Political Commentary

Most Recent Releases

June 19, 2025Friends, Neighbors, and Unfriendly Neighbors in Virginia’s Wild Democratic Statewide Primaries By Kyle Kondik and J. Miles Coleman
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— In a highly competitive Democratic lieutenant gubernatorial primary, state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D) was powered by strength in her home turf in greater Richmond, while a very poor showing in the city where he was recently mayor, Richmond, cost Levar Stoney (D) dearly.
— Meanwhile, former state Del. Jay Jones (D) won a narrow victory of his own in the attorney general primary by building on his coalition from his unsuccessful run four years ago.
— Looking ahead to the fall, there is still ticket-splitting among the three statewide elections in Virginia, but that ticket-splitting has generally been on the decline.
— Virginia will also elect all 100 members of the state House of Delegates this fall, where Democrats already hold a narrow majority.

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                            June 18, 2025Americans Stand Behind President Law and Order By Brian Joondeph
Four years ago, we experienced “The Summer of Love,” specifically protests and riots honoring Saint George Floyd. Civil unrest erupted in 140 cities across 20 states, resulting in over $2 billion in insured losses, with the actual toll likely much higher.

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                            June 18, 2025The Little Pink House By John Stossel
Is your home your castle?

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                            June 17, 2025Congress Should Just Say No to a Remittance Tax By Stephen Moore
The House-passed "big, beautiful" tax bill is a tremendous achievement and a giant spark plug for growth. The bill extends all the Trump tax cuts of 2017, thus heading off a $4 trillion tax INCREASE next year. It expands health savings accounts, includes expensing of major capital and research expenditures by businesses, allows more money for school choice, and includes "no tax on tips" and no tax on overtime pay. And that's just for starters.

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                            June 17, 2025WEIRD Protesters Should Stay Home By Daniel McCarthy
When gray-haired white liberals take to America's streets for "No Kings" protests, the only danger they're exposing themselves to is ridicule.

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                            June 13, 2025Los Angeles Riots May Encourage Illegal Immigrants to Self-Deport By Michael Barone
"How'm I doin'?" the late New York Mayor Ed Koch used to ask constituents on his travels through the city. President Donald Trump, in the opinion of most Americans, is doin' pretty well.

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                            June 11, 2025From the Halls of Montezuma to the Streets of Los Angeles By Brian Joondeph
The Marine Hymn is one of the most recognized songs and serves as the oldest service hymn in America. Its opening line honors the famous battles of the U.S. Marines, from Montezuma to Tripoli.

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                            June 11, 2025The Woke Right By John Stossel
In 2018, some activists, appalled by woke nonsense being published by academic journals, submitted nonsensical research.
One paper claimed researchers "closely and respectfully examined the genitals of ... ten thousand dogs" to learn about "rape culture and queer performativity at urban dog parks."

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                            June 10, 2025American Intifada By Daniel McCarthy
The riots that kicked off in Los Angeles last weekend aren't just about illegal immigration -- they're part of a revolutionary movement.

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                            June 10, 2025Why the CBO Almost Always Gets It Wrong By Stephen Moore
These days it seems that a mysterious group called "the CBO" rules the world, or at least Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, it's not very good at predicting things, and its bad calls can lead to bad policy results.

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                            June 6, 2025The New Politics of Metropole vs. Heartland By Michael Barone
You see the same pattern over much of the world. In three consecutive presidential elections in the United States. In the latest polls in Britain, where the 2016 Brexit referendum was the first notable outbreak. In France's most recent national election and in Germany's. In Canada's election last month. And maybe in Poland and South Korea last weekend.
June 5, 2025Rating Changes: Iowa Senate, ME-2, and More By J. Miles Coleman and Kyle Kondik
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— We are making four rating changes this week—one in the Senate and three in the House—with two races getting better for Democrats and two getting better for Republicans.
— The Iowa Senate race moves onto the periphery of the competitive board this week. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) was in the news recently for comments on health care, although the bigger reason for the switch is that she drew a potentially credible Democratic challenger.
— The most notable House change is moving ME-2, the most Republican district held by a Democrat, to Toss-up, and we are also making a couple of other changes to open seats where talented incumbent House members are running for the Senate.

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                            June 4, 2025The Human Rights Campaign By John Stossel
   Why does Uber make videos where people say, "I'm non-binary or genderqueer"?

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                            June 3, 2025DEI: The Democrats' Concrete Shoes By Daniel McCarthy
Democrats think they need a Joe Rogan of their own when what they actually need is a Christopher Rufo.

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                            June 3, 2025Trump's Own Regulators Declare War on Coal and Its Investors By Stephen Moore
In one of the most convoluted lawsuits of all time, a cabal of state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission are now accusing financial firms BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard of monopolistic behavior. The complaint asserts that these firms bought coal stocks and then helped impose radical environmental restrictions on the companies they partially own so that coal output would fall and the price of coal would rise. The lawsuit alleges that this strategy generated "supra-competitive" profits for those investors.

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                            May 30, 2025Trump's Eyes Opened on Putin. Now What Will He Do? By Michael Barone
   "I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin," said Donald Trump on Truth Social over the holiday weekend.
May 29, 2025The House: A Big Sort Lowers the Odds of a Big Wave By Kyle Kondik
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE— Two of the three major ingredients that went into the huge numerical House gains that the winning side made in the 2010 and 2018 midterms are not present for Democrats in 2026.
— One of those, however, is that the opposition party started those cycles with far fewer seats than the Democrats hold now, which is hardly a bad thing for them. But that should also inform our expectations about the size of the gain Democrats could make in 2026 and how it would compare to midterm history.
— The other is that the House is much more sorted along partisan lines now than it was in either 2010 or even 2018, meaning that the party control of House seats is better aligned with how districts vote at the presidential level. This level of sorting also likely helps explain why Republicans in 2022 were able to flip the House, but only made modest gains in doing so—and also why Republicans can plausibly argue that they could hold onto the House next year.
— If the House remains so sorted along presidential voting lines, it stands to reason that large numerical swings in House seats would become rarer, even as the House majority itself would often be up for grabs.

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                            May 28, 2025Socialist Utopia By John Stossel
Bizarrely, 62% of young Americans hold a "favorable view" of socialism.

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                            May 28, 2025Trump and America are on the Right Track By Brian Joondeph
Rasmussen Reports, in one of its many daily and weekly polls, asks likely U.S. voters whether they believe the country is on the right or wrong track. Historically, this poll dates back to August 2007, nearly 20 years ago.

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                            May 27, 2025Trump, Harvard, and the Brain-Drain Myth By Daniel McCarthy
   Has Donald Trump declared war on Albert Einstein?