Category Archives: Republican

HELENAMatt Olson is a Republican running for Montanas Senate District 42, which encompasses eastern Helena and East Helena. He is running against Democrat Mary Ann Dunwell.

Olson and his wife Chiko owned and operated the Dairy Queen on Prospect Avenue for nearly 28 years. They sold the franchise in late 2020. The Olsons also coached sports in the area.

In an interview with MTN, Olson said his priority issues are addressing how inflation is impacting Montanans, financial literacy for youth and developing natural resources in responsible ways.

Check out the full interview with Olson, including verbatim, below.

Matt Olson Full Interview

What is your name, party and seat you are running for?

Im Matt Olson, candidate for Senate District 42, Republican Party.

What is your occupation and history in the area?

We ran the Dairy Queen on Prospect and owned and operated it for 28 years. At the end of 2020, we did sell the Dairy Queen. After seven days a week for so many years, we had an opportunity and my wife, and I were pretty tired. So now we're looking at the next chapter.

Why did you choose to run for the legislature?

You know, there's so many young people that we hired, and that worked for us for so many years. My kids, I want these people to have the opportunities that we had, and we had amazing opportunities in this state and in this country.

What are three key issues you believe need to be addressed by the next session of the Montana legislature?

You know, as a freshman legislator, I think I have a ton to learn. So first, I probably would go in just knowing that I need to learn a bunch. I think there's lots of bills that are being worked on, you know, I things that I hear about on doors, the biggest, the biggest single issues that I hear out at doors are inflation, it's really hurting a lot of people and it's pinching a lot of budgets, we see that with, you know, with some groups of seniors. You'll see that I think that something that you know, property tax, especially for the seniors is something important. I would love to see us working on financial literacy for our students, I think that it's something that my kids still come and ask me tons of questions. I mean, I think that's good. But it's, I think that we don't teach financial literacy very well in our country, in our state. So I think we could do so much better. I see so many kids buying brand new cars when they're in high school, and how that doesn't really make sense. It doesn't help them in the long run, it kinda is something that doesn't help their future. So that would be an issue. Then, I think the development of our natural resources, you know, that I think we can do it environmentally friendly, and that we can have clean water and in develop these resources, and it's a that's the biggest hedge we have against inflation.

State leaders have indicated that there's likely over a billion dollar surplus possible for the state budget, where do you think that money should go?

You know, I really don't like to spend money on money that we don't have budgets for. So I'd rather have spending money be budget issues that are for the future. So the legislature is figuring out how to pay for things over time not. So I don't really like the idea of just throwing money into new programs, and then have to figure out how to deal with that later. But I do think that in a time when inflation is running kinda rampant. That money being returned to taxpayers that paid the money is something that will benefit all Montanans. So I, I probably do favor, returning it to the people that paid it in at, you know, a good chunk of it anyway.

Over the last couple of election cycles, the state of elections has become a point of political discourse. What are your thoughts on the state of elections here in Montana?

In Montana? I mean, you hear some things. I mean, I don't think that it's probably changed the outcome of elections. But I do think that it is the government's job to make every person in Montana know that the elections are fair and free in it for every person to know that it's not. It's not for some it's not for one side or the other, it's all people need to know. The elections are fair and free. And that's the government's first job.

Is there anything else you want to say? Or think voters should know that we haven't covered so far?

You know, we sure would like you to vote for Matt Olson and we really need the help, I will promise that I'll work my hardest and we will, I will do everything I can to look at every side of an issue and just to put my heart into it, and to you know, the experience that I've learned in the last 28 years in business and how to solve problems. I will put that into practice.

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Meet the Candidate: Matt Olson, SD 42 Republican - KTVH

Minnesota Republicans are optimistic about their chances to turn the state's Iron Range red this election cycle, continuing a trend in recent years that's seen Democratic support decline in rural America.

The shift is culturally significant in northeastern Minnesota, a blue collar region that for decades sent some of the state's most powerful and colorful Democratic politicians to St. Paul and Washington, D.C.

"I think there's a better than 50-50 shot that Republicans win every legislative seat on the Range this year," said state House Republican Minority Leader Kurt Daudt. "I actually think that we have an opportunity this time to win the majority out in greater Minnesota."

Democrats see the suburbs as their best shot to make legislative gains this fall. But they're also defending the last remaining blue members on the Range and eyeing pickup opportunities in the region, making a handful of seats there battlegrounds in the fight to control the House and Senate.

The DFL is reminding voters of the party's St. Paul clout and pro-labor message, which helped them hold sway for decades in the mining towns that grew up around iron deposits on the Range.

Republicans have chipped away at DFL dominance in the region over the past decade, using animosity toward the Twin Cities and environmental concerns over mining among some Democrats as a wedge issue to install Republican Pete Stauber in Congress. Voters in the region picked Donald Trump for president in 2016 and 2020.

"It's a trickle effect, and a lot of the miners see it first," said Jed Holewa, who works for Hibbing Taconite Co. and leads the St. Louis County Republican Party.

He said COVID-19 restrictions and fears about crime are intensifying the trend.

"Lots of people are saying I can't be a Democrat anymore," Holewa said.

This spring, redistricting further scrambled the political dynamics in several northeastern Minnesota House seats, and the retirement of two longtime area senators has created openings that both parties are targeting. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in five races on the Range, as well as two northeastern seats adjacent to the Range around Cloquet and Hermantown.

In most of those races, Democrats are now running in districts where voters picked Trump over Joe Biden two years ago, in some cases by wide margins.

Hibbing teacher and DFL Rep. Julie Sandstede won her race in 2020 by just 30 votes, the closest margin in any state House race. This cycle, redistricting put her in a matchup against Republican Rep. Spencer Igo in a new seat for a district where voters swung nearly 13 percentage points in favor of Trump two years ago. Igo worked in Stauber's office.

Next door, incumbent DFL Rep. Dave Lislegard, a former Aurora mayor and two-term legislator, is hoping his moderate profile and experience at the Capitol will help him defeat Republican Matt Norri in a district whose voters chose Trump by nearly 5 percentage points.

The same is true for DFL Rep. Rob Ecklund, who is facing Ely Mayor Roger Skraba. Ecklund is a trades worker and four-term legislator from International Falls whose newly drawn district went for Trump by nearly 6 points.

But the closest-watched battleground in the region is the rare opening in Senate District 3, a sprawling seat covering the northeast corner of the state that's roughly the size of Massachusetts. Voters in the new district were nearly evenly split between Biden and Trump in 2020.

Andrea Zupancich, the mayor of Babbitt, is a former Democrat who in 2020 joined several other northeastern Minnesota mayors to endorse Trump. Now she's running for the Senate as a Republican. She says she didn't leave the DFL, but that the party left her, a feeling she says is common in northeastern Minnesota.

"It's not the same party. It used to be for the working class," said Zupancich, a real estate agent and former hockey mom whose husband is an owner of Zup's grocery stores in the region.

"People here might be friends with a certain senator or representative, but if they are not aligning with their beliefs, they are not going to vote for them anymore."

She was recruited and endorsed by longtime Sen. Tom Bakk, a former DFL Senate leader known for his Capitol negotiating skills. Bakk, who is retiring, broke with his party to become an independent, joining Republicans on some issues and gaining the gavel of the powerful Senate Capital Investment Committee in the process.

Along with Republican Zupancich, Bakk also endorsed two Democrats Eckland and Lislegard in their House races.

Zupancich's DFL opponent, Grant Hauschild, said northern Minnesota has a history of electing lawmakers such as Bakk who can deliver for the district. Jim Oberstar represented the area for 36 years in the U.S. House as a pro-labor Democrat who brought home federal funding for local projects.

"The northland has come to expect a senator who can bring home the money north. That is why my slogan is 'just deliver,' " said Hauschild, a Hermantown City Councilmember and leader at a regional hospital foundation. "We need to not be distracted by partisan issues and focus on delivering for our communities."

Hauschild, who has worked on labor and agriculture issues in Washington and supports mining, was endorsed by Doug Johnson, the senator who served the region for decades before Bakk.

Democrats could also have an opportunity in Senate District 7, which is open after the retirement and recent death of longtime Sen. David Tomassoni, who joined Bakk in breaking with the DFL caucus. Tomassoni, a former Olympic hockey player, served the region for two decades, even as the district swung nearly 9 points for Trump two years ago.

Republicans have recruited Rob Farnsworth, a teacher and a former legislative candidate. Ben DeNucci, his DFL opponent, is an Itasca County commissioner, but he could lose votes to write-in challenger Kim McLaughlin, the DFL candidate he defeated in the primary election.

While northeastern Minnesota candidates are still talking about mining, labor and jobs, the campaign talking points are becoming more similar to those in districts across the state, said Hibbing writer and professor Aaron Brown. Culture war issues have seeped into Range politics, he said, fueling the Republican wave in the area. Brown fears clout could be lost, but also the region's distinct brand of politics.

"The thing I hate as a Range political observer is our uniqueness and independence going the way of the dodo and being replaced with much more cookie cutter partisan politics," said Brown.

"All of this together suggests to me a region at the end stages of a period of change. Eventually, Republicans will settle in to be one of the dominant political forces on the Range. Even if they don't do it this time, they're not going away."

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Minnesota Republicans hope to turn the Iron Range red this fall - Star Tribune

MINOT, N.D. It has been peculiar to observe Cara Mund, a white Ivy Leaguer, a graduate of Brown University in Rhode Island, and Harvard Law School in Massachusetts, and a beauty queen celebrity affluent enough to run for Congress after college instead of finding a job as most recent graduates must, posture herself as some disadvantaged victim on the campaign trail.

Yet that's been Mund's schtick since entering North Dakota's U.S. House race.

The ostensible independent in reality the de facto candidate of the Democratic-NPL party thanks to the machinations of party elites earlier this year who pushed a more moderate candidate chosen by rank-and-file party members out of the race claims to be a spokesperson for women everywhere who are oppressed by the cruel patriarchy of old white Republican men.

That Mund has done this while also trying to claim, unbelievably, that she's a kinda-sort Republican who might caucus with the GOP in the House (despite not having bothered to ask the Republican citizens of North Dakota, at a convention or in the statewide primary, how they might feel about this) is more than a little insufferable.

Now a group of Republican women elected leaders who run the ideological gamut from moderate to conservative are speaking up about it .

"She and her supporters have characterized the Republican Party as one controlled by old, white men with no respect or place for women," these women, who have brought their success and leadership to the NDGOP, write in a recent letter to the editor . "To imply that women have no role as Ms. Mund and her supporters have asserted not only disparages our colleague Kelly Armstrong, it also ignores the contributions and achievements of our 110 combined years of public service to the people of North Dakota, as well as the contributions of the many women who came before us."

"We are committee chairs, appropriators, and statewide office holders," they continue. "We have advanced countless pieces of legislation supporting education, human services, agriculture and energy. We are not victims but effective policy-makers and leaders in our state."

Here's the letter's signatories:

That is a list of some of our state's most consequential Republicans.

Sens. Krebsbach and Lee are two of the most influential members of the Legislature.

Sen. Bell was instrumental in saving our state's largest coal-fired power plant, and thousands of jobs in central North Dakota along with it.

Commissioner Fedorchak, whose agency was at the center of the brutal regulatory fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline, helped lead our state through that storm with competence and grace.

Rep. Emily O'Brien is a young and rising star in the NDGOP who dared to stand and speak against a colleague, disgraced former Rep. Luke Simons, who was kicked out of the Republican-controlled House for harassing her and others.

Rep. Hauck is who Republicans in her western district chose to replace Simons when that rank misogynist was granted the ignominy of being the first lawmaker ever expelled from the state assembly.

I could go on extolling their accomplishments, but I'm inflating my word count, and I think you get the point.

Imagine being these women as Mund presumes to speak for them in shoddy political attacks on a Republican colleague they've worked with and respect.

The gall they clearly feel comes through in their letter, which also notes Mund's many endorsements of liberal Democratic policy initiatives.

Mund's "poor me" antics, replete with jeremiads against the supposed GOP patriarchy, might play well with the ubiquitously-online reactionaries from TikTok and Facebook, where she's doing most of her campaigning, but they don't gibe with reality, and they clearly don't reflect the experience of these women who are actual Republicans tasked with the real responsibilities of governing.

Here's an exit question for you to consider now that you've finished reading this column: If the GOP is so bad, so chock-full of mansplaining chauvinists, that Mund must spend a significant portion of her campaign time castigating it, then why in the world would she pretend as though she's maybe going to caucus with Republicans in Washington, D.C.?

It just doesn't make sense, does it?

Go here to read the rest:

Port: Republican women rip Cara Mund for attacks on their party and colleague - INFORUM

BlackRock has denied it boycotts fossil fuels among the trillions of dollars in assets it manages, and has faced criticism from the left for not doing more to cut the emissions of its portfolio.

Most comptrollers toil away among the accountants who measure a states fiscal temperature arbiters of how much legislators can spend on pet projects, tax breaks, education and infrastructure. But the financial ups and downs of the pandemic put them in the spotlight.

Now, as many state budgets are flush with federal funds and record-high tax revenues but faced with a global economy teetering on recession, legislators once again turn to their comptrollers like Hegar to tell them precisely what dollars they can count on.

This being Texas, Hegars ambitions have attracted attention. While hes in the midst of running for a third and final term as comptroller, his profile is fueling speculation about whether the farmer and former state legislator might angle for higher office, perhaps lieutenant governor or senator.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Lets start by talking about the unique financial position many states are in right now. State comptrollers are typically not high-profile officials. But do you now see an expanded role for the job in Texas and other states?

I dont know if I would definitively say yes or no, but it also kind of puts you into the position of: Do you have a little more say in the process?

I try to make sure that I put front and center what are the issues I thought we as a state need to tend to. Weve been fortunate that weve had a healthy economy weve outperformed the national average year after year with a growing economy. But also youve got more of these issues with the growth youve got to deal with. So its a good challenge to have, but theyre challenges. Now the point being is, it depends on [whether] youve used your position and your platform as a discussion topic. Luckily, thankfully, Ive taken that vantage point so now as were looking at an extremely healthy balance sheet for the state of Texas with a very large cash carryover balance, now the discussion significantly changes from Well, if we had money Now we got money.

One of the points Ive tried to make is, yes the economy is extremely strong, it continues to be strong right here in Texas. But a lot of it is inflation driven. Were having significantly more revenues coming in because people are paying more for items and so therefore were driving more tax revenue. So again, trying to manage expectations and manage the discussion, that also means the state has higher expenses.

The rest is here:

The Texas Republican fighting Wall Street and protecting the energy industry - POLITICO

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) A clear divide can be found among Chesapeake Republicans when looking at the money raised by two candidates for Chesapeake City Council.

Current Councilwoman Susan Vitale and political newcomer Amanda Newins are the top fundraisers so far in this years race according to campaign finance reports compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project. Vitalie has raised nearly $60,000 while Newins has collected roughly $50,000.

But it is who has donated to their campaigns, and their public messaging that shine light on a lack of unity within the local GOP, around a time the party typically channels all their efforts in defeating those who align with the DNC.

There are 13 candidates in the race, vying for five seats on Chesapeake City Council. With changes in the voting system in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake is now the largest city in Virginia to elect council members at large.

While the field of candidates has been larger in the past, this is the first year City Council candidates will appear on the ballot below candidates for U.S. Congress. In the past, municipal elections were held in May.

Dr. Benjamin Melusky, a political science professor at Old Dominion University, says the election shift from Spring to Fall makes a world of difference in how a campaign is run.

There is potential that many of these people that will be coming out to vote will not be focused on municipal races, Melusky said. They just happen to be on the ballot. Theyll be focused on their congressional races.

In half of Chesapeake, that means the highly publicized and highly partisan race between Rep. Elaine Luria, (D-Norfolk) and challenger State Sen. Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia Beach) will top the ticket.

City Council races are technically non-partisan, with no D or R appearing next to the candidates name.

However, if you ask Mayor Rick West, national political tactics have found their way into the local races.

West, who is not up for reelection, was one of the more vocal critics of the General Assembly action that shifted the election dates. In a recent Facebook post, he expressed that his fears were realized.

This is our citys first November election and they are already shaping up to look exactly like national elections, West wrote Monday. We no longer respectfully debate issues or our voting record. It appears more efforts are placed on smear tactics and character assassination. We all can do better than this!

While West didnt mention specifics on Facebook, he tells 10 On Your Side he was referring to the recent events surrounding City Council candidate Newins.

Newins, a practicing attorney, is running for political office for the first time. She is one of five candidates endorsed by the Republican Party of Chesapeake.

Last month, Newins great-aunt filed suit against her. The suit claims Newins abused her and her late husband both financially and emotionally. Her attorney has called the lawsuit baseless and suggested its politically motivated.

Days after the suit was filed, six local elected leaders, who also received the Republican Party of Chesapeakes endorsement in the past, released a statement saying: Due to the lawsuit and a subsequent criminal investigation involving Amanda Newins, a candidate for Chesapeakes City Council, effective immediately, we are withdrawing our support for and endorsement of Ms. Newins.

The statement was signed by City Council members Steve Best, Don Carey, Robert Ike, Commonwealths Attorney Matt Hamel, Clerk of Courts Alan Krasnoff, and Sheriff Jim OSullivan.

However, 10 On Your Side hasnt been able to find any evidence that the six ever endorsed Newins or supported her campaign. None of the individuals immediately returned a request for comment asking where the former endorsements could be found.

It doesnt surprise me that a group of individuals who have worked tirelessly against me for the past 7 months and have supported instead a non-Republican candidate, now say they continue to not support me, Newins said in a Facebook post following the statement. What does surprise me, is that they would suggest it is due to a complaint filed 59 days before the election, where the lead attorney has known political ties to that same non-Republican candidate they support.

Newins went on to thank supporters who stand by her. Those include West and Kiggans, as well as Vice Mayor John De Triquet and Councilwoman Debbie Ritter.

Campaign finance reports also show they have all donated to Newins campaign.

When looking at where those who stated they were pulling their support have donated, Carey, Ike and Hamel have donated to Vitales campaign. Ikes PAC, Hampton Roads Freedom PAC, is Vitales largest donor at $11,750.

No local elected leaders have donated to both Vitale and Newins.

Melusky said that, along with the statements, very much paints the picture of a party divide.

In 2018, when Vitale first won her seat on City Council, she was endorsed by the Republican Party of Chesapeake.

Unlike Newins, this year she is not. She said it is a move she is disappointed by.

I think that anytime you dont endorse an incumbent, I mean that is the first time in the history of the Republican party of Chesapeake that they have not endorsed an incumbent, Vitale said.

Nicholas Proffitt, chairman of Chesapeakes Republican Party, didnt immediately respond to requests explaining why Vitale wasnt endorsed. However, Vitale said she was told it had to do with her vote appointing Dwight Parker to the City Council late last year over Tanya Gould.

Parker in the past aligned himself with the Democratic party, while Gould is a Republican.

What voters should know is that I am nobodys puppet, Vitale said. I dont think voters would want somebody representing them that wont stand up for them.

Its worth noting that Best, Cary and Ike also voted to appoint Parker.

When it comes to Newins, Vitale has taken no stance on the allegations made against her.

Im focusing on my campaign. I want to run a positive campaign. I have a great message, Vitale said.

When asked if her campaign was coordinating with supporters to bring produce statements opposing Newins, Vitale said: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Thats not the way I operate.

Besides, Melusky said in a crowded field incumbency is key. One must only look to the 2020 election for mayor in Virginia Beach where Republican-endorsed Bobby Dyer won re-election handily while Democrats dominated up the ticket.

It doesnt really matter where they are in the food chain of offices, Melusky said. Incumbents tend to win at much higher rates.

Check WAVY.com for the latest updates.

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Following the Funds: Chesapeake Republican party divided in City Council race - WAVY.com

John Donegan's Sept. 22 opinion ("Celebrity wisdom") rambled on about his claim of the less-than-moral celebrities influencing the American political environment with progressive direction.

Mr. Donegan failed to address the behavior and life of celebrity and Republican Party leader Donald J. Trump. Trump spent years seeking and placing himself within the eyes and ears of the public at political rallies, on the Howard Stern Show, numerous other shows, and on NBC's The Apprentice.

Trumpmarried three times, divorced twice, with numerous affairsbragged in 1997 that his Vietnam War service was scoring with women without catching an STD and he's bragged on TV that he could grab any woman by the genitals because he was a star. With more that could be said, he's not an ideal morality leader.

In addition, Donegan was critical of CNN personalities but fails to address the short comings of Alex Jones, Rudy Giuliani, the late Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News and Newsmax pundits.

Buzz Kalkowski

SLO

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The Republican Party leader isn't the moral high ground - New Times SLO

Screenshot, Commissioners Court Livestream

Harris County may be inching closer to a solution of its tax and budget crisis, even though two GOP commissioners boycotted a meeting for a third time on Tuesday.

County Judge Lina Hidalgo sees a proposal from Republican Commissioner Jack Cagle as grounds for optimism. It's been a week since Cagle first offered his alternative tax plan to raise $149 million in revenue compared to the Democratic majority's proposal, which Cagle said would cost taxpayers $257 million.

Cagle had requested the judge schedule a special meeting of Commissioners Court at which to discuss tax proposals, but at which no vote would be taken. Judge Hidalgo had declined to schedule such a meeting, in part because she said she was waiting on Cagle to provide additional details of his plan to the county's budget office for analysis.

Speaking at Commissioners Court on Tuesday, Hidalgo said, "I got word last night from the budget office that Commissioner Cagle did more recently submit his proposed tax rate. So, I want to thank Commissioner Cagle for that and his team."

Hidalgo said the information had arrived too late for her to schedule a special meeting today to consider Cagle's proposals, "but it does mean that we can have a more informed conversation and negotiation to hopefully try to land somewhere on a budget that can fund the county."

The judge said she was concerned that Cagle's proposal would not provide enough funding for some critical areas of county government.

"It still leaves the Health Department and I, more than anyone, can speak to the importance of that underfunded," said Hidalgo, who was recovering from a bout of food poisoning and whose treatment revealed the presence of an ovarian cyst. "There's still sort of questions about where exactly the dollars come from, but I look forward to discussing that at some point in the future with my colleagues, and hopefully with Commissioner Cagle, and we can propose a set of tax rates and a budget proposal that is better than the brutal scenario that we were facing."

The county is currently operating under an annualized version of the short fiscal year 2022 budget. Hidalgo and her fellow Democratic commissioners, Rodney Ellis and Adrian Garcia, have expressed the hope that, if they're able to adopt a new tax rate by the deadline of October 28, they can then adopt a new budget with expanded funding for county services.

Cagle, along with fellow Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey, have now boycotted Commissioners Court for three successive meetings. Under state law, county governments require a super quorum of four court members present to vote on tax matters.

If commissioners fail to break their impasse over the tax rate by October 28, the county will only be allowed to collect as much revenue as it did in the previous fiscal year. The "no new revenue rate" would leave the county stuck with a budget requiring $106 million in cuts compared to the previous budget.

Garcia placed two items on Tuesday's agenda, one for discussion and possible action on Cagle's alternative tax plan and one for amending the budget to hire additional law enforcement officers and prosecutors. The latter has been a sticking point for both Ramsey and Cagle.

Neither Cagle nor Ramsey, however, rose to the bait. Speaking on Houston Matters, Cagle said he was concerned that if he showed up, the Democratic majority would simply pass their own tax plan without giving his proposals fair consideration.

"There's an old poem: Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly,'" Cagle said. "Yes, I've been invited to create the quorum to debate my proposal, which means the minute that I walk in, the quorum would be there, and we would not necessarily have any debate."

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Republican Harris County commissioners extend their boycott, blocking action on taxes for a third meeting - Houston Public Media

Austin, TX, Release: October 11, 2022 For Immediate Release

With less than 30 days until the midterm election, the Republican Party of Texas has received numerous reports of mailers from Planned Parenthood and other groups asking people to register to vote that are deceased. In one notable example from Harris County, the mailer was addressed to an individual who has been deceased for over 11 years.

Republican Party of Texas Chairman said Voter fraud is real and it happens in Texas. The Republican Party of Texas has invested over a million dollars in election integrity for the 2022 cycle to root out and stop voter fraud. We have trained and placed thousands of poll watchers and election workers all over Texas to ensure Texans have the free and fair election they deserve. Efforts by far-left radical groups like Planned Parenthood that encourage illegal activity will fail.

According to Chapter 16 of the Texas Election Code, the Secretary of State is mandated to keep a list of persons, composed from various federal, state, and local lists, of individuals who are ineligible to register to vote because they are deceased. Under Texas Election Code section 276.013 it is considered election fraud, and a misdemeanor offense to register under false pretenses or vote for a deceased person. This penalty was lowered from a felony during the last legislative session, and the Republican Party of Texas has made it an official Legislative Priority to restore the felony penalty for election fraud.

One example from Harris County was addressed to W K Hoffman Jr and the Republican Party of Texas was able to verify Mr. Hoffman passed in February of 2011.

If you or someone you know has received mailers like this, please send pictures and other evidence to press@texasgop.org.

###

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Planned Parenthood Tries to Register Dead People to Vote in Texas - Republican Party of Texas

A Republican State Board of Education member who believes socialism poses grave dangers at home and abroad has put his stamp on how Colorado students will learn about the Holocaust.

Over the last year and a half, Steve Durham has pushed for the states academic standards to connect the Holocaust and other genocides to socialism. Durham succeeded in omitting the word Nazi from an early version of the standards in favor of the partys full name, the National Socialist German Workers Party.

Durham agreed to include the word Nazi after Jewish community members lobbied the State Board of Education so long as the full name with the word socialist remained.

People dont know and have a right to know that this party was and is a socialist party, Durham said at an August State Board meeting. That is largely lost on the American people and on a number of history teachers as well. I oppose dumbing down the standards.

Historians say Durham is wrong about the Holocaust and wrong about the roots of genocide. The idea that Nazis were socialists is a lie, according to David Ciarlo, a University of Colorado history professor who studies German politics. Its completely wrong.

Still, Durham has exerted outsized influence over the standards related to genocide, which are meant to guide teaching across Colorado. A key section largely authored by Durham overrides recommendations from a committee of teachers and experts. The approved standards drop references to genocide in Rwanda, for example, while adding detailed references to the Communist Party of China.

The standards as written absolutely suggest to teachers that they should be making a connection between genocide and socialism, said John Gallup, a history teacher in Jeffco Public Schools who recently returned from Auschwitz as part of a fellowship on teaching genocide and reviewed the standards at Chalkbeats request.

Durhams sway, despite his misleading historical claims about the Holocaust, raises questions about the State Boards ability to accurately referee conflicts over teaching history as its members tackle a contentious update to the broader social studies standards and at a moment when those fights are erupting nationwide. And in a state where teachers have limited access to Holocaust-specific curriculum or training programs, some see the attention being paid to socialism as a disturbing distraction.

It feels very antisemitic, quite frankly, said Democratic state Rep. Dafna Michaelson-Jenet, co-sponsor of legislation requiring Holocaust education statewide. She sees the latest standards as an effort to score political points rather than teach about the murder of Jews and other minority groups. Youre erasing the violence that happened by making it something that it wasnt.

The Holocaust has become another contested curriculum issue, with books like the acclaimed Maus by Art Spiegelman banned by a Tennessee school board.

The meaning and memory of the Holocaust have become yet another battleground in the fight over what students should learn about history, race, and gender. A Texas school administrator told teachers to balance books on the Holocaust with opposing views. A Tennessee school board voted to remove the acclaimed graphic novel Maus from its curriculum due to its unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and its depiction of violence and suicide.

The Holocaust also remains a potent symbol of evil to be used or misused in political arguments. Opponents of vaccine mandates have donned yellow star badges similar to those the Nazis forced Jews to wear. At a rally last year, Republican congresswoman and conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene linked the Nazis and todays Democratic Party by describing both as national socialist parties.

But teaching the Holocaust wasnt supposed to be divisive in Colorado.

A state law passed in 2020 with broad bipartisan support required that students learn about the Holocaust and other genocides before graduating high school. (Many schools already included the Holocaust in history and literature classes, but it was not a requirement.)

Following the legislation, a committee of experts and teachers prepared recommendations for what students should learn. When the Democrat-majority State Board received them in spring 2021, Republicans raised a host of objections, many driven by contemporary political concerns a theme of the discussions that would take place over the next year.

Republicans objected to references to mass violence, for example, saying the standards should then also reference recent violent protests in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle following the murder of George Floyd.

Durham saw something else wrong with the recommendations. While they mentioned the Cambodian genocide, they were silent on the crimes of the Soviet Union and Communist China. He proposed adding these events and said the standards should name the governments such as the National Socialist German Workers Party that carried out genocides.

Board Chair Angelika Schroeder, a Democrat, was largely silent on the substance of these discussions and later declined an interview request. She and fellow Democrat Rebecca McClellan ultimately voted with the Republicans to adopt Durhams proposal, with McClellan praising the inclusion of the oppression of the Uyghurs.

Durham also proposed that students discuss the question: Why are so many modern genocides associated with socialist and communist governments?

That question didnt make it into the standards his colleagues simply ignored it but Durham said in an interview, I hope that students make that connection.

Critics say they agree that students should learn about genocides carried out by the Soviet Union and China, but they worry that Durhams list distorts history by excluding many other examples. Durham isnt interested in that argument.

He dismissed Michaelson-Jenets concerns as playing the race card. Informed that many scholars disagree that socialists are the only source of genocidal violence, Durham asked a reporter, Do they miss Pol Pot?

Steve Durham is a former history teacher and legislator who represents Colorado Springs on the State Board of Education.

Callaghan OHare / The Denver Post

Durham challenged the reporter to name any genocides committed by regimes that werent socialist, then rejected any examples as not truly conservative.

There is some truth out there that students need to understand, Durham said. Weak government, limited government cannot engage in this kind of activity. Socialism by definition is big government. It doesnt mean that they all commit genocide, but they are the ones capable of it.

Historians and educators say Durhams comments and the emphasis of the standards he crafted are misguided. They say its important for students to understand that governments of all stripes have committed genocide. Its also important for students to understand that mass murder often starts with words that dehumanize and demonize.

Genocide is carried out by leftist governments and governments on the right, and it is not just a crime carried out by authoritarian states or dictatorships. Democracies have carried out genocides, said University of Northern Arizona professor Alexander Alvarez, a genocide scholar who serves on his states task force charged with improving Holocaust and genocide education in K-12 classrooms.

If we think genocide is just carried out by communist governments, we dont have to look at our own history, or we can think that we are immune to the forces that lead to genocide.

Seeing the term socialism through a modern American lens is also a mistake, historians and educators said.

The Nazis rose to power as a racist right-wing party virulently opposed to socialism and communism, according to historians interviewed by Chalkbeat and resources provided by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The first concentration camp, Dachau, opened in 1933 to house political prisoners, many of them communists and social democrats.

In 1920s Germany, the term national socialism represented a kind of racist populism that put the interests of ethnic Germans above others. The term stood in contrast to international socialism and international capitalism, both of which were associated with Jews to falsely blame them for harming the German people. While an early Nazi party platform included some socialist ideas, leaders soon ignored them and those ideas became irrelevant to the partys rise.

Whats important is that they demonized their opponents, Ciarlo said.

Through a letter-writing campaign and in private meetings with board members, Jewish groups raised concerns that the initial version of the standards adopted in 2021 without the term Nazi missed the mark. Most students have heard of Nazis before they encounter them in history class. If students then learned only about the National Socialist German Workers Party, would they understand the partys defining ideology was belief in German racial superiority that justified killing or enslaving other peoples?

Its essential that when they hear the term Nazi they connect it to a genocidal society, said Dan Leshem, a Holocaust educator and director of the Colorado Jewish Community Relations Council. We need to be horrified and shaken and shook.

This year, the State Board had another shot at the standards covering the Holocaust and genocide. The entire social studies standards are up for review, and the standards committee recommended new language in June that included the Soviet Union and China along with Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur without the emphasis on socialism so important to Durham.

Democratic board member Karla Esser said she heard the concerns of the Jewish community and shared them. She brought an amendment in August to describe the Holocaust as carried out by the German Nazi Party and its collaborators. Esser and McClellan also pushed back during a board meeting when Durham said the Nazis were socialists.

Essers amendment was adopted unanimously by the State Board. Alongside the addition of the term Nazi, it restored much of Durhams socialism-focused language and replaced the simpler language the committee had recommended.

In an interview, Esser said the language was a compromise, one she felt confident could get at least four votes on the seven-member board. She knew Durham felt as strongly about having the word socialist in the standards as she did about using the word Nazi.

That is his belief, Esser said. In my estimation, its a piece of indoctrination. I dont think the standards should reflect our worldviews. They should reflect recorded history, with the understanding that there is always a point of view in history.

But Esser gave Durham credit for listening, and said she doubted his interpretation would reach students. Most teachers and most textbooks are not going to try to indoctrinate our students, she said.

Michaelson-Jenet, the legislator, said the result ignores the intent of the bill requiring Holocaust education. The goal was to equip young people with basic knowledge about the Holocaust, something she saw many people lacked during her time leading the Holocaust Awareness Institute at the University of Denver, and teach them how intolerance can turn into genocide.

Yet State Board members also seemed to lack a basic understanding of how genocide happens, she said, and they didnt consult experts who could have informed their decisions.

If we want to actually get to the point where were teaching what hatred looks like, this is not the way to do it, she said. I dont see anything about that goal.

The compromise language agreed on by the State Board is part of a broader update to Colorados social studies standards set to be finalized in November. In the next few weeks, the same State Board will consider new civics standards and whether to expand references to the contributions of communities of color and LGBTQ Americans, as required by a state law passed in 2019.

State standards represent what Colorado students are supposed to know and what Colorado schools are supposed to teach. But school districts also have broad discretion to make their own choices. Durham, a big believer in local control, is quick to say no teacher has to follow his lead.

Gallup, the history teacher in Jeffco Public Schools, said hed be surprised to see school districts formally adopt Durhams political framing. I think teachers will look at this, and to be honest, theyll use that language as they see fit and theyll make that choice in their own classroom, he said.

School districts have until July 2023 to incorporate the new genocide standards into an existing course required for graduation. The state is developing an online resource library to help.

Leshem said his focus now is ensuring teachers have the resources to teach the topic well. Recent surveys show a disturbing ignorance about the Holocaust among younger Americans, even in states that mandate genocide education. And every year, there are fewer survivors left who can share first-hand accounts. Colorado also lacks the museums, the teacher training programs, the funding, and the well-developed curriculum on the issue that other states have.

The goal of Holocaust education is ultimately genocide prevention. Ciarlo asks his students: We all know that Nazism should never happen again because of the Holocaust. Theres a lesson there. Whats the lesson? What should not be repeated?

History does not offer easy answers. Demonizing minority groups and political opponents proved an effective way to gain power. Millions of Germans found the Nazis extremism alluring, and millions more looked the other way as their neighbors were murdered. The Nazis were not defeated peacefully, and genocides continue to happen around the world.

The Holocaust needs to be placed in historical context, not twisted to fit our own, educators said. At the same time, students should be able to see commonalities among genocides and make connections to our own society. Doing so will make us better, Leshem said, especially in a time when immigrants are being demonized and there is pressure to look away from the uglier aspects of American history.

Students should also understand the Holocaust was not carried out by monsters, but by ordinary people who had within them a common capacity for cruelty, Leshem said. Many of us have that same capacity, but we dont have to act on it.

Gallup said thats a lesson he took home from Auschwitz, where guides made a point of presenting the camp guards as human beings who got up in the morning and put their pants on one leg at a time. So were the Germans who resisted in ways large and small. And thats the lesson he plans to emphasize for his own Jeffco students.

The kids just have to see that, that people made choices, he said.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorados education coverage. Contact Erica atemeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Link:

How one Colorado Republican shaped what students will learn about the Holocaust - Chalkbeat Colorado

A new study has concluded what many Americans have long suspected: The Covid-19 pandemic has killed more Republicans than Democrats.

In a detailed examination of data from Ohio and Florida, the National Bureau of Economic Research has found that political affiliation has emerged as a potential risk factor for COVID-19, and that significantly more Republicans than Democrats have died from the virus since the introduction of vaccines in early 2021 to protect against the disease.

By cross-referencing voter registration data and mortality figures, the study found that excess death rates the number of deaths above pre-pandemic levels for registered Republicans were significantly higher than for registered Democrats after the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines.

If these differences in vaccination by political party affiliation persist, then the higher excess death rate among Republicans is likely to continue through the subsequent stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the study, which was published in September, concluded.

The study found that death ratesfrom Covid-19 were only slightly higher for Republicans than Democrats during the early days of the pandemic, before vaccines became available. But by the summer of 2021, a few months after vaccines were introduced, the Republican excess death rate rose to nearly double that of Democrats, and this gap widened further in the winter of 2021. The sudden increase in the gap between Republican and Democratic death rates suggests that vaccine take-up likely played an important role, the study found.

A central narrative of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States has been Republican opposition to public health measures, particularly mandates to wear masks in public and vaccination requirements for employment and access to public places and public travel. That reflected a refusal by many conservatives, following the lead of former President Donald Trump, to take the pandemic seriously, choosing instead to treat Covid-19 as tantamount to the flu.

Despite the fact that more than 1 million Americans have died from the virus, many Republican political leaders, particularly in red states, refused to impose stringent public health restrictions during the pandemic, and criticized mask and vaccination mandates. That opposition led many Republicans to deny that the vaccines worked and to refuse to get the shots. In Florida, one of the two states included in the study, Gov. Ron DeSantis transformed himself into a national Republican leader and possible presidential contender by leading the right-wing charge against public health mandates.

The partisan divide over vaccination developed almost as soon as Covid-19 vaccines became available in early 2021, and it continued to widen. By September 2021, 92 percent of registered Democrats had been vaccinated, compared with only 56 percent of Republicans, according to a Gallup survey at the time.

But the National Bureau of Economic Research study provides some of the strongest evidence yet that the refusal of many Republicans to get vaccinated has made them much more likely to die from Covid-19. While those who have been vaccinated often still contract the virus, many studies have shown that people who have been vaccinated are much less likely to die from the disease.

There have been previous efforts to measure the impact on health of the partisan divide over Covid-19 vaccinations. But the National Bureau of Economic Research study offers a more detailed look at death rates in two states among Republicans and Democrats.

The study tracked 577,659 people who died in Ohio and Florida at age 25 or older between January 2018 and December 2021. It then linked those people to their 2017 Ohio and Florida voting records.

Between March 2020 and March 2021, excess death rates for Republicans in Ohio and Florida were 1.6 percentage points higher than for Democrats; but from April 2021 to December 2021 after vaccines became widely available the gap widened to 10.6 percentage points. The study found that the largest gaps in excess death rates between Republicans and Democrats came in Ohio and Florida counties with low vaccination rates. By using county-level vaccination rates in Ohio and Florida, we find evidence that vaccination contributes to explaining differences in excess deaths by political party affiliation, even after controlling for location and age differences, the study said.

Originally posted here:

The Right's Anti-Vaxxers Are Killing Republicans - The Intercept