Category: blaze media

Abdul El-Sayed shares more in common with former President Barack Obama than just a Saracen name and Democrat politics: both have been credited with at least one identity-politics first.

It appears, however, that El-Sayed’s first — his election as the first Muslim to the U.S. Senate — qualifies only because one of Obama’s provocative assertions has been dismissed as a slip of the tongue.

‘A historic turning point for American Muslim political engagement.’

First Muslim

Overlooking or perhaps rewarding his radicalism and “anti-white racial hatred,” Michiganders voted on Tuesday to seat El-Sayed in the U.S. Senate.

The Democrat decisively defeated former Rep. Mike Rogers (R), a win that was not only consequential in terms of Democrats’ conquest of the U.S. Senate but — according to radicals, foreigners, and the liberal media — historic because of his religious identity.

In his victory speech, the Democrat introduced himself as Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed and gave praise to Allah in Arabic. He then boasted that he had proven wrong an alleged doubter who told him “a Muslim was unelectable.”

Linda Sarsour — the Islamic activist who told fellow radicals last year to “abolish Israel” — was among the many radicals who touted El-Sayed’s election as historic. She told Democracy Now, “To elect the first Muslim American to the United States Senate is no easy feat in a country that has the most powerful people spewing anti-Muslim hate.”

Nihad Awad, the national executive of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, congratulated El-Sayed on “making history as the first American Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate and for defeating both anti-Muslim hate and the anti-Palestinian lobby in the process.”

“Dr. El-Sayed’s victory represents a historic turning point for American Muslim political engagement and a historic defeat for the politics of hate,” added Awad.

RELATED: Last-minute dirty tricks: Michigan voters reportedly being told they can’t split their ticket as Democrats defect for Rogers

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Obama, not just the ‘first gay president’?

In his heyday, Obama was credited with multiple firsts besides being the first American president with a noncitizen father and the first president born in Hawaii.

For his support of homosexual “marriage,” Newsweek celebrated the former president with a cover story in 2012 calling him the “first gay president.”

Years earlier, he was widely celebrated as America’s first black president — even though Bill Clinton was previously conferred that title for displaying, according to author Toni Morrison, “almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.”

A supposed slip-up in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” just prior to the 2008 presidential election prompted some Americans to suspect that then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was also the first Muslim serving in the U.S. Senate.

In the Sept. 7, 2008, interview, Obama said to George Stephanopoulos, “You’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith, and you’re absolutely right that that has not —”

“Your Christian faith,” Stephanopoulos interjected.

“My Christian faith,” said Obama.

While Obama’s “Muslim faith” remark was written off as a flub, he provided skeptics with additional fodder, specifically his reported recollection of the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer and recital “with a first-rate accent”; his repeated defense of Islam; his Islamic heritage; and his assertion in a June 28, 2007, speech that America was no longer just a Christian nation but also a “Muslim nation.”

Despite speculation and numerous fact-checks about Obama’s faith, Obama has long maintained that he is a Christian, “rooted in the Christian tradition.”

Obama’s professed faith means that El-Sayed might, after all, be the first openly Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate.

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​Barack obama, George stephanopoulos, Linda sarsour, Abdul el-sayed, Muslim, Christianity, Faith, Senate, Midterms, Politics 

General Motors has agreed to pay $220 million to settle allegations that it collected and sold customers’ driving information without their knowledge or consent. But the drivers whose information was allegedly sold — some of whom saw their insurance premiums increase — won’t receive a dime.

The October 29 settlement resolves allegations brought by attorneys general from 36 states and jurisdictions. The money goes to those states, not directly to affected drivers. GM must also comply with new privacy requirements, including obtaining express consent before collecting or sharing driving data.

Beginning in December 2022, GM also provided Wejo with radio-listening data, including ignition timestamps, AM/FM frequencies, station call signs, time zones, and radio genres.

That leaves an important question: How much money did GM make selling information its customers generated simply by driving their cars?

The information came largely through GM’s OnStar Smart Driver program, which operated from 2016 until 2024. It included trip times, speed, hard braking, acceleration, and other driving behavior. Data brokers sold this information to insurance companies, which could use it to help determine premiums.

Chevy Bolt owner Kenn Dahl told the New York Times he learned a data broker had a detailed record of his trips after his insurance costs jumped 21%.

The investigation also found that many customers were enrolled without their knowledge. In some cases, dealership employees allegedly accepted terms and conditions on their behalf. Worse, GM’s OnStar app incorrectly told more than 370,000 drivers they weren’t enrolled in Smart Driver even while their information was being collected and sold.

Getting paid twice

Just how lucrative was GM’s data business? A separate lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in August 2024 offers a detailed look at the financial arrangements behind it. Texas did not participate in the $220 million settlement.

Under a 2015 agreement with Verisk Analytics, a company that supplies data and risk assessments to insurers, GM received an initial multimillion-dollar payment for its customers’ driving information. Verisk then put that information into a database that insurance companies could pay to access.

Every time insurers purchased licenses to the database, Verisk paid GM royalties based on the revenue generated. GM thus had a continuing financial interest in information collected from cars it had already sold.

GM also required Verisk to approach other automakers, telecommunications companies, and third parties about contributing their information to the exchange. Verisk subsequently entered similar agreements with Honda in 2017 and Hyundai in 2018, according to the Texas lawsuit.

The information wasn’t anonymous. According to the filing, GM supplied Verisk with names, home addresses, vehicle identification numbers, and other identifying information that could be connected to individual driving records.

Insurers could then look up a driver’s score when deciding whether to issue coverage, renew a policy, or set premiums.

A $70 million year

GM’s arrangement with Verisk wasn’t its only source of revenue from driving information.

A 2018 deal with Wejo, a British connected-car company, put a dollar figure on a single year’s worth of driving records. GM paid $25 million for a 35% ownership stake in Wejo and agreed to supply 2018 data from 2.6 million vehicles. The Texas filing values those records at $70 million.

Wejo could license the information to businesses beyond the insurance industry, subject to GM’s approval.

The agreement described in the Texas lawsuit included a minimum monthly licensing revenue target of $3 million, with Wejo agreeing to pay GM 70% of that revenue. Wejo also agreed to reimburse GM if it failed to meet the target.

The relationship continued until Wejo declared bankruptcy in May 2023.

And GM wasn’t limiting the information it supplied to driving behavior. Beginning in December 2022, GM also provided Wejo with radio-listening data, including ignition timestamps, AM/FM frequencies, station call signs, time zones, and radio genres.

Think about that. Your driving habits were one thing. But even the radio stations you listened to could become part of a commercial data business.

Beyond GM

Other automakers are facing scrutiny over similar practices.

In April 2026, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen opened an investigation into Ford and Stellantis over reports that the companies collected and sold or licensed vehicle data to third parties, including data brokers and insurers.

The investigation is separate from the GM settlement, and the allegations against Ford and Stellantis have not been established as violations of the law. But the concern extends well beyond a single automaker or a discontinued OnStar program.

Modern vehicles can collect enormous amounts of information about their owners. That information can be packaged, analyzed, licensed, and sold to businesses the driver may never have heard of.

And if an insurance company uses that information to raise your rates, you could end up paying more because of data you never knowingly agreed to share.

RELATED: Washington blocked Polestar. So why are Chinese-built robotaxis on American streets?

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Where’s the driver’s cut?

The GM settlement imposes new safeguards. The company must obtain affirmative consent before collecting or sharing driving and location information, limit its data collection, and strengthen oversight of dealership enrollment practices.

But GM did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel confirmed that the agreement provides no direct consumer restitution. A separate private class-action lawsuit seeking monetary relief remains pending.

So the states receive millions, GM agrees to new rules, and drivers whose information may have affected their insurance premiums get nothing.

That’s a pretty convenient outcome for everyone except the consumer.

Automakers need to explain what information they’re collecting, who is buying it, and how much money changes hands. Insurance companies should disclose when driving information influences rates, and consumers deserve the ability to challenge inaccurate records before those records affect their wallets.

If a company can make money from your driving habits, should you receive a share? And if your information was used to increase your insurance premium without your knowledge or consent, shouldn’t you be entitled to a refund?

Show me the money!

​Attorneys general, Auto industry, Consumer rights, Data brokers, Data collection, General motors, Insurance premiums, Lifestyle, Driving habits, Hyundai, Stellantis, Privacy, Tech, Automotive 

As AI videos simultaneously become seemingly ubiquitous and harder to detect, one company has released a promising solution on the cutting edge of AI slop identification.

An AI detection company released a new video and image scanner to assist with detecting the increasingly realistic content generated by artificial intelligence.

The sophistication of AI-generated videos has forced the company to take extra time.

On Wednesday, Pangram released two models, Pangram Image 1.0 and Pangram Image Flash 1.0, that it describes as “state of the art” in the emerging field of artificial intelligence detection.

The flagship model, Pangram Image 1.0, is said to achieve 99.96% accuracy in detecting edits, compression, and robustness, while the smaller model offers frame-by-frame analysis of AI-generated content at a slightly low accuracy.

Pirate Wires spoke with Max Spero, the CEO and co-founder of Pangram, to discuss the new model’s launch.

AI detection has been around since 2025, yet, as Spero explained, the sophistication of AI-generated videos has forced the company to take extra time to ensure its model won’t be obsolete on arrival.

RELATED: Your iPhone can spy on you — unless you turn this hidden feature off

Yuliya Taba/Getty Images

“We’ve been very careful with our release cadence to make sure we only release something that we think is truly state of the art by a large margin,” Spero told Pirate Wires.

The Pangram CEO also told Pirate Wires that the room for error is constantly shrinking, demanding constant improvement to the models.

“I think the difference between 98% and 99.9 is just so huge in this space,” he said.

AI videos, commonly referred to as “AI slop,” has taken a number of interesting forms — some more concerning than others.

As video generation capabilities have improved dramatically, examples have abounded of “AI influencers” gaining thousands of followers, “AI comedians” stealing jokes from real comedians, and AI-generated war footage distorting public perceptions of the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.

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​Tech, Ai, Slop 

West Hollywood just vindicated yesteryear’s critics of homosexual “marriage.”

Shot

In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize homosexual “marriage.” By the time the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2015 that the right to wed was guaranteed by the Constitution to same-sex couples, 35 states and the District of Columbia had already joined the Bay State in legalizing the practice.

‘You’ve undermined the entire legal foundation for the family.’

Conservatives were pilloried for warning throughout this legalization campaign that transmogrifying the institution of marriage would not only have degrading impacts on American law and culture but also set the stage for other debased forms of “marriage.”

The late James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, told Fox News after Massachusetts legalized homosexual “marriage” in May 2004 that “you cross that Rubicon, then there’s no place to stop.”

“Because if a judge can say two men and two women can marry, there is no reason on Earth why some judge some place is not going to say, this is not fair. Three women or three men, or five and two or five and five,” said Dobson.

“So you could have polygamy. You could have incest. You could have marriage between a father and a daughter. You could have two widows or two sisters or two brothers,” he continued. “Once you start that and put it in terms of rights, where somebody says, ‘Why should I not have benefits if they get them?’ then it’s gone. You’ve undermined the entire legal foundation for the family.”

RELATED: Gay Atlantic writer whines to Bill Maher that LGBT extremism is blowing up support for homosexual ‘marriage’

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

When, years later, Maine became the fifth state to permit homosexuals to wed, televangelist Pat Robertson said, “We haven’t taken this to its ultimate conclusion. You got polygamy out there. How can we rule that polygamy is illegal when you say that homosexual marriage is legal[?]”

Witherspoon Institute senior fellow Matthew Franck underscored in 2011 that by changing the meaning of marriage to suit gays, the meaning becomes malleable.

‘Every critic of gay marriage said this was the logical outcome.’

“If men can marry men, and women marry women, we no longer know what the institution is, or what it is for, or what its boundaries are, or who is to be ruled in and who is to be ruled out as eligible to participate in it,” wrote Franck. “Polygamy is back; polyamory is in; even incestuous relations are impossible to condemn.”

These slippery-slope arguments were written off in the liberal media as illogical and bigoted, and defenders of homosexual “marriage” were certain that it would not lead to polygamy.

For example, Whet Moser, now an editor for the New York Times, cast doubt in a 2013 Chicago Magazine piece on the likelihood that polygamy would one day be legitimized.

“Homosexuality is a biological imperative, and polygamy is a cultural one,” wrote Moser. “There’s going to be a lot more natural demand for gay marriage, not so much for polygamy.”

Chaser

Just as critics prophesied, polygamy — or at the very least “polyamory,” which is sustained romantic relations with more than one partner — has been given the green light in various cities in the United States, most recently in West Hollywood.

West Hollywood’s woke city council, which opens its meetings with a land acknowledgement, unanimously passed a city ordinance on Monday defining “multi-partner domestic relationships,” establishing a registration process for their relationships, and changing local laws to include protections for individuals in polygamous relationships.

In West Hollywood, “multi-partner domestic relationships” has been defined as a relationship between three or more persons ages 18 or older who are competent to enter a contract, not related by blood closer than what is prohibited in the state, responsible for one another’s welfare, and involving persons not formally in another polygamous relationship.

There does not appear to be any limit on the number of people in such relationships. Non-residents can also register.

The policy itself echoes the argumentation of yesteryear’s gay “marriage” advocates.

While multi-partner relationships “are becoming increasingly common,” it says, they “are not formally recognized or protected at the state or federal level, and partners are not extended the same rights in multi-partner domestic relationships as provided in a monogamous marriage or domestic partnership.”

Having determined that there “is both tangible and symbolic value in the registration of such multi-partner domestic relationships,” the woke city council embraced the policy, declaring “that it is necessary to recognize and protect the right and opportunity of all persons to have multi-partner domestic relationships formally recognized and respected, and to be free from discrimination on account of their partnership in a multi-partner domestic relationship.”

According to the ordinance, the recognition of “polyamorous” relationships will have ramifications for housing, city jails, and city health care facilities.

Christina Fialho, the non-straight activist who proposed the idea to West Hollywood Councilwoman Chelsea Lee Byers last year, told the Los Angeles Times, “This law is just the beginning.”

“I think it makes it possible for people to dream about a future they once thought was out of reach,” added Fialho.

In 2020, Somerville, Massachusetts, passed a municipal ordinance legally recognizing domestic partnerships that include more than two persons. Cambridge and Arlington, both also in Massachusetts, followed suit. The Los Angeles Times highlighted recent efforts in Berkeley and Oakland, California, as well as in multiple Oregon cities to legally normalize domestic partnerships comprising three or more members.

Mark Hemingway of RealClearInvestigations wrote Wednesday, “Every critic of gay marriage said this was the logical outcome; virtually every mainstream proponent of gay marriage assured us it would never happen. And here we are.”

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​Gay, Marriage, Lgbt, California, Politics 

Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan remains confident that he has fended off Democrat challenger Mary Peltola in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race despite the alleged “Decoy Dan” scheme.

As of Thursday morning, Sullivan is trailing the volatile Democrat candidate by 637 votes with 75% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press. Dan J. Sullivan, the spoiler candidate whom Peltola’s campaign allegedly recruited, has secured 1.7% of the vote.

‘We are witnessing the biggest election cheating scandal in the history of the state of Alaska.’

Since neither Sen. Sullivan nor Peltola has met the 50% threshold — Sullivan has 47.9% and Peltola has 48.2% — it appears that the ranked-choice voting process will continue.

Sullivan’s campaign expressed optimism about the Republican’s chances in RCV, stating in a press email that he is poised to win “despite the biggest election cheating scandal in the history of Alaska. He is also in the position despite a bloodbath for Republicans everywhere else in the country.”

Although Sen. Sullivan is presently lagging behind, analysis by the Alaska Beacon shows that the senator would likely gain 2,728 votes under RCV when Republican challenger Gerald Heikes and Daniel J. Sullivan are eliminated. Peltola would pick up only a projected 1,868 from vote redistribution.

Alaska is expected to conduct RCV tabulations on November 18, when correctly postmarked absentee ballots are due.

“We knew it was going to be close, right?” Sullivan told supporters on election night. “We knew we probably wouldn’t get final results for days, given, you know, our system.”

“I’m confident when all the votes are counted, I will have the honor of representing you in the United States Senate again for six more years,” added Sullivan.

RELATED: NY Times exposes Alaska Democrat’s alleged hunt for another Dan Sullivan to run against Republican

–

A decisive victory on Sullivan’s part would likely spare the state a major headache given Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s suggestion last week that he might not certify the election should Peltola eke out a win after credible allegations about cheating.

A month after it published damning complaints against Peltola from former staffers, the New York Times published detailed claims about her campaign’s alleged efforts to recruit individuals with her Republican opponent’s namesake, including Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg, who found his way onto the ballot.

Following the Times’ Oct. 28 report that relied on testimony from Peltola’s former campaign manager, the governor told NewsNation on Thursday that if the state concludes that there “were things that should not have happened … that are illegal, we will act on that — and that may in fact impact whether somebody is seated in this U.S. Senate.”

Sen. Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday, “We are witnessing the biggest election cheating scandal in the history of the state of Alaska, one of the — maybe one of the biggest in the U.S. Senate’s history.”

Peltola ran on the promise to fix “the rigged system in DC that’s shutting down Alaska.” Her track record suggests, however, that she is ill equipped to change anything.

The Alaska Democrat — who had the second-highest staff turnover rate in the U.S. House during her final year in office — introduced 23 bills and resolutions during her previous stint in Congress, none of which became law.

During her time as a congresswoman, she was one of the top 10 absentee lawmakers, missing 235 of 1,370 roll-call votes.

The Alaska Division of Elections is not expected to publish an official election result until Nov. 25.

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​Dan sullivan, Election fraud, Mary peltola, Mike dunleavy, New york times, Us senate, Alaska, Politics 

Republicans just got destroyed in the midterms, but President Trump doesn’t seem particularly interested in admitting anything went wrong. Instead, he’s celebrating what he calls the “greatest two years in the history of the presidency.”

BlazeTV hosts Dave Landau and Stu Burguiere are far from convinced.

“The results were not good, and conservatives, Republicans, anyone who was not a socialist pretty much got smoked. With the exception of Florida, basically, everything went the wrong way,” Stu says.

“Trump says in an interview he will accept the election results,” he continues, noting that “every single Democrat I’ve talked to for the last two years has told me he would not accept the results if he lost.”

“And then he lost and he’s accepting the results,” he adds, before playing a clip of the president in a post-results interview on Fox News.

“Congratulations to the Democrats. They did a good job. They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years, and they finally got it. But I don’t view it as a hit on me. I think we’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency,” Trump said.

However, Dave isn’t loving Trump’s response, comparing it to “saying when my dad was the sickest before he died, ‘I had the best two years with him.’”

“One of the things I’ve wanted from the day that Donald Trump came down the escalator is for him to just be like, ‘Look, it’s not going well, and I screwed X, Y, and Z up, and here’s how we’re going to fix it.’ And he just never gets to that point,” Stu agrees.

“I understand why he does it. He’s a big believer in the power of positive thinking. He believes he can will things into existence,” he adds.

While Trump’s response wasn’t what Stu and Dave hoped for, Trump has had a “rough decade.”

“There is something to be said of the Democrats for the constant impeachment going at him, the way that the media has conducted themselves when talking to him. It’s been a very rough decade,” Dave says.

But the rough decade isn’t being made better by Trump’s actions, as Dave says he “did not arrest the people that should have been arrested,” journalist Nick Shirley has been “going around and figuring out fraud online before you have the people that should be discovering it,” and ICE is being “very performative.”

“But I mean, the way that everything was handled to actually fix the country, I think, has been pretty rough if I’m being honest,” he adds.

Want more from Stu and Dave?

To enjoy more of Stu and Dave’s lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Donald trump, Midterms, Dave landau, Stu burguiere, Blazetv show 

Reddit was boosted heavily in Google Search results for years, driving clicks and promoting sustainability. So it’s no surprise that Reddit took a massive hit when AI Overview overshadowed Search, and now Reddit is locking its platform to prevent AI — and people — from accessing it without an account.

Google Search used to be a reciprocal tool that benefited both Google and website publishers. When users searched for a term, Google brought up a list of websites that included that keyword. If the results were relevant, the user clicked, giving the website vital traffic and earning both it and Google some ad revenue. These were much simpler times. Better times, even. But I digress.

You should expect more companies to restrict their platforms as AI bots and agents run amok, otherwise unchecked, across the World Wide Web.

Today Google largely cuts out the middleman to serve itself. Search is now a secondary product, dwarfed by AI Overview, where users type a query into the search bar, and Google AI Overview provides a response scraped from all the websites that are now further down the page — out of sight, out of mind. Users don’t have to click to get an answer anymore, because AI Overview already presented the information in full, robbing both website publishers and Google of that same ad revenue that kept them afloat.

All ad-based websites were hit hard by this monumental change. Even Google recently admitted that AI Overview probably isn’t good for its bottom line, as search revenue growth slowed, per the latest earnings call at the end of October. Among the hardest hit websites, though, was Reddit.

In a not-too-distant past, Google and Reddit had a close relationship. The former often referenced the latter in snippet results and ranked Reddit high on its result listings.

This is how AI Overview ended up generating some extremely odd — and sometimes dangerous — responses in its early days, leaning on Reddit comments that advised users to replace cheese on pizza with non-toxic glue or eat one rock per day for good health. Even after switching to an AI-first search solution, Google still pulled data from Reddit and displayed it prominently, this time, though, without the backlinks that benefited Reddit’s platform.

Mere months after AI Overview overtook Search, this level of data scraping without anything in return isn’t sustainable for Reddit’s brand. To block AI bots from continuing to repackage Subreddits as their own, Reddit is officially locking anonymous accounts — both human and AI — out of its platform for good.

Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, announced the move on his profile, writing:

I want to talk about a big change we’re making on Reddit: We’re going to evolve Reddit to being a primarily logged-in experience.

We’re making the change because it’s better for user experience, better for our ads business, is more in line with safety regulations, and more protective of Reddit data. And we can do this while continuing to ensure user privacy.

RELATED: Google’s AI overhaul of Search will overfish the internet to extinction

bgblue/Getty Images

He went on to highlight several main reasons for the decision, from user personalization, to data protection, to regulatory factors, and more. One of the biggest points that stood out, though, was that “the vast majority of unauthorized access to Reddit (basically the scraping and stealing of Reddit’s data) happens through our logged-out experiences.”

Basically, AI bots are anonymously mining Reddit for data — namely users’ comments, thoughts, and interactions — and leaving the company with nothing to show for it.

The change isn’t set in stone yet, so there’s still time to tweak how it will work. First, it will enter a testing phase in several unnamed regions outside of the United States through the end of 2026 and into 2027. If that goes well, users should expect a wider rollout that will officially restrict Subreddits to those who have a username and password.

This isn’t the first controversial move Reddit has made recently to protect its business. Earlier this year, the company forced some users to download the Reddit app on their mobile devices in lieu of visiting Subreddits on the mobile web.

You should expect more companies to restrict their platforms as AI bots and agents run amok, otherwise unchecked, across the World Wide Web.

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​Ai bots, Artificial intelligence, Reddit, Data mining, Google, Tech 

A high school official in Wisconsin was arrested Wednesday for allegedly possessing child pornography, according to police.

Thomas William Johnson, 51, worked as a district administrator of Union Grove High School before he was arrested by the Racine County Sheriff’s Office.

‘There’s no excuse for it; it’s horrific. This is the type of thing we do not need around our students.’

The Racine County Sheriff’s Office referred the investigation to the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 27.

Investigators executed the search warrant at Johnson’s home on 52nd Street in Kenosha County on Wednesday and arrested the administrator.

They seized several electronic devices during the search.

Investigators submitted two counts of possession of child pornography for consideration by the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office.

Johnson was booked into the Kenosha County Jail on Wednesday at 7:21 a.m., according to jail records.

He has not been formally charged yet.

Parents at the high school were outraged by the allegations.

“You can’t have this sort of thing, period. There’s no excuse for it; it’s horrific. This is the type of thing we do not need around our students,” parent Richard Lesniak said to WISN-TV.

“It’s even worse that it’s someone that works with children,” parent Jan Wilkening said.

RELATED: Gruesome discovery made in Florida man’s backyard after he sent photo of his missing father to his mom, police say

“The protection of children is one of the most serious responsibilities of law enforcement. Allegations involving the sexual exploitation of children demand a thorough, deliberate, and impartial investigation,” Kenosha County Sheriff David Zoerner said in a statement.

“Our detectives will continue to follow the evidence wherever it leads, and we will work closely with the District Attorney’s Office to ensure this matter is addressed through the appropriate legal process,” he added. “Anyone who exploits children must be held accountable under the law.”

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​Child pornography, High school, Law enforcement, Wisconsin, Crime 

The midterm left me with a question: Why do Christians lose elections? Is it because there aren’t enough Christians left? Because the other side has more money? Because Christians aren’t politically organized? Was this merely an anti-Trump rage vote on Iran, ICE, tarrifs, or gas prices?

These explanations may account for some electoral defeats. But I want to suggest three deeper problems. And all three are theological.

Not every moral obligation belongs to government to enforce.

Do Christians understand what government is for?

Ask the average Christian what government is supposed to do, and you’re likely to hear answers drawn from contemporary political ideologies. Government should ensure equality, provide economic security, protect individual liberty, or maximize happiness.

These answers have their origins in competing philosophical traditions. Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, and Marx offered different accounts of government and its purpose. Christians frequently adopt these theories without recognizing their underlying assumptions.

But why start with human philosophers when God has already told us what government is for?

Romans 13 tells us that civil rulers are God’s servants. They are appointed to punish evil and commend good. Government does not create good and evil. It is accountable to a moral standard that precedes it.

This immediately raises the questions Christians should be asking: What is good, and what is evil? And how does God’s moral law apply to civil government? Instead, many Christians approach elections as consumers. Which candidate will give me the most benefits? Who will make my life easier? Who promises more money, services, and security? How can I improve my cost of living?

Christians misuse the Bible

When Christians do turn to the Bible, they will sometimes twist its meaning. It is remarkable to hear the left say that the nation is not Christian and then pick and choose a Bible verse to apply to the leftist ideology.

Consider Proverbs 31:8-9, which commands us to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves and defend the rights of the poor and needy. This is a clear biblical obligation. Christians must care about the poor, the vulnerable, and those suffering injustice. But what follows from this obligation?

Some Christians reason that because the Bible commands us to care for the poor, we must support socialism or even Marxism. They think these commands are for the nation-state rather than for the church and the individual Christian.

But this reasoning makes a fundamental mistake. The Bible commands us to help the poor, but it also commands those poor to obey the law of God. Under the law of Moses, a person who moved to Israel and set up shop for his idol would not be treated as an oppressed victim who must be given government assistance.

We must distinguish between the obligations of individuals, families, churches, and civil government. Not every moral obligation belongs to government to enforce.

Helping the poor is a Christian duty. The government helps the poor by following Romans 13. Whether a specific government policy also redistributes wealth, and whether that is what the Bible requires, is another question.

RELATED: Republicans need to be honest about why we lost

Adam Gray/Getty Images

Christians have lost their biblical vision for the nations

Proverbs 29:18 famously says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” This is the vision of the Great Commission. It is stated in Isaiah this way, “for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9) and in Matthew 28:19-20 this way “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Many Christians today operate with one of two inadequate visions.

The first is materialistic. The purpose of politics is to secure physical comfort. Government should provide more benefits, more services, and more economic security. Political success is measured by how much people receive.

The second is escapist. Christianity becomes little more than getting people saved so they can die and go to heaven. What happens to our laws, institutions, and national life is treated as secondary or irrelevant.

Neither vision captures the full scope of Christ’s command.

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus declares that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. On that basis, he commands his disciples to make disciples of all nations. Notice that Christ does not merely tell us to prepare individuals to leave this world. He commands us to disciple the nations and teach them to obey what God has commanded.

That does not mean government can force people to convert or that winning elections fulfills the Great Commission. But Christ’s authority is not confined to the interior lives of believers. Every institution (government, family, education, business) is transformed by the gospel.

The nations, including their rulers, are accountable to Him. Psalm 2 explicitly calls kings and rulers to serve the Lord. When Christians lose this vision, they may elect leaders whose principles undermine justice, attack religious liberty, or obstruct the church’s mission, and even work against the gospel, without recognizing the consequences.

Christians need to recover a biblical understanding of government, a faithful interpretation of Scripture, and a Great Commission vision for the nations. Until we do, even winning elections will not solve our deeper problem. We won’t know what to do with the victory.

​Christians, Elections, Midterms, Great commission, Bible, Biblical mandate, Trump, Ice, Iran, Marxism, Civil government, Gospel, Holy spirit, America, Opinion & analysis 

Republicans are depressed, panicked, and angry. It is hard to imagine much else after the Watergate-level beating they took Tuesday night. None were spared. Moderates, grassroots, MAHA, and neocons were caught alike in the blue squall, and unsurprisingly, predictions of doom abound.

Put aside the tired “pendulum swings” cope, however, and take a look at the landscape and what’s to come. There are plenty of reasons to take it all in stride. The future of the Grand Old Party, for starters, is alive and well (and may even have grown stronger in the winnowing). And just as importantly, that talented bench will have its day — because the Democrats have made clear they are determined to misinterpret their mandate.

It’s a dangerous time, but in crisis lies opportunity.

When Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson lost his left arm, his friend Gen. Robert E. Lee lost his boldest and most brilliant officer, reflecting at the time that Jackson was “better off than I am, for while you have only lost your left, I have lost my right arm.”

Who was the GOP’s right arm Tuesday night? Who was the key to the Republican future, lost too soon? There’s a strong case to be made for Iowa’s Zach Lahn, the mold-breaking MAHA populist who overcame the White House’s wishes to win his primary, but his story isn’t finished yet. So who else? Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall? Maine’s Susan Collins? Certainly not South Carolina’s Darline Graham. The Republican slate was anemic and uninspiring, and because of this reality, few rising stars can be found among the wreckage.

While the Lone Star State suffered the most impactful losses of the night and must be a critical priority for Republicans hoping to rebuild nationally, it is difficult to weep over the dead. Despite long claiming the crown of conservative state politics, the reality is that Texas is home to a corporatist establishment that seamlessly switched from importing illegal labor from Mexico to importing semi-legal labor from India when the national mood shifted — and got caught doing so.

While rightfully angry and unsatisfied, Texas’ grassroots expressed that anger by promoting creepy clowns like Allen West and creepy undertakers like Ken Paxton. Neither side possesses a talent or vision for the future. They’ll have two to four years to think on that and build something better.

Observers can rightfully notice that the GOP lost both of the national legislative chambers, but there is room for honest assessment there as well. Congress has spent decades bafflingly abnegating authority and is now the least powerful it has ever been. Furthermore, President Donald Trump made clear that he was largely done legislating anyway (to his detriment). Democrats’ reach is limited at best, despite their campaign promises.

RELATED: Republicans need to be honest about why we lost

Adam Gray/Getty Images

To their credit, Democrats ran largely disciplined campaigns. While Senators-elect Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico carried heavy Resistance baggage, voters barely ever heard them talk about that Resistance on the trail. For the first time in a decade, Democrats didn’t run on identity politics, Russia, Ukraine, or the Resistance. They utterly ditched the problems of the Ivy League faculty lounge for the problems of everyday Americans, including even those of straight, white, Christian men.

Their focus was entirely domestic and hit on the economy, the war, and the prices of gas and diesel.

They won on that message, but before the sun rose Wednesday, there were dozens of threats to investigate and imprison Republicans from California to Washington. The campaign was a ruse, but it worked. Right now, it is hard to imagine a world where national Democrats will stay on the targets voters sent them to Washington for. Rather, they’ll go for revenge.

The temptation to investigate and prosecute is strong. The insider trading among top White House lieutenants and Cabinet officials is the envy of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Hunter Biden’s art sales look cute next to the Trump family’s international business dealings. There was a time when these sorts of investigations might have a major political impact, but those days are gone.

The hard reality is that those unscrupulous sitting White House officers enriching themselves likely didn’t break any laws, reducing Democrats’ message to “shady-shady-profit-profit.” For years, Republicans have tried to make the same narrative stick to the likes of Pelosi and George Soros, while smarter Democrats than incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) targeted the Kochs. All these attacks ever accomplished were a sea of partisan media segments and bumper sticker sales to party activists. It’s complicated stuff, and Americans are more focused on affording groceries and utilities.

Of course, Democrats can try to nail it all on the presidents’ kids instead, but after years of trying that game with Russia and then Ukraine, it’s hard to imagine it working with the Saudis or whoever else. Sure, Rachel Maddow’s fan club will be incensed, but if history is any guide, the public will neither follow nor much care.

They will care if inflation isn’t handled. They will care a great deal if energy and food prices don’t come down They will be angry when they get the cable news outrage segments Congress long ago substituted for substantive legislative action.

And they will be angry at Democrats.

RELATED: Let them eat capital gains: Trump’s ‘Marie Antoinette’ presidency

ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP/Getty Images

On the campaign trail in 2016, the two most incredible spectacles were the Donald J. Trump and the Bernie Sanders shows. The energy and the outrage were electric.

No American leader has yet to approach satisfying that discontent; the frustrations were real and have only grown. Washington is still a swamp, America is still too entangled in foreign wars, and while the border is closed, the pace of legal and illegal demographic change has still deeply unsettled the people and the economy. It’s a dangerous time, but in crisis lies opportunity.

At the Korean War’s Battle of Chosin Reservoir, storied Marine Gen. Lewis “Chesty” Puller reportedly exclaimed, “They’ve got us surrounded! Good! Now we can fire in any direction.” Republicans actually do have that chance in just two years. Waves recede, and there are dozens and dozens of R+ districts that will be up for grabs for a new crop of populist candidates eager to learn the lessons of the elders’ failures and champion the kind of politics Americans are demanding.

The bench is strong, the board is cleared for the next generation, Democrat overreach in all the wrong directions is inevitable, and the next elections will come. This isn’t about “pendulum swings”; it’s about hard work. Best get to it.

​Donald trump, Gas prices, Grassroots, Illegal labor, Insider trading, James talarico, Ken paxton, Maha, Republicans, American politics, 2026 midterms, Gop, Opinion & analysis 

Tuesday’s midterms were a blue-wave rout that handed Democrats both chambers of Congress and flipped deep-red seats, dealing a sharp blow to Trump and the GOP.

Even so, voters still backed a series of conservative ballot measures, including voter ID, a citizenship requirement to vote, and tax reductions. Even Washington voted to approve Initiative 638 to keep biological males out of girls’ sports.

So how do you explain the split?

BlazeTV host Nick Freitas tells Glenn Beck the apparent contradiction is no contradiction at all.

“If you look at what happened in Ohio, in North Carolina, in Kansas, in Iowa, in a lot of these states, they voted straight Democrat. Republicans showed up and voted for a Democrat politician,” Freitas says, “but then went right over to the ballot measure and voted for voter ID, voted for U.S. citizenship as a requirement to actually vote, voted to reduce taxes.”

Their motive? Prove a point, he says.

“We saw people show up and [say], ‘I’m going to vote for Republican principles, but I’m going to vote against the Republicans that failed to actually produce them,”’ he tells Glenn.

Even with a Democratic-controlled Congress ahead, Freitas sees a clear silver lining: “I don’t think it’s our overall philosophy that lost last night. I think what it was was weak, feckless Republican leaders that failed to deliver on their promises.”

“What a lot of people said, regardless of whether we like it or think it’s a good strategy … was, ‘I would rather burn the country to the ground than vote for one more Republican that lies to me.’”

But now that Democrats control Congress and will almost certainly slash funding for the Iran war, Glenn is concerned about Trump’s options.

Check out the full conversation above, where Glenn and Nick go deeper on what comes next — including the Iran war, Elon Musk, and the growing instability in Europe.

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​Nick freitas, Glenn beck, Midterm elections, Blazetv show 

The stock market reacted positively to the results of the midterm elections on Wednesday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped by 1,600 points.

The 3% gain in the Dow Jones was the largest so far this year. The S&P 500 index gained 1.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 1.4%.

‘The elections are leading the market to conclude that Trump might now be inclined to make a deal.’

Vital Knowledge founder and market analyst Adam Crisafulli said the indices were responding positively to closing another election.

“Investors are happy to have the midterms out of the way,” he said. “This was a major source of uncertainty, and putting it in the rear-view mirror removes a key obstacle heading into a very favorable time of year seasonally.”

The price of U.S. crude oil also fell by 8.3% to around $88.12 a barrel in hopes that the military operation in Iran might come to an end.

“The elections are leading the market to conclude that Trump might now be inclined to make a deal,” said Lipow Oil Associates president Andy Lipow.

The president appeared to take credit for the stock market highs in a post on social media.

“Stock Market just hit another Record High — 91 Days in just a short period of time — Less than two years. Your 401(k)s are through the roof. Record Setting All!” he wrote on Truth Social.

Some analysts said the gridlock of a divided government reduces volatility and eases uncertainty in the business community.

RELATED: Oil and stock markets have surprising reaction to Iranian attack on US bases

Frustration over the economy was one of the main drivers of the success for Democrats in the elections, according to exit polling.

The president acknowledged Americans’ anger over high gas prices in an interview with Fox News after the election.

“I think it’s the gasoline price,” he said. “People agree with what I’m doing on Iran, but they really probably weren’t willing to do the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline, and that, you know, I understand that.”

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​Crude oil, Dow jones, Midterm elections, Oil prices, Stock market, Politics 

The black family is in crisis, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the agendas of the nation’s leading black organizations. That’s the argument author Delano Squires made on “Cite Your Source” with feminist influencer Angela Rye — but she and her panel weren’t having it.

Squires pointed out to the panel that “every time the NAACP has a national conference, the National Urban League has a national conference, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies has a national conference, the Congressional Black Caucus has a national conference … I either go to the agenda or I show up, and I look to see state of the black family, decline in black marriage rates — nothing.”

“I was at CBC last month. Nothing about marriage,” he added.

“I think that we all care about the preservation of the family,” Rye argued. “I think what’s tough here is there were still some illogical leaps that were made around the content of those conversations. For example, I was at the NAACP, so this is a primary source talking.”

Rye went on to use the family of Nolan Wells as an example of why family is talked about in the black community.

“So, there are conversations we have around family, but they are intersectional conversations, a term that was coined by the amazing Kimberlé Crenshaw. And intersectionality has a lot to do with why you may not see marriage or family on a panel by itself, but it’s absolutely discussed,” she continued.

Squires fired back that “in this country, 70% of black children are born to unmarried parents.”

“In New York City, it’s 75%. In D.C., it’s 77%. In Baltimore, it’s 83%. In Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, it’s 82%. The idea that we would be,” he said, before Rye interrupted and said, “Delano, cite your source.”

Squires laughed and responded, “the Center for Disease Control. Look up final birth data.”

“I’m not talking about whether we discuss issues facing black families. I’m talking about the decline of the married, two-parent household. Let me be very specific with my language. And what I’m saying is that marriage and family structure policy is not a priority on the institutions that claim to represent black people,” he continued.

“What is marriage and family structure policy? What does that even mean? Is it having a fair job that pays a fair wage? Is it health care access? Is it quality education?” one panelist interrupted.

“It’s having access to your dad on an everyday basis because he’s married to your mom,” Squires said.

“Black people don’t seem to value marriage the way we used to,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock tells Squires after watching the clip. “Can we just talk about why that is and how we can correct that without connecting it to, ‘Well, if we had more jobs, if people weren’t locked up’?”

Squires tells Whitlock that he was not “shocked or surprised in the least” by the panel’s responses to him.

“Black leaders deny the problem,” he says, explaining that there’s “dismissal, defensiveness, deflection.”

“So, it didn’t surprise me in the least bit, and it was actually instructive and helpful because I think what it did, it exposed the type of thinking that is prevalent in our community,” Squires added. “It’s a complete refusal to take responsibility for anything that we have agency and control over and always pivoting to some other secondary or tertiary issue.”

“It was clear that, by their response, that they weren’t willing to actually engage that point,” he adds.

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​Black family crisis, Delano squires, Jason whitlock, Blazetv show, Angela rye 

An Arizona man conspired with an online stranger to have the man’s fiancée sexually assaulted at their home while the couple’s two young children were inside, according to authorities.

The Buckeye Police Department said in a statement that officers responded to a residence around 6 p.m. Oct. 16.

‘The more you threaten her, the more she’ll get into it.’

“A woman reported that she was home with her two children when an unknown man walked into her house and attacked her,” police stated. “The victim fought off the suspect, who then left the scene before officers arrived.”

The alleged victim said her attacker tried to strangle her, and she retaliated by punching, kicking, and choking her assailant.

Court documents said the alleged assailant also kicked the mother’s 17-month-old daughter, which caused the toddler to fall and hit her head on a baby gate.

The woman said her 2-month-old son was sleeping in a bedroom during the altercation.

Investigators recovered home security video of the altercation between the mother and the suspect, identified by police as 20-year-old Adrian Ayala.

KTVK-TV reported, “In home security video of the assault, Ayala can be heard telling the victim that her partner sent him to sexually assault her. Ayala told the victim he met her partner on Reddit, police said.”

Investigators identified the woman’s fiancé as 23-year-old Zarian Dyer, who allegedly conspired with Ayala to orchestrate the attack.

Law enforcement officers said they discovered that Dyer and Ayala were exchanging messages on Reddit.

KPNX-TV reported that the account linked to Ayala sent a message asking if the woman was “in on” the plan, but the other account responded by saying, “Nope.”

According to court records, a message from the account allegedly connected to Dyer stated: “You can’t tell her I told you or sent you either. You just gotta do it. I understand if it’s too much.”

A message from the alleged Ayala account asked if they could get in trouble, and the reply advised Ayala to “run to your car and leave, and we can pretend this didn’t happen.”

Court records indicate that a message from Ayala’s alleged account said he would “have to back out” because he was “not comfortable if she not into it.”

Court documents show that a message from Dyer’s alleged account stated, “The more you threaten her, the more she’ll get into it.”

Around 5 p.m. on the day of the alleged assault, a message from Dyer’s alleged account urged Ayala to “get here faster” because he was attempting to “fake kill time” at a nearby grocery store, according to court documents.

Court documents said police obtained video showing Dyer at a grocery store around 5:30 p.m. Oct. 16 but that he left after approximately 10 minutes, and he didn’t purchase anything.

A message from Dyer’s alleged account to Ayala at 5:57 p.m. read: “Time’s up bro” and told him to “run away when she gets bad.”

According to court documents, a 6:04 p.m. message from Ayala’s alleged account stated: “I’m so sorry.”

Police said a response from Dyer’s alleged account read, “I’m deleting this account. You should too.”

According to KTVK, Dyer told police that when he arrived at the home, he jumped out of the car and began chasing Ayala. The station added that Dyer claimed the two got into a fight before Ayala took off — but police said home video showed Dyer sitting in his car for 44 seconds before chasing Ayala.

Court records stated that the alleged victim claimed Ayala attempted to remove her clothes, but she was able to escape.

A neighbor heard the woman screaming, so she called police, according to court documents, which added that Ayala told the alleged victim, “Your boyfriend told me you’d be into this.”

Investigators identified Ayala through license plate camera data and vehicle records.

The alleged victim said Dyer had gone to the grocery store when the incident took place.

Ayala, of Goodyear, was arrested the next day.

KSAZ-TV reported that when Ayala was arrested, he reportedly told investigators the he “went to the victim’s home after meeting her fiancé online and entering into an agreement with him to sexually assault the victim.”

RELATED: Father sexually abuses teen girl while flying with his wife and 4 kids — victim captures ‘appalling act’ on video

Detectives seized electronic devices belonging to both Ayala and Dyer, according to court records.

Buckeye Police noted that “in reviewing data from those devices, investigators found evidence that Ayala and Dyer were communicating about the planned assault.”

Dyer has denied the accusations, according to police.

When confronted with information about the Reddit messages, Dyer “remained quiet with his head down,” court documents indicated.

“Each thing Zarian was confronted with, he did not answer directly and deflected to go onto another topic,” court records said, according to KTVK.

Dyer was arrested and hit with eight charges, including aggravated assault, sexual abuse, attempted sexual assault, kidnapping, and conspiracy — and his bond was set at $500,000.

Police said a motive was not initially known.

“This case involved the defendant using social media to set up the sexual assault of his girlfriend, the mother of his children, on the co-conspirator’s phone,” prosecutors stated.

Buckeye Police Department media manager Carissa Planalp told KTVK, “We’re fortunate that the injuries were not serious. But investigators knew that they had to develop the information they needed to hold those accountable. It was a very scary, terrifying situation for this family.”

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​Arizona, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Conspiracy, Physical attack, Crime 

An elderly male was caught on a viral video slapping the face of a much younger Turning Point worker at a New Hampshire polling site on Election Day.

The Laconia Police Department said in a Wednesday news release that it was called just after 2:40 p.m. Tuesday to Woodland Heights Elementary School, the Ward 5 polling location, for a reported assault.

‘You sit there and dare to look me in the face and say I don’t know anything!’

Upon arrival, police said the victim indicated he was at the Turning Point USA informational booth — which was located outside — when a male approached him to read a poem about rich people.

The victim stated that he and the male engaged in a debate, but as the conversation continued, the male suspect became more agitated, police said.

The victim told police the male became very aggressive, raising his voice and yelling at the victim before striking the victim with the back of his right hand across the right side of the victim’s face.

RELATED: ‘F**king rabid’ leftist female physically attacks conservative Jewish influencer during free-speech event at U. of Michigan: Video

The above news video shows a redacted version of the incident, but you can view the raw clip here, which has been viewed 2 million times.

“You have no idea who I am, so how dare you say I don’t know much?” the elderly male hollers at the younger conservative worker, according to the video.

“You haven’t presented a single statistic,” the worker quietly replies before the elderly male shoots back, “Neither have you! Goddamn! I cannot believe that bulls**t! You sit there and dare to look me in the face and say I don’t know anything!”

With that, the elderly male gets closer to the conservative worker, appears to raise his middle finger just inches from the worker’s face, says, “That’s what I know,” and slaps the worker’s face with the back of his hand — as an audible thud can be heard. He then concludes with a hearty “F**k you!”

The victim doesn’t utter a word or place his hands on his assailant in response.

Others nearby can be heard protesting the physical attack as the elderly male quickly walks away and drops several more F-bombs.

Police said they located video evidence as well as several witnesses — and the male suspect was identified as Stephen Redic, 70, of Laconia.

Police said an arrest warrant was generated, and the suspect was arrested at 7:42 a.m. Wednesday.

Police said Redic was charged with one count of simple assault, a class A misdemeanor, and one count of disorderly conduct.

Police said Redic will be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 10 in Laconia.

Redic told WMUR-TV the video tells only part of the story, but he added to the station that his actions were inexcusable and that he apologizes.

Laconia Police told WMUR they have never dealt with Redic before.

“I think, certainly, there are two different sides to this,” Laconia Police Chief Matt Canfield noted to the station. “I think that this gentleman was very heated and very opinionated in his viewpoint, which led to him becoming agitated, and it just built and built and built until he eventually assaulted him.”

Turning Point Action posted the raw video of the attack. The organization notes in its X bio that “we register voters, we recruit precinct leaders, and we chase ballots” — and that Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk founded the group.

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​Crime, New hampshire, Midterm elections, Arrest, Leftist violence, Turning point, Politics 

A man who identifies as a transgender woman flipped a seat in the Alabama state House to the Democratic column in the devastating midterm elections.

Allison Montgomery obtained 53.2% of the vote to unseat the Republican incumbent state Rep. Phillip Rigsby, who garnered 46.7% of the vote.

Montgomery’s victory came on the coattails of a monumental midterm collapse of the Republican Party.

The 32-year-old Episcopalian won the district despite it supporting Rigsby by 16 points in 2022.

Montgomery’s victory, along with one other victory, expanded Democratic representation in Alabama to 31 seats, but Republicans continue to have the upper hand with 74 seats.

“The culture war stuff is all to keep us from uniting and being stronger than the billionaires,” Montgomery said in a campaign video posted to social media.

“They are making sure we have less of a chance to stand up to businesses who want to abuse our state and exploit our workers,” he added. “I’m not gonna let that happen to Alabama. It stops with us, with my generation of legislators. That’s what I’m all about.”

Montgomery’s victory came on the coattails of a monumental midterm collapse of the Republican party.

RELATED: Sen. Tuberville gets mocked for warning about pilots with ‘deranged fetish’ — then he brings the receipts

Democrats were able to seize control of both chambers of Congress, presumably based on frustration and anger from voters about inflation and the state of the economy after the military operation in Iran.

President Donald Trump initially released a defiant statement but has since said that he’s willing to work with Democrats.

Montgomery meanwhile said after his victory that he would work “especially hard” for those with hatred for him.

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​Billionaires, Culture war, Midterm elections, Republican party, Transgender woman, Politics 

In case you missed the big announcement during our midterm election coverage, Jesse Kelly is joining BlazeTV!

Heard on more than 260 radio stations nationwide, Jesse Kelly has built an audience of millions with his signature mix of sharp wit, unapologetic commentary, and fearless opinions.

With millions of podcast downloads annually and a loyal national radio audience, Jesse has established himself as one of the most recognizable voices in conservative talk radio.

Now he is bringing that same energy to BlazeTV.

“The Jesse Kelly Show” will be available soon on BlazeTV, joining our lineup of independent voices committed to delivering the news, analysis, and commentary you won’t find in the mainstream media.

We’re thrilled to welcome Jesse to the BlazeTV family, and we can’t wait for you to watch.

Stay tuned for more details on when you can catch “The Jesse Kelly Show” on BlazeTV!

​Blazetv, Conservative radio, Jesse kelly, Mainstream media, News analysis, Radio stations 

Republican former Gov. Paul LePage has declared victory in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, though the race’s official winner has yet to be called.

LePage claimed victory over state auditor Matt Dunlap, who has been at the helm during a period of unprecedented home health care fraud tied to the Somali community. The former governor claimed victory at Sea Dog Brewing Company in Bangor on Wednesday afternoon.

‘I believe you follow the money, you recover the funds, and you prosecute the fraudsters.’

Dunlap has not conceded.

With 10% of the vote outstanding, it’s possible the outcome changes. However, given the projected margins, it appears unlikely that Dunlap can eke out a win.

Maine’s 2nd District covers most of Maine north of Augusta and went for President Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024.

LePage didn’t shy away from Trump on the campaign trail.

RELATED: Straight talk: JD Vance blames midterm loss on Iran conflict and US’ relationship with Israel

Carl D. Walsh/Portland Portland Press Herald/Getty Images

“I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular,” LePage said in 2016.

Both Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) campaigned for LePage as well.

LePage is confident that his unique personality and political pedigree have led him to victory in the Pine Tree State.

“The public numbers have us up about 4,000, and the team has been calling all the towns that haven’t come in yet, and there’s no path to victory for my opponent,” LePage said, according to the Maine Wire.

LePage honed in on his opponent’s entanglement in Maine’s migrant-driven fraud crisis.

“Matt Dunlap and his boss, [Gov.] Janet Mills, are purposefully not taking fraud seriously in the state of Maine,” LePage said in Lewiston on Oct. 27, according to WGME.

“I believe you follow the money, you recover the funds, and you prosecute the fraudsters,” LePage said.

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​Donald trump, Election results, Janet mills, Polarization, Vote counting, Politics, Maine 

A politician who lost his campaign for comptroller in Texas lambasted the Republican leadership in a fiery speech to his supporters on election night.

Don Huffines excoriated Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who both lost their re-election contests to Democrats.

‘They never cared about you. I served with them. They laugh and make fun of you.’

“It’s gonna be almost impossible to win this state back,” said Huffines in video posted to social media early Wednesday.

“I blame it on our leadership; I just do. I blame this on Greg Abbott. I blame it on Dan Patrick. I blame it on all the mushy middle people that want to think they’re in the middle. ‘We want to make everybody happy.’ Well, you sure did a good job of this mess!” he added.

Huffines said that Texans had gotten tired of Abbott and Patrick after they sought a fourth term in office.

“I hope they’re happy. Because now we’re all gonna suffer. I blame it all on our leadership,” he continued.

“People are tired of the Republicans being in office. They couldn’t campaign on a policy issue. If they campaigned on lowering your property tax, guess what: All that did was remind everybody why you didn’t do it 12 years ago,” Huffines said. “And that’s a fact!”

Then he got personal.

“They didn’t do it 12 years ago because they don’t care about you. They never cared about you. I served with them. They laugh and make fun of you and the grassroots. They never cared about our party platform! And they still don’t. They don’t care. They don’t care at all,” he said.

“I don’t know if they care they lost tonight. But I know there’s a lot of people that care. There’s a lot of great patriots. What are we gonna do?” Huffines asked rhetorically.

“Who are you gonna call?” he concluded. “There’s no one left.”

RELATED: Texas candidate says she will convert ICE center into camp to jail ‘American Zionists’

Texas Republicans lost the governorship, the lieutenant governor’s race, and one of the state’s seats in the U.S. Senate. The astounding losses helped propel Democrats to easily take over the U.S. House of Representatives as well as the Senate.

Huffines lost his campaign for comptroller to Sarah Eckhardt, who will become the first Democrat to win the comptroller’s office since the last millennium.

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​Election night, Greg abbott, Republican party, Texas, Politics 

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over going into this midterm election 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.”

Everyone knows why we lost, and any honest conversation about where we go from here needs to start there.

Well, that opinion looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was nine 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 arguing and finger-pointing over why that happened. A pollster I highly respect told me that our economic messaging down the stretch was not sharp enough to motivate voters. I’m sure that is 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 prediction. 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:

End the Iran war.Focus on the cost of living and inflation.Put America and Americans first.Change our relationship to Israel.

These four priorities are why many of our voters showed up to vote for Democrats yesterday, according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many people spent the day before the elections attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the Iran war, it turns out her political advice was perfectly sound. (She’s also a great person.)

RELATED: Trump’s 2024 coalition was a loan. The bill just came due.

Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Over the next few months, there is going to be a lot of gaslighting. You can expect to hear any number of establishment politicians claim the solution to our woes is amnesty for illegal immigrants. I’m open to the idea that we should change our approach to immigration enforcement — by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. For the record, anyone pushing amnesty as a solution to our electoral issues is lying to you.

The reason we lost the midterms is the Iran war. The president himself said so last night.

If you want to argue that it was worth it — that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it — then go right ahead. At least arguing that it was a worthwhile price to pay is honest. But everyone knows why we lost, and any honest conversation about where we go from here needs to start there.

I remain hopeful for our country. My message to the people who are angry and want to say “I told you so” is simple: You’re right. You did tell us so. Now take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview and priorities. To the people who are just angry at the results: You should be.

Let’s take this anger and use it to get back to the work of saving our country.

Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally posted on X.

​America first, Cost of living, Immigration enforcement, Iran war, Midterm election, Rachel campos duffy, Trump 2024, Voter turnout, Illegal immigrants, Amnesty, Gop, Affordability, Gas prices, Democrats, Midterms, Opinion & analysis