Republicans cannot serve two masters on immigration



Eleven years after Donald Trump’s rise, the Republican Party still has not broken with the business interests that depend on cheap, abundant migrant labor. A handful of conservatives want to shut off the employment spigot and reduce both illegal and legal immigration. But too much of the party remains willing to protect longtime illegal workers in agriculture, expand guest-worker programs, or legalize workers already here when employers insist they cannot operate without them.

That’s the real fault line. Almost every Republican says border chaos is bad. The harder test comes when immigration enforcement raises labor costs for industries dependent upon a large foreign workforce.

When a party’s voters and its governing class want fundamentally different things on a defining issue, eventually the contradiction must break somewhere.

For years, Republicans have talked about focusing deportations on criminal aliens while treating workers in agriculture, hospitality, and other favored industries differently. That approach leaves the cheap labor pipeline largely intact. If employers can continue hiring illegal labor with little consequence, the incentive to come and remain does not disappear.

Republicans simply won’t protect our nation’s sovereignty. Instead, they build up a false dichotomy that points to one solution: amnesty.

Senator Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) made the tension explicit last month. He told Politico that ICE can get “carried away” and questioned “dragging people away that have lived on your street corner for 15 years.” He later issued a statement saying he supports Trump’s immigration strategy “full stop,” while emphasizing the removal of dangerous criminals.

Justice serves one of the most anti-illegal alien states. He did not endorse blanket amnesty outright. He didn’t need to. His comments reveal how quickly the politics change once enforcement reaches local industries and communities that have become addicted to illegal labor.

The same pressure surfaced in southwest Kansas after ICE operations disrupted meatpacking towns. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) complained that local law enforcement had not received adequate notice and said the operations caused “mass disruptions to local communities and businesses.” Enforcement, he said, should be done “in a responsible and secure manner.” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) likewise urged coordination with local police and said DHS told him the operation targeted people with criminal warrants.

Their complaint was about tactics and coordination, not ICE’s legal authority to remove illegal aliens. Still, the episode underscores the problem: Enforcement remains popular in the abstract until it collides with an employer’s workforce. Clearly, the problem is worse than we thought.

Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R) of Florida has gone further. In a campaign ad, she told Trump that some enforcement efforts had “gone too far” and said Hispanic voters who backed him in 2024 “feel betrayed.” Salazar explicitly said she was not proposing amnesty. But she has long favored a “legal-status framework” for many illegal immigrants already living and working here. In other words, amnesty.

RELATED: Kansas Republicans muddy the waters on ICE enforcement

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The guest-worker side of the equation is even clearer.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson (R-Penn.) introduced the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act with 50 co-sponsors. The bill would allow H-2A labor certifications lasting up to three years, make it easier to transfer guest workers between employers, and let certain illegal farmworkers who were already here and had worked in agriculture apply for H-2A status. That is not citizenship, but it is a legalization mechanism tied directly to agricultural employment.

The administration has moved in the same direction on temporary labor. For fiscal year 2026, DHS and the Labor Department authorized up to 64,716 additional H-2B visas on top of the statutory cap for seasonal non-agricultural workers.

H-2A has no numerical cap. In October 2025, the Labor Department changed the methodology used to set the program’s minimum wage. The department itself estimated the rule would produce $2.46 billion in annualized wage transfers from H-2A workers to employers. A federal judge ruled the methodology unlawful in August but did not vacate the rule, leaving the wage rates in place while the litigation continues.

Whatever one thinks of the legal dispute, the economic direction is obvious: Washington is making foreign farm labor cheaper and easier to use.

In July, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) led a bipartisan letter — joined by six Republican senators and a number of House Republicans endorsed by Trump — asking the administration to reduce processing delays and structural barriers in the H-2A program. The letter did not ask Congress to raise a visa cap, because H-2A has none. It asked the executive branch to make the existing pipeline work more smoothly.

Sadly, this is not a fringe position inside the GOP. The cheap-labor lobby remains deeply embedded in the party’s agricultural and business wings.

Consider Nebraska. Gov. Jim Pillen (R) has embraced Trump’s immigration-enforcement agenda, yet a New York Times and Flatwater Free Press investigation found that Pillen Family Farms had employed undocumented workers at at least 20 hog farms. Court records showed at least a dozen workers charged with using fake or stolen IDs between 2015 and 2024. Pillen and the company say they never knowingly hired illegal workers and that the business now uses E-Verify. Still, it’s worth noting that Pillen’s farms have never been raided by ICE.

RELATED: The promise was mass deportation. The policy is carve-outs.

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Republicans often treat illegal farm labor as the least objectionable form of illegal immigration. In reality, it may be among the most transformative.

Over the past few decades, large agricultural employers have reshaped rural communities across the Great Plains by relying heavily on immigrant labor. In Schuyler, Nebraska, roughly three-quarters of the population is Hispanic, while 27% of students in the Central Nebraska school district are foreign-born — figures more commonly associated with major metropolitan areas like New York and San Francisco.

The political divide is less about whether mass immigration transforms communities than about where that transformation occurs. Democratic interests tend to favor it in large cities; Republican-aligned agricultural interests have helped bring it to rural America.

When a party’s voters and its governing class want fundamentally different things on a defining issue, eventually the contradiction must break somewhere. The Republican Party itself was born in 1854 when the old party system fractured over the expansion of slavery into the territories.

If Republicans cannot choose between an immigration policy built around American workers and one built around employers’ demand for ever more labor, voters may eventually make the choice for them — and let this party go the way of the Whigs.

George Washington’s advice for the midterms



The 2026 midterm elections present a tough environment for the Republican Party, raising questions about how to campaign in such challenging circumstances. As is often the case in American politics, the economy is a central concern for voters.

In the last few weeks, prices — particularly for gas — have been too high for the comfort of any incumbent party. What have Republicans been saying to assuage voters’ concerns?

When officers and soldiers complained about not being paid, Washington did not ignore them or tell them they should consider it a privilege to sacrifice for their country.

Some have taken a kind of high road, encouraging or even admonishing voters to rise above self-interest and consider the loftier aims President Trump and his administration are pursuing. Yes, gas prices may be high, but the president is trying to end the Iranian threat to American national security. This process is taking longer and causing more economic pain than anyone would like. But it is worth it for the nation in the long run, and so patriotic voters should toughen up. So the argument runs.

This approach, however, has no shortage of critics. They think it is futile or worse to tell ordinary voters, whose economic means are increasingly limited, to grin and bear higher prices on the necessities of life. This environment, they suggest, is a recipe for electoral disaster for the Republican Party.

The critics have a point. It is never prudent for any political party — especially a pragmatic, competitive party that hopes to win elections and not just advance philosophical arguments — to appear indifferent to the ordinary self-interest of voters.

To make this error is not only to misread the present American electorate, but to misunderstand human nature, the basis of politics at all times and in all places. This is not to say that a successful political party must appeal only to narrow self-interest. Voters can respond to appeals to moral principle and national pride. Nevertheless, to neglect self-interest is to neglect one of the vital springs of human conduct.

The party that does this as a regular practice courts defeat.

This is one of the practical political lessons that George Washington, one of the greatest Americans, learned during the Revolutionary War. As the war lengthened, he pleaded with increasing urgency with Congress to provide for the army — better pay, better clothes, better food. Washington continually reminded the nation’s political leaders that without adequate provision, it would be impossible to keep the army together, much less achieve victory.

RELATED: The GOP has mastered the art of wasting a majority

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Underlying Washington’s argument is an assumption about the nature of the men composing the army essential to securing American independence — namely, that they could not be relied upon to continue in service if they were not properly compensated.

In other words, Washington assumed that the heroes of the Revolution were governed to a considerable extent by self-interest. Washington laid out this understanding explicitly in a 1778 letter to a committee of the Continental Congress:

A small knowledge of human nature will convince us, that, with far the greatest part of mankind, interest is the governing principle; and that, almost, every man is more or less, under its influence. Motives of public virtue may for a time, or in particular instances, actuate men to the observance of a conduct purely disinterested; but they are not of themselves sufficient to produce a persevering conformity to the refined dictates and obligations of social duty. Few men are capable of making a continual sacrifice of all views of private interest, or advantage, to the common good. It is in vain to exclaim against the depravity of human nature on this account — the fact is so, the experience of every age and nation has proved it, and we must, in a great measure, change the constitution of man, before we can make it otherwise. No institution, not built on the presumptive truth of these maxims can succeed.

It is important to emphasize that Washington is not taking a low view of human nature — he is taking a realistic view of it. Washington does not deny that human beings act on motives other than self-interested ones. He was himself a man of honor and of conscience. In his general orders to the army, he routinely appealed to lofty principles when communicating with his subordinates — officers, gentlemen, and ordinary soldiers.

In his private correspondence, Washington acknowledged that many men had joined the army out of patriotic motives. Such motives are genuine in the human heart and therefore have real influence on political life. Nevertheless, he understood that such motives cannot sustain most men, and certainly not a whole nation, on their own.

Conservatives often say that we would do well to learn from the high principles of our nation’s founders. But it is also just as necessary to learn from their realistic understanding of human nature. Without their realism about what motivates human beings, the founding generation would not have defeated the British and established a republican government in the service of lofty ideals.

RELATED: Ohio should be easy. Vivek is making it hard.

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Similarly, no political movement today (or at any time) can succeed in the long term without taking care of its voters’ self-interest and the common good of the country more generally.

Of course, sometimes, despite a ruling party’s best efforts and intentions, bad economic conditions will sour the electorate’s mood. What is such a party to say to its voters? Here, too, Washington provides a good guide.

When officers and soldiers complained about not being paid, Washington did not ignore them or tell them they should consider it a privilege to sacrifice for their country. He reminded his men that their long-term interests would be served by the nation’s independence; he agreed that their complaints were just and reasonable; and he assured them that steps were being taken to improve their situation.

This was a prudent and candid way for Washington to deal with his army, and it offers a model for how Republicans should address American voters today.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published at the American Mind.

CNN analyst pours cold water on Democrats' dream of a political takeover in November



Pollsters and prediction markets are prophesying overwhelming Democratic success in the midterm election, which is now seven weeks away. CNN admitted in a recent analysis, however, that those hoping for a blue tidal wave might be left greatly disappointed in November.

Doom and gloom for the GOP

Polymarket presently suggests that Democrats have a 62% chance of taking the U.S. Senate and a 92% chance of taking the House. Kalshi similarly forecasts Democrats taking over the House and Senate.

'It’s going to be close.'

According to the Economist's latest midterm forecast, Democrats have a 93% chance of flipping the House and securing a 238-197 majority, and a 59% chance of taking the Senate.

The latest New York Times/Siena poll shows Democrats enjoying an eight-point edge on the generic ballot.

A recent NBC News poll found that while the Democratic Party is viewed more negatively than both President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, 50% of respondents favored Democratic control of Congress.

RELATED: The cost of living is coming for Congress

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Pollster Nate Silver argued on Sunday that the idea of the Senate as a "toss-up" is "misaligned with the long history of strong opposition performance in midterm elections, especially when the incumbent president is as unpopular as Trump."

Blue disappointment?

In light of recent polling, the average price of gasoline sitting at an estimated $4.44 per gallon, and the sense that the midterm vote serves as a referendum on Trump's policies, hope is mounting on the left that a blue wave will wash away the Republican trifecta in Washington.

That hope may, however, be unfounded.

CNN political analyst Ronald Brownstein suggested just over a week ago that Democrats might not be in a position to exploit the president's waning public approval, Americans' economic woes, and growing political discontent.

In addition to noting that many Democratic candidates are not attracting the numbers of voters who disapproved of Trump in 2018 and 2020, Brownstein wrote that despite disenchantment among some voters on the right, few appear willing to turn coat.

"The share of non-MAGA Republicans who say they are still voting for Republicans this fall is about 20 points higher than the portion who approve of Trump’s performance," Brownstein wrote, citing GOP pollster Micah Roberts' analysis of CNBC survey data.

"There are a lot of people who may think, 'I don’t like Trump but ... I don't agree with the policies of the other party and where they would take us,'" said Roberts.

While Republican voters might not cast votes for Democratic candidates, Brownstein noted that the GOP still faces the possibility that disenchanted Republican voters might decide not to vote at all — a big problem given the enthusiasm among likely Democratic voters.

Voter enthusiasm might threaten Republicans' hold on power; however, the GOP's redistricting efforts have placed breakers before any blue wave.

After all, far fewer House seats are competitive now than were in 2018, and 13 House Democrats must now defend districts where Trump netted at least five points more than his share of the national vote, said Brownstein.

The CNN analyst cast greater doubt on Democrats' senatorial ambitions, noting that "of the Republican-held seats Democrats are most seriously contesting, Maine is the only one in a state that supported Harris; North Carolina is the sole other state on the Senate map where Harris even came close. Trump prevailed by double digits in every other state whose Senate seat Democrats are targeting."

Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, the GOP — not similarly hard up for cash like the Democrats — also enjoys a financial advantage Brownstein reckons could be wielded to limit Democratic gains.

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson told the New York Post earlier this month that instead of a blue or red wave this November, there will be "30 knife fights in 30 dark alleys."

"It’s just a handful of races, but every one of them will be decided by a few thousand votes. It’s going to be close," added Hudson.

The Cook Political Report projects that the GOP and the Democratic Party are set to win 208 and 205 House seats, respectively, and marked 21 seats as toss-ups.

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GOP civil war over race ignites after Republican posts University of Texas crowd photo



A Republican running for a statewide race in Texas has lit a firestorm on the right after noting the racial demographics of the student section at the University of Texas football game over the weekend.

On Saturday night, the Texas Longhorns hosted the Ohio State Buckeyes for an early-season marquee showdown between two top-five teams. While the Buckeyes led most of the game, the Longhorns stormed back in the fourth quarter and won, 24-23.

'Texans didn’t ask for their state to become a playground for the third world.'

As might be expected, the hometown Texas crowd was ecstatic, and one photo in particular seemed to capture the exuberance of the UT student section.

Only not everyone is celebrating it.

On Sunday morning, Bo French, a Republican running for Texas railroad commissioner, shared the photo of non-white UT students on X and remarked, "Like body-cams exposed criminals, social media is exposing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners. It’s everywhere and far worse than any of us could imagine."

French was swiftly inundated with condemnation by many other X users, including prominent voices on the right.

Outgoing Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) replied, "This is the Republican nominee for statewide office. Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad."

Texas state Rep. Lacey Hull said, "Please delete this. This post breaks my heart. I see college kids cheering on their football team. I see Texans."

Former Trump Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin commented, "This is gross. Touch grass."

Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico joined in, calling French's post "blatant racism" and adding, "Racism has no place in Texas."

RELATED: Wake-up call for Redskins ownership: Family of canceled native hero wants team name, icon to return

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While accusations of racism abounded, French also has plenty of supporters who argue that native-born Americans have been unfairly edged out of public universities like UT-Austin by foreign-born students.

BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre quipped, "The Texas GOP is furious that Bo noticed these cowards are selling the state to foreign interests and replacing the population with Indians."

BlazeTV host John Doyle called French a "patriot," slammed Republicans for echoing Democrat talking points about "racism," and suggested that the GOP cannot survive without directly appealing to white voters:

As a matter of simple arithmetic, the Party will be destroyed when it ceases to win elections because it cannot get the votes to win. 85% of all votes cast for the Republican Party come from white Americans. Since the historic American electorate has been overwhelmingly white, it squares that the people most interested in the conservation of America would be white.

"Texans didn’t ask for their state to become a playground for the third world," he added.

According to Kalshi, on Sunday, Democrat candidate Jon Rosenthal briefly overtook French in the betting odds for the Texas railroad commissioner race, but within a couple of hours, French had retaken the lead.

French does not appear to be backing down from his comments.

By Sunday afternoon, he tweeted: "Generations of Texans have invested billions of dollars into UT. Today it is filled with foreign nationals and Leftists who boo Ted Cruz. John Cornyn says we should accept decline. The voters I talk to want to return our institutions to serving the interests of citizens."

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One year after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Steve Deace says the void remains: 'Felt like losing a brother'



A year after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, BlazeTV host Steve Deace is still struggling to process the loss of his friend — and the spiritual warfare that's begun escalating in his absence.

“It is still hard to believe that Charlie is gone. I still can’t believe that this really happened,” Deace says. “It’s still kind of surreal to me. Despite how many tears I’ve shed over the last year, more than I can count, more often than I can count.”

“Felt like losing a little brother to me. Just one that was more talented and better looking. But the other reason I’ve shed so many tears over the last year for this, and I mean there have been moments where I have just sobbed, it’s because I didn’t just lose a friend and a brother,” he continues.

“I understand [what] the church in our country lost with Charlie as well,” he adds, “It is, folks, it’s a gaping void that may never be filled.”


And this “dysfunction” plaguing the Republican Party, Deace explains, is happening “because Charlie’s not here.”

“And I’ve talked about this before, how much behind the scenes Charlie was keeping at bay, holding at bay,” he says.

“And a lot of the instigation and impetus for what we’ve seen, which is the stuff out of church history books, out of the Bible, just open spiritual warfare breaking out into the natural world, into the seeing realm, the trigger for a lot of it was his assassination,” he continues.

“If you were here,” he adds, addressing his old friend, “this would not be happening at the rate that it is, if at all. And I think it’s further confirmation of the apostolic calling on Charlie’s life, his martyring, and its aftermath.”

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'Relieved of command': Republican candidate tells lying Democrats where to go



One Republican congressional candidate has told Democrats where to go after they failed to support working American families.

Laurie Buckhout didn’t mince words as she left a stark message on the stage at the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas Thursday: Every Democrat who voted to raise taxes on working families has to go.

‘This November, every Democrat who voted to raise taxes on working families deserves … to be relieved of command.’

Buckhout, who is running for the 1st Congressional District of North Carolina, is not an incumbent looking to maintain her seat in the House. She’s fighting against the current elected Democrat, whom she nicknamed “Do-Nothing Don Davis.”

That nickname isn’t completely accurate, even in Buckhout's estimation. Davis did something, all right, she said, but it was in opposition to the American people.

When the Working Families Tax Cuts Act was up for a vote in July 2025 as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Davis and the rest of the Democrats attempted to block it. They were unsuccessful.

But it hasn't sat well with Buckhout that Davis and other Democrats have tried to "take credit" for certain aspects of the bill nevertheless.

She claimed in her speech:

Democrats clearly have a playbook in Washington — block it in D.C., and then take credit for it back home. Vote no, then show up with the ribbon-cutting. In the Army, if you fail to keep your promises and not stand by your people, you get relieved of command. So this November, every Democrat who voted to raise taxes on working families deserves exactly that — to be relieved of command.

RELATED: Night 2 Republican Midterm Convention

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Buckhout concluded with a call to action:

I'm a soldier. I'm a businesswoman who made payroll. I'm a fighter who keeps her word. And the road to holding this majority runs through districts like mine. So stand with me. Fight with me. Let's retire every Democrat who voted against your paycheck, and let's finish the job.

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Stu's Midterm Market WARNING as GOP Faces Troubling Numbers
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Stu's Midterm Market WARNING as GOP Faces Troubling Numbers

Ready for prime time: GOP makes play to keep 2 toss-up seats red



Michigan congressional candidate Mike Bouchard has been given a prime-time speaking slot at the 2026 Republican midterm convention Wednesday, a sign that the Republican Party is making moves to keep control of Congress come January.

For the appearance, Bouchard has been paired with former NFL placekicker Jay Feely, who is running for Congress in Arizona, which voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 but went blue in 2016 and 2020.

'Mike’s prime-time speaking spot reflects what Republicans nationally already recognize: Michigan’s 10th District ... could help determine control of the House.'

Bouchard and Feely are among just a handful of not-yet-elected candidates lined up to speak at the Dallas convention Wednesday, and their scheduled time slot of between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Central Time suggests that the party wants the nation to see their faces and hear their message.

Trump has already endorsed both men.

Bouchard, 32, is a Michigan Army National Guard captain who is gunning to represent Michigan's 10th Congressional District. Rep. John James (R-Mich.) has held the seat for the past four years.

Like the state of Michigan, the 10th District is about as purple as it gets. Rep. James, who is now running for governor, snuck past his Democratic opponent in 2022 by just 1,600 votes.

RELATED: An insider look at one of the toughest congressional races in the country

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All polling suggests another tight race in 2026. On August 25, the Cook Political Report shifted the race for the 10th Congressional District from lean Republican to a toss-up, and Kalshi currently has Democrat Christina Hines as the clear betting favorite.

"Mike’s prime-time speaking spot reflects what Republicans nationally already recognize: Michigan’s 10th District is one of the most competitive congressional races in the country and could help determine control of the House. The race was recently moved from Lean Republican to Toss-Up, and both parties understand the stakes," Jon Shiner, Bouchard's communications director, told Blaze News.

"Mike’s background and service make him uniquely qualified to fight for Americans and the voters of this district. His message tonight will be of lowering costs, securing our communities, bringing manufacturing jobs home, and defeating the Democrats’ increasingly socialist agenda."

Feely, 50, is also hoping to keep a decidedly purple district red. Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) has represented the 1st Congressional District of Arizona for the past two terms, but he won in 2022 by less than 1% of the vote.

Kalshi is similarly bearish on Feely's chances.

The GOP will need to hold onto every seat it can in November to maintain control after the midterms. Republicans currently enjoy just a four-seat majority in the House, 218 to 214, and generic congressional polling shows Democrats with a clear edge.

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The Stay-At-Home Parent Debate Is GDP First Vs. America First​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Conservatives have to make the American dream possible again, and letting moms and dads raise their own kids is a good place to start.

Republican arrested for allegedly telling campaign manager to PLANT DRUGS on primary opponent



The Republican Party of Missouri is calling on a state candidate to step down after he was arrested for allegedly trying to plant drugs on an opponent.

37-year-old Thomas Christopher Ross was arrested on Wednesday on a federal charge of conspiring to distribute a controlled substance.

Ross allegedly told the manager that he could anonymously tip off the police about the drugs planted in Secker's car.

Ross had allegedly told his campaign manager to plant cocaine and Adderall in the car or purse of his primary opponent, Louise Secker, who is also a Republican.

Ross defeated Secker in the Republican primary for Missouri House District 161, representing Joplin, but his campaign manager contacted police about the alleged drug plot.

Police say they tested a bag of cocaine and an Adderall pill that the unidentified campaign manager brought to them, and they confirmed both to be real.

The informant also provided police with text messages allegedly from Ross detailing the planting plot as far back as May, according to the complaint.

"I was hoping we could make it happen before THIS Thursday...which would be extreme egg on the face," read part of a May 31 text attributed to Ross by prosecutors.

Police contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which provided a covert recorder so that the manager could obtain audio evidence from a July 31 meeting with Ross.

Ross allegedly told the manager that he could anonymously tip off the police about the drugs planted in Secker's car.

"If you can pull it off...pull it off," Ross allegedly told him.

Ross won the primary by fewer than 35 votes and would face Democrat candidate Aaron Metzger in the general election, if he resists calls to step down from the campaign.

He was booked into the Joplin Municipal Jail but has not made a plea yet in the case.

RELATED: Calif. Democrat calls for ICE to be abolished after 'record' illegal alien arrests

Missouri Republican Party Chairman Peter Kinder called on Ross to drop out.

He added that the "people of Southwest Missouri deserve nothing less than leadership they can trust."

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