An 83-year-old Democrat lawmaker from Florida has missed over 40 straight House votes and was caught recycling old photos on social media this week as she faces questions about her recent voting record. 
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) has missed 43 straight House roll call votes and has not voted since April 17, according to official voting tallies. Wilson’s recent voting history was <a href="https://x.com/jamiedupree/status/2054710645514232177">first flagged</a> on Wednesday by veteran Capitol Hill reporter Jaime Dupree. The Daily Wire reached out to Wilson’s office and asked why she has not voted in nearly a month. 
Dupree also noted that Wilson, who represents portions of Miami, posted a picture on her congressional X account on May 12 that featured a photo first posted to her account on October 4, 2025. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Rep. Frederica Wilson D-FL missed all 10 votes on Wednesday in the House. Wilson has now missed 43 straight votes &#8211; she last voted on April 17.
Wilson&#8217;s X account this week sent out photos of a Service Academy day &#8211; but pictures from the same event were posted last October <a href="https://t.co/ncemZstJGP">pic.twitter.com/ncemZstJGP</a>
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) <a href="https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/2054710645514232177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 13, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The post from May 12 <a href="https://x.com/RepWilson/status/2054291109807878358">said</a>, “As students plan their futures, service through a U.S. Service Academy remains a powerful path to leadership, discipline, and opportunity. I was proud to host a Service Academy Day at FIU, bringing together representatives to share guidance with the next generation. For nomination information, visit my website or call my office.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1095145" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-8.02.57-AM.png" alt="" width="1036" height="1105" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-8.02.57-AM.png 1036w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-8.02.57-AM-281x300.png 281w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-8.02.57-AM-540x576.png 540w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-8.02.57-AM-768x819.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1036px) 100vw, 1036px" />
A second post featuring one of the exact same photos and nearly the same text from October 4 said, “As high school students plan their future, service through a U.S. service academy is an excellent path. I was proud to host a Service Day Academy at [FIU] and I thank all the academy representatives who presented. For nomination information, visit my website or call my office.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1095147" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-8.03.18-AM.png" alt="" width="1074" height="1112" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-8.03.18-AM.png 1074w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-8.03.18-AM-290x300.png 290w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-8.03.18-AM-556x576.png 556w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-8.03.18-AM-768x795.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1074px) 100vw, 1074px" /></div>
The Daily Wire also asked Wilson’s office why she was recycling social media posts. 
Wilson’s office has published just one press release since she last voted. That release condemned the Supreme Court’s decision to end requirements for black-majority congressional districts. 
“This decision is a setback for voting rights and fair representation. Full stop,” she said. “Let me be clear. For generations, people fought, marched, and even died for the right to vote in this country. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was supposed to protect that right and make sure communities that were shut out of power finally had a fair chance to be heard.”

House Committee On Transportation Holds Hearing On Rail Safety In The Aftermath Of The East Palestine Ohio Derailment

Questions Raised After Dem Racks Up Skipped Votes

Congress

Democrat

Florida

U.S. Politics

The leader of the Tennessee House of Representatives punished Democrat lawmakers for protesting during debate over an electoral map that would eliminate the state&#8217;s lone Democrat congressional seat. 
House Speaker Cameron Sexton sent letters to Democrats on Tuesday, kicking them out of their committees for their behavior during debates on redrawing congressional maps to split Memphis into three Republican-favorable electoral districts. During debate on the House floor, Democrat lawmakers broke decorum and rules of order as leftist activists flooded the state Capitol building in Nashville to protest.
“Due to actions taken by members of the Democratic Caucus during the Second Extraordinary Session of the 114th General Assembly aimed at disrupting the democratic and legislative process and creating disorder on the House floor &#8230;,” Sexton <a href="https://x.com/robbystarbuck/status/2054313399278793023/photo/1">wrote</a> in a letter to Democrat House Leader Karen Camper. “Members of the Democratic House Committee will receive individual letters removing them from all standing committees and subcommittees of the House.”
Sexton said that Democrat lawmakers interlocked arms together “in the well of the House Floor,” blocked aisles, used “prohibited props and noisemakers,” and instigated and encouraged “disruptions of the legislative process in coordination with paid protesters and attendees in the gallery, including the distribution of earplugs to a member of your caucus.”
Protesters flooded the state Capitol building with noise makers, and the House gallery had to be cleared as activists disrupted floor proceedings. In one confrontation, Rep. Justin Pearson had a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-democrat-shoves-state-trooper-screams-in-his-face-as-redistricting-protest-turns-ugly?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WATCH%3A+Democrat+Shoves+State+Trooper%2C+Screams+In+His+Face+As+Redistricting+Protest+Turns+Ugly">meltdown</a> in front of a state trooper.
“Move the f*ck back!” Pearson shouted as he stared down the law enforcement officer.
The state trooper backed away and held his arms in the air as Pearson continued to berate him and call him “boy.”
“What the f*ck is wrong with you?” Pearson screamed. “What the f*ck is wrong with you? You stupid motherf*cker!”
Democrat Rep. Justin Jones, a lawmaker with a history of leftist activism, claimed the removal was based on racism. He said the action was based on his protests against a “white supremacist agenda.” 
“Just as my white Republican colleagues chose racial retaliation against Tennessee’s black voters, the Speaker of the House is now choosing retaliation against a black lawmaker for standing up against their Jim Crow racial gerrymander,” he <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DYQRDh_Eo83/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=86c0c7ca-de44-407e-b131-40f8a969925e">posted</a> on Instagram. 
Jones was previously kicked out of the legislature for participating in a protest from the House floor in favor of gun control. 
Ultimately, Governor Bill Lee signed a new election map into law that is expected to eliminate Tennessee’s lone Democrat held congressional seat. The move came after Lee called a special session to reevaluate the maps after the Supreme Court ruled that states did not have to maintain majority-black districts.

Tennessee Governor Signs Trump-Backed Redistricting Plan

Democrats Punished For Desperate Tantrums During Failed Redistricting Fight

Democrats Punished For Antics During Failed Fight To Stop Redistricting

2026 election

Redistricting

Tennessee

President Donald Trump polled a crowd at the White House on Monday, asking if they would like to see Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio run for president in 2028. 
“I don&#8217;t know. Who&#8217;s it going to be? Is it going to be JD? Is there going to be somebody else? I don&#8217;t know,” Trump told a group of law enforcement officials at the White House on Monday. 
He then asked the crowd who they thought should succeed him. 
“Who likes JD Vance? Who likes Marco Rubio? All right. Sounds like a good ticket,&#8221; Trump asked. <iframe style="aspect-ratio: 9/16; max-width: 220px; display: flex; justify-content: center; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/W01007vdoCbyUEav00Xgdz3QVhf8P344jIT?metadata-video-content-type=short&amp;metadata-video-id=f0e04c22-eb9c-41dd-9a3f-664834cdeea3&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=Trump%20holds%20a%20mini%202028%20election%20for%20his%20%E2%80%98dream%20team%E2%80%99%3A%20JD%20Vance%20or%20Marco%20Rubio%3F&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fshorts%2F94231d65-0a8f-4bbc-8daa-caa6bb8bf764.jpg&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Applause from those in attendance appeared to be louder for Vance, but Trump said he wasn’t making any endorsements yet. 
“By the way, I do believe that’s a dream team. But these are minor details. That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstance. But you know … I think it sounds like presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate,” Trump said. 
Rubio said last year that he would support Vance if the vice president decided to run for president. 
“If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” he <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/trump-susie-wiles-interview-exclusive-part-2?_sp=66ff928d-0547-4be8-9f21-3d5c5d7322ce.1773164665694">told</a> Vanity Fair in an interview. 
That comment has not held off speculation that he may still make a presidential run, especially with his long list of responsibilities within the administration. 
Last year, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-reveals-who-will-most-likely-be-the-2028-republican-nominee">said</a> he believed that Vance would be the “most likely” 2028 GOP nominee. 
“Well, I think most likely, in all fairness,” Trump said when asked last August if MAGA would line up behind Vance in 2028. “He’s the vice president. I think Marco is also somebody that maybe would get together with JD in some form.”
Trump, however, did not fully endorse Vance at the time. 
“I also think we have incredible people, some of the people on the stage right here, so it’s too early obviously to talk about it,” he said. “But certainly, [Vance] is doing a great job, and he would be probably favored at this point.”

Trump Says Israel And Lebanon To Extend Ceasefire By Three Weeks

Trump Takes A Spontaneous 2028 Presidential Straw Poll: Vance Or Rubio?

2028 presidential election

Donald Trump

JD Vance

Marco Rubio

Democrats are considering a radical plan to forcibly replace the entire Virginia Supreme Court after Democrat-favorable congressional maps were struck down last week. 
A proposal to force out the current court by lowering the mandatory retirement age for justices was considered Friday during a call with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and top Virginia Democrats, the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/us/politics/democrats-virginia-plans-gerrymandering.html">reported</a>. The plan would force out all current justices and give the legislature, narrowly controlled by Democrats, the opportunity to pack it with more partisan justices. 
A case would then be brought to challenge the creation of Virginia&#8217;s so-called independent redistricting commission. If that commission was struck down, Democrats could then draw new election maps to their favor.
The proposal would involve lowering the retirement age from 75 to at least 54, the age of the youngest justice currently on the bench. That plan was openly supported by Democratic Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a participant in the call. 
“Everyone has got to have a strong stomach right now; this is a complete disaster waiting to happen if people are timid,” he told the Times. “We have Republican states ignoring their constitutions and interrupting early voting and ignoring their Supreme Courts all together. We know based on that, Republicans would explore every single option possible to move this forward.”
The map struck down as unconstitutional on Friday was expected to give Democrats a 10-1 advantage in Virginia’s House delegation come November, up from their current 6-5 edge. In a 4-3 decision, Virginia&#8217;s Supreme Court ruled that the state&#8217;s &#8220;violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void.&#8221; 
Jeffries has suggested appealing to the Supreme Court, though it is unclear what grounds the nation’s high court would weigh in on. 
Voters in Virginia narrowly approved the new gerrymandered maps in April after Democrat-aligned groups spent over $64 million supporting redistricting. 
Campaign filings show that <a href="https://www.virginiansforfairelections.com/">Virginians for Fair Elections</a>, the leading Democrat-aligned group backing the gerrymandered map, <a href="https://cfreports.elections.virginia.gov/Committee/Index/a5d5d000-0875-419d-b056-4245a6cca40f">raised</a> more than $64 million between January and April 2026. That total was more than double the amount raised by Republican-aligned groups opposing redistricting.
Much of the money raised came from House Majority Forward, which contributed nearly $39 million, according to campaign filings. The group describes itself as a “progressive, non-profit organization committed to promoting economic growth and opportunity, social justice, environmental stewardship, and democracy in the United States of America.”
The ruling by the court meant that Republicans appeared to have come out ahead in the nationwide redistricting battle, with states like Tennessee and Florida adopting new maps expected to make their congressional delegations redder.

CBC VRA Presser

Democrats Float Dramatic Shakeup That Could Force Out Virginia’s Entire Supreme Court

2026 Midterms

Democrats

Virginia

The nationwide battle for congressional seats shifted dramatically Friday after Virginia’s Supreme Court struck down the state&#8217;s Democrat-favored congressional map, even as Republican-led states across the South charge ahead to redraw their own.
The Virginia ruling undercuts what Democrats had expected to be a 10-1 advantage in the state&#8217;s House delegation. Instead, the map reverts to a narrower 6-5 Democrat edge that was in place before the April special election, giving Republicans a clearer path to compete. 
The decision comes on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week striking down requirements for black-majority districts in Southern states, prompting a wave of redistricting efforts in Republican-led states. 
Florida and Tennessee have already approved new maps, with more red states likely to follow. 
Tennessee lawmakers on Thursday <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/brutal-blow-for-democrats-in-red-state-sparks-leftist-outrage?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Brutal+Blow+For+Democrats+In+Red+State+Sparks+Leftist+Outrage">approved</a> a congressional map expected to hand Republicans control of all nine of the Volunteer State’s congressional districts come November. The map, signed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, spreads out the heavily Democratic population centers in Memphis and Nashville across multiple Republican-favorable districts. 
The new map is likely to eliminate Tennessee’s lone Democratic seat, currently held by Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis. 
In Florida, lawmakers led by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/florida-passes-new-maps-that-could-threaten-multiple-democratic-seats">passed</a> new district lines projected to give Republicans four additional House seats. The changes target Democratic-leaning areas in Tampa, Orlando, and South Florida, aiming to flip those districts to Republican control.
Alabama could be next. Lawmakers are considering legislation that would produce a congressional map favoring Republicans 6-1, shifting one seat away from Democrats. 
Prior to the Supreme Court decision last week, Alabama was forced to maintain one majority-black district and a second with a near-majority black population under an interpretation of the Voting Rights Act that has now been ruled an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. 
Lawmakers in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Mississippi are also reviewing potential redistricting plans that could further shift even more seats to Republicans. 
President Donald Trump called on states to redraw maps after the Supreme Court decision last week. 
“We cannot allow there to be an Election that is conducted unconstitutionally simply for the ‘convenience’ of State Legislatures,” Trump said Sunday. “If they have to vote twice, so be it. We should demand that State Legislatures do what the Supreme Court says must be done. That is more important than administrative convenience. The byproduct is that the Republicans will receive more than 20 House Seats in the upcoming Midterms.”

Virginia Ruling Reshapes Redistricting Battle For House Control

2026 elections

Tennessee Republicans approved new congressional maps Thursday that are expected to eliminate the state’s last Democratic seat, triggering protests from activists and outrage from leftists inside the state capitol. 
Tennessee’s current congressional delegation features eight Republicans and one Democrat, Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis. The plan restructures Memphis by splitting it into three Republican-leaning districts, a move that would likely unseat Cohen. Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed the map into law shortly after it passed. 
The maps were passed during a special session called by Lee after the Supreme Court ruled that certain majority-black districts put in place by the Voting Rights Act amounted to unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. After that decision, Tennessee joined other Southern states in redrawing maps ahead of the 2026 midterms. 
During the special session, hundreds of leftist activists descended upon the Capitol in Nashville, holding up signs like &#8220;Black Voters Matter,&#8221; &#8220;Say No To Jim Crow 2.0,&#8221; and &#8220;Modern Apartheid.&#8221;
Republicans framed the new maps as a reflection of Tennessee&#8217;s political reality. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) celebrated the move as a step toward advancing President Donald Trump&#8217;s agenda and strengthening conservative leadership in the state.
“It’s a great day for Tennessee! Thank you to President [Donald Trump] for leading the charge, Governor [Bill Lee], and to the legislators who worked quickly and diligently to make this possible,” Blackburn posted on X. “This is how we cement President Trump’s agenda and usher in America’s Golden Age here in Tennessee, and how we become America&#8217;s conservative leader.”
State Rep. Jason Zachary, a Republican, called the maps &#8220;historic,&#8221; noting that they could result in a fully Republican congressional delegation alongside the state&#8217;s two GOP senators.
“For the first time in Tennessee’s history, we will have 9 Republican Congressmen and 2 Republican Senators representing our great state at the nation’s Capitol,” said Zachary. “This represents our state’s strong conservative principles and TN values.”
Rep. Cohen, a white man who has represented Memphis for nearly two decades, called the new map “insane.” 
“The GOP&#8217;s newly proposed TN Congressional maps would have people in Shelby County all the way to Williamson County—200+ miles apart—being &#8220;represented&#8221; by the same Congressman,” he said Wednesday. “It&#8217;s a blatant, corrupt power grab that would destroy the black community&#8217;s and our entire city&#8217;s voice.”

Trump Says Tennessee To Redraw District Maps To Boost GOP

Brutal Blow For Democrats In Red State Sparks Leftist Outrage

Bill Lee

Elections

Now that Virginia’s redistricting amendment has passed, the political campaign is over. The legal fight is just beginning.
The next phase will not be decided at the ballot box. It will be decided in courtrooms across the Commonwealth. The questions ahead are not minor. They go to the timing of implementation, the certification of the results, and ultimately, how the amendment will operate in practice. Those are issues that courts, not legislators or voters, will now have to resolve.
We are already seeing the contours of that fight take shape. A circuit court in Tazewell County has entered an injunction affecting certification of the election. The reaction was immediate. Critics on the Left labeled the ruling political. If the decision had gone the other way, the criticism would have come just as quickly from the Right.
That response tells you everything you need to know about what comes next. In cases with real political consequences, judicial decisions are almost always viewed through a political lens. That is not unique to this case. It is the environment in which judges are now being asked to operate.
Which brings us to a larger point about Virginia’s system of judicial selection.
Judges in Virginia, including the seven justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia, are elected by the General Assembly for fixed terms. Twelve years for the Supreme Court. Eight years for the Court of Appeals and circuit courts. Six years for district courts. Most judges who serve a full career will, at some point, have to return to the same legislative body for reappointment.
None of that means judges are unable to decide cases fairly or independently. Virginia’s judiciary has a long tradition of professionalism and integrity, and that should be acknowledged. But the structure still matters, particularly in cases like this one where the stakes are high and the political consequences are obvious. When continued service ultimately depends on reappointment by elected officials, it creates an environment where judicial independence is not just a matter of reality but also of public confidence.
Other systems approach this differently. The federal judiciary relies on life tenure under Article III of the United States Constitution. Many states use merit selection commissions combined with retention elections. Virginia has chosen a legislative appointment model, and that choice carries consequences. In high-stakes disputes like this redistricting fight, it ensures that judicial decisions will be scrutinized not only for their reasoning, but for what they mean politically.
That is where this case is headed next. The courts will be asked to resolve disputes over certification, implementation, and the legality of how this amendment is applied. Those rulings will shape not just this election cycle, but the political map of Virginia for years to come. They will also, inevitably, draw criticism from one side or the other.
Virginia law does allow for retired judges to be designated to sit in particular cases when needed, but the courts cannot create a separate commission to insulate themselves from political reaction. These cases will be decided within the existing judicial structure, by judges who are doing their jobs under the system we have in place.
The better question is not how to avoid criticism in this case. That is unavoidable. The better question is whether the structure we have chosen best protects public confidence in the judiciary when the stakes are this high. As this litigation moves forward, Virginians are going to see that question play out in real time.
***
Timothy V. Anderson is an attorney and a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates. Anderson graduated from the University of Tampa in 1996 with a Bachelor&#8217;s in Economics and received his law degree from the Regent University School of Law in 1999. Anderson is a member of the Virginia, North Carolina, District of Columbia, and Missouri bars and is admitted to the United States Supreme Court, the 4th, 9th and DC Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the District Courts bars in Virginia, the District of Columbia, Eastern North Carolina, Western Missouri, Colorado and the Southern District of Texas.

Trump’s Redistricting Bids Near End With Virginia, Florida Moves

The Legal Fight Over Virginia’s Redistricting Has Just Begun

DW Opinion

As we approach the holiest day of the year for the Catholic Church, tens of millions will prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Americans across the country are preparing to join the faith I have belonged to since birth.
Converts to the faith have played a crucial role over the last two millennia, from St. Paul’s journey to Damascus, to St. Augustine&#8217;s departure from a life of debauchery that would make Hugh Hefner blush, to G.K. Chesterton, whose writings still speak to millions nearly a century later, to St. Elizabeth Seton, the first American-born saint.
I firmly believe the Catholic Church is the greatest civil institution ever created. Since its founding, the Church has clothed the naked, educated the young, fed the hungry, tended to the sick, and through divine mercy provided the path to salvation for billions of people.
During the darkest times in human history, the Catholic Church was the only institution that separated the West from barbarism. The very fabric of Western civilization is tied to the history of the Church.
While it’s easy for me to wax poetic about a church I have repeatedly fallen in love with over the years — even with all of its shortcomings — other high-profile converts appear to be using their newfound membership in the Catholic faith as nothing more than a political prop.
It is true, the vast majority of new converts join for all the right reasons. But a small, vocal cadre of political influencers are using their catholicism to build social media platforms, feigning purity as an E-girl or, even worse, promoting antisemitism. It is people doing the latter who pose the most credible threat to the integrity of all Catholics and create a widespread erroneous belief that Catholicism has an issue with Jews.
Unlike many branches of Christianity, the Catholic Church does not demand that the faithful be committed Zionists to receive God’s blessing. Many prominent members of the Church have spoken out about the plight of civilians in Gaza. It seems recent converts to the faith understand those teachings but somehow forget that the Church also rejects any form of antisemitism, condemns hostility toward Jews, and upholds the enduring covenant with the Jewish people as God’s chosen people. They have already become cafeteria Catholics, picking and choosing which parts of the teachings they prefer.
Holding nuanced opinions about sensitive subjects in the Middle East, like America&#8217;s relationship with Israel, can be a tough balancing act for anyone. For the Catholic, however, it is completely possible to be a critic of Middle Eastern affairs without being expressly antisemitic. And your new membership in the Catholic faith should not serve as your call to action against the State of Israel.
Yet for some political influencers, their call to the faith doesn&#8217;t seem rooted in deep devotion or hope for eternal salvation. Rather, their main mission seems to be in &#8220;otherizing&#8221; of those who don’t fall into their particular bubble.
Perhaps the gravest sin in all of this is using Christ and the Church as a political prop. Using a phrase like “Christ is King” — not to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, the salvation of souls from hell, and His resurrection — but to otherize those of different faiths is no different than taking the Lord’s name in vain.
The phrase “Christ is King” should not be followed by &#8220;Netanyahu should be on trial for war crimes.&#8221;
For those just joining the Church, it is worth remembering that Catholics in this country were long treated as outsiders — feared, condemned, and accused of harboring foreign allegiances. Most cradle Catholics of the Ellis Island stock have a better understanding of that shared history.
Those looking to use the Church as a platform to dictate foreign policy or dismiss the life of other faiths are no less cringeworthy than when priests from the Boomer generation host climate change events or demand that the United States change its immigration laws.
It seems transparent that your membership in this church is one more platform, like a social media account where views and followers are all that matter, not devotion.
These are uneasy times, but it’s in moments of darkness that we as Catholics should look to the saints who have come before us and truly offer our lives to Christ and build the church – not use it for self-advancement.
* * *
Ryan James Girdusky is an author, podcaster, political consultant, and writer whose work has been featured in the Washington Examiner, The American Conservative Magazine, The Week, Human Events, and The Daily Caller. He is the host of “It’s A Numbers Game with Ryan Girdusky” podcast. Follow him on X: @RyanGirdusky
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Happy couple taking selfie in front of Duomo cathedral in Milan, Lombardia – Two tourists having fun on romantic summer vacation in Italy – Holidays and traveling lifestyle concept

The Catholic Convert Boom Is Real But A Troubling Pattern Is Emerging

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Catholic Church

Catholicism

Catholics

Israel

Jews

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Western Civilization

That’s what I want to say to Alex Gervasi, a paid Zohran Mamdani influencer, who recently posted a social media <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWehnSricXr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">reel</a> declaring that J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series taught her everything she needed to know about “fascism.” Gervasi, who says she volunteers in immigration courts, offered this insightful gem: ICE agents are comparable to Dementors, because both “patrol hallways.” One looks for half-bloods, the other for people illegally residing in the country after bypassing our immigration laws.
Quite the stretch. But I’m glad she made it, because it gives us the opportunity to dismantle her bloody narrative piece by piece.
First, let’s address the premise of her argument: that J.K. Rowling is a “transphobic, right-wing, lunatic.” 

Incorrect — on all counts. 

Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book in an Edinburgh café while her infant daughter napped beside her, having recently fled an abusive marriage. She became a feminist icon. She is, by any serious measure, a formidably intelligent, philanthropic activist who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to charity. She supported the Labour Party for years, vocally opposed Scottish independence, and was adamantly against Brexit. She was, in short, the liberal establishment’s dream — until she committed the unthinkable: she broke ranks with the progressive vanguard to argue that sex is real, sex is binary, and a woman is not a costume a man can put on.
Rowling is not transphobic. A phobia, by definition, is a fear. She does not fear transgender people — she has explicitly stated she supports their right to live free from harassment. What she maintains, correctly, is that biological sex is real, immutable, and distinct from gender identity, and that self-identification policies can undermine women’s hard-won protections in single-sex spaces, sports, and medical services. She opposes the surgical and chemical alteration of minors. She is commonsensical. She lives in the world of observable reality, not the relativism that insists biological sex is merely a social construct. She is right.
Now, to the Harry Potter-as-an-antifascist-manifesto argument — our influencer seems to have consumed something stronger than Butterbeer, because one simply cannot conflate the half-blood persecution of Voldemort’s regime with American immigration enforcement without abandoning all logical rigor.
Many of the illegal immigrants she is so passionately defending have entered our sovereign nation, bypassed established vetting processes, ignored or fled immigration hearings, and are living among citizens while accessing American housing, education, and healthcare — in some jurisdictions, even participating in elections. Contrast that with the legal immigrant: a cornerstone of this nation, who spent time, money, and genuine effort into assimilation, who learned the language, who embraced American civic culture. Those muggles are welcome. They are, in every meaningful sense, American.
A half-blood — a person born to one magical and one non-magical parent — has no analog to an illegal immigrant. If anything, a half-blood maps far more neatly onto an American citizen with one immigrant parent. The persecution Rowling depicts is irrational bigotry directed at an immutable biological characteristic. Illegal entry into a country is not a birth status. It is a policy violation.
As for ICE agents being Dementors? ICE officers enforce democratically passed federal law. They detain individuals who have violated immigration statutes, often after due process proceedings, and their work directly protects American communities from cartel activity, fentanyl trafficking, and the strain of an overwhelmed immigration system. Dementors, for the record, guard actual criminals and feed on human despair. If we’re hunting for that particular archetype in the real world, I’d suggest looking considerably further left. 
The crowning irony is that J.K. Rowling did mock fascism in her books. She did mock racism. She continues to oppose both. She constructed an entire fictional universe as a sustained meditation on the dangers of blood purity ideology, authoritarianism, and mob conformity. She won. The books are beloved the world over — including, apparently, by people who now use them to smear her as a fascist because she won’t agree that biology is a social construct. 

We do not live under a fascist regime. Our leaders are not rounding up people for their bloodlines. These are rhetorical cudgels, deployed in lieu of actual argument when policy disagreement becomes too uncomfortable to engage with honestly.
J.K. Rowling simply acknowledges that biological sex is a real and immutable characteristic. In the wizarding world of Harry Potter, perhaps the rules are different. But we do not live in the wizarding world. We live in this one. Pretending otherwise — subordinating observable and scientific reality to ideological comfort — is not progressivism. It is, to borrow a phrase, mental.

Hogwarts Castle in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood

Zohran Mamdani Superfan Imagines A Harry Potter Fascist Fantasyland

Anti-ICE

Illegal Immigation

JK Rowling

Zohran Mamdani

“Before we go further, we need to acknowledge that our trans community needs abortion care, too.” That’s what Texas Democratic Senate candidate and State Representative James Talarico <a href="https://x.com/Protestia/status/2029225998416245095">claims</a> in a video circulating on X, in which he preaches at a church about the intersection of transgenderism and abortion. To further his argument, Talarico claims that “our neighbors with a uterus” have become “the property of the state” via laws protecting unborn life.
This isn’t the kind of thing that Texas Christians hear in their churches, unless they’re going to one whose orthodoxy is determined by the Democratic Party.
Other bangers from that same <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?mibextid=wwXIfr&amp;v=422454413430414&amp;rdid=dVHm68J8e6TVbN9U">sermon</a> include: “Being Christian and being pro-choice are absolutely consistent, because Christianity is a feminist religion”, and “Did they teach you in Sunday school that Jesus Christ Himself was a radical feminist?”
It’s as if Democratic consultants who have no idea what a Christian believes asked an A.I. to create their perfect candidate. He’s clean-cut, well-mannered, and he’s out there on Sundays bringing the heresy.
Talarico is a leftist atheist&#8217;s idea of a good Christian: a progressive culture warrior in lockstep with the secular world and uninterested in foundational Christian principles like sin, repentance, or salvation.
The idea that it’s possible — and normal — for a person to change sexes, and that such a person deserves the right to murder her child, is theologically beyond the pale. It’s also political insanity in a state like Texas.
But we shouldn’t underestimate the possibility that Talarico’s lies could have some appeal among young people desperately searching for meaning in life.
While Bible-believing Christians will easily see that Talarico’s representation of Christianity is incompatible with Scripture, Americans less familiar with God’s Word are at risk of falling for his heresy hook, line, and sinker. Democrats are counting on this — and the only thing it will cost the people who listen is their souls.
For them, it’s a small price to pay to turn Texas Blue.
Unfortunately, Talarico has had help in spreading his gospel of manipulation to the masses — including via the most famous spiritual seeker in America, Joe Rogan. 
On a July 18, 2025, episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Talarico claimed that his pro-abortion views are informed by Mary’s choice to bear Jesus. The angel Gabriel, Talarico says, asked Mary “if this was something she wanted to do,” which apparently denotes the importance of consent to pregnancy.
If Mary had said no, presumably Jesus is destined not for the manger but for the same ash heap Talarico would consign so many other children.
Of course, the lawmaker’s presentation of the passage is entirely inaccurate. The angel asks Mary no such thing. Talarico’s attempt to use Mary’s acceptance of Jesus’s conception to justify legally poisoning and dismembering babies before birth isn’t idiotic; it’s intentionally and absurdly evil. Viewing Jesus’s advent in this way perverts the gospel: His miraculous arrival was a rescue mission to save us from our sin, not a politically convenient allegory about bodily autonomy.
In 2021, reacting to Texas’ ban on transing minors he <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1016410325787907">said</a>, “Texas Republicans have passed their anti-trans bill.  Over and over Christians used scripture to justify bullying trans kids. I told them in my faith, God is non-binary.”
God refers to Himself repeatedly in the scriptures as King, Father, and Lord. The Creator of all things made us male and female (Gen. 1:27), making gender fluidity and “transitioning” genders both a scientific and Biblical impossibility.
Getting this wrong means misunderstanding both human nature and God Himself. And Talarico is smart enough to know he is getting it wrong on purpose.
On the political side, the outcomes of such positions are disastrous. Encouraging men, women, boys, and girls to mutilate their bodies and lie about their biology leads to the possibility of lifelong <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6626312/">sterility</a>, <a href="https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(24)00123-4/fulltext">mental instability</a>, and increased rates of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40250154/">suicide</a>. The insistence that males can become female and vice versa has set itself up as an enemy of free speech, parental rights, and child protection.
Abortion murders an innocent human being, and no one, including women who believe they’re men, should have the right to kill a baby.
In the Texas House, Talarico <a href="https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/177454/james-talarico">voted</a> against every measure to protect unborn babies, gender-deceived children, and parental rights. He is on the record supporting the abolition of prisons. “It’s hard to imagine a world without prisons,” he remarked. “But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.”
Talarico is a radical in every sense, an unmitigated prophet of falsehood who seeks to twist the language of faith to serve his evil aims. That’s why the spiritual angle of Talarico’s platform is even more troubling than his politics. Not only does he defend extreme views, but he also weaves them into Christian theology, presenting a progressive form of Christian Nationalism wherein his newfangled interpretation of the Bible informs the law of the land.
See, Democrats don’t have a problem with the Bible, so long as they can just revise it and re-read it to support whatever they currently think about anything. That’s what you get with a candidate who knows just enough about Christianity to try to exploit it.
Unfortunately, Talarico’s pleading pastoral tone could prove persuasive to many — not only to voters, but to spiritual seekers. He claims to hold to Jesus’s words, but rejects all the words that conflict with his worldview. In Talarico’s framing, Jesus is not our Savior from sin and King of the universe; He is reduced to a mascot for left-wing causes, a means by which people can be manipulated into supporting Democrats’ policies.
In &#8220;Screwtape Letters,&#8221; C.S. Lewis warns against using Christianity as a means to the end of social justice. Screwtape, a demon, encourages this misuse of the faith, knowing it leads people away from Jesus, not toward Him:
“We do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything — even to social justice. For the Enemy [God] will not be used as a convenience.”
Talarico’s campaign must be defeated by voters and politicians, yes. But even more importantly, his message must be opposed by pastors and Christians. As toxic as his policies are for our country, the bigger threat is his theology, which is damning to our souls.
* * *
Allie Beth Stuckey is a conservative commentator, host of the podcast “Relatable,” and New York Times bestselling author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Empathy-Progressives-Christian-Compassion/dp/0593541944/ref=sr_1_1?crid=UANYF7F4G527&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SR4Z9YTZBiD-LIyJWIe2NqrPQSJrs7v_SeJwqdKhprgz4bRzXt9yi_yz87GrsiKreKNDkh5cktyvWqnwYqCvq-AAWTJyW9idmKxIIFSxmJU.Q-uGoH9skFCMDxfjq4I70mRhShGY4nULiXDRrFrj1Nw&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=Toxic+Empathy%3A+How+Progressives&amp;qid=1749579102&amp;sprefix=toxic+empathy+how+progressives%2Caps%2C55&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion</a>“
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Talarico gpt

Democrat Strategists Asked ChatGPT To Create A Christian Candidate. They Got James Talarico.

Artificial Intelligence

Bible

Christianity

James Talarico

Leftists

Texas

California is indeed a crazy place.
Which brings us to Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, who is constantly trying to swim in every pond simultaneously. Gavin Newsom has taken every position it is possible to take. Gavin Newsom may have more political positions than the Kama Sutra.
When I did a podcast with Gavin Newsom, he tried to play moderate on a wild variety of issues, but when he is in left-wing circles, all of a sudden, he is Left of Karl Marx.
On Thursday, Newsom said that California was born of genocide. This is so tiring. It&#8217;s so tiring, guys.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
California Governor Gavin Newsom smears California and the United States as being &#8220;born of genocide.&#8221;
NEWSOM: &#8220;I begin the book talking about&#8230;how we were born of genocide in California. I try to paint the picture that&#8230;it&#8217;s about America.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/vlYGSkVjBD">pic.twitter.com/vlYGSkVjBD</a>
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/2027054785879253246?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Source: @RNCResearch/X.com
Just be normal. On the Left, on the Right, can we all just be normal? Just a little bit? I know it&#8217;s a lot to ask in our crazy social media era, when the nuttiest people control the narratives.
“I begin the book, talking about looking out over the American River, where ‘Eureka! Eureka!’ was yelled,” Newsom said. “Yellow gold, and how you know, we were born of genocide in California. I try to paint a picture that is about California. It&#8217;s about America. It&#8217;s my family. It&#8217;s the journey. And so I do think there&#8217;s aspects of this that people can connect to in a very meaningful way, I hope.”
There was no genocide. Disease is not a genocide. What killed an enormous part of the population of Native Americans in the United States was not violent war. It was actual disease. And not disease purposefully spread like in a concentration camp. Again, it was not a genocide.
Two months ago, Newsom told me he didn’t know the definition of the word genocide when we discussed the ridiculous idea that Israel had committed genocide.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Has Trump FINALLY LOST His Base? With The Daily Wire&#039;s Ben Shapiro" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hrDpBwpSqSc?start=5009&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Source: This Is Gavin Newsom/YouTube.com
I asked, “What is your opinion of this?”
“My opinion is I understand the tendency for people to make that, to assert that on the basis of the images and the proportionality,” he answered.
“Ugly doesn’t mean genocide,” I said. “Proportionality doesn&#8217;t mean that if you kill my child and I then kill seven criminals, that I&#8217;ve been disproportionate.”
“I&#8217;m not disagreeing with you, but I understand that tendency on the basis of trying to reconcile the proportionate nature of how the war was ultimately conducted and the devastation,” Newsom argued.
“Why do you feel the need to create a permission structure for that sort of stuff?” I asked. “Meaning, it&#8217;s not true. Why not just say it&#8217;s not true?”
“I don&#8217;t know the definition or I don&#8217;t know the legal threshold,” Newsom admitted. “That&#8217;s not my opinion. So I don&#8217;t share what his opinion as relates to genocide. I do not agree with that notion.”
So he doesn&#8217;t know what a genocide is — but also, California is built on genocide or some such nonsense.
Why can&#8217;t people just be normal? Just be normal. Just tell the truth and be normal.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2377-yes-we-re-making-a-movie-with-jonathan-majors?elementPosition=4&amp;row=6&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Holds Events in South Carolina with state Democratic Party

Newsom: More Positions Than The Kama Sutra? 

Newsom: More Political Positions Than The Kamasutra? 

Ben Shapiro

California

genocide

Democrats are claiming that President Trump is a racist because he is deploying help to clean up the giant poop spill in the Potomac.
On Monday, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/16/potomac-raw-sewage-moore-trump-fema-truth-social/">reported</a>:
<blockquote>President Donald Trump said Monday that federal authorities will respond to a major sewage spill that occurred four weeks ago in the Potomac River, which flows between Maryland, Washington and Virginia. In a post on his social network, Truth Social, Trump said the Federal Emergency Management Agency would play a key role in a response involving “Management, Direction, and Coordination” to protect the Potomac. FEMA is one of the agencies affected by the current partial government shutdown; in past shutdowns, its employees have largely been required to work without pay.
Trump blamed “local Democrat leaders” for “gross mismanagement” in his post, and he singled out Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), suggesting that the governor is incapable of handling the situation. On Air Force One on Monday afternoon en route to Washington from Mar-a-Lago, Trump again criticized Moore. “I don’t like the fact that he did that horrible, you know, with the pipes and the Potomac, and he’s not doing the job,” Trump said. “I’m going to have to get the federal government involved in getting it fixed, because he can’t fix anything.”</blockquote>
Wes Moore tried to claim it was actually the federal government&#8217;s fault. It is not. He says he&#8217;s a victim of President Trump now. Sure, it&#8217;s his state pumping raw sewage into the rivers, but it is President Trump who is the real exploiter here.
 Moore will most likely run for president in 2028. I think that would be a quixotic quest; I do not think that he has “it,” whatever “it” is.
“I think the president just seems to have a very real issue with the fact that I do not bow to him and I will stand up to him because I will always defend my people. But the fact that I am the only black governor in this country and the fact that he seems to have a real issue with me, I think that&#8217;s an issue he&#8217;s got to take up,” he <a href="https://x.com/TheArenaCNN/status/2024252428959310008">declared</a>.
It&#8217;s very sad. What a victim.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2371-prince-andrew-arrested"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Moore also claims that President Trump may be a racist because he is “assaulting” employment opportunities for black women.
He <a href="https://x.com/TheArenaCNN/status/2024252428959310008">stated</a>, “He also has spent the past year making a direct assault on scholarships for HBCUs. The past year, we have seen the greatest assault on unemployment for black women that our country has ever seen. He&#8217;s spending his time attacking history and banning books. I honestly think that, you know, it&#8217;s a question not just for the president, but frankly, I think it&#8217;s also a question for white America. If they are looking at his actions. I think that&#8217;s something that people need to wrestle with.”
This is ridiculous. The unemployment rate in the country right now is 4.3%. Trump is not undercutting black women.
If the claim by Moore is that government employment has been cut in certain areas and that demographically this disproportionately affects black women, that does not mean that Trump is specifically targeting black women by cutting federal jobs.
Claiming victimhood on behalf of black women everywhere because President Trump is cutting federal jobs is truly silly, especially on the same day that President Trump was celebrating Black History Month at the White House.
Our apparently incredibly racist president <a href="https://x.com/rapidresponse47/status/2024222985142382935?s=46">said this</a>:
<blockquote>Black Americans have stepped forward to defend the flag and to defend our country like few others. And you&#8217;ve never really been given the recognition that you should get for that. I don&#8217;t think a lot of people have given the kind of recognition, but, everyone knows all about the Tuskegee Airmen. They were great and amazing. The Buffalo Soldiers, you know, the Buffalo Soldiers? Good stuff, right? Black leaders from Frederick Douglass to Martin Luther King. &#8230; have made our country freer. What they&#8217;ve really done is made life more just.</blockquote>
What a racist. That is egregiously KKK-type racist stuff.
One reporter on Wednesday took the opportunity to ask about whether Trump is a racist, since he has been called racist so many times. 
He <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bHKojtGTPI">asked</a>, “Where or when does the president believe he&#8217;s been falsely called racist?”
“You&#8217;re kidding, right?” White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt fired back, “I will pull you a plethora of examples. I&#8217;m going to get my team in that room to start going through the internet of radical Democrats throughout the years who have accused this president falsely of being a racist. And I&#8217;m sure there&#8217;s many people in this room and on network television across the country who have accused him of the same. In fact, I know that because I&#8217;ve seen it with my own eyes.”
I love it. 
One D.C. resident gave a very lively speech during this event at the White House. Her grandson was violently killed in Washington, D.C., and she <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU6nStNjl2A/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">raved about Trump</a>: 
“We need National Guard, which we did years ago. He brought it on. I love him. I don&#8217;t want to hear nothing you got to say about the racist stuff. And don&#8217;t be looking at me on the news, hating on me because I&#8217;m standing up for somebody that deserves to be stand up for. Get off the man&#8217;s back. Let him do his job. He doing the right thing. Back up off. And grandma said it!”
But, oh, look at that vicious racist in the White House.
Say what?

Maryland Gov. Moore And Utah Gov. Cox Speak At National Press Club On Bipartisanship

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