A Republican state senator in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/louisiana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louisiana</a> joined Democrats on a vote to kill a bill that would ban <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/transgender-surgery" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transgender surgeries</a> on children in the state. 
Republican state Senator <a href="https://senate.la.gov/smembers?ID=22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fred Mills</a> joined Democrats in a <a href="https://twitter.com/SaraLCline/status/1661428182732492801" target="_blank" rel="noopener">5-4 vote</a> on the Health and Welfare Committee to block the advancement of a <a href="https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1322786" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a> that would have banned using cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and surgery “to alter a minor&#8217;s appearance in an attempt to validate a minor&#8217;s perception of his sex, if the minor&#8217;s perception is inconsistent with his sex.”
The bill had previously passed the House in a vote of 71-24, before it was moved along to the Republican-dominated state Senate. Included in the bill was a prohibition on transgender surgeries, including those “that artificially constructs tissue having the appearance of genitalia differing from the minor&#8217;s sex, including metoidioplasty,  phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty.”
It was sponsored by Republican Representative Gabe Firment and called the “Stop Harming Our Kids Act.”  
<div dir="auto">&#8220;I am very disappointed in the outcome of today’s Senate Health &amp; Welfare committee meeting. HB648 simply protects Louisiana’s children from experimental and often irreversible sex change procedures. The legislation passed easily through the House with bipartisan support, and I am confident that the full Senate would have passed this important legislation that is overwhelmingly supported by the people of Louisiana.  It is unfortunate that the voice of the people was silenced today in a state Senate committee room. Louisiana remains the only state in the South to allow its children to be harmed by these experimental procedures, but we will keep fighting to pass this legislation and protect Louisiana’s children no matter the cost and despite the forces aligned against us,&#8221; he said in a statement obtained by The Daily Wire.</div>
<div dir="auto"></div>
<div dir="auto">During his testimony at the hearing, Firment said that the transgender treatment industry was lucrative for those involved.</div>
“Senators, when you hear testimony from those in the healthcare field opposed to this bill, I want you to consider how lucrative these experimental procedures are for the gender industry. A single subcutaneous implant of a puberty blocking agent can cost up to $50,000,” Firment added. “We know that starting kids on puberty blockers practically always leads to injecting children with extraordinary doses of wrong-sex hormones, then to mutilating surgeries, and then to being lifelong customers of the gender industry and big pharma.” 
Firment said that he was worried that Louisiana would become a destination for people in other states in the South to bring their kids for transgender procedures since lawmakers have taken action in nearby Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. 
Mills, a pharmacist, who some conservatives criticized on Twitter for taking <a href="https://eap.ethics.la.gov/CFSearch/LA-108726.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">campaign donations</a> from pharmaceutical groups like Pfizer and PHRMA, has been in office since 2011. The Daily Wire has reached out to Mills’ office for comment on his vote. 
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BREAKING: After passing the House, a bill in Louisiana that would have banned pediatric sex changes just failed in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee because &#39;Republican&#39; State Senator Fred Mills voted with Democrats to kill it.
One look at his donors shows massive… <a href="https://t.co/JFhBvHc5q4">pic.twitter.com/JFhBvHc5q4</a>
&mdash; Greg Price (@greg_price11) <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1661442800976527360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 24, 2023</a></blockquote>
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“I&#8217;ve always in my heart of hearts believed that a decision should be made by a patient and a physician. I believe in the physicians in Louisiana, I believe people that are licensed by the Board of Medical Examiners are well regulated,” Mills said during the hearing, claiming that it was the job of the board of medical examiners to ensure there was no malpractice related to the transgender procedures. 
It was <a href="https://www.nola.com/gambit/news/the_latest/louisiana-wont-ban-gender-affirming-care-for-minors-in-rare-win-for-lgbtq-community/article_98dd09b4-fa64-11ed-a7e2-032201ff3476.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that Democrat Governor John Bel Edward had been pushing lawmakers to block the bill. Since Louisiana Republicans have a supermajority in both chambers, they could have overturned a veto if the bill made it out of the Senate. 
At least <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nebraska-becomes-18th-state-to-ban-transgender-surgeries-on-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">18 other states have passed measures</a> that ban life-altering transgender surgeries on children.

Sen. Mills

Louisiana Republican Blocks Bill That Would Have Banned Transgender Surgeries On Children

Big Pharma

John Bel Edwards

Louisiana

transgender surgery

U.S.

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/louisiana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louisiana</a> police detective said race motivated two black suspects to kill a white handyman last month.
A detective with the Kenner Police Department testified in court last week that one of the two suspects arrested in connection with Lawrence Herr’s killing on April 10 admitted under questioning that race was a factor.
Police arrested two black men – Tahj Matthews, 23, and Maurice Holmes, 25 – on April 11 and charged the pair with murdering Herr, 66, while he was installing a mailbox the day prior. At the time of the arrest, Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley said police suspected that the murder was more than a random shooting.
“One of the suspects did say they were on a random shooting binge and wanted to commit a murder, we think there may be ulterior motives and that&#8217;s what the detectives are investigating,” Conley said.
The lead detective on the case said in court that Matthews told police that the suspects targeted Herr because they “wanted to kill a white person,” according to <a href="https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/crime/kenner-murder-crime-handyman-killed-while-on-rounds/289-4365dbfd-4ad1-4978-b7b2-03979c86faae" target="_blank" rel="noopener">4WWL</a>.
Herr <a href="https://www.wdsu.com/article/louisiana-maintenance-man-murdered/43580266" target="_blank" rel="noopener">died</a> at a local hospital after he was found in a driveway after being shot in the back. Police said the suspects can be seen in video footage driving past Herr three times before opening fire on the handyman.
Police at the time said they had secured a confession from one of the two suspects arrested, and that the man had implicated the other in the confession. Police said that the two suspects had met only two weeks prior to the slaying.
Herr was known as “Peanut” to many of his friends and family. A longtime friend, Jean Foster, <a href="https://www.wdsu.com/article/family-of-maintenance-man-shot-dead-remembered/43606162" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> him as “a great person, a beautiful person.”
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“Who did that to him and why would they do that to him? He was a great person, a beautiful person. He was an angel to us,” she said.
“They took away my family, my friend, my angel, my everything. They took him away from us and for that, they deserve to suffer the consequences. They did the crime, they need to do the time,” she continued.

Police line

Black Suspects Killed Handyman Because They ‘Wanted To Kill A White Person’: Police Detective

Black Men Killed Handyman Because They ‘Wanted To Kill A White Person’: Police Detective

Crime

A dead body was found in an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/restaurant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Arby’s</a> walk-in freezer in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/louisiana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louisiana</a> this week, prompting an investigation from police. 
The body belonged to a manager of an Arby’s restaurant in New Iberia, Louisiana, and the death is believed to be an accident, according to police. The body was found around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. 
“So it was an employee that discovered the female deceased inside the cooler, [and] the deceased is an employee of the restaurant,” New Iberia Police Captain Leland Laseter, the head of criminal investigations, <a href="https://www.kadn.com/news/investigator-tells-news-15-body-found-in-new-iberia-arbys-freezer-was-woman-employee-death/article_d18e8d96-f087-11ed-959d-637ff39f180a.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> KADN News 15.
“A situation like this is unusual, so we’re taking extra precautions during the investigation,&#8221; Laseter added. &#8220;[We] pretty much have completed our process at the crime scene. After completely processing the crime scene &#8230; this does not seem like a homicide, it seems like an accident.”
Laseter acknowledged that the death did seem “suspicious” but said police had not yet uncovered any evidence of “foul play.” He added that “nothing is set in stone” and said that they were still waiting for medical examiners to determine the cause of death. 
“We&#8217;re going to re-examine all the evidence tomorrow and they&#8217;re going to conduct an autopsy to give us the cause and manner of death. So there are a few more steps that we need to take before a [final] determination is made,” he said. 
The woman’s name has not yet been released. 
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Arby’s responded to the news by releasing a <a href="https://www.wafb.com/2023/05/12/body-found-freezer-new-iberia-arbys-was-employee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> saying that it would be cooperating with police and deferring any comment to investigators. 
“We are aware of the incident that took place at our franchised location in New Iberia, LA,” the statement said. &#8220;The franchisee is cooperating fully with local authorities as they conduct their investigation. Due to this being an active investigation, we defer any further comment to the police department.&#8221;
New Iberia, a city of around 28,000, is located in the southern portion of the state, not far from Lafayette. 
Last year, an Arby’s in Washington also earned unwanted attention after police said that they discovered videos of a night manager urinating in in milkshake mix. Police were investigating the man on suspicion of obtaining and distributing child pornography. 
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-investigating-arbys-manager-for-child-porn-find-video-of-him-peeing-in-milkshake-mix" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Police Investigating Arby’s Manager For Child Porn Find Video Of Him Peeing In Milkshake Mix</a>

An Arby’s Restaurant In Dawsonville, Georgia

Police Investigating ‘Suspicous Death’ After Dead Body Found In Arby’s Freezer

Death

Restaurant

A Louisiana woman claimed during a Tuesday hearing that an unusual affinity for &#8220;raw green vegetables&#8221; was one of the clues that led her to believe her daughter would identify as transgender.
The woman appeared before the Louisiana State House&#8217;s Health and Welfare Committee to speak ahead of a vote on HB 463, which would ban so-called &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/florida-senate-passes-bill-banning-minors-from-having-gender-reassignment-surgery-desantis-florida-house-likely-to-make-it-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gender-affirming</a>&#8221; surgical <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/iowa-bans-transgender-procedures-on-minors-trans-identifying-students-from-using-public-facilities-opposite-of-biological-sex" target="_blank" rel="noopener">procedures for minors</a>, and she laid out some of the signs that had stood out to her prior to her daughter&#8217;s eventual announcement that she identified as male.
WATCH:
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A woman testifying to the Louisiana House of Reps against HB 463, which would ban pediatric gender mutilation, says that she knew her daughter was actually a boy because &quot;her food choices were odd. They were always raw green vegetables.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/ts7wFpG5W8">pic.twitter.com/ts7wFpG5W8</a>
&mdash; Greg Price (@greg_price11) <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1653439989080784916?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2023</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;We couldn&#8217;t figure out what the problem was. We took him to specialists, neurologists, and had brain scans trying to figure out why he couldn&#8217;t sleep,&#8221; the woman began, explaining that her child had exhibited anxiety and trouble sleeping over a long period of time. &#8220;Then as he grew, he got to sleeping but his food choices were odd. They were always like green vegetables, raw green vegetables — which, you know kids, most kids don&#8217;t like to eat those things.&#8221;
&#8220;All of those things, once we figured out that he was transgender, when he came to us and told us that he was transgender, when we went back and realized that the pattern of everything that he had experienced as a child — including eating green vegetables because that boosts testosterone — were just methods of his body trying to become who he was meant to be,&#8221; she concluded. &#8220;His brain does not match his physiology.&#8221;
And while there may be <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323759#top-8-testosterone-boosting-foods" target="_blank" rel="noopener">some truth</a> to the notion that raw green vegetables — particularly Swiss chard, kale, and spinach, which are high in magnesium — could have a positive impact on testosterone levels, the same could be said of other foods such as pomegranates, oysters, certain fishes, onions, and raw ginger.
Another mother who testified at the same hearing said that she first knew her daughter would eventually identify as male because at 18 months old, the child gravitated toward &#8220;boy&#8221; toys during a shopping trip.
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This lady says that she had a gut feeling that her daughter was a boy when she liked to play with male toys when she was 18 months old and is now going to start &quot;gender affirming care&quot; at 11 years old. <a href="https://t.co/cEV2jVZ845">pic.twitter.com/cEV2jVZ845</a>
&mdash; Greg Price (@greg_price11) <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1653444880457138185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Farm-to-Table Operations at Moonacres

Woman Claims ‘Green Vegetables’ Convinced Her That Her Child Was Transgender

Woman Claims 'Green Vegetables' Convinced Her That Her Child Was Transgender

Social Issues

Transgender

Pornography giant PornHub has blocked all residents of Utah from accessing its content, a day before a state law goes into effect that will allow websites to be sued if they enable minors to view their videos.
A Utah <a href="https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bills/static/SB0287.html">bill</a> called “Online Pornography Viewing Age Requirements” was passed unanimously by both chambers and signed into law in March by Gov. Spencer Cox. It goes into effect Wednesday. The law says that sites “shall be held liable if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of an individual attempting to access the material.”
But the bill also discusses a “digitized identification card” connected to a “state-approved application” — which the adult industry says doesn’t exist.
The bill says as an alternative to a state digital ID, sites can use any “reasonable method” that “relies on public or private transactional data” or data “available from a commercially available database” to verify someone’s age and identity.
On Tuesday, Alison Boden of the Free Speech Coalition, which represents the adult industry, wrote to the bill’s state Senate sponsor, Todd Weiler, that, “despite consulting over a dozen lawyers, I must admit I&#8217;m stumped. The law is so vague — and the requirements for compliance so contradictory — I cannot figure out how FSC members can follow this law.”
“Utah does not have a system for verifying a Mobile Driver&#8217;s License online,” she said. As for third-party, commercial databases, “his language seems to imply that age verification providers must contract with data brokers — an option with significant privacy issues for Utahns. This is especially so since the law does not require providers to meet any of the security standards used by reputable age verification services.”
“Without unambiguous guidance, we fear that even sites that make a good-faith effort to comply risk being sued, even if they are using more aggressive methods of age verification,” she wrote.
Louisiana passed a similar law last year and it was signed in June 2022 by the state’s Democrat governor. &#8220;They are complying with Louisiana&#8217;s law, which is essentially the same. So I expect they will eventually comply with Utah’s as well,&#8221; Weiler told local TV station <a href="https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/pornhub-blocks-utah-in-protest-of-new-age-verification-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FOX 13</a>.
But that state’s government provides a mobile app that holds a digital copy of a resident’s drivers license, and which can connect with a third-party service to demonstrate a user’s age, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/01/no-porn-without-id-louisiana-law-forces-porn-sites-to-verify-users-ages/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ARS Technica</a> previously reported.
PornHub provides a mechanism for Louisiana users to go through that process, telling them that the site &#8220;does not collect any data during this process. This process is carried out by reputable service providers who specialize in verifying the age of online users. Your proof of age does not allow anyone to trace your online activity,&#8221; according to ARS Technica.
In Utah, by contrast, the site simply blocks users from accessing videos.
Users can circumvent state bans on pornography relatively easily by using a VPN that routes their web traffic through another location.
In 2021, Cox signed a bill requiring phones and computers sold in the state to come <a href="https://le.utah.gov/~2021/bills/static/HB0072.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">equipped with a filter</a> that blocks porn. The filter could be deactivated but would be on by default. However, the bill does not go into effect unless five other states pass a similar law.
Utah’s legislature is about 80% Republican. It is dominated by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and is particularly conservative on social issues such as pornography that are of importance to the church, while by other measures, the state’s Republican lawmakers are some of the most moderate in the country, a Daily Wire analysis of state legislative voting records found.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-did-wyoming-kill-school-choice-deep-red-states-often-dont-act-like-it-data-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why Did Wyoming Kill School Choice? Deep-Red States Often Don’t Act Like It, Data Shows</a>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-legislatures-in-the-deep-red-states-that-sent-romney-and-cheney-to-washington-vote-like-liberals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why Legislatures In The Deep-Red States That Sent Romney And Cheney To Washington ‘Vote Like Liberals’</a>

The 2023 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo

PornHub Blocks All Of Utah After New Law Holds Sites Responsible For Minor Access

Pornhub

Pornography

Red States

Utah

A Louisiana high school senior was awarded a staggering amount of scholarships and was accepted to at least 170 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/colleges">colleges</a> he applied to with more acceptance letters rolling in every day.
Dennis Barnes hopes to break the current record for most <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education">scholarships</a> ever awarded, which currently sits at $9.4 million. The 16-year-old senior has been offered more than $9 million in scholarships so far. “My goal is to reach $10 million,” Barnes told the local station WWL-TV, per <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12016621/New-Orleans-teenager-wins-record-breaking-9-million-scholarships.html">The Daily Mail</a>. 
The senior said he intends to pursue a dual degree in computer science and criminal justice. He hasn’t yet decided on which college to attend but will announce his decision before graduating from International High School of New Orleans.
Barnes has a GPA of 4.98 and is a member of the National Honor Society. He’s also fluent in Spanish. He already began his pursuit of higher education by taking college credits at the Southern University at New Orleans.
“I submitted college applications in August, with an eye on raising the bar high for college admissions. Decision letters were an overflow in my mailbox and hundreds of scholarship offers,” he told WWL.
“I will say I haven&#8217;t always been a straight-A student. I&#8217;ve always been devoted to getting my school work done and get good grades like the average child,” Barnes said of his educational background.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="125 college offers; $9 million in total for 16-year-old New Orleans honor student" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DdXkGDFV1_g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
“It&#8217;s not normal, I know it&#8217;s not of course, but I started at someplace. There&#8217;s a starting point for everything. I started and then realized where I was going and as I realized the path I was heading down, I rolled my momentum and I ended up farther than I ever thought I would&#8217;ve been,” he said.
Barnes told USA Today that as of Tuesday, he had been accepted to 170 schools, but that number keeps growing. Many institutions offered him a full ride to attend. &#8220;I am still getting letters. Decision letters were an overflow in my mailbox,&#8221; Barnes <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/entertainthis/new-music-friday/2023/04/26/dennis-barnes-new-orleans-student-nine-million-dollars-scholarships/11734990002/">told</a> the outlet during a phone interview. &#8220;I&#8217;m proud of myself. I&#8217;m a black man and you don&#8217;t find that too often in the black community. It stands out.&#8221;
His mother, Reba Barnes, told the news station she’s not surprised by her son’s success.
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“'[He] has been like this since a baby. He&#8217;s always been very inquisitive, always on top of everything,” she said. “If he had a field trip, he would put the paper right in front of me, ‘Mama, sign this.’ I never had to ask him for the report card. He&#8217;s always been diligent and purposeful in everything he does.”
Barnes told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/27/us/louisiana-teen-gets-over-170-college-offers-reaj/index.html">CNN</a> that his faith is also important to him. 
“I am a God-fearing young man; I keep God first,” he said. He offered advice to other students looking to succeed.
“If you keep your school, your education a priority and keep God in the mix, then you are definitely going to be successful no matter what you do,” the student said.
The current scholarship money record was set by Normandie Cormier in 2019. She was accepted into 139 colleges after applying with the Common App and the Common Black College App, which allows students to apply to hundreds of schools simultaneously. 
Cormier is currently pursuing a master&#8217;s degree at Louisiana State University, the publication noted.

University Application Acceptance Letter

New Orleans Teen Awarded $9 Million In College Scholarships, Accepted To 170 Colleges

College

Education

New Orleans

Republicans hold governorships and legislative majorities in 22 states, compared to 17 for Democrats and 11 states in which government is divided. Yet GOP-run states often do not implement policies aligned with their party. The following is the third in a four-part series on Republican-dominated state legislatures and how they lead.
Even as Democrats push far-Left policies whenever they have a bare majority, some of the most Republican-dominated states govern in a moderate way — with a Daily Wire analysis of voting records finding that the larger the Republican majority in a state legislature, the more moderate those Republicans behave on average.
Deep-red Utah and Wyoming, which sent Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney to Congress, also send moderate Republicans to their own statehouses. They&#8217;re not the only states in which Republicans, despite holding a near-monopoly on state policy making, often reject such basic conservative initiatives as school choice and restrictions on abortion. Critics wonder why states with GOP legislative supermajorities don&#8217;t wield their power the way their deep-blue counterparts like California do.
It&#8217;s not that people necessarily want red states to go to extremes, which can backfire. Rather, they object to examples that are far from that: Louisiana&#8217;s Republican House speaker was elected with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/19-statehouses-have-bigger-republican-majorities-than-florida-this-group-is-making-sure-they-act-like-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more Democrat votes</a> than Republican ones; the South Carolina legislature kicked its most conservative members out of the Republican caucus; and Wyoming’s speaker killed a school-choice proposal that is standard conservative fare, The Daily Wire reported earlier in this series exploring the importance of state-level policy.
<div id="attachment_528193" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-528193" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-528193 size-large" src="https://dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/GettyImages-884986074-864x576.jpg" alt="Thousands of people converged on the steps of Utah's State Capital building to protest President Trump's plan to shrink protected areas across the country. Two of those areas are both in Utah -- Bears Ears and the Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monuments. Trump is scheduled to make the announcement on Monday, December 4th, at the Utah State Capital building. " width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-884986074-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-884986074-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-884986074-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-884986074-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-884986074-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-884986074-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-884986074-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Thousands of people converge on the steps of Utah&#8217;s State Capital building to protest former President Trump&#8217;s environmental policies. (Photo by Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)</div>
Why Republicans in deep-red states would be less Republican than their counterparts elsewhere is one of the most baffling mysteries in politics. How can it be that residents of deep-red states elect moderate members time and again? And what can they do to ensure that their state lawmakers accurately reflect their views?
“We&#8217;ve never been outvoted by Democrats, but we lose all the time,&#8221; Alan Seabaugh, a Louisiana state legislator, told The Daily Wire. &#8220;And it&#8217;s because we&#8217;re outvoted by RINOs. It&#8217;s because of people who want their constituents to think of them as conservative, they run as conservatives, and then they get to Baton Rouge and they hope no one notices how they vote.&#8221;
<blockquote>
<h1>“The red states are actually the worst” when it comes to moderate Republicans. “A lot of Dems know they can’t get elected with a D next to their name, so they put an R next to their name and then vote like liberals.”</h1>
</blockquote>
In that red state, one problem is so-called “jungle primaries.” Back when Louisiana was controlled overwhelmingly by Democrats, Democrats implemented the system so that instead of having to face a Republican in the general election, the top two in the primary would advance, giving general election voters a choice between two Democrats. Now, the state is overwhelmingly conservative, but the same system remains in place. The state is so Republican that the top two vote-getters in the primary will often be a conservative Republican and a moderate one. In the general election, Democrats will vote for the more moderate candidate, alongside some Republicans, pushing him or her to victory.
“The people of Louisiana are very red. Donald Trump carried Louisiana by a bigger margin than Texas. But the jungle primary pushes everything to the middle,” Seabaugh said.
Other Republican states have a problem with open primaries. Whereas Democrat strongholds like the District of Columbia exclude Republicans from any meaningful impact in their elections, allowing only registered Democrats to vote in the party primary that essentially decides the race, Republican states have not done the same. Wyoming law makes it relatively easy for Democrats to vote in Republican primaries, and they do — with Democrat officials sometimes explicitly <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/democratic-lawmakers-encourage-wyoming-voters-change-parties-back/story?id=88109078">urging it</a>.
<div id="attachment_528175" style="width: 256px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-528175" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-528175" src="https://dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screenshot-2023-04-13-at-10.24.46-AM-246x300.png" alt="Louisiana State Rep. Alan Seabaugh." width="246" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Screenshot-2023-04-13-at-10.24.46-AM-246x300.png 246w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Screenshot-2023-04-13-at-10.24.46-AM.png 364w" sizes="(max-width: 246px) 100vw, 246px" />Louisiana State Rep. Alan Seabaugh complains that his fellow Republicans vote like &#8220;RINOs&#8221; when they get to Baton Rouge. (Louisiana House of Representatives)</div>
Ten Republican states have fully-open primaries, while only four Democrat ones do. Six Democrat states have fully-closed primaries, while only three Republican ones do. The rest have more complicated rules falling somewhere in between, according to a Daily Wire analysis of <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/state-primary-election-types" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Council of State Legislatures</a> 2021 data.
Georgia has fully open primaries, as well as a runoff system that in multiple recent election cycles allowed a Democrat to head to the U.S. Senate even though a Republican got more votes in the general election.
Another factor is that in places where almost everyone identifies as Republican, people seeking power know that whatever their actual beliefs, they must put an R behind their name if they want to win. Given that few people pay attention to state races, many voters don’t notice the deception.
“The red states are actually the worst” when it comes to moderate Republicans, Andrew Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, told The Daily Wire. “A lot of Dems know they can’t get elected with a D next to their name, so they put an R next to their name and then vote like liberals.”
A less nefarious version of that is the fact that where being Republican is simply the default, people who are essentially apolitical identify as it because it’s just how they were brought up. Some candidates are community leaders like Boy Scout leaders and football coaches who know a lot of people in town, and want to take their involvement to the next level.
“The closer you get to the local level, the less party matters. Louisiana has been voting for Republicans in federal elections for decades, we just don’t necessarily elect conservatives at the state level,” Seabaugh said.
Then there’s the fact that many elected Republicans are remnants of the era when conservatives promoted business interests–even though corporations often now function as arms of the Left. When Georgia enacted voting reforms, driving the pressure against it were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/5-woke-corporations-who-condemned-georgia-while-still-doing-business-with-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">corporations</a> like Coca-Cola.
“When the stakeholders are small and there’s a limited media following it, the special interest groups are able to overpower it,” Thomas Bradbury, director of advocacy and policy at the American Conservative Union, told The Daily Wire. “Especially on some of the cultural issues, the Chamber of Commerce just has way too much power over some of these Republicans. That’s why you see people like [South Dakota Gov.] Kristi Noem <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservatives-blast-gop-gov-noem-for-refusing-to-sign-bill-protecting-girls-sports" target="_blank" rel="noopener">veto</a> the women’s sports bill.”
When Democrats wanted South Carolina to adopt a <a href="https://www.wbtw.com/news/state-regional-news/push-returns-for-south-carolina-to-add-hate-crime-law/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hate-crimes law</a> in February, it was corporations like Duke Energy who put the pressure on Republicans to acquiesce, arguing that &#8220;the lack of a hate crime law could hurt South Carolina’s recruitment and retention of businesses.&#8221; The debate came as state Republicans were courting an electric vehicle plant for which they earmarked $1.3 billion in government support last month.
Bradbury once served as an aide in the Missouri legislature. “We tried to take on special taxing districts where certain corporations would get full-on tax exemptions, which is very against free market principles and unfair,” he said. Republicans held a hearing where there were a few citizens and policy wonks speaking against the special treatment for corporations, “and then probably 55 paid lobbyists in the room opposing us. It’s amazing how much influence special interests have because these are part-time legislatures so the experts actually are the lobbyists.” 
Then there are those who go into the legislature as bona fide conservatives, but quickly give in to existing power structures, believing it’s just what they’re supposed to do, Louisiana lawmaker Danny McCormick told The Daily Wire.
“There’s a tremendous amount of pressure to give in to the establishment once you get down there. There’s a tremendous pressure to go along and get along, and they threaten you that you won’t get any bridges or money for roads if you don’t,” he said.
Part 1: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/19-statehouses-have-bigger-republican-majorities-than-florida-this-group-is-making-sure-they-act-like-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">19 Statehouses Have Bigger Republican Majorities Than Florida. This Group Is Making Sure They Act Like It.</a>
Part 2: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-did-wyoming-kill-school-choice-deep-red-states-often-dont-act-like-it-data-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why Did Wyoming Kill School Choice? Deep-Red States Often Don’t Act Like It, Data Shows</a><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-legislatures-in-the-deep-red-states-that-sent-romney-and-cheney-to-washington-vote-like-liberals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ote Like Liberals’</a>
Part 4:<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/soros-gets-bang-for-buck-in-down-ballot-races-why-havent-conservatives-done-the-same"> Soros Gets Bang For Buck In Down-Ballot Races. Why Haven’t Conservatives Done The Same?</a>

Romney, Cheney

Why Legislatures In The Deep-Red States That Sent Romney And Cheney To Washington ‘Vote Like Liberals’

Why Legislatures In The Deep-Red States That Sent Romney And Cheney To Washington 'Vote Like Liberals'

California

Mitt Romney

Republicans hold governorships and legislative majorities in 22 states, compared to 17 for Democrats and 11 states in which government is divided. Yet an analysis of voting records found that some of the most-Republicans states have some of the least-conservative Republican lawmakers. The following is the second in a four-part series on Republican-dominated state legislatures and how they lead.
It seemed like a slam dunk: Wyoming, the most conservative state in the country, was poised to introduce school choice, a policy <a href="https://www.federationforchildren.org/new-poll-72-support-for-school-choice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">overwhelmingly supported</a> by conservatives that also enjoys support from most Democratic voters, especially minority ones.
There was no doubt the bill had the votes to pass: Out of the state House&#8217;s 62 members, 57 are Republicans. A majority of the chamber was not only supporting the bill, but had co-sponsored it.
Then, it died. Speaker Albert Sommers, a Republican, refused to let the bill come to the floor for a vote, <a href="https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/02/26/hageman-nudges-sommers-to-quit-sitting-on-social-bills-this-is-about-protecting-our-children/">saying</a> in late February that “I am not going to bring that bill out from the Senate that’s identical to the one that already failed in my Education Committee.&#8221;
According to Wyoming legislature <a href="https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2023/HB0194">records</a>, the Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act was not rejected by members of the education committee, but &#8220;died in committee&#8221; February 7 after it was never brought for a vote by deadline.
Despite the rejection stoking shock and outrage among conservatives nationally, the chairman of that committee, David Northrup, seemed unfamiliar, responding to The Daily Wire’s questions about the &#8220;school choice bill&#8221; by asking for the bill number so he could &#8220;review it and get back to you.&#8221; After being provided the bill number, he never responded.
<blockquote>
<h1>South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, and Oklahoma all are more than 80% Republican-controlled, but their brand of legislating ranks among the least conservative in the country–at 36th, 37th, 31st, and 35th.</h1>
</blockquote>
The truth is that most of Wyoming’s Republican legislators, who chose the speaker, aren’t particularly conservative. One <a href="https://evidencebasedwyominglegislatorcomparison.azurewebsites.net/Ranking?Year=2023&amp;Republican=2147483647&amp;Democrat=2147483647&amp;House=House&amp;Detail=212">analysis</a> of Wyoming lawmakers&#8217; voting patterns found that 31 legislators were &#8220;very liberal&#8221;&#8211;and all but two of them had Rs behind their name. That put 29 Republicans further to the left of three Democrats, who were merely &#8220;liberal.&#8221; At the federal level, Wyoming elected anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney.
And the state is not an outlier. Utah, another overwhelmingly Republican, rural state, elected moderate Republicans Sen. Mitt Romney and Gov. Spencer Cox. At the less-scrutinized state level, many states whose populations overwhelmingly vote Republican actually run their state capitols as moderates.
In Texas, Republicans even <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/08/texas-legislature-democrats-chair-committees/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allow Democrats to chair committees</a>. All of that means that in some ways, there is no conservative answer to states like California, Oregon, and Washington state.
A Daily Wire analysis compared the American Conservative Union’s ratings of state lawmakers with the partisan makeup of the legislatures they served in, and found paradoxically that the more “red” a red state is, the more moderate its Republican lawmakers tend to behave.
<div id="attachment_527117" style="width: 825px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-527117" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-527117 size-large" src="https://dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/acu-815x576.jpeg" alt="" width="815" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/acu-815x576.jpeg 815w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/acu-300x212.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/acu-768x543.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/acu-1536x1085.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/acu-2048x1447.jpeg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 815px) 100vw, 815px" />Republicans in swing states near the middle have higher conservative voting scores than their counterparts in the ruby-red states on the right side of the graph, despite having more tenuous majorities. Source: Daily Wire analysis of National Council of State Legislatures and American Conservative Union data for year 2021.</div>
The states with the boldest Republicans were also some with the narrowest margins of control: Florida, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Arizona. Ninety percent of Wyoming&#8217;s lawmakers were Republican, but they ranked 43rd in terms of conservative voting records&#8211;behind Republicans in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Delaware.
South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, and Oklahoma all are more than 80% Republican-controlled, but their brand of legislating ranks among the least conservative in the country&#8211;at 36th, 37th, 31st, and 35th. (For purposes of showing the balance between Republicans and Democrats, the analysis excluded independent politicians.)
The restraint that many Republicans show stands in contrast to the behavior of Democrats in places like Virginia, who briefly took both chambers in 2019 and immediately began ramming through far-left legislation despite the narrowest of mandates.
Thomas Bradbury, the director of advocacy and policy at the American Conservative Union who helped craft the voting-record rankings used in The Daily Wire’s analysis, said “The ratings really illuminate the fact that we aren’t governing as much conservatively as you’d believe they would be.”
“When Democrats get in charge of a state, they ram thru as many bills as possible. There’s no dissent. When Republicans get control, we pass basically nothing,” he said.
<blockquote>
<h1>The Louisiana speaker of the House is a moderate who was elected with more Democrat votes than Republican ones. South Carolina&#8217;s Republican Caucus booted 16 of its most conservative members.</h1>
</blockquote>
Leading the charge against Wyoming Speaker Sommers were conservatives like Rep. John Bear.
&#8220;We have a lot of people who run as Republicans but have very progressive beliefs,&#8221; said Bear, a member of the Freedom Caucus, a band of conservatives with eleven state chapters that is sounding the alarm about one of the most baffling mysteries in politics–why deep-red Republicans don’t act like it.
The analysis showed that the average South Carolina Republican was more liberal than every state’s Republicans except Hawaii, despite Republicans controlling the governor’s mansion and both state houses there. And dramatic scenes playing out in the historic state capitol of Columbia this year bear it out.
After South Carolina conservatives organized a Freedom Caucus&#8211;and some candidates allied with it defeated entrenched incumbents&#8211;the party apparatus went to war against its conservative members, demanding that they sign an oath not to campaign against any incumbent and <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sc-freedom-caucus-fights-establishment-110000781.html">kicking 16 members out</a> of the Republican Caucus when they refused to do so.
Separately, the Freedom Caucus was barred from raising money for electioneering on the basis that only party caucuses and those based on race or gender were allowed to do so. The Freedom Caucus filed a federal <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/sc-freedom-caucus-ramps-up-party-feud-our-political-speech-is-being-muzzled/article_66b25cd0-b781-11ed-b6a0-f31413b458f1.html">lawsuit</a> against the House Ethics Committee as a result. South Carolina Freedom Caucus members say that most Americans don’t realize that the state is run by what they call “extreme moderates.”
Thomas Pope, South Carolina&#8217;s speaker pro tempore, declined to comment to The Daily Wire.
At a recent conservative event in Charleston, South Carolina attended by The Daily Wire, parents involved with a movement to rid their schools of leftist influence seethed at elected Republicans&#8217; efforts to battle against critical race theory with a bill they described as a “sieve”&#8211;so full of loopholes that it would do little to stop it. They wondered whether that was worse than doing nothing at all, because it let lawmakers take credit for doing something and might lead parents to let their guard down even though in reality, little had changed.
Even while being at war with the leadership of their own party, South Carolina Freedom Caucus members have seen victories, including convincing the Medical University of South Carolina to <a href="https://www.counton2.com/news/local-news/sc-gop-caucus-said-musc-to-close-transgender-clinic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stop offering gender transition</a> to minors.
The Freedom Caucus’ newest chapter is in Louisiana, where Republicans have a supermajority in the state House, but the speaker was elected with <a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/clay-schexnayder-wins-louisiana-house-speaker-after-push-from-democrats/article_c49bd7fc-361c-11ea-bfcb-e37c0c069e39.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more Democratic votes than Republican ones</a>.
A conservative seeking the speaker&#8217;s gavel, Rep. Sherman Mack, had the endorsement of the House GOP caucus and the support of federal lawmakers like Sen. John Kennedy. But some moderate Republicans refused to vote for him, and Clay Schexnayder &#8212; <a href="https://thehayride.com/2022/05/the-clay-schexnayder-stepsons-controversy/">who attempted</a> to use taxpayer money to pay his wife and stepsons to renovate his office suit&#8211; was elected speaker after those moderates joined with all the state’s Democrats to vote for him.
Schexnayder blocked GOP calls to reopen the state following coronavirus, leaving businesses closed and a mask mandate in place for months.
Beryl Amedee, a Louisiana legislator, said that most of the time she introduces conservative legislation, it dies in committee or without a floor vote&#8211;a way that leadership can prevent a conservative bill from passing without being on record voting against it.
&#8220;You might look at the list and see a lot of Republicans, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they&#8217;re conservative,&#8221; she told The Daily Wire. &#8220;We have a minority of conservative Republicans in office, with a majority of the leadership&#8211;no matter which party they are listed with&#8211;pushing policies that are still fairly liberal.”
Part 1: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/19-statehouses-have-bigger-republican-majorities-than-florida-this-group-is-making-sure-they-act-like-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">19 Statehouses Have Bigger Republican Majorities Than Florida. This Group Is Making Sure They Act Like It.</a>
Part 3: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-legislatures-in-the-deep-red-states-that-sent-romney-and-cheney-to-washington-vote-like-liberals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why Legislatures In The Deep-Red States That Sent Romney And Cheney To Washington ‘Vote Like Liberals’</a>
Part 4:<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/soros-gets-bang-for-buck-in-down-ballot-races-why-havent-conservatives-done-the-same"> Soros Gets Bang For Buck In Down-Ballot Races. Why Haven’t Conservatives Done The Same?</a>

Why Did Wyoming Kill School Choice? Deep-Red States Often Don’t Act Like It, Data Shows

Florida

Ron DeSantis

South Carolina

A state lawmaker in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/louisiana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louisiana</a> left the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/democratic-party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Democratic Party</a> and joined the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/republican-party" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Republican Party</a> this week, following a fellow Pelican State Democrat who left last month and gave Republicans a supermajority in the state House. 
Rep. Jeremy LaCombe, who represents portions of parishes west and north of Baton Rouge, said Monday that he would change his party affiliation to Republican, <a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/another-louisiana-house-democrat-has-switched-to-gop/article_ac78be0c-d7bc-11ed-95aa-e3d462777bb0.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to local news outlet The Advocate. 
&#8220;House Democrats will continue to stand up for the working people of Louisiana,&#8221; House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Sam Jenkins said. &#8220;We look forward to working with Rep. LaCombe during this legislative session to increase wages, lower costs, improve our schools and pass insurance reform that benefit Louisiana families and small businesses.&#8221;
LaCombe, who has bucked his party on votes in the past, did not provide any specific reasons for the change, but it follows the recent defection of another Democrat, Rep. Francis Thompson, <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/politics/legislature/louisiana-legislator-switches-parties-becomes-republican/article_a33cac22-c470-11ed-a11b-1bd4b0682993.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">whose switch officially gave</a> Republicans a veto-proof majority in the House. 
&#8220;Let me be clear — nothing has changed,&#8221; Thompson said last month. &#8220;There are values and principles that I firmly hold onto that guide my decisions. My conservative voting record over the years I have served in the Legislature speaks for itself.&#8221;
Democrats in the state reacted with disappointment to Thompson’s decision but were not taken off guard. 
&#8220;While Rep. Thompson&#8217;s decision is disappointing, it is not surprising,&#8221; Jenkins said. &#8220;He already caucused with Republicans. Moreover, his decision does not change our focus. Louisiana families are our priority — not party politics.&#8221;
LaCombe and Thompson have previously <a href="https://lailluminator.com/2022/06/02/louisiana-criminal-penalties-for-abortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted in favor</a> of pro-life bills, a move increasingly out of step with most of the Democratic party. Both voted last June to increase the criminal penalty for abortion.
During his campaign for the House, LaCombe <a href="https://jeremylacombe.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">emphasized issues</a> regarding education, infrastructure, economic development, and public safety. 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1681296616572000&amp;usg=AOvVaw148JfVirC1Br57qcztq4OZ">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
With the recent changes, Republicans in the state House have a veto-proof supermajority, holding 71 of the 105 seats, meaning they can override the veto of moderate Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards. A Republican supermajority also controls the state Senate. 
The party switches in Louisiana follow the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pushed-me-out-north-carolina-democrat-defects-hands-gop-veto-proof-control-of-legislature" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a> of North Carolina Rep. Tricia Cotham, who left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party last week. 
“The modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me and to so many others throughout this state and this country,” Cotham said. “They have pushed me out.”
Cotham’s switch gives the GOP a veto-proof majority in the state House, adding to the already veto-proof majority in North Carolina’s Senate.

Collage Maker-11-Apr-2023-08-49-AM-1151

Republicans Bolster State House Supermajority With Another Dem Flip

Louisiana Democrat Switches To Republican Party, Adds To State's GOP Supermajority

Democratic Party

General

Politics

Republican Party

Republicans hold governorships and legislative majorities in 22 states, compared to 17 for Democrats and 11 states in which government is divided. Yet, GOP-run states often do not implement policies aligned with their party as Democrat-led states often do. The following is the first in a four-part series on Republican-dominated state legislatures and how they govern.
In January, some members of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/freedom-caucus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Freedom Caucus</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-19-republicans-block-kevin-mccarthys-bid-for-house-speaker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refused</a> to vote for <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/kevin-mccarthy-defends-releasing-january-6-tapes-torches-cnn-reporter-to-their-face-daily-wire-news/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kevin McCarthy</a> as House speaker unless he promised concessions. They won. Now, the staunchly conservative group is expanding into an area where they could make a far larger difference: Red states where laws can be passed without support from Democrats.
The State Freedom Caucus Network has rapidly taken root in 11 states, promising to make sure that states where Republicans have a mandate legislate like it. While their House counterparts have been criticized as obstructionist — failing to understand the need for compromise in a closely matched body — that criticism doesn’t apply in deep-red states, where the question becomes why are Republicans compromising with Democrats.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has attracted national attention with bold policies, but Florida is not a historically red state. DeSantis won his first election by less than one percent. As of 2021, 64% of statehouse seats in Florida were held by Republicans — ranking it 20th in terms of Republican control, barely above average.
States like Wyoming, the Dakotas, Idaho, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Utah dwarfed Florida in terms of actual Republican control, with 90% of seats in Wyoming occupied by Republicans. Even Ohio had more Republican control than Florida, according to 2021 data from the National Council of State Legislatures.
For years, there has been little national media coverage of state politics, so residents of red states might hear little about what’s going on in their capitals, good or bad.
But with Florida in the headlines on a weekly basis for making moves — in recent weeks Florida passed constitutional carry, a six-week abortion ban, and school choice — residents of the 19 states that are redder than Florida are increasingly wondering why they’re not hearing about similarly bold moves in their state.
That’s triggering what might be called a Ron Revolution, with lawmakers in other states seeking to follow the blueprint created by DeSantis. The Florida governor welcomes that, saying “I want them to eclipse me. We’re setting a great standard in Florida, have everyone up their game.”
The State Freedom Caucus Network in some ways has DeSantis in its DNA. As a congressman from 2013-2018, DeSantis was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus. The Network is led by Andrew Roth, a former Club for Growth executive, alongside Justin Ouimette, the House group’s former executive director.
“Since the House Freedom Caucus fought with the speaker in January, we’re trying to bring that business model down to the states. It makes sense there. What the State Freedom Caucus Network does is take these part-time lawmakers and give them staff and a full year-round operation,” Roth told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a>.
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-522331 size-full" src="https://dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top20.png" alt="" width="570" height="791" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/top20.png 570w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/top20-216x300.png 216w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/top20-415x576.png 415w" sizes="(max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px" /></div>
In much the same way that conservatives long ignored school boards, assuming they didn’t matter and that the ones where they live were probably in good hands – before coronavirus school shutdowns showed them that none of that was true – strategists say a similar awakening is afoot when it comes to state-level politics.
The importance of states is two-fold: First, many have Republican majorities or supermajorities allowing them to actually implement policies, instead of just arguing about them in the abstract, as is more likely to happen in Washington. Second, states are more powerful than many give them credit for, having authority under the Constitution to oversee every power not specifically granted to the federal government.
“All of the big issues occurring right now are at the state level. School choice, ESG, CRT, porn in our schools, election integrity, abortion – all of those are state issues,” Roth said.
Roth said his group has already notched numerous wins, with the Idaho Freedom Caucus killing a student-loan forgiveness program pushed by Republican Gov. Brad Little, and the Arizona Freedom Caucus helping torpedo the Democrat governor&#8217;s nominee for state health director over her stance on closing schools. Mississippi&#8217;s chapter pressured the speaker to cancel a fundraiser supporting a pro-abortion former Democrat, he said.
In Idaho, a school board &#8220;chose to open up bathrooms to boys and girls, and the state education superintendent just shrugged her shoulders.&#8221; But after Attorney General Raul Labrador, a former congressman who was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, weighed in, the school board paused their decision, he said.
One recent night, state lawmakers gathered in a Washington, D.C. townhouse to prepare for the launch of the network’s newest chapter in Louisiana.
&#8220;We&#8217;re going to stand our ground and let people know we&#8217;re standing our ground,&#8221; Beryl Amedee, a second-term Louisiana legislator, told The Daily Wire. &#8220;I believe that when the people in Louisiana see that there are people in office who do represent their actual views, I think that will affect future elections.&#8221;
The network’s staff on the ground there will be run by Connie Hair, the former chief of staff for Rep. Louie Gohmert, a member of the House Freedom Caucus who left Congress to pursue a Texas state office.
Hair expects to get much more done in Louisiana than she could in Washington. “We can’t solve this at the federal level. We need people doing it at the state level,” she told The Daily Wire.
But there is also a problem: Few residents pay attention to state-level politics, and therefore, no one holds Republican lawmakers accountable when they fail to reflect the views of their constituents. Most residents couldn’t even name their state rep – they simply assume that if they have the right party signifier behind their name, they’re worthy of re-election.
Alan Seabaugh, a Louisiana legislator since 2010, said he doesn’t want to attack his fellow Republicans, he simply wants Louisiana voters to know how they’re behaving. After one vote, “I printed the list of votes and highlighted the names of the Republicans who voted to raise taxes and put it on Facebook, and you would have thought I set off a bomb. They were calling me, ‘why would you do that to me?’ I thought, &#8216;why would you do that to me?&#8217;” he said.
One reason Republican states fail to successfully execute conservative policy is that being a state lawmaker is often a part-time position with little in the way of staffing. That’s where the Freedom Caucus will come in, providing outside experts to perform services like poring through lengthy bills to evaluate which ones are good and which ones may have problematic clauses tucked in.
It can also make sure that bills are drafted in a detailed manner that makes sure they won’t be easily circumvented, as has happened with some efforts to ban CRT in schools.
“When they submit a bill to be drafted, the conservatives don’t draft it very well so it doesn’t stand up very well. The lawyers have an advantage, but the guy who owns a gas station doesn’t know the finer points of the law,&#8221; Roth said.
Ensuring that Republicans have counterpoints to states like California — which is not only dominated by Democrats in the legislature, but also routinely implements far-Left policy — could offer a pressure relief valve from the tensions of modern U.S. politics, allowing people to choose to move to places that will predictably be governed in a way that aligns with their values.
“The idea of a national divorce is dumb, but we should have bold red states where people can move to,” Thomas Bradbury, director of advocacy and policy at the American Conservative Union, told The Daily Wire.
And in an era where few are still persuadable by political rhetoric, the way a party governs when they have control of a state is important because it’s a chance for voters to see whether those policies work with their own eyes.
Residents in purple states can look at the real-world outcomes in states that are governed with bold conservative visions versus bold liberal visions, and see which one worked out better. If states are the laboratories of democracy, that amounts to evaluating the outcome of the experiment.
That’s an experiment that worked out well for conservatives in places like Florida’s Miami-Dade County, a Democrat stronghold that voted for DeSantis last year. Prior to his election, they might have believed ads that portrayed DeSantis in overblown terms. But after four years of enacting policies, they could judge him on outcomes, not rhetoric.
“If you lead boldly, you can convince people that the policies have made their lives better,” Bradbury said.
Part 1: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/19-statehouses-have-bigger-republican-majorities-than-florida-this-group-is-making-sure-they-act-like-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">19 Statehouses Have Bigger Republican Majorities Than Florida. This Group Is Making Sure They Act Like It.</a>
Part 2: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-did-wyoming-kill-school-choice-deep-red-states-often-dont-act-like-it-data-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why Did Wyoming Kill School Choice? Deep-Red States Often Don’t Act Like It, Data Shows</a>
Part 3: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-legislatures-in-the-deep-red-states-that-sent-romney-and-cheney-to-washington-vote-like-liberals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why Legislatures In The Deep-Red States That Sent Romney And Cheney To Washington ‘Vote Like Liberals’</a>
Part 4:<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/soros-gets-bang-for-buck-in-down-ballot-races-why-havent-conservatives-done-the-same"> Soros Gets Bang For Buck In Down-Ballot Races. Why Haven’t Conservatives Done The Same?</a>

Ron Desantis gives a political speech in Nassau County, Long Island, New York

19 Statehouses Have Bigger Republican Majorities Than Florida. This Group Is Making Sure They Act Like It.

19 States Have Bigger Republican Majorities Than Florida. This Group Is Making Sure They Act Like It.

Freedom Caucus

Wyoming

On October 16, 1972, then-House Majority Leader Thomas Hale Boggs, along with Alaska Rep. Nick Begich and one of Begich’s aides, were flying from Anchorage to Juneau when their twin engine Cessna 310 vanished into thin air. No trace of the plane, or its pilot and passengers, has ever been found.
Boggs was born in 1914 in Long Beach, Mississippi, and received a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a law degree from Tulane University. He quickly became a public figure, working to break the political machine of then-Sen. Huey Pierce Long Jr., a Left-wing radical who criticized President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal as not being extreme enough.
At age 27, Boggs became the youngest member of Congress when he defeated incumbent Rep. Paul Maloney in the 1940 Democratic primary, which paved the way to victory, as he ran unopposed in the general election. During the next election, however, Boggs lost to Maloney and joined the U.S. Navy, serving in the final years of World War II.
<div id="attachment_523685" style="width: 765px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-523685" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-523685 size-large" src="https://dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/GettyImages-514971148-755x576.jpg" alt="" width="755" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-514971148-755x576.jpg 755w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-514971148-300x229.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-514971148-768x586.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-514971148-1536x1172.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-514971148-2048x1563.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 755px) 100vw, 755px" />(Original Caption) The closing session of Congress is always an interesting event, and this time the family of Representative Hale Boggs of Louisiana had ringside seats at the ceremony. The Representative is shown with the family, after the curtain had rung down. Left to right are Mrs. Boggs, Tommy, 6 1/2 years old; Congressman Boggs; Barbara, 8 years old; and Corrine (aka Cokie), 3 1/2 years old. Bettmann. Getty Images.</div>
When the war ended, Boggs again ran for Congress, and was elected in 1946 after Maloney retired. In 1951, he ran for governor of Louisiana, but lost. He continued to rise as a congressman, however, and became the youngest member of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Boggs dissented from the commission’s majority report, POLITICO <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/hale-boggs-plane-vanishes-in-alaska-oct-16-1972-229692" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in 2016, believing the single bullet theory – a lone assassin – may not have been accurate. Boggs reportedly said he “had strong doubts about” the theory.
<div id="attachment_523705" style="width: 738px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-523705" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-523705" src="https://dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/GettyImages-515024260-728x576.jpg" alt="John Kennedy Watching Blastoff" width="728" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-515024260-728x576.jpg 728w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-515024260-300x237.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-515024260-768x608.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-515024260-1536x1215.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-515024260-2048x1620.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px" />(Original Caption) Watching the blastoff. Washington: The White House released this picture today showing President Kennedy and the Democratic Congressional leaders watching astronaut John Glenn&#8217;s blast off on TV. Left to right: Rep. Hale Boggs, LA.; Speaker John McCormack, Mass. (in rear); Rep. Carl Albert, Okla.; Sen. Hubert Humphrey, Minn.; and Vice Pres. Lyndon Johnson. Bettmann. Getty Images.</div>
<div id="attachment_523693" style="width: 869px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-523693" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-523693" src="https://dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/GettyImages-515489988-859x576.jpg" alt="Warren Commission Members Outside Book Depository" width="859" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-515489988-859x576.jpg 859w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-515489988-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-515489988-768x515.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-515489988-1536x1030.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-515489988-2048x1373.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 859px) 100vw, 859px" />Hale Boggs, John Cooper, and Richard Russell, Warren Commission members, leave the Texas School Book Depository after inspecting the President Kennedy Assassination scene. Bettmann. Getty Images.</div>
In 1962, Boggs became the Democratic majority whip, and became majority leader in 1971 – a position he served until his disappearance.
Boggs regularly campaigned for other Democrats around the country, so it was not unusual that he was in Alaska in 1972 campaigning for Rep. Begich, who was locked in a tight race with Republican candidate Don Young. On October 16, Boggs, Begich, and Begich’s aide Russell Brown boarded the tiny Cessna in Anchorage, Alaska, setting off for a campaign event in Juneau, nearly 600 miles away.
The weather in Alaska was fierce that day, and at some point during the flight, the plane disappeared, never to be seen again. All four people on board, including pilot Don Jonz, vanished along with the plane.
At noon the following day, Rep. Tip O’Neill, then the Democratic whip, told members of the House that “it is our hope and prayer, of course, that the men will be found safe,” according to POLITICO.
The search for the missing men became the largest search and rescue operation ever conducted at the time. A 325,000 square mile area was searched by 40 military aircraft and 50 civilian planes. More than 3,600 hours were spent searching for the missing men and the plane.
<div id="attachment_523717" style="width: 846px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-523717" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-523717" src="https://dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/GettyImages-517284548-836x576.jpg" alt="Woman Speaking to Her Children" width="836" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-517284548-836x576.jpg 836w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-517284548-300x207.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-517284548-768x529.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-517284548-1536x1058.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-517284548-2048x1411.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px" />(Original Caption) Washington, D.C.: Mrs. Hale Boggs, with her son, Tommy, and daughter, Mrs. Barbara Sigmund, of Princeton, N.J., wait at the Boggs home in nearby Bethesda, Md. for word of the missing House majority leader. Boggs, 58, Rep. Nick Begich and two others were in a twin engine plane that disappeared in a rainstorm on a flight from Anchorage to the state capital of Juneau. On the wall is a portrait of Rep. Boggs as a young man. Bettmann. Getty Images.</div>
After 39 days of searching, however, the search was ended without any sign of a plane crash or survivors. Boggs and Begich were both declared dead on December 29, 1972, following a hearing and quick jury deliberation.
Despite being missing, Boggs and Begich were both re-elected posthumously. House Resolution 1, enacted on January 3, 1973, recognized that Boggs had died and allowed a special election to take place. A similar resolution passed for Begich. Don Young, who was Begich’s Republican challenger in 1972, ended up winning the special election and served in Congress until his death in 2022.
For Boggs, his widow, Lindy, won his seat during the special election and served the second district of Louisiana until she retired after the 1990 election. In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed her as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, a position she held until 2001.
<div id="attachment_523709" style="width: 877px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-523709" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-523709" src="https://dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/GettyImages-1387337282-867x576.jpg" alt="Lindy Boggs, American Politician &amp; Ambassador" width="867" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-1387337282-867x576.jpg 867w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-1387337282-300x199.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-1387337282-768x510.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-1387337282-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/GettyImages-1387337282-2048x1361.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 867px) 100vw, 867px" />American politician and ambassador Lindy Boggs (1916-2013), United States House of Representatives member from Louisiana&#8217;s 2nd district, in New Orleans, Louisiana, 4th April 1973. Lindy is the widow of the late House Democratic Leader Hale Boggs. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)</div>
The Boggs’ had four children, including famous TV and public-radio journalist Cokie Roberts. Begich had six children.
The disappearance of the men in Alaska led to new requirements for flights. No emergency transmission signal from the plane was ever heard during the extensive search and rescue effort. In its report on the disappearance, the National Transportation Safety Board said that the pilot, who was supposed to carry a portable emergency transmitter if one was not fixed to the plane, did not follow procedure. The portable transmitter was found in a different aircraft in Fairbanks, Alaska. The incident resulted in Congress passing a law that mandated all U.S. civil aircraft must install emergency locator transmitters.

Portrait of Hale Boggs

Unsolved: The Disappearance Of House Majority Leader Hale Boggs And Rep. Nick Begich

Airplane crash

Alaska

Congress

Readers Pass

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/louisiana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louisiana</a> Republican lawmakers gained a significant upper hand after a longtime Democrat switched parties.
State Rep. Francis Thompson, who has served as a Democrat from northeast Louisiana for decades, changed his party registration on Friday, according to <a href="https://www.wafb.com/2023/03/17/republicans-gain-supermajority-la-house-after-longtime-democrat-switched-parties/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS affiliate WAFB</a>.
With this party swap, Republicans now have the numbers in both chambers of the state legislature to muster a two-thirds supermajority to override vetoes by Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards.
This is the first time Republican lawmakers in the state have had such an advantage in Louisiana&#8217;s roughly 210-year history, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/louisiana-democrat-switches-parties-giving-republicans-historic-power-1788659" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per Newsweek</a>.
Thompson, 81, insisted that &#8220;nothing&#8221; has changed in his values, though he acknowledged having a &#8220;conservative&#8221; voting record.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This morning Rep. Francis Thompson is switching from Democrat to Republican giving the R’s a supermajority in the House <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/lalege?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#lalege</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/lagov?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#lagov</a> <a href="https://t.co/w4Hg1aMPat">pic.twitter.com/w4Hg1aMPat</a>
&mdash; Shannon Heckt (@ShannonHeckt) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShannonHeckt/status/1636715476070940672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The push the past several years by Democratic leadership on both the national and state level to support certain issues does not align with those values and principles that are a part of my Christian life,&#8221; Thompson <a href="https://www.nvdaily.com/associated_press_national/republicans-gain-supermajority-in-louisiana-house/article_a5fe8520-ea15-5789-8eac-facdfdea1f20.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added in a statement</a>.
As <a href="https://www.nvdaily.com/associated_press_national/republicans-gain-supermajority-in-louisiana-house/article_a5fe8520-ea15-5789-8eac-facdfdea1f20.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted by the Associated Press</a>, Thompson joined Republicans in recent years to call for a veto override session.
That includes <a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/louisiana-house-fails-to-override-veto-of-transgender-sports-bill-session-is-over/article_214043b0-ea4b-11eb-b3ba-37ac85e77755.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a failed effort in 2021</a> to override a veto of legislation that would have prevented biological male athletes from competing in girls&#8217; and women&#8217;s sports. However, the governor <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/06/politics/louisiana-anti-trans-sports-ban-enacted/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">did not go through with another veto</a> to stop a transgender sports ban last year.
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Democrats in Louisiana, which has trended more red in recent decades, shrugged at the news of Thompson changing his party affiliation.
“While Rep. Thompson’s decision is disappointing, it is not surprising. He already caucused with Republicans,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Sam Jenkins <a href="https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/thompson-party-flip-gives-republicans-022608010.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in a statement</a>.

Louisiana State Capitol

Louisiana Republicans Gain Historic Power As Longtime Democrat Switches Parties

Republicans

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