Complacency is killing the GOP — and Democrats are seizing the moment



The party’s over.

I hate being the bearer of bad news, but despite our historic victory this past November, the right hasn’t won the battle for America’s soul — not even close.

Republicans think Americans voted for right-wing philosophy, when in reality, they voted for Donald J. Trump. The two are not the same.

I get it — it’s been fun to be a Republican since November. The problem is, we’ve been so busy running victory lap after victory lap that now the left might lap us.

A warning from Pennsylvania

Just look at what happened this Tuesday, when Democrat James Malone won Pennsylvania’s 36th Senate District by a razor-thin margin. Just for context, this is a district that President Donald Trump won by 15 points in 2024 and whose electorate tilts Republican by 23 points. The last Republican to hold it ran unopposed. In short, it shouldn’t even have been close.

And yet the Democrat won, which raises a much more uncomfortable question, not just about this race but about the entire Republican strategy for 2026: How could this happen?

To me, the reason is clear. They won because we didn’t show up. Why didn’t we show up? We were lulled into a false sense of security by the crushing victory of 2024. And yes, Trump’s use of the full machinery of the state to strip away the left’s entrenched power — along with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency chewing through federal fat — makes it hard not to feel a bit giddy, even invincible. But while overconfidence breeds vulnerability, I don’t think that’s the real issue.

Trump won 2024, not ‘conservatism’

The real issue is that Republicans think Americans voted for right-wing philosophy, when in reality, they actually voted for Donald J. Trump. Whether you like it or not, Trump had an advantage that virtually no other Republican has: Everyone knew he was the living embodiment of a political approach that elites in bothparties had tried to stop. And what’s more, he was up against possibly the perfect candidate — or really, candidates — to personify what everyday Americans hatedabout those very elites. Plus, there truly is no one like Trump. It is only because so many people showed up to vote against those people — and for him — that they also pulled the lever for a Republican.

But most Democrats are not as bad as former Vice President Kamala Harris. And most Republicans, I’m sorry to say, are not Trump. In fact, most Republicans seem to have taken the exact wrong lesson from Trump’s victory. They’ve treated it as a vindication of conservatism. It wasn’t. Trump is not a movement conservative, and most Americans aren’t either.

Unfortunately, many GOP politicians still resemble the conservative brand of old. Worse, many have tried to use Trump’s “America First” agenda as a fig leaf for unpopular past stances and discredited old ideologies. This loud group has nothing to do with “America First,” and they’re making us look bad to normal Americans — precisely at the moment when everyone from Gavin Newsom to Bernie Sanders is falling all over themselves to try to appear “normal.” Americans voted for Trump to stop the ideological madness, not to invert it.

Time to wake up

But MAGA stands for more than that. We know it. Trump knows it. The real issue, as Trump himself often says, is that we’re not used to winning this much. And because of that, we’ve grown too comfortable. We’ve started coasting, assuming success will continue without effort.

We forget that many of our victories have come simply because voters oppose the radical left. As Mike Solana recently told Megyn Kelly, “We’ve decided what we don’t want to look like.” But rejection alone isn’t a strategy. If the opposition doesn’t implode, we have to give voters something to support — something real, clear, and positive. That requires more than deciding what we stand for; it requires showing it in everything we do.

Whatever that vision is, we need to define it now — and act on it — because time is running out.

We already lost a state Senate seat in a swing-state district with a Republican advantage of 23 points. If that can happen there, it can happen anywhere. The upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court race is a toss-up, and we cannot afford another defeat.

Yes, both the MAGA movement and Elon Musk have done more to nationalize the Wisconsin court race than they did with Pennsylvania’s 36th Senate district. But we can’t rely on billionaires or once-in-a-generation political talent.

The right must build a political machine that works — whether we’re in power or not. Democrats have one. They’re using it. And they’re not slowing down.

We shouldn’t either.

The Pennsylvania disaster that could have been avoided



Democrats just scored a shocking win in Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s state Senate special election. This is a seat in a district that President Trump carried by 15 points in November. A deep-red district. A “safe” seat. And yet we lost.

Let me say something few in politics have the courage to admit: I got this one wrong.

We cannot afford to sit out the mail-in game and hope for a red wave to appear by magic on Election Day.

I want to make sure every patriot understands exactly what happened — and what it means for the future of freedom in Pennsylvania and across the country.

Citizens Alliance offered to activate the PA CHASE program to protect the 36th Senate District seat. We were prepared to mobilize ballot chasers, execute our mail-in voting strategy, and ensure that Republican turnout matched the intensity of the left. But we were told it wouldn’t be necessary. GOP insiders said the special election would be “a cakewalk.” Consultants assured us that the Republican candidate would cruise to victory by double digits.

They were wrong. And I was wrong to believe them.

Let’s be very clear about why this happened. The Democrats crushed us in mail-in voting.

Democrat mail-in votes totaled 8,869, while Republican mail-in votes lagged at 3,547.

That means that the GOP candidate earned just 28.5% of the mail-in vote.

Our internal modeling for Pennsylvania has been consistent and accurate: To win statewide or in swing districts, Republicans must hit 33% of the mail-in vote. In 2024, President Trump got 34.5% of the mail-in vote, thanks in part to our PA CHASE efforts. But in this race, we came up short.

The proof is right in front of us. The rules in Pennsylvania give Democrats a 50-day head start on voting. They use every one of those days to chase ballots, engage low-propensity voters, and dominate the mail-in process. Republicans have been asleep at the wheel.

Do I like mail-in voting? No. I believe in one day of voting with ID. But that’s not the system we have. And until it changes, we must compete under the rules in place.

We cannot afford to sit out the mail-in game and hope for a red wave to appear by magic on Election Day. That’s a losing strategy, and the Lancaster loss is proof. Democrats are building momentum, infrastructure, and habits that will carry them through every cycle unless we match them with precision and resolve.

The good news? We know how to fix it.

We officially relaunched the PA CHASE program for 2025. Our mission is clear: Knock on 500,000 doors every year and deliver victories at every level of government. We've built the data models. We’ve trained the teams. We’ve proven it works.

But we need more patriots to step up.

We can’t let complacency cost us any more seats.

Let Lancaster County serve as a wake-up call. If Republicans don’t get serious about mail-in voting, we will keep losing seats that should be safely in our column. We will keep watching the Democrats run laps around us while we pretend it’s still 2004.

I’ll take the hit for this one. I should have pushed harder. I should have raised the funds and targeted this critical special election despite the naysayers. That won’t happen again.

The path forward is clear. Fight fire with fire. Chase every ballot. Win.

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Yes, mail-in voting is banned all across the world, even in Ukraine



Mail-in voting is banned in many Western countries and even in war-torn countries like Ukraine.

Mail-in voting was a strong point of contention in 2020 and continues to be hot-button issue during the 2024 presidential campaign, as Democrats have embraced the voting method and conducted legal campaigns to defend it.

In March, a meme circulated online purporting to list at least eight notable countries that have banned mail-in voting.

A page from Snopes, a left-leaning "fact-check" website, quickly popped up and labeled the claim a "mixture" of truth and falsities.

However, a review of voting laws around the world reveals that many countries do, in fact, allow absentee voting for citizens who are out of the country but disallow mail-in voting for citizens who do not have a valid absentee excuse.

The alleged fact-checkers mainly leaned on absentee voting as a reason why they couldn't fully claim that mail-in voting is banned in many Western countries. As Pew Research has noted, at least 88 countries allow voting from abroad in presidential-level elections, which means that absentee voting is not a controversial topic. In fact, virtually no one in the United States challenges the right of people with a valid absentee excuse (such as overseas military service) to vote. What many have argued, however, is that those who live in the United States and are thus without an excuse for not participating in in-person voting should not be permitted to mail in their votes. And an examination of the laws in the countries in question reveals that many of them have taken exactly this position.

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For example, France banned mail-in voting for in-country residents due to fraud.

Snopes claimed that the practice was ended in France due to a "few instances" of fraud, particularly on the island of Corsica. However, Snopes' source states that fraud and malfunctions in voting systems were not confined to Corsica and listed other instances.

Additionally, the list of those who could vote by mail-in ballot in France before 1975 was needlessly excessive. It included journalists who were "on the move," travelers and representatives, commercial agents, fairground traders, seasonal agricultural workers, construction workers working on sites far from their homes, people seeking medical assistance at a "spa" or "resort," and even "young people" who were at school far from their homes.

France, however, allows online voting, so long as the voter is French, resides abroad, and is properly registered.

According to Newsweek, Mexico banned absentee ballots in 1991 and mandated photo ID to vote. This came after the governing Revolutionary Party was accused of fraud and intimidation in order to garner mail-in ballots. Absentee ballots were reintroduced in 2006 only for those living abroad and only for specific elections, including the presidency.

This policy is mirrored in Belgium, where mail-in ballots are not allowed for residents in the country. However, those abroad can vote both by mail and by proxy. At the same time, some regions, including the Flemish region, are not yet allowed to vote by mail or online.

Belgium also instituted compulsory voting, which, for better or for worse, has resulted in a near-90% turnout rate. Consistent fines without justification could lead to a 10-year removal from voting registration.

Sweden has a similar system. Mail-in voting is only allowed for those abroad through mail, by courier, or through an embassy. Multiple sources make it clear that resident Swedish citizens must vote in person, with early voting up to 18 days before the election.

"Voters vote for a political party and may, at the same time, mark the candidate that they would prefer to be elected on their ballot paper with a cross," the European Union writes about Sweden.

Italy too only allows mail-in voting for those residing abroad.

Japan explains its voting process through adorable cartoons, also noting that Japanese citizens should vote in person. Certain disabilities, along with living abroad, allow for voting by mail in Japan.

Snopes points out that while Ukraine and Russia do not have mail-in voting, Ukraine hasn't had an election for several years due to the implementation of martial law.

While Ukraine does not allow mail-in votes, it does allow certain questionable practices, such as impermanent address changes.

"Citizens are able to permanently change their preferred address (which does not have to be their residence) to be assigned a more convenient polling station for both local and national elections," Snopes wrote. "For national elections, they can also ask for a temporary change of address up to five days before the vote."

While paper ballots and in-person voting are continuously decried as forms of voter suppression in the United States, it does indeed seem that by international standards, the U.S. is extremely lax in allowing mail-in voting for people who are residing in the United States.

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