Category Archives: Republican

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If you think Democracy Now!s reporting is a critical line of defense against war, climate catastrophe and fascism, please make your donation of $10 or more right now. Today a generous donor will DOUBLE your donation, which means itll go twice as far to support our independent journalism. When Democracy Now! covers war or gun violence, were not brought to you by the weapons manufacturers. When we cover the climate emergency, our reporting isnt sponsored by the oil, gas, coal or nuclear companies. Democracy Now! is funded by you, and thats why were counting on your donation to keep us going. Please give today. Every dollar makes a differencein fact, gets doubled! Thank you so much. -Amy Goodman

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South Carolina GOP Passes 6-Week Abortion Ban, Sends Bill to ... - Democracy Now!

GOOSE LAKE, Iowa Were like a bunch of blind bats. We human beings are, we millennials are, we Americans are, Vivek Ramaswamy riffed. We cant see where we are.

Bats send sonar signals, which bounce off objects and allow the mammals to navigate. So we do that, we send out our signals, and it bounces off something that is true, something that is real, like family. The two parents who brought me into this world, my mother and father. The two children who I brought into this world, he went on. That is real. That is true. That means something to me.

In person, his presentation is a lot more intense; it is also about a bleaker landscape of American life than the bright version of Trumpism hes trying to project.

Were hungry for a cause, Mr. Ramaswamy, who is 37, said of millennials when he spoke on a recent Friday night in Iowa, in a navy suit and white dress shirt, walking the stage and not pausing too often for applause. Were hungry for purpose and meaning. And identity. At a point in our national history when the things that used to fill that void things like faith, patriotism, hard work, family these things have disappeared. Instead, he said, poison and secular cults had taken their place.

All of this the bats and the void and the disappearance of our families from the collective American identity was delivered to a county committee dinner in a friendly ballroom with an open bar, a buffet, patriotic decorations and a fun local musician playing country hits from the past.

This is what a pro-capitalism candidate looks like in post-Trump Republican politics, in which the emphasis is on the creation of a national identity in the face of spiritual emptiness and the idea that big business and the customer arent always right.

The next morning, at campaign events held at one of those cool digital driving ranges and at a pizza place with a beautiful old tin ceiling, the American identity crisis talk continued. Theres more to life than just the aimless passage of time, going through the motions, he said standing in front of what looked like a floor-to-ceiling image of a Pebble Beach fairway. Youre more than the genetic attributes you inherited on the day you were born, he went on to say. You are you.

He is technically the business candidate, but not really. This is the elite corporate executive as culture warrior. Mr. Ramaswamys pitch in Iowa was not about the application of free-market principles to the federal government, at least not in the way you might expect from a pre-Trump Republican business candidate. Nor was it economic populism, either, not really, because his idea isnt so much that corporations are ripping you off; its that theyre in bad-faith league with one another to advance liberal pieties.

Theoretically, he could be doing a business pitch. Mr. Ramaswamy started a pharmaceutical investment and drug development company that picked up pharmaceutical projects abandoned by other companies and aimed to bring the drugs to market. In 2020, as chief executive, he refused to support Black Lives Matter and in 2021 was an author of a Wall Street Journal opinion essay arguing that online platforms were censoring people when they blocked accounts in the chaotic aftermath of Jan. 6, 2021. He has published three books critiquing the environmental, social and governance practices of BlackRock and other fund managers and started an anti-E.S.G. asset management firm.

As Charles C.W. Cooke of National Review pointed out, Mr. Ramaswamy has chosen to download and internalize MAGA moods shutting down the F.B.I., replacing the A.T.F., raising the voting age to 25 unless you pass a civics test or serve in the military or as an emergency worker. These are the kinds of proposals that are drafted to please and anger the right people and never happen. Hes given $10,000 to the defense fund of Daniel Penny, the man accused of second-degree manslaughter in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely, and his campaign is selling a coffee mug that reads truth, with the words wokeism, climatism and transgenderism crossed out above. He has repeatedly portrayed trans people as mentally ill.

As a Ramaswamy campaign memo recently said, The mistake every other campaign is making is that they see their path to the nomination through Trump, when our path is alongside Trump. In reality, many Republican politicians have seen their path alongside Donald Trump as they wait for someone else to break him like a big piata.

Mr. Ramaswamy wants to restore an American identity that, in speeches, involves a lot of concepts but rarely anecdotes. That identity would involve the pursuit of excellence, which he described in an interview along vague, traditional lines people achieving their maximal potential, free of societal hindrance. He contended this ethic is absent from corporate life. I think that part of this is psychological, that in the moment people feel compelled to apologize for excellence, he told me. To be accepted as cool, the most successful have to apologize for the system that got them there by sticking the word stakeholder in front of it, he said and called the racial equity agenda an example of prioritizing a different value.

Mr. Ramaswamy came up in an elite world where some people employ the idea of charity or progressive impulses to get ahead, first in admissions, then in business, and they sometimes become deluded or self-interested ethical consumers. Whatever justice is, surely it cant be attained so incidentally, by just picking the right shirts, the right burgers and the right bankers, he writes in the book Woke, Inc. Hes bothered by that thing many also dislike, which is a hedge fund putting in place a superficial diversity effort intended to disrupt as little as possible to prevent a lawsuit or make money, or a corporation with an aspirational brand made of cotton produced in the Xinjiang region of China.

This is the world summarized by Sam Bankman-Fried last year in a D.M. he later claimed he thought was off the record: this dumb game we woke westerners play where we say all the right shibboleths and so everyone likes us.

In Woke, Inc., Mr. Ramaswamys solution is to separate politics and business. He argues that both stakeholder capitalists and Milton Friedman devotees miss something in the corporate system we have: A sole focus on fiduciary duty and profit maximization keeps corporations from becoming extragovernmental bodies like Dutch colonial trading companies.

But its also not as if the only time anyone cares about racism in America is to sell Pepsi or to get into Columbia. The practical implications of keeping business and politics separate become complicated quickly for this reason; the economy is made up of millions of individuals who live in the larger world. This is a business, as Dolly Parton said of her decision to remove Dixie, the nickname for the South often associated with the Confederacy, from the Stampede, two dinner show attractions she owns. She didnt want to offend prospective customers. What if Chick-fil-A wants to stay closed on Sundays? What if a company wants to market fratty beer to trans people and supporters as customers in and of themselves? What counts as maximizing profit or respecting the employees, and what counts as politics? What is politics?

Over the past decade, many presidential candidates especially the long-shot, unconventional kinds in both parties have talked in secular-spiritual ways about voids in American life and the corruption among elites. There are different theories of the case (technological change, inequality, institutional decline, loneliness), including the omnipresence of corporations and the emptiness of material goods for justice. The vision that markets and capitalism would liberalize the world and accelerate the realization of a pluralistic America, full of choice and privacy and respect, has begun to dim.

Mr. Ramaswamy has isolated a problem in that vision (the hollowness of so much of corporate social policy). His national-identity-based explanation for the void is winning with some post-Trump conservative politicians who see the power, dominion, control and punishment that Mr. Ramaswamy said he believes are behind climate activism in much of American elite life. Its a lean time for the sunnier version of a capitalist pitch in which climate change is a problem but also a business opportunity, just like the valued employees and customers in a pluralistic, ever-changing American society.

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Opinion | Vivek Ramaswamys Long Shot Run at the Republican ... - The New York Times

Bad news, Buckeyes. Ohio has officially gone down the Florida rabbit hole on Ohio State University and every other public college and university in the state. The new abnormal of legislative extremism in Columbus hit a whole new level of atrocious last week with passage of a bill to rescue higher education in Ohio from itself with compelled censorship and illiberalism.

Your alarm sensor should be off the charts. Ohio Republicans are following the dystopian playbook on education written by the Florida fascist in Tallahassee. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is honing his authoritarian skills set to try to become president, has led the hostile political takeover of freedom of speech, freedom to learn, and to freedom to thrive in schools and universities across his state.

The dour despot has used curricula, textbooks, and woke litmus tests to weed out educators who value diversity, equity, and inclusion, or who stray into restricted topics with students. WhatDeSantis is doing to academic independence and autonomy in Florida is a jarring throwback to 1930s Germany.

His diktats on higher education mandate conformity to his ideology. They are designed to tighten state control over acceptable and intolerable views of on campuses. His campaign to crush thinking on race, gender, culture, and history that doesnt comport with his is truly the stuff of totalitarian nightmares.

But Ohio Senate Republicans cant wait to go there. They just passed a sweeping higher education measure (Ohio Senate Bill 83) to control thought in state colleges and universities. A companion bill is making its way through the Ohio House. So brace yourself. This could end badly for free thinkers at any of the states 14 four-year public universities.

SB 83 is a no holds barred crackdown of academic freedom in higher ed to rein in woke institutions positively biased against conspiracy-addled right-wingers. It is that insane and that scary. In their hard-right bubble of imaginings, Republican lawmakers have decided to wage war against runaway liberal bias in Ohios (widely regarded) higher education system that has decidedly gone way too far to the left.

Now if youre a graduate of one of these heretofore vaunted institutions suddenly under attack with SB 83 and have no idea what the heck these wingnuts are talking about youve got plenty of company. This bill to create true academic freedom is nothing more than a manufactured imperative to present a tough-guy, own-the-libs MAGA front.

Imposing educational gag orders on what people can say or do in state universities (government overreach on steroids) satisfies abstract conservative grievances and scores political points. MAGA Republicans forcing drastic changes, course correction, on college campuses as an urgently needed remedy (to enforce their ideological demands) are playing to their base.

Never mind that their Orwellian SB 83, filled with prohibitions and restrictions on behavior and speech in higher education, drew hundreds of outraged students, teachers and defenders of academic freedom to the Statehouse. Protestors gathered on campuses across the state to fight for the free exchange of diverse ideas in pursuit of knowledge and truth. But SB 83 sailed through the Senate nonetheless. Why? Gerrymandered legislators turning Ohio into Florida are under no threat of losing their jobs by approving wildly unpopular legislation.

Thats why they drew lopsided partisan districts (rejected five times by the Ohio Supreme Court) to rig elections with predictable outcomes. Republican legislators effectively gave themselves power for life to control every aspect of ours. Despite overwhelming opposition to the toxic assault on academic instruction in SB 83, it is on track to become law in Ohio.

The right-wing beat-down on woke workplace training, (that recognizes a plurality of perspectives and acceptance of all) on critical thinking, (God forbid students become independent thinkers) on what state university professors can say in their teaching, on course requirements and content, on resistance (prohibiting employee strikes) and more is madness.

The damage such a repressive measure could inflict on state colleges and universities would be irreparable. Why would renown scholars want to teach in Ohio when they can be penalized for perceived bias or for holding classroom conversations on controversial beliefs or policies or for being the political enemy-of-the moment?

Why would professors stay in a state where it is politically fashionable to attack faculty expertise, autonomy, and governance? Why would students invest their time, money and futures in a higher education system where the freedom to think, question and share ideas is restricted but mandated American history classes posit unchallenged patriotism?

Why would members of minority communities feel welcomed or supported in state universities prohibited from spending state or federal funds on diversity, equity and inclusion programs that could be crucial in combatting implicit bigotry? They wouldnt.

So why would Senate Republicans endorse unfettered state authority to muzzle freedom of expression in education and force blind allegiance over independence to chill and disrupt academic freedom in higher education? Same reason DeSantis stokes his war on woke with Floridas university system.

Its a winning strategy. Getting rid of woke educators, programs, curriculum, books, (anything that hints at progressivism in public education) appeals to MAGA voters. Ohio Senate Bill 83 goes down the Florida rabbit hole not to enhance higher education in the state but to win elections.

Even if it destroys what makes Ohio great.

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Ohio Republican attack on higher ed will devastate our widely ... - Ohio Capital Journal

The conception of able-bodied may also not be entirely accurate; for example, health issues that make it difficult to find or maintain employment, such as the lingering effects of so-called long Covid, may be difficult to diagnose. Plata-Nino also contended that it could be difficult for low-income Americans to find transportation to jobs, particularly in rural areas.

Thompson, who represents a very rural Pennsylvania district, maintained that transportation would not be a problem. I would argue that of the less than two million people were talking about that are able-bodied, theyre going to have some form of transportation thats available to them, Thompson said. Somebody can always come up with a scenario of What if. Quite frankly, thats why we give exemptions to the states, and the states can use those exemptions.

Republicans have also pressed for work requirements to be added to Medicaid, but evidence demonstrates that conditioning the program on work has detrimental effects for its participants. In 2018, the Trump administration began approving state work requirements for Medicaid in several states, although many of these policies were blocked in the courts. Arkansas implemented a work requirement program for 10 months, between June 2018 and March 2019. By the time a federal judge halted the program, 18,000 adults had lost their Medicaid coverage. Moreover, a Harvard study found that 50 percent of adults who lost their coverage reported serious problems in paying off their debt, 56 percent delayed care due to cost, and 64 percent delayed taking medications because of cost.

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Childless Adults Will Bear the Brunt of Republican Cuts to the Safety ... - The New Republic

George Santos is far from the first member of Congress to be indicted while in office. Both chambers and both parties have endured their share of scandals. In 2005, for instance, F.B.I. agents discovered $90,000 hidden in the freezer of Representative William Jefferson, who was under investigation for bribery. He refused to step down, wound up losing his seat in the 2008 election, and was later sentenced to 13 years in prison. James Traficant was expelled from Congress in 2002 after being convicted of bribery and racketeering. Bob Ney resigned in 2006 because of his involvement in a federal bribery scandal.

But in one way, Mr. Santos is different from other members of Congress who have demonstrated moral failures, ethical failures, failures of judgment and blatant corruption and lawbreaking in office. What he did was to deceive the very voters who brought him to office in the first place, undermining the most basic level of trust between an electorate and a representative. These misdeeds erode the faith in the institution of Congress and the electoral system through which American democracy functions.

For that reason, House Republican leaders should have acted immediately to protect that system by allowing a vote to expel Mr. Santos and joining Democrats in removing him from office. Instead not wanting to lose Mr. Santoss crucial vote Speaker Kevin McCarthy pushed a measure to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee, notorious for its glacial pace, and the House voted predictably along party lines on Wednesday afternoon to follow that guidance.

If the House doesnt reverse that vote under public pressure, its incumbent on the Ethics Committee to conduct a timely investigation and recommend expulsion to the full House, where a two-thirds vote will be required to send Mr. Santos back to Long Island.

Mr. Santos was arrested and arraigned in federal court last week on 13 criminal counts linked primarily to his 2022 House campaign. Mr. McCarthy and other members of the Republican leadership effectively shrugged, indicating that they would let the legal process play itself out, as the conferences chair, Elise Stefanik, put it.

In addition to expulsion, the Republican leaders have several official disciplinary measures they could pursue, such as a formal reprimand or censure, but so far, they have done little more than express concern. Mr. McCarthy has several tough legislative fights looming, including negotiations over the federal budget to avoid a government default, and Mr. Santoss removal might imperil the G.O.P.s slim majority. In effect, Mr. Santoss bad faith has made him indispensable.

His constituents believed he held certain qualifications and values, only to learn after Election Day that they had been deceived. Now they have no recourse until the next election.

The question, then, is whether House Republican leaders and other members are willing to risk their credibility for a con man, someone whose entire way of life his origin story, rsum, livelihood is based on a never-ending series of lies. Of course they should not be. They should have demonstrated to the American people that there is a minimum ethical standard for Congress and used the power of expulsion to enforce it. They should have explained to voters that their commitment to democracy and public trust goes beyond their partys political goals.

At least some Republican lawmakers recognize what is at stake and are speaking out. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah reiterated his view that Mr. Santos should do the honorable thing and step aside, saying, He should have resigned a long time ago. He is an embarrassment to our party. He is an embarrassment to the United States Congress.

Similarly, Anthony DEsposito and Mike Lawler, both representing districts in New York, are among several House Republicans advocating his resignation. Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas has gone a step further, calling for Mr. Santoss expulsion and a special election to replace him. The people of New Yorks 3rd district deserve a voice in Congress, he wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Gonzales gets at the heart of the matter. Mr. Santos has shown contempt for his constituents and for the electoral process. Mr. McCarthy and the other Republican House leaders owe Americans more.

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Opinion | George Santos Must Be Held Accountable by Republican ... - The New York Times

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - According to unofficial primary election results, Republican James Follweiler earned a spot on the ballot in the race for a seat onBethlehem City Council after launching a write-in campaign.

Follweiler unofficially earned 139 write-in votes, with Northampton County posting 99 in addition to Lehigh Countys 40 votes.

I want to thank those whose displayed their support and confidence in me through their actions to write-me in for Bethlehem City Council. This is a great result given a quick two-week campaign, Follweiler said.

For the Bethlehem City Council race, the general election will now have a full slate of Republican and Democrat candidates vying for the three available positions. Primary election results must be certified by May 30.

Follweiler was the Bethlehem Republican mayoral candidate in 2003 and a 2005 City Council candidate.

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Republican James Follweiler to be on ballot in Bethlehem City ... - 69News WFMZ-TV

New election results suggest voters are mixed at best on the GOPs educational culture wars.

Tuesday nights school board elections in Pennsylvania and Oregon again showed how classrooms continue to be a front in the Republican Partys broader culture war, a battle it has pursued in states across the country with mixed results.

In an Oregon school district in the predominantly rural Clackamas County, where students have protested a recent onslaught of book bans, several parental rights candidates lost their bids for the school board. However, GOP-backed school board candidates in southern Pennsylvania who backed book bans and policies targeting trans students survived primary challenges and will advance to the November elections.

The races are part of Republicans national push to politicize once-sleepy school board races, using them as a vehicle to curb discussion of race and gender issues in the classroom and give parents more power over curriculums. Across the country, school board members backed by the GOP have banned seminal works of literature, from Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye to Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale, but not without backlash.

Nationally, parents have become increasingly worried about the GOPs book-banning push and have cooled somewhat on the curriculum concerns that dominate Republicans education platform. An April Fox News poll found that 77 percent of parents are extremely or very concerned about local school board book bans, an 11-point increase since May 2022. Though 73 percent of those polled remained anxious about what is taught in public schools, thats 7 points lower than last year. Other polls conducted in recent months show similar results. Actual election results also cast doubt on Republicans school-focused strategy: In Illinois and Wisconsin, a key swing state, school board candidates who ran on culture war issues largely failed in April.

That tracks with Tuesday nights losses for three parental rights candidates, including two incumbents, in Oregons Canby School District. A total of 36 books were recently removed from the school districts libraries following parental complaints about their descriptions of promiscuity, assault, and mature sexual content.

Incumbent Canby school board member Stefani Carlson promised more restrictions on content offered through school libraries as a pillar of her candidacy, as well as offering more transparency to parents in terms of classroom curriculum. I will continue working to remove inappropriate sexually explicit and obscene material, she wrote in a pamphlet distributed to the district. But voters instead backed the approach of her challenger, who promised to be a voice of reason dedicated to advancing the goals of the District without creating chaos.

The two other parental rights candidates, one of whom was explicitly backed by the Parents Rights in Education political action committee, advocated for increasing parents role in setting school curriculums. They also both lost.

But it wasnt all bad news for GOP-aligned school board candidates. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, GOP-endorsed candidates dominated their school board primaries just as the districts consider policies including trans athlete bans and additional restrictions on library books.

In the Warwick, Pennsylvania, school district, many of the GOP candidates were associated with the local Facebook group Warwick Parents for Change and the Lancaster County chapter of Moms for Liberty, groups that have been a vocal presence in local meetings in advocating for anti-trans policies and restrictions on library books. If GOP candidates ultimately win in Pennsylvanias Manheim Township district, they could consider a ban on trans student-athletes participating in sports teams that correspond to their gender identity that was previously under consideration. That ban already exists in the nearby Hempfield district, which has also voted in favor of banning books with sexually explicit content and where GOP candidates will also advance.

In 2021, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin showed how education can be a winning issue for Republicans, even among voters who have previously swung Democratic. He upset incumbent Democrat Terry McAuliffe in what has long been a blue state by capitalizing on parents frustrations with school closures during the pandemic and with how schools teach about race and racism. Youngkin campaigned on eliminating classroom discussion of critical race theory an academic framework that examines the role of racism in US culture and institutions.

Educational culture wars have become part of the Republican national playbook, and bans on critical race theory have proliferated across red states and have become a flashpoint in school board races. The GOP has since expanded its education wars to also include bans on discussion of LGBTQ issues in the classroom, making it easier to ban books that discuss race and gender or criticize US history, preventing trans student-athletes from participating in school sports, injecting Christianity into public schools, and allowing parents to take their tax dollars away from public schools and put them toward private or charter schools through school choice programs.

Its not clear, however, that Republicans focus on education is continuing to pay dividends. In addition to suffering the losses in Pennsylvania and in Illinois and Wisconsin last month, 35 parental rights candidates were defeated in New York school races last year. That meant that many of them decided not to run again this year, with many seats going uncontested in Tuesdays school board elections in New York.

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Why Republicans school board takeovers are faltering with voters - Vox.com

Opinion: It is both amazing and at times downright depressing what the Republican Legislature has accomplished this year. This, with the barest of majorities and a Democratic governor.

As the Arizona Legislature takes yet another vacation, let us pause to consider the many accomplishments of the Republicans who run the joint.

No, really.

Theres been a fair amount of focus on the 72 (and counting) times Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has infuriated Republicans by vetoing their various bad bills and a few good ones.

But consider what this, the most conservative Republican Legislature in my memory, has been able to accomplish with the barest of majorities and a Democrat on the Ninth Floor for the first time in 14 years.

Everybody (OK, well, me) expected the far-right Republicans who comprise the Arizona Freedom Caucus to be rolled over as the year wore on and sanity prevailed sometime in the wee hours of late June, right before a state government shutdown.

Everybody (OK, me again) expected the partys more pragmatic Republicans to team up with Hobbs and the Democrats to make a deal, as happened last year when Republican Gov. Doug Ducey was at the helm.

Instead, Republicans have stuck together all year, making Democratic legislators look largely irrelevant and on occasion, downright silly. (See: the tamale bill wherein 12 Democrats enthusiastically voted for the bill before they suddenly voted against it to spare Hobbs the embarrassment of a veto override.)

Consider the culture war bills. Not surprisingly, Republicans have spent endless hours doing battle with drag queens and transgender children and public school teachers who they apparently believe lay awake nights plotting to groom their children.

None of their bills will become law, thanks to Hobbs and her veto stamp. But thats almost better for Republican lawmakers as they prepare to hit the trail next year to try to preserve their slim majority.

The campaign pitch writes itself.

Consider teacher pay. Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, has been pushing a bill that would boost teacher pay by $10,000 over the next two years, catapulting Arizonas public schools out of the subbasement and onto the upper floors of teacher compensation in America.

Democrats oppose the bill, saying its a poorly written proposal that contains no guarantee of funding beyond 2025 and could lead to layoffs. Besides, they say, it wouldnt apply to other educators and school staff.

Democrats have pointed to some legitimate problems with this bill, especially the need for flexibility in the event of a downturn in the economy. But theyve also declined thus far to work with Gress to address those problems.

This, as Arizona continues to face a critical shortage of qualified classroom teachers.

Consider the budget. Hobbs negotiated a $17.8 billion spending plan with Republican legislative leaders, leaving her Democratic allies on the outside looking in.

I know not everyone got what they wanted, including me, Hobbs said on Monday, during a press conference to highlight a $150 million deposit into the Housing Trust Fund, an amount more than double the previous largest contribution.

Actually, it appears Republicans got exactly what they wanted.

Their No. 1 priority was to protect their universal voucher program from a governor who had vowed to repeal it, warning that it would likely bankrupt the state.

They didnt even have to accept so much as a minuscule cap to the program that was supposed to cost $33 million year and is now at 10 times that and growing.

Instead, Hobbs stunned her fellow Democrats and public school supporters by agreeing to continue the runaway program.

How money talks: Hobbs, Ducey got bipartisan budget deals differently

She also caved on her campaign vows to exempt diapers and feminine hygiene products from the state sales tax and to offer an annual $100-per-child tax credit to low-income Arizonans.

Hobbs did win a huge pot of mostly one-time money to boost public schools and a sizable budget to help with affordable housing and the homeless.

Meanwhile, Republicans not only protected their constituents who want public money to pay their kids private school tuition, they won a one-time $250-per-child tax rebate for Arizona families (maximum $750 per family), a plan spearheaded by the Freedom Caucus.

They even managed to attach language to the budget that prevents Hobbs from trying to take any credit for the tax rebate.

To wit: No letter relating to the Arizona families tax rebate issued under this section shall be sent from the governors office, be sent on the governors letterhead or reference the governors office.Freedom Caucusers were all smiles on Monday and for good reason.

While Hobbs tax credit for the poor wilted and died, their tax credit for the non-poor funded solely with Republicans share of the budget surplus is now law, with a promise of more to come next year from Freedom Caucus Chair Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek.

Arizona families are hurting while they attempt to pay for the most basic necessities each month , he said on Monday, during a press conference to highlight the $260 million tax rebate. In the meantime, government is flush with cash and in the position to give back to our honest, hardworking taxpayers.

The money wont reach the neediest Arizonans, the ones who dont earn enough to pay taxes.

Or to taxpayers who wipe out their state tax liability by making charitable contributions that qualify for a tax credit.

But itll be an effective bullet on Republicans reelection brochures, as will the substantial slab of bacon they delivered to their districts in the form of road and bridge projects.

All this, they got without having to agree to allow Maricopa Countys transportation tax to be put to a public vote next year.

And without Hoffman and his fellow Republican senators having to agree to stop gumming up the works as Hobbs tries to fill out her Cabinet.

Certainly, both sides got something out of the budget.

But theres a reason Hoffman, one of the Legislatures most conservative members, signed on as a primary sponsor of this years budget bills.

Reach Roberts atlaurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at@LaurieRoberts.

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Arizona Republicans have gotten most of what they wanted this year - The Arizona Republic

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has won the state's Republican gubernatorial primary and will face incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in the November general election.

Cameron, a rising star in the party, came out on top in a crowded field of 12 Republican candidates that included former U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft and Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles.

His campaign had the backing of former President Donald Trump in a contentious race that served as a proxy fight between the Republican presidential front-runner and a number of other Republican heavyweights, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who both backed Craft.

TOP GOP CONTENDER IN TIGHT GOVERNOR'S RACE TOOK MONEY FROM PRO-ESG COMPANIES DESPITE PLEDGE AGAINST POLICY

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron delivers a live address to the largely virtual 2020 Republican National Convention from the Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 25, 2020. (Reuters / Jonathan Ernst)

Craft also had the high-profile endorsements of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., while Quarles had the commanding support of Kentucky farmers.

Cameron will now face what is expected to be a tough fight against Beshear, who polls say is one of the most popular governors in the country despite being one of the nation's few Democrat governors of a red state.

The race is widely expected to be a bellwether for the 2024 presidential and congressional elections as Republicans hope to capitalize on the unpopularity of President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats.

KENTUCKY AG, GOVERNOR HOPEFUL REJECTS DEMOCRATS' TREATMENT OF MINORITY REPUBLICANS: A LOT OF GRIEF

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (AP Photo / Timothy D. Easley / File)

The super PAC supporting Trump's third run for the presidency released a statement once the race was called for Cameron, touting the win as proof of the former president's continued hold over the GOP.

"President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. The results in Kentucky's Republican gubernatorial primary tonight reaffirm that.Republican voters stand with President Trump, not Ron DeSantis," Make America Great Again Inc. spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer said in a statement.

"It's time to unite around Donald Trump. Voters know that President Trump has their interests in mind when he endorses a candidate, not the interests of the consultant class," he added.

BLACK REPUBLICAN RIPS LIBERAL PAPER'S RACE BAITER CARTOON DEPICTING HIM WITH LIGHTENED SKIN, BACKWARD HAT

Former President Donald Trump (Spencer Platt / Getty Images / File)

Beshear responded to Cameron's victory in a statement, celebrating his own Democratic primary win and describing it as "a stark difference" from the Republican race.

"While theyre trying to pit us against each other, people in Kentucky know that this isnt about right vs. left. Its about getting things done," he said. "I want Kentucky to be a place where all of our kids have a future. As a father, this is personal. We all want our kids to be able to have opportunity and potential here in every part of our commonwealth."

"So, while tonight we celebrate, were also preparing for the road ahead. Together, we will win this election and build a Kentucky our kids deserve," he added.

Cameron avoided members of the media following his victory speech at the Galt House in downtown Louisville. Fox News Digital observed his campaign abruptly pull him away from the area in front of the stage where reporters were gathering to ask him questions and quickly usher him to another room.

His campaign also ignored requests for him to speak with Fox following his win.

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The Associated Press called the race.

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Trump-backed Daniel Cameron wins GOP primary for Kentucky governor, will face incumbent Democrat Andy Beshear - Fox News

DeSantis tells Iowa: 'We will fight the woke' mob

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is visiting Iowa to introduce himself to an audience of Republicans ahead of a likely 2024 presidential bid. The Florida governor is a top-tier presidential prospect viewed as a rival to former President Donald Trump. (March 10)

AP

Donald Trump has assailed diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as has fellow 2024 GOP frontrunner Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis while the Biden administration and Democratic leaders have championed them.

As the nation's racial reckoning takes center stage in the run-up to the presidential election, those pitched culture battles are being felt in the workplace where sharp partisan divisions are emerging.

Call it the DEI divide.

Most Democratic and Democratic-leaning workers 78% say focusing on DEI at work is a good thing, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.Just 30% of Republicans and Republican-leaning workers felt the same.Whats more, 30% of Republicans said DEI was a bad thing.

The findings suggest that the political polarization and the party divides that we see across different realms of life also exist in the workplace, said Kim Parker, director of social and demographics trends research at Pew Research. Now that these DEI efforts and policies have become a point of national debate, those differences are getting reinforced.

'Woke capitalism' or smart business? ESG fireworks on Capitol Hill over climate change

With the nation becoming less white and more studies showing that diversity gives companies a competitive edge, corporate America has prioritized hiring and promoting more workers from underrepresented backgrounds and has embraced initiatives to make work cultures more inclusive. Those efforts dont sit well with everyone, and they have opened up fault lines in cubicles and corner offices across the country.

Strikingly, Parker says Pew Research studies examining work culture and peoples attitudes about work did not find such wide gaps by party affiliation.

So there are aspects of work that people are experiencing in very similar ways regardless of their party affiliation," Parker said. "But when it comes to this specific set of policies and initiatives, you do start to see the divisions.

'Woke mind virus'? 'Corporate wokeness'? Why red America has declared war on corporate America

About half of Democrats say working somewhere that has diversity including gender, race and ethnicity, age and sexual orientation is extremely or very important to them, but just 13% of Republicans agree.

An equal mix of men and women in the workplace is extremely or very important to 39% of Democrats but only to 12% of Republicans.

Similar divides exist on having people from different age groups (39% versus 17%) and different sexual orientations in the workplace (27% versus 7%).

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say their workplace benefits from policies and programs focused on diverse representation and workplace inclusion. In fact, 21% of Democrats say their employer pays too little attention to DEI.

Republicans, on the other hand, are far more likely than Democrats to say their employer pays too much attention to DEI (24% versus 6%).

Democrats are more than three times as likely as Republicans to say being white makes it easier to succeed where they work (48% versus 13%) and they are more likely than Republicans to say being Black, Hispanic or Asian makes it harder.

There is also a partisan split on whether women and people of color face additional hurdles in the workplace.

Nearly half of Democrats 47% say being a man makes it at least somewhat easier to succeed at work compared with 25% of Republicans.

Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to say being a woman makes it harder to succeed (37% versus 17%).

Democratic and Republican women are more likely than men of either party to agree that being a man helps drive success.

Just 9% of Republicans say being Black makes it harder for someone to succeed compared with 39% of Democrats.

Similarly, 30% of Democrats view being Hispanic as a barrier to success versus 8% of Republicans. Smaller shares in both political parties say being Asian makes it tougher to succeed (16% versus 6%).

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DEI divide: Republicans and Democrats split on workplace diversity - USA TODAY