipe for squalor and chaos. No wonder socialism sits at just 28% favorable and 61% unfavorable in my Arizona survey.

Admittedly, Republicans own this economy now, and there is real work left to do. Before the misguided Iran war began in February, inflation had cooled to 2.4%, and gas was below $3 a gallon. Even with the war, Republicans still have major successes to point to on the border, with 17 straight months of zero releases and a stunning 99% reduction in illegal border crossings. The country also just saw the largest tax refund season in history.

The war undoubtedly needs to end so we can get fully back on track and keep the focus on the home front—on paychecks, groceries, and rent. American voters are too astute to hire the arsonists to put out what’s left of the fire they started.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

Georgia House District 47 is currently led by state Rep. Jan Jones, a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives who has served as speaker pro tempore since 2010. She has held the district seat since 2013 but announced in February she would not seek reelection.

The Democrat candidate seeking to replace her, Lindsay DeFranco, is garnering lots of attention, and out-of-state funds, in what would otherwise be a sleepy district and a shoo-in for any Republican candidate.

DeFranco, who moved to Georgia with her husband in 2024, has a large social media following. She boasts 187,000 followers on Instagram, about 14,000 followers on her campaign Instagram account, and nearly 7,000 subscribers on her Lindsay DeFranco for Georgia YouTube channel.

She told the Daily Signal that her campaign is built around “a pretty simple idea [of] lower costs and higher standards.” The Democrat said she thinks she can win because “the issues we’re talking about aren’t exclusively Democratic or Republican issues.”

Battling DeFranco is Jack Miller, a Republican and financial planner who graduated from Milton High School. He told the Daily Signal that he was inspired to run for the seat because “commitment to community goes hand in hand with work as a financial planner.” Miller said he “helps families and small businesses prepare for the future and make the most of what they earn after the government takes its cut.”

DeFranco won an uncontested primary race in May, while Miller defeated fellow Republican Brian Cochran by a 26-point margin in the June primary. The winner of the Nov. 3 General Election stands to represent 59,400 local Georgia residents in the district.

But what makes the race interesting is DeFranco’s campaign funding.

According to the Georgia State Ethics Commission website, her campaign has received $166,530, including $53,259 in out-of-state contributions and $28,065 for in-state contributions. Another $85,205—nearly half of her total campaign cash—is from unitemized, anonymous donors.

More than 900 of her identified donors live outside of the state, including every state except Wyoming. She also has donors from the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Filings also show that 65.5% of her itemized contributions came from out-of-state donors.

District residents gave DeFranco a total of $1,125. Donors from California gave roughly nine times as much as district donors gave, while donors from other states such as Washington and New York gave roughly three times the donations that district donors gave.

By contrast, Jack Miller’s campaign has raised $124,622, with $120,720 coming from inside Georgia and just $6,999 coming from out of state. He has received just $1,948 in unitemized, anonymous donations.

DeFranco has stated that she “didn’t get here by relying on corporate PACs or special interests.” However, Miller claims she is “busy with answering to her out-of-state donors and their divisive politics.”

When asked why she has received so much out-of-state money, DeFranco didn’t return the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

She did say why she’s running. DeFranco said she has spent time and energy at the state Capitol “attending legislative hearings, testifying on bills, and paying attention to decisions that most people never even hear about until they’re already affecting their lives.”

Notably, she testified against Senate Bill 74, legislation that “revise[s] an exemption for libraries and librarians … relating to selling, loaning, distributing, or exhibiting materials harmful to minors.”

After DeFranco testified against the bill, state Rep. Charlice Byrd asked her about her view on having sexually explicit books such as “Looking for Alaska,” a 2005 young adult fiction story by American author John Green, in libraries. Byrd said such books should be moved into the adult section.

DeFranco replied, “If you do want my feedback, I feel like students are exposed to that kind of talk and that kind of content every day anyway.”

She added that while she doesn’t think that type of content should be in an elementary school, she supports the author. “I’m actually friends with the author of that book. I support him a lot,” she said.

DeFranco also said she wanted to make sure librarians weren’t “criminalized” for explicit materials and that parents should be trusted to know what’s best for their kids.

Monica Flores, an assistant registrar-recorder at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office, told a federal court Tuesday that their citizenship check stops at whatever a voter writes on the form. That admission came just a day after the Department of Justice charged 28 people with lying on that exact form to register and vote.

“The Registrar has no authority under state or federal law to withhold or set aside the ballot of a registered voter on the basis of a third party’s assertion that the voter may not be a citizen, has no information beyond the voter’s own attestation with which to determine citizenship, and has no lawful means of obtaining such information,” the filing states.

“Finally, I do not believe the Registrar has authority to or can comply with either the government’s proposed injunction that it ‘confirm the citizenship of [each] person who sent a segregated vote-by-mail ballot’ or that it do so beyond relying on a ‘person’s registration-related attestation’ of citizenship as designated in state and federal law,” the filing adds.

The admission leaves the county with a simple problem. Just last week the DOJ delivered a list of over 20,000 names to the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, claiming the individuals on the list were likely noncitizens who are registered to vote in the state. The county declined to set those ballots aside, arguing it has no authority to act on a third party’s assertion and no independent way to check the names itself.

The Kick Off

On Monday, the DOJ held a press conference revealing officials arrested 11 foreign nationals and charged a total of 28 foreign nationals for federal crimes. The allegations include making false statements in a naturalization application and fraudulent voter registration.

The bulk of those charged, 11 people, lived in Los Angeles County. Three lived in Fresno County, three lived in San Diego County, two lived in Sacramento County, one lived in Orange County and the rest lived across the state.

“Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen,” acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said Monday. “Each of the 28 defendants charged today appears on the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants we provided to California election officials last week. California refused to look at that list. Today’s charges show exactly what that refusal puts at risk. California must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots are counted.”

The Daily Signal reached out to multiple registrars of counties involved. In Sacramento County, where two of the defendants live, a public information manager said the Sacramento County Voter Registration and Elections (VRE) is aware of the charges.

“Although a federal complaint, indictment, and information merely contains accusations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, VRE has flagged voter information for these two individuals and further action will be taken based upon the outcome of the federal proceedings and guidance received from the California Secretary of State who is solely responsible for determining eligibility for voter registration, voter preregistration, and voting,” Ken Casparis, public information officer for Sacramento County, told the Daily Signal.

“VRE consistently follows established federal and state laws and procedures as well as guidance from the California Secretary of State regarding voter registration records and voter eligibility,” he added. “VRE will continue to follow all applicable legal requirements and guidance from state election officials to protect voters’ access to the ballot and ensure elections are administered in accordance with the law.”

San Diego County’s Registrar of Voters Deputy Director Sarah Sweeney confirmed that the office found “at least two of the four individuals named are no longer actively registered in San Diego County.”

“The Registrar did not initiate contact with, nor have reason to question the attestation of, citizenship in the voter registration records for the individuals listed,” Sweeney told the Daily Signal.

Both Fresno and Orange County’s registrars declined to answer questions, stating they are unable to confirm the registration status of any individual and referring to the state’s law requiring a formal application for voter registration information.

According to DOJ officials, all 28 people charged Monday were on the list of over 20,000 names the department had handed to the state last week. Per federal election law, noncitizens can’t vote in federal or state elections. But the county’s response doesn’t dispute that those names were on the list. Instead, it states that California law does not let election officials act on a third party’s claim that someone is not a citizen during the election, and that the registrar has nothing beyond the voter’s own statement on the registration form to go on.

The Argument

To support its position, the county submitted a sample review of 200 records drawn from the list. According to a court filing, the review found that 42.9% of the names had canceled registration records, 42.4% were still active, and 43% had already been mailed a ballot. It also showed that 71.2% of the sampled names had never voted.

Despite the county’s own sampling, it still leaves central questions open. Some of the canceled records had already been mailed a ballot, and the review never checked the 28 people the DOJ charged on Monday. Notably, the county also did not say how it picked the 200 records.

The county’s filings also include a declaration from Aman Bhullar, a principal information systems analyst with the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office. Bhullar said the county placed its voter registration systems under a Level 3 change freeze on Oct. 14, which limits system updates during the election period.

“The purpose of the freeze is to reduce risk to the system’s integrity by ensuring that system maintenance is performed only during the times that pose the lowest risk to the elections environment,” the Tuesday filing states. “Attempting to execute the DOJ’s demand would require violating the Registrar’s Freeze Policy.”

“Changes of this magnitude are considered major changes and have been restricted as Level Two changes since October 2, 2026. In the normal course of business, any change that is not meant to restore service or prevent imminent outages should not be approved,” the filing adds.

The county’s court filings also show who is helping make that argument.

Behind the Scenes

Listed as co-counsel alongside the Los Angeles County Counsel’s office is the Public Rights Project, an Oakland-based group that describes itself as helping local governments “ensure their communities thrive” as they invest in their “skills, capacity, and leadership,” which includes running an Election Protection Hub that offers free legal support to election officials, according to its site.

“By providing local governments with legal support, training, and other resources, we can realize a country where our democratic institutions are strong, responsive, and accountable to all people,” the site states.

Public Rights Project began as a fiscally sponsored project of the Tides Center, a major progressive fiscal sponsor that has received millions from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Open Society itself also made direct grants to the group while it was still under Tides, including $336,500 in 2017 to help launch it, $500,000 in 2019, and $200,000 in 2021.

By 2023, the Tides Center gifting reached roughly $1.2 million to the Public Rights Project for “equity, human rights, and economic empowerment,” according to its own filings. 

The Tides network has long been used by progressive donors, including Open Society, to route money to projects while limiting public visibility of the original funders. Open Society has given the broader Tides network tens of millions over the years.

In its most recent Form 990, covering the fiscal year ending December 2025, Public Rights Project reported $15.4 million in revenue, almost entirely from grants, and $10.8 million in expenses.

Its founder and CEO, Jill Habig, previously served as special counsel to then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris and later worked as deputy campaign manager on Harris’ U.S. Senate campaign. Habig also served as policy director for Harris’ transition team and later worked on the Biden-Harris transition team, as well as the transition team for Democrat California Sen. Alex Padilla. Habig has also received a fellowship from the Open Society Foundations.

In addition to receiving funding from the Tides Center, Public Rights Project has had financial help from Crankstart, the Democracy Fund, the Ford Foundation, and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, among others. In 2023, the Crankstart Foundation, the philanthropy of Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz, alone gave the group $1.5 million specifically for its free and fair elections program.

With media attention now on the case, the latest filings show a change in the judge assigned to the claims. While initially assigned to Trump-appointee Judge John W. Holcomb, Wednesday’s filings show it was transferred to Clinton-appointee Judge David O. Carter. 

Carter previously dismissed a related DOJ lawsuit seeking California’s unredacted voter rolls.

A new ad by the Proposition 39 campaign dramatizes that scenario to spotlight the state’s lack of a voter ID requirement, encouraging voters to “Vote Yes on Prop 39.”

Can someone pretend to be a voter that they are not in California, as claimed in the ad? The answer is yes—though not legally.

According to the California secretary of state, under California law, “In most cases, a California voter is not required to show identification to a polling place worker before casting a ballot.”

The exception is for some first-time voters. Even then, photo ID is not necessarily required because a copy of a recent utility bill, the sample ballot booklet received from a county elections office, or another document sent by a government agency are “acceptable forms of identification.”

However, stating a name that matches the roster and signing is enough to receive a ballot.

On the November ballot, Proposition 39 would prohibit citizens from voting unless they present government-issued identification. It also would also invalidate mail-in ballots that don’t have the last four digits of a designated government-issued identification number on the envelope.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton shared the Sweeney video on X, calling it a “brilliant ad.”

“Common sense is on the ballot in this election—and not just in the governor’s race. YES on Voter ID!” Hilton posted.

A September poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found 55% of likely voters would vote “no” on Proposition 39, while 43% said they would vote “yes.”

“The ad, on its face, is deeply, deeply troubling,” DeWine told reporters at the Ohio Statehouse.

The campaign ad, which caused a social media firestorm late on Monday, shows Acton’s mom, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter a “liar” for claiming to have lived in a tent. She then warns Ohioans not to elect Acton for governor.

The Acton campaign released a statement in response that brought up childhood sexual abuse that Acton said she suffered at the hands of her stepfather, whom her mother remained married to until his death. DeWine said that backstory makes releasing the ad “more serious” and “more wrong.”

However, Trump had a different viewpoint. The president praised the ad and blasted DeWine’s response.

“Our RINO Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, who I unfortunately helped get elected years ago, when he was losing by 16 points prior to my doing a Rally for him was, as usual, disloyal to the Republican Party. He strongly suggested that Vivek should, ‘take down the Ad.’ He probably wants a Dumocrat to win, and certainly doesn’t want someone who will do a much better job than he is capable of doing,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump also reiterated his support for the ad and Ramaswamy’s campaign in his post, noting that “Vivek should keep it up.”

Vice President JD Vance, an Ohio native who has spoken frequently of his friendship with Ramaswamy, also expressed support for the ad during a Wednesday rally near Cincinnati as he campaigned for Ramaswamy and other Ohio Republicans on the ticket.

A response from the Ramaswamy campaign, meanwhile, focused on other statements DeWine had made acknowledging that the Acton campaign had attacked Ramaswamy’s mother.

“Governor DeWine is correct that the first and only candidate to attack the mother of her opponent in this race was Amy Acton. She slanderously lied about Vivek’s mother this fall, without shame. We refuse to accept the media’s double standards when Democrats have regularly used family members of President Trump, RFK Jr., and other Republicans in ads. Voters shouldn’t buy it,” Connie Luck, spokesperson for the Ramaswamy campaign, said in a statement to the Daily Signal.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for DeWine’s office told the Daily Signal that no more statements from the governor’s office were anticipated for the day.

For all of his disappointment in the ad, DeWine is not pulling his endorsement of Ramaswamy.

DeWine endorsed the Republican ticket on Jan. 7, not long after Ramaswamy named Senate President Rob McColley as his running mate.

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal.  

The war in Ukraine has gone on for four years—4.7 years. Feb. 24 of next year, it’ll be five years. It’s longer than World War I. It’s longer than the American Civil War. It’s longer than the U.S. Pacific War. There are about 2.5 million combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties. 

I mean by that, of course, dead, wounded, missing, and captured. Russia does not have the economy or the military to absorb all of Ukraine. And Ukraine, with one-fifth the population of Russia, one-tenth the [gross domestic product], and one-twentieth of the area, cannot force Vladimir Putin out of either Crimea or the occupied Donbas territory. 

And that means the only way that this Verdun or this Somme can be solved is for one side or the other to win, and it doesn’t seem like either can, or for a new power to join one of the two sides, or for them to agree to a ceasefire. 

There’s another issue. In World War II, Winston Churchill held an election right after the German surrender, but right at the height of the Pacific War, and he was voted out of office. FDR had an election in 1944, right during some of the worst of the island-hopping and Pacific campaigns. 

So, I’d like to make two initial points. I think it would behoove Mr. [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and Ukraine in general, because they’re very angry that Donald Trump said they need a new president. I don’t think that was the right articulation, but what I think he meant was that Israel has an election coming up. It’s basically in a state of war. 

It has a mixed or wartime cabinet. It would help Zelenskyy to restore habeas corpus, a free press and opposition parties, and have an election. And then we’ll see to what degree new people or new ideas in a campaign agree with Zelenskyy, sort of agree or reject him, or maybe the other participants will have a new idea. 

The second thing is everybody just says, “[Vladimir] Putin’s awful.” I agree. “Ukraine should win.” I agree. But they never tell us how they’re going to achieve that after four and a half years. They criticize everything that Donald Trump has said, but there’s one constant. If you want to call all of his ideas crazy, whatever you want to do, there’s one common theme. 

He doesn’t like all these people killing each other for no apparent purpose. There’s no change, really, in the momentum of the battlefield, and none of his critics and I’ve read a lot of them this week—say, “Donald Trump is wrong. This is what we must do to help Ukraine win the war and restore its territory.” 

Nobody will take that leap. What’s the latest melodrama? The latest melodrama is that Donald Trump is less than three weeks from the election. Diesel is higher than gas. Diesel is the blood that makes the American economy flow. It’s up to way over $4.22. The average gas price is averaging about $5 to $5.50. 

Here in California, it’s almost $8 in some places. So, obviously, he wants calm in the Strait. He wants to resolve the Iran war. He wants more refineries, and he wants Russia to start selling diesel and refined fuel on the world market. Even though it’s a small percentage, it’s psychological, and the world went crazy. 

He was blasted as Putin’s puppet. The Europeans said he sold them out. The Canadians say he’s on Putin’s side. Zelenskyy said he was disappointed. But let me just remind everybody: We have given $140 billion to Ukraine. We are the ultimate guarantor of the safety of all the European countries that are talking about more aggressive action. 

They should take more aggressive action, and maybe they should. But if they get in a jam with Russia, who are they going to call? Us. 

More importantly, what has Europe been doing in the last four and a half years? It’s the greatest purchaser of Russian natural gas. 

In other words, they are criticizing Trump for trying to put more diesel fuel on the global market from Russia, which will help Russia at a time when it’s attacking Ukraine, unfortunately. But they’re saying to Ukraine, “Do not hit refineries,” and the world is angry. 

But Mr. Zelenskyy and the Europeans are not talking about the greatest source of Russian income right now: Europe’s massive purchases of natural gas. 

So, you’ve got to stop. You don’t move—you’ve got to move it. Let me keep going. 

Europe says that Russia is an existential threat. OK, it may be. It’s got 6,000 nuclear weapons. But right now, it is an existential threat to Ukraine and to Europe. We believe that the Iranian regime is more unhinged than Putin and not subject to the same degree of deterrence as China or Russia. It was on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon and had been supplying the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah, which are the primary sources of tension in the entire Middle East. 

So, we were trying to tell the Europeans, “OK, we’re going to give $140 billion to help you stop Putin. But all we want in return, in our effort to denuclearize Iran, is just your airspace. Can we land at a base or two so we can save transportation costs and probably save lives?” 

And what happened? 

The U.K. said, “No. In fact, there was an Iranian-inspired terrorist threat here against your bombers. We caught the guys, but guess what? They’re out on bail. We can’t protect you.” 

So, we went home. Italy can’t let us land at that base in Sicily that’s a dual-use NATO base. Spain said, “Don’t use our NATO base, and don’t fly in our airspace.” 

France said, “Do not use any French airspace.” I could go on. Diego Garcia—the U.K. said, “Don’t use it.” 

So, just stop a minute and take a breath. What are they saying to us? They are saying, basically, “We are going to be beneficiaries of a denuclearized Iran, but we don’t want to participate.” 

Fine, we didn’t ask you. “But we want to thwart your efforts to denuclearize by not allowing you to use NATO bases for the common good. 

“But at the same time, we want you to intervene with us to help save Ukraine and all of NATO because Ukraine is an existential threat to us, and we don’t think Iran is an existential threat to you.” 

And so, that’s the problem. 

And the ultimate cause of all of these problems, I’ll be blunt, is that European GDP is flat. 

European unemployment is skyrocketing. European borders are destroyed. European unassimilated and unintegrated Islamic minorities are gaining traction, and they make up 16% to 30% of the population. They’re voting, and they have control over the destiny of Europe. Europe is still basically disarmed. It’s trying to rearm, but very slowly. 

Europe has a socialist economy like Canada, which has a very low fertility rate and very low GDP. Europe has 100 million more people than we do. It’s a $10 trillion smaller economy.  

Europe, especially the U.K. and Germany, shut down coal, natural gas and nuclear plants and invested in very costly wind and solar, and they’re uncompetitive. 

So, you add a Europe in crisis that is weakening, with its notions of grandeur from the past, when it had enormous military, political and economic power and influence and leverage, and they don’t match. 

So, they are telling us all these things that we have to do, what we can’t do, and how awful we are, and we say, “If that’s true, you must be very, very powerful, but you’re not. 

“You’re not. You’re like Canada.” 

And so, what’s the result? We all want Ukraine to win. We all don’t trust Putin. But until—it’s easy to give criticism, but somebody should stand up and say, “I have a plan to stop Putin, and this is what we’re going to do: A, B, C, D, E, F.” 

What have we heard? Crickets.  

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

The Omar affair highlights an underlying homeland security problem about the other 150,000 Somali refugees let in before President Donald Trump mostly closed the Somali pipeline spigots and, most pertinently, about the thousands more hoping to get through after his 2029 departure. 

Omar denies all wrongdoing, and she has not been tried for any crime. Regardless, the investigation should serve as a reminder to Americans that there are serious concerns about Somali refugees committing immigration fraud with impunity. When Somalis do lie to get in, they bring elevated risks of public welfare fraud and gang crime. 

Perhaps most adversely, though, their arrival heralds the potential of Islamic terrorism. 

To understand some of the issues with Somali immigration, it is worth understanding Somalia’s history since the January 1991 overthrow of Somali dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. 

Until about 2013, anarchy prevailed in the Muslim-majority nation. No effective government existed, let alone a vital records office, to issue uniform documents like birth certificates. Additionally, there were no effective law enforcement agencies to prosecute criminals and create a criminal history database.  

No central government intelligence service existed to build computerized datasets of thousands of fighters recruited by the al-Shabaab terrorist group, which still rules large swaths of Somalia and exercises influence in neighboring countries. Atrocity-committing warlords, clan paramilitary groups, and al-Shabaab don’t exactly keep publicly accessible computerized membership records. 

It gets worse. Warring militias destroyed almost every pre-1991 citizenship record. The information black hole persists, as the State Department describes on its Somalia web page in its General Documents section. 

“Although the United States formally recognized the new government of Somalia on January 17, 2013, there continues to be no recognized competent civil authority to issue civil documents,” it says. “There are no circumstances under which immigrant visa applicants can reasonably be expected to recover original documents held by the former government of Somalia.”  

This helps explain why Omar’s investigators are unlikely to find a simple paper trail consisting of documents like birth certificates, driver’s licenses, school enrollment documents, or military records.  

Hers is hardly an isolated case, and it could portend broad public safety consequences of far more importance than details about Omar’s own history. 

Before Trump cut off most Somali immigration in both of his terms, a potential terrorist from Somalia being considered for entry into our country could get away with far more deception than those from other nations, for the simple fact that so little information exists to disprove his claims. This problem left U.S. adjudicators to roll the dice on letting in Somalis who offered unverifiable names and narratives. 

Consider the case of Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who was born in Somalia and entered the U.S. as a refugee with his mother and six siblings in June 2014 from a Pakistani refugee camp. On Nov. 28, 2016, he was inspired by ISIS to use a Honda Civic and a butcher knife to injure 11 people at Ohio State University before being shot dead by a campus officer. Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, later complained that U.S. adjudicators missed big clues during vetting. 

Other Somali refugees were caught after lying about their involvement with terrorist organizations—costing taxpayers unnecessary law enforcement time and prison resources. In his 2007 refugee application, Abdinassir Mohamud Ibrahim lied about which clan he was born into, which helped him dodge the fact that close relatives in his true clan were leaders in Somalia’s violent “Islamic Courts,” the U.S.-designated terrorist entity that later became al-Shabaab.  

The FBI finally caught up to Ibrahim in San Antonio in 2014 for having helped his terrorist friends back home recruit more terrorists. He illegally sent cash too. 

Somalia is wiped so clean of information that two Ethiopians, married couple Mohamed Abdirahman Osman and Zeinab Abdirahman Mohamed, claimed they were Somalis, no doubt knowing checks with the records-competent U.S.-allied Ethiopian government would reveal that Osman was seemingly a dangerous al-Shabaab operative. 

Their 2014 refugee claim and later green card and citizenship applications falsely said al-Shabaab blew off both the husband’s hands. They were living in Tucson in 2018 when the FBI found seemingly evidence that he was an active al-Shabaab explosives expert who lost his hands preparing bombs for the group to detonate. Furthermore, the FBI learned a brother went on the run following a terrorism conviction, and an uncle and aunt in 2014 bombed a restaurant in Djibouti. From Tucson, the couple sent tens of thousands of dollars abroad to support these fugitives. 

Another consequence of Somali resettlement is that they form culturally insulated enclaves that don’t assimilate well and pass old-country extremism to younger generations. 

We know this, in part, because law enforcement has identified nearly 40 Somali-American young men who joined or attempted to join ISIS or Al Shabaab in Iraq and Syria. At least two dozen Minnesota enclave Somalis traveled to join al-Shabaab back in the homeland. 

A standard-bearer was Dahir Adan, who was born near the border of Somalia and Kenya and entered the U.S. as a 2-year-old refugee. He went on to stab ten shoppers with two steak knives in September 2016 at the Crossroads Center shopping mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, before an off-duty police officer shot him dead. ISIS claimed Aden “was a soldier of the Islamic State.” 

Somali citizens have no doubt suffered persecution, and many who have left can’t return home because of ongoing dangers. But a look beyond the political theater of the Omar investigation makes clear that documentation that can pierce the secrets of Somalis rarely exists. Which means that letting this group into America is high-stakes gambling. The safest bet with Somalis is to just refrain.  

The Honest Elections Project has filed three records requests seeking the answer to this question.

The requests, provided exclusively to the Daily Signal, were filed with the California secretary of state, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder/county clerk, and the Shasta county clerk.

The Honest Elections Project is seeking records of state investigations into federal concerns that some people on the voter rolls might not be U.S. citizens. The group wants details on what those investigations found, how officials handled ballots sent to or returned by suspected illegals, and what guidance the state gave counties for checking whether someone is eligible to vote.

The requests follow the Justice Department’s announcement on Monday that it charged 28 noncitizens with federal election-related offenses in California, including false statements on naturalization applications and, for some defendants, fraudulent voter registration.

Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, criticized the state’s response, saying California’s election system “asks no questions and wants no answers.” He also accused officials of refusing to act on the federal list.

“California registers voters on their word, never independently verifies citizenship, bans local voter ID, and mails ballots to every active voter. When federal authorities handed officials a list of 20,000 suspected noncitizens, they refused to even open the drive, and when they finally looked, they refused to set aside a single ballot,” he said.

Snead said the recent DOJ charges reinforced his criticism of California’s response.

“Even as noncitizens are being charged with election crimes across the state, California officials are calling it a political stunt and fighting in court to count every one of those ballots,” he said. “Fortunately, the Department of Justice is taking action even as California drops the ball. The people of California deserve free and fair elections, even if their leaders don’t want to give it to them.”

View the Honest Elections Project requests to the California secretary of state, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder/county clerk, and the Shasta county clerk.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation filed a complaint with the North Carolina State Board of Elections that identified 3,674 matched voter registration records across 94 of the state’s 100 counties.

The finding comes as one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country could determine control of the chamber. Former Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper faces former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley.

“North Carolina is not complying with the requirement to eliminate duplicate names from the official list of eligible voters,” the complaint says. “Absent relief, the November 3, 2026, General Election in North Carolina will be conducted using an inaccurate voter registration list.”

The complaint asserts that the 2002 federal Help America Vote Act requires states receiving federal grant money to maintain a uniform, centralized, interactive, computerized statewide voter registration list that is defined, maintained and administered at the state level and contains the name and registration information of every legally registered voter in the state.

Duplicate records include not only matching full names but also slight name variations or nicknames with the same address and birth date. 

Earlier this month, the foundation reviewed records of the state’s 10 largest counties and found 1,200 duplicate registration records. The foundation conducted a broader evaluation and determined the statewide total of 3,674.

The complaint says that after the foundation notified the state board in September about the 1,200 records, the board did not respond.

While duplicate registration does not mean people are voting more than once, it could provide an opportunity to do so. Since 2015, the state has had 30 elections decided by one vote or ending in a tie, according to the foundation’s database of elections. The tally includes mostly local elections and three state legislative races.

In August, the North Carolina State Board of Elections launched the “Registration Repair Project” to collect identification numbers from registered voters who do not have a driver’s license/DMV ID number or Social Security number in the state’s voter registration database. It sent letters to 82,000 registered voters who did not provide the necessary information to election officials. 

“North Carolina has made significant progress in cleaning up its voter rolls, and the board deserves credit for removing thousands of duplicate registrations,” Public Interest Legal Foundation communications director Amanda Fischer said in a public statement. “PILF’s expanded review shows that more work is needed. Accurate voter rolls are vital to public confidence in elections.”

The North Carolina State Board of Elections did not respond to an inquiry from the Daily Signal.

The U.S. Department of Justice is asking justices to allow the administration to resume building the border wall, saying the Big Bend region has a high illegal entry rate and is a concern for drug smuggling. 

“The district court’s injunction significantly frustrates the government’s ability to stop the flow of illegal aliens and drugs across the southern border,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the request for emergency relief, according to CBS News. “The Secretary identified the Big Bend project areas at issue because of the high rates of illegal-alien crossings and drug smuggling in the region over the past several years.” 

The Big Bend border wall would span roughly 175 miles across Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, and Presidio counties. 

However, since President Donald Trump announced plans to build border barriers and roads in February, it has become a point of contention and controversy among local ranchers, business owners, and environmentalists. 

Earlier this month, federal Judge Kathleen Cardone issued a temporary injunction blocking the Trump administration from continuing construction in the area after those opposed to the project filed multiple lawsuits to stop the project. 

Cardone said that the plaintiffs were “likely” to succeed on the merits of at least one of the claims, that there is “a likelihood that they will suffer serious, irreparable harm without an injunction.”

However, it’s not only locals and organizations that find the construction problematic, as both candidates running to represent Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, which encompasses the Big Bend region and Big Bend Ranch State Park, have said they would oppose a border wall that disturbs the Big Bend region. 

“I will not be voting for anything that includes funding for a physical barrier that disrupts Big Bend. That is something that I’ve been the leading voice on the conservative side for,” Republican candidate Brandon Herrera said. 

Democrat Katy Padilla Stout said she and her campaign are against the wall. 

“Our campaign and myself believe in no wall with no exceptions, and you can absolutely take that to the bank,” Padilla Stout said. 

The federal government maintains that it has the right to construct the border wall under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which states that the secretary of homeland security has the power to waive all legal requirements necessary to ensure expeditious construction of border walls and roads to curb illegal immigration. 

Before the case was sent to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration had asked Cardone to pause her decision, which she rejected. 

She has surrendered to federal authorities yet remains defiant.

“Today, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the full weight of the federal government have been wielded against an 82-year-old great-grandmother,” Lucas said in a statement. “I grew up under Jim Crow. I’ve seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them. I spent my life fighting back, and I’m not stopping now.”

The charges come less than two weeks before the midterm congressional elections.

Others say the charges are serious and not so easy to dismiss.

“These are incredibly serious charges laid out in the indictment. Regardless of political party, public corruption, racketeering, and self-dealing undermine the very foundation of our government and erode the public’s trust,” U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam said in a statement to the Daily Signal. “Sen. Lucas is entitled to a presumption of innocence, but anyone found guilty of abusing their position must be held fully accountable under the law.”

Earlier this year, his office told the Daily Signal that the FBI had monitored phone conversations Subramanyam had with Lucas between March 6 and April 5 and again between April 14 and May 14. The contents of those conversations were sealed by court order.

The charges against Lucas follow a yearslong investigation that began during the Biden administration. “The Department of Justice intends to prove that Senator Lucas violated the trust of the people of Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Virginia, and of her state Senate colleagues,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said as the charges were unveiled. “Her first duty should have been looking out for her constituents before herself.”

While he took a wait-and-see attitude in his statement, Subramanyam added that “the timing of these charges, days before a major election, raises even more questions about the weaponization of these agencies against political opponents of the president.”

“Sen. Lucas is one of the highest-ranking Democrats and was a leading proponent of Virginia’s redistricting efforts, so it’s hard not to conclude there are politics involved here,” he said. “Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to rubber-stamp and pardon fraud and corruption for themselves and their political allies.”

Subramanyam, a Democrat, is expected to be reelected easily in Virginia’s 10th District.

The indictment accuses the senator of having “used her political position to insulate the Lucas Enterprise from criminal scrutiny and to influence legislation benefiting the enterprise.”

Lucas enjoys a uniquely powerful position in state politics. Governors in Virginia have less influence than in other states because they may not run for reelection immediately after serving a four-year term. The best they can do is sit out an election cycle and attempt to run again, as former Gov. Terry McAuliffe attempted to do in 2021. He was defeated by Glenn Youngkin, who is now out of office and stumping for Republicans across the state.

State senators, however, do not face the specter of term limits, and so Lucas has been able to amass vast power during her 34 years in office. She has made it clear to governors in both parties that she enjoys unique influence.

For example, after a poll this spring showed Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s approval rating at 47%, Lucas openly mocked her fellow Democrat. “[M]y numbers are doing just fine,” she wrote on X. “The problem she has to correct is her policies don’t match her rhetoric from the campaign trail. Her issue is credibility.”

Lucas has also used her position to thwart Republican governors. When Youngkin thought he had an agreement in 2024 to bring the NBA’s Wizards and the NHL’s Capitals to Alexandria, Lucas blocked the $2 billion Potomac Yard arena proposal by refusing to include it in the state budget.

“Anything having to do with enriching billionaires, they need to pay for themselves,” she told ALXnow at that time. “They can build the arena and make a profit. They could complete the roads and also provide the perennial upkeep.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Thursday that Lucas’ alleged five-year scheme was worth an estimated $4.5 million. The case against Lucas will be prosecuted in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Their particular aim: highlighting “the extreme abortion agenda” of Democrat candidates.

An ad from the PAC targeting Husted’s foe, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton exposes how the two “have crossed the line on abortion.”

The spot specifically highlights their support for abortions in the ninth month of pregnancy on unborn babies who feel pain, abortions for minors without parental consent, and taxpayer-funded abortions.

“Every limit, every safeguard gone. Sherrod Brown and Amy Acton. Wrong side of the line. Wrong for Ohio,” the ad warns.

For their next step, Women Speak Out just announced in Toledo a $1.1 million campaign further exposing Acton and Brown’s “extreme abortion agenda.”

The campaign includes digital ads, voter mail, text messages, and phone calls focused on 621,000 pro-life voters statewide as the group seeks to reach 10.5 million persuadable and low-turnout voters for the 2026 midterms.

The PAC has also launched on-the-ground efforts, with the Ohio team visiting the homes of more than 375,000 Ohio voters so far.

SBA Pro-Life America recently released message testing in swing midterm races, which shows that highlighting those radical abortion views moves the margin 4-5 points toward the pro-life candidate.

In a statement for the Daily Signal, Kelsey Pritchard, a spokesperson for Women Speak Out, not only praised Husted and Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, but also shared the group’s concerns with Acton and Brown.

“Amy Acton and Sherrod Brown won’t talk about how their abortion extremism harms women and children in Ohio. They can’t even draw the line at late-term abortions in the ninth month of pregnancy, with healthy moms and healthy babies who feel excruciating pain,” Pritchard said.

“The Democrats’ agenda is to bring Massachusetts-style abortion on demand up to birth to every state, with forced taxpayer funding, while denying parents the right to protect vulnerable young girls from abortion profiteers and predators. It’s vital to expose and stop them and elect champions like Jon Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy at every level this fall.”

Brown has a record of supporting abortion while in Congress, while Acton has spoken out against proposed pro-life laws at the state level and has the support of groups like Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio and the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Students from the Feminist Majority at Ohio State University, which is a student-driven chapter of the national group, took part in an event for Acton last week that was closed to the press.

The Ramaswamy-Acton gubernatorial race and the Husted-Brown special election for U.S. Senate in Ohio are both races to watch, with the Senate race being particularly expensive and one that could determine the balance of power in the chamber.

Omar joined MS NOW for her first sit-down interview following the Columbus Day raid on her Washington, D.C., home. When asked if the man she married in 2009, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was her brother, she responded, “Not to my knowledge.”

In a 2016 Minnesota radio interview, she answered the same allegation differently: “Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive.”

Her now-ex-husband, Elmi, ended up a refugee in England and not in the U.S. with Omar. The two divorced in 2017.

Omar Watched Agents Search Her Home From Her Couch

The Somali-born congresswoman detailed the raid, conducted by Homeland Security Investigations agents, and the items they seized.

She described the scene at 6 a.m., waking up to agents pounding on her front and back doors and surrounding the home. The only people in the home were Omar, her husband, Tim Mynett, and her 20-year-old son. She described waking up confused, thinking something might be on fire and that they were trying to evacuate her home.

“My husband opened the door, so he got to interact with them before I came back down, before I came down to see them,” she said.

Homeland Security Investigations agents provided her with the search warrant and began searching the home. She said she was allowed to call her lawyer roughly an hour into the hourslong search.

“I sat on the couch, staring at the warrant, trying to make sure that they were staying within the balance of what the warrant allowed them to do,” she explained.

“They went room through room, and they took 17 items,” she said.

Some of the personal items she described included a new phone she had just gotten, an old travel phone, her daughter’s old phone, her husband’s camera, a Somali phrase book for children, and her husband’s notebooks. The interviewer did not ask about reports that her passport and computer were taken as well.

“It was hours, four to five hours. Which was why I was surprised when they handed me the receipt for the items that they’d taken to do that long of a search and to walk away with 17 items, of like 10 that were just notebooks and like old phones. [It] was such a bizarre thing,” she said.

It has been reported that agents have obtained her DNA, though Omar was positive that the agents who conducted the raid did not take her DNA, citing the list of items they took.

She described the entire raid as “intrusive but polite.”

“They did a really good job of putting everything back in its place. They actually even folded some of my clothing that was not folded, so it was … intrusive but polite,” she said.

The Origin of the Brother-Marriage Accusations

Omar said the accusations of Elmi being her brother began with a “Somali blog,” not the Trump administration.

“I don’t know if it still exists, but somebody put in there that, you know, that he had to have been my brother or something to that effect. And right-wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis got a hold of it, and they just kind of went and found random people who were like, ‘She introduced us, you know, she introduced him to us and said he was her brother,’ which is, you know, insane. I don’t know those people that they talk about,” she explained.

Omar largely brushed off the accusations of immigration fraud, claiming that she has “a legal right to be a member of Congress,” and crediting her Muslim faith teachings: “We believe that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. He doesn’t burden us. … I’m designed uniquely by God, and I would stand all of this.”

The investigations into how Omar obtained her immigration status and her financial disclosures are ongoing.

Take Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, for instance. She suggested that the majority decisions of her conservative colleagues are undermining American democracy, citing cases involving gerrymandering, money in politics, and other decisions that give the president more authority over the administrative state.

“The court has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effect of their rulings on how the political system works and has created a democracy that does not work as well as it should,” the justice, nominated by President Barack Obama, said at Catholic University’s law school Tuesday night, Courthouse News reported.

“Over the last couple of years especially, both political parties have been engaged in a race to the bottom in terms of doing these partisan gerrymanders, … making what I think is unfortunately a too-polarized country even more so,” she said. “The people of America look around and think that all this money chasing all these political candidates is a nightmare, and they’re right.”

Kagan also reportedly criticized the majority for “clearing the way for President Donald Trump and other presidents to remove the heads of agencies that Congress set up to be independent of the chief executive,” The Washington Post reported.

Yet these decisions arguably return political power to elected officials and voters, restoring accountability and weakening the influence of judges, bureaucrats, and other unelected actors.

Redistricting

While Republicans and Democrats have both sought to redraw congressional maps for partisan advantage, the Founders left the decision of how to allocate districts in the House of Representatives up to the states, not to the Supreme Court.

Kagan was lamenting a series of Supreme Court decisions that culminated in Louisiana v. Calais (2026). Lower courts had interpreted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as effectively mandating redistricting along racial lines, but in Calais, the Supreme Court ruled that states can redraw their congressional maps so long as they do so for political, not racial, reasons.

Americans understandably dislike partisan gerrymandering, but the Constitution assigns redistricting to the political process for a reason. If the citizens of a state are fed up with partisan redistricting, they can elect candidates based on that issue. That’s a much more democratic solution than turning courts into a national redistricting commission.

Money in Politics

Similarly, Americans are often shocked to learn how much money changes hands in an election. According to the Federal Election Commission, presidential candidates raised $2 billion and spent approximately $1.8 billion in the 2024 election cycle; congressional candidates collected approximately $3.8 billion; and political action committees raised about $15.7 billion.

Critics blame the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which allowed nonprofit organizations to issue political messages without disclosing their donors.

Again, Kagan has emphasized a process that Americans sense is broken, but that doesn’t mean the court’s decision was wrong. The Supreme Court upheld Americans’ right to contribute money to causes they believe in. The court did not create political activism. The large amounts of money reflect more civic engagement, not less.

Presidential Power

When it comes to presidential power over the administrative state, Trump critics often note that Congress established federal agencies as governing bodies of experts, hoping to create policy engines that would be immune to the normal fluctuations of politics.

The key problem with that argument, however, is that policy is inherently political, and the administrative state developed a political bent of its own. The federal bureaucracy has overwhelmingly supported Democrats and leftist causes, and the organization of public-sector unions like the American Federation of Government Employees only cements this leftist lean.

When Trump makes personnel changes at federal agencies, he’s actually representing many Americans’ frustration with the stagnant status quo and with the bureaucrats who arguably abused their power during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Agency independence may insulate policymaking from politics, but it also insulates policymakers from voters.

When the Supreme Court restores the president’s authority to fire heads of executive agencies, it is restoring decision-making to a person who is elected by the American people for that purpose; it is taking it away from unelected bureaucrats. This represents a step toward democracy, not away from it.

Kagan may be right to lament the “race to the bottom” in gerrymandering and other aspects of America’s political culture, but the Supreme Court decisions she blames actually represent salutary steps toward fulfilling the Founders’ vision. The truth is more disturbing: if American politics has grown coarser, it is largely because of choices made by voters, politicians, activists, and institutions across the political spectrum.

Blaming six conservative justices may be satisfying, but it does little to address the deeper causes.

The Oversight Project, a government watchdog group that runs the site Doc Depot, says new AI features will allow users to quickly get answers buried on the 100th page of a large report or investigate a wide swath of primary sources.

“We’ve spent years fighting tooth and nail to pull records out of the government, many of which have propelled some of the biggest stories in America,” Oversight Project President Mike Howell said in a statement. “But what good are all these documents if a busy, everyday American doesn’t have the time to make sense of them all or read an entire congressional report or the like? This tool solves that problem.”

Doc Depot added a new AI research assistant and a publicly available Model Context Protocol server, which lets users connect their own AI agents, such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Grok, to the archive, according to the Oversight Project.

The site’s 4 million pages are spread across 196,379 separate government documents, which the organization obtained through the Freedom of Information Act requests and congressional correspondence.

The Oversight Project has sued for records and exposed the excessive use of former President Joe Biden’s autopen for presidential actions. It used as an example of its AI tools a request for the system to create a timeline of pardons signed by autopen during Biden’s term.

The organization has also released numerous documents from the Justice Department on deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; from the National Institutes of Health regarding COVID-19; and FBI photos from the search of Biden’s Delaware home for classified documents.  

“I’m incredibly impressed by our team dedicating years to gathering this universe of information, painstakingly logging and organizing it, and then building an advanced and innovative system to make it all user-friendly and accessible,” Howell said. “This is what the future of oversight looks like.”

When Democrat state Rep. James Talarico tells you who he is, you should believe him. Or maybe not.

Talarico is one of the most radical leftists in Texas politics, but from his recent campaign stunts, you’d never know it. Suddenly, he has flip-flopped away from his radical past on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, abortion, and transgenderism.

When CNN hosted a town hall last week, Talarico played the nice guy. He stood open to questions from voters about his controversial statements, including the Bible’s supposed silence on abortion, abolishing ICE, and his claim that God is nonbinary.

In true politician form, Talarico gave smooth answers—but they don’t add up with his past.

For instance, when asked if he supports abolishing ICE, Talarico denied it.

“No and I never have. We need Immigration and Customs Enforcement in this country,” he said. “But that’s not what we’re seeing.”

This softened response is an about-face from Talarico’s past statements, especially while campaigning in the Democrat primary.

“It’s time to tear down this secret police force,” Talarico said in a primary debate earlier this year. He has also argued in favor of replacing ICE with an agency that is “actually going to promote public safety.” While this may not technically be abolishing ICE, one could argue he is splitting hairs.

The Daily Signal asked Talarico’s campaign how he reconciles his recent claim that he does not support abolishing ICE with his previous statements calling to “tear down” and replace the agency, but the spokesperson did not respond in time for publication.

Also during the town hall, Talarico seemed to temper his stance on abortion. When a Catholic voter asked about his support for abortion, she asked how she could trust a leader who refused to protect some of the most vulnerable.

“I can respect anyone who is consistently pro-life,” Talarico opined. “But what I think we can do is come together on reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions, because if we treat this issue as a public health problem and not a culture war problem, then we can actually make progress together.”

“I also want to see fewer unwanted pregnancies,” he added. “I want to see fewer abortions.”

A remarkably agreeable stance—unlike his previous arguments that the Bible supports abortion or that Christians have no biblical basis to be pro-life.

To justify abortion, he even pointed to the biblical account where the angel Gabriel told Mary she would give birth to Jesus. “To me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent,” he said. “You cannot force someone to create.”

But now, Talarico the seminarian supposedly wants to see fewer of something he argued the Bible endorses.

Also during the town hall, he called to end “big money in our politics” and to ban corporate PACs and super PACs.

Meanwhile, Talarico’s own campaign is backed by the super PAC “Lone Star Rising,” whose biggest donor, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, is a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Hoffman is bankrolling the super PAC, propping up Talarico’s campaign, to the tune of at least $11.5 million.

Talarico’s head-spinning inconsistencies go even further.

In a September interview with Fox News, Talarico tried to backtrack on claims about transgenderism. He even claimed he would support a national ban on transgender procedures for minors and that he would “oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it endangers safety or fairness.”

This is quite a difference from the Talarico of the past, who in 2023 voted against Senate Bill 14, which protected minors from gender procedures, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones. Not to mention his viral statements that he loves “trans kids” and that “God is nonbinary.’

Talarico appears to be following a political playbook as old as time: embrace a radical agenda during the primaries, then rebrand as a centrist in hopes of winning the general election. But if Texas voters look beyond the campaign rhetoric and examine his record, they’ll see he’s anything but a political centrist.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security arrested illegal immigrants convicted of crimes including child prostitution, assault of a minor, and domestic abuse. Two of the aliens were previously arrested but later released into the country under the Biden administration, the White House claimed.

In his rally in Sioux City Thursday night, Trump will highlight the administration’s record on border security and contrast it with liberal policies in Europe, which he says have led to riots and chaos. He is traveling to Iowa to support GOP Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson and GOP gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn.

“The riots in France are a direct result of their leader’s open border policies. This is what will happen in America if radical Democrats have their way,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told the Daily Signal. “They are the party of open borders, amnesty, lawlessness, and chaos, while President Trump and Republicans are the party of common sense and law and order.” 

Though Trump won Iowa by 13 points in 2024, Hinson is running only 0.4 percentage points ahead of her Democrat opponent, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. Lahn’s opponent, Rob Sand, leads by 6.7 points.

Meet the criminal illegal immigrants apprehended by DHS:

1. Amilcar Perz-Morfin

Amilcar Perz-Morfin is an illegal alien from Mexico who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 16.

His criminal history includes a conviction for sexual exploitation of a minor—prostitution, according to the White House.

Perz-Morfin first illegally entered the United States at an unknown date and location and was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol in November 2009. He was granted a voluntary departure in May 2010. He then illegally reentered the U.S. at an unknown date and location.

2. Sidney Pino-Becquer

Sidney Pino-Becque, an illegal alien from Cuba, was arrested by immigration enforcement agents on Oct. 1.

His criminal history includes convictions for child endangerment and assault causing serious injury—without intent, child endangerment—torture or cruelty, and an arrest for battery. 

He illegally entered the U.S. through Arizona in October 2021 and was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol. The Biden administration then released him back into the country, according to the White House.

3. Axel Sanchez Torres

Axel Sanchez Torres is an illegal alien from Mexico, arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 1.

His criminal history includes convictions for domestic abuse—assault causing injury or mental illness, felony controlled substance violation, and driving while intoxicated. 

He illegally entered the U.S. at an unknown date and location.

4. Cristian Sneider Garcia-Salas

Cristian Sneider Garcia-Salas is an illegal alien from Colombia, arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 7.

His criminal history includes convictions for assault, public intoxication, and possession of a controlled substance. He illegally entered the U.S. through Arizona in October 2021 and was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol.

He was also released back into the country under the Biden administration, according to the White House.

5. Jefri Cap Villagran

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Jefri Cap Villagran, an illegal alien from Guatemala, on Oct. 15.

His criminal history includes convictions for operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest, assault by a confined person, and eluding while exceeding speed limit by 25 miles per hour or more, and arrests for possession of a dangerous weapon, operating while under the influence, eluding, criminal mischief, and interfering with official acts. 

He illegally entered the U.S. at an unknown date and location and was deported in September 2012 after an immigration judge issued him a final order of removal on Sept. 5, 2012. He then committed a felony by illegally reentering the country at an unknown date and location, according to the White House.