Ben Settle

An Oregonian’s warning for Texas. Texans, we’ve had one-party Democratic control for decades and here’s what it looks like: • Measure 110 made hard drugs basically legal. Overdoses and camps took over the streets. • Portland defunded police and stopped prosecuting. Homicides and car thefts shot up after 2020. • We spend a ton on schools and still rank near the bottom on reading and math. Kids aren’t even showing up for class. • Strict land-use rules and zoning killed housing supply. Rents and home prices are out of control. • High income taxes plus a new Corporate Activity Tax made the business climate terrible. People and jobs keep leaving. • More people are moving out than moving in. They’re done with the costs, crime, and quality of life. • Forest management got shut down. Now the wildfires are bigger and more destructive. • Downtown Portland is still half-empty with open air drug use years later. • Utility bills have jumped. PGE rates up around 50-60% in recent years from renewables mandates, grid costs, and other policies. • Boys are allowed in girls sports stealing opportunities and sports titles from our daughters. The list goes on. Don’t let Democrats take over and destroy Texas too. You will lose your voice, and before you can get it back, they will rig the maps and gerrymander to keep you silent for good. Stop them before it’s too late. With love, A conservative Oregonian

The only positive I see from last night is that Americans will now get a two year showcase on what socialism really looks like, and feels like. It will be ugly, and leave a lasting impression. 2028 will be Socialism vs Capitalism. I'm at peace, because The Lord is in control.

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up. So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us." Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026. There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true. But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone. Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were: 1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.) In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you. The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there. I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.