I still remember the "I am not a witch" ad by Christine O'Donnell in 2010 as her closing message to Delaware voters about to choose the next senator replacing Joe Biden. It was a very good year for Republicans in the House of Representatives, with 63 seats and control of the chamber flipping to the GOP. 2010 was supposed to be a red wave election in response to the jam down of Obamacare on a party-line vote in the Senate, but there were too many sub-par candidates in states up for grabs, and the expected tsunami turned into a moderate high tide at best.
Since the lessons of Todd Akin's 'legitimate rape', or Sharron Angle telling a Hispanic group of students in Las Vegas that, 'I don’t know that all of you are Latino. Some of you look a little more Asian to me,' and again in 2022 with Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania or Herschel Walker in Georgia, Republicans, at least in Senate campaigns, have largely fielded quality candidates in the last couple of cycles. But regardless of how bad any particular Republican, or slate of them may have been in recent memory, nothing compares to the breadth and depth of craziness offered up by the Democrat Party in a year already providing them a tailwind going into November. It's nothing short of surreal.
We're going to bounce all over the country in this column and we will feature candidates in both state and federal races. And the clips from each, some older material, have come to the surface in just the last week or so. And we haven't gotten to Labor Day, after which traditionally, the really good stuff comes out.
Let's start in Kansas, where the governor's race will be between our guy, Ty Masterson, president of the state senate, and a four-term state representative named Cindy Holscher. Masterson enjoys great name ID statewide and a very long track record of successful and very popular legislation passed, even with a sitting Democratic governor. In fact, a Laura Kelly veto has been overturned on Masterson's watch 58 times during her two terms. What is Ms. Holscher's breakout moment? Blaspheming Jesus Christ.
🚨Report: Kansas Democrat Nominee for Governor Cindy Holscher is getting massive backlash about her comment on Jesus Christ
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) August 12, 2026
She said: “I have no idea if Jesus was trans, gay, straight, etc.” pic.twitter.com/x9jrKP0ajG
According to Pew Research, drawn from articles in the Wichita Eagle and the Kansas Reflector, the Sunflower State is ranked nationally as the 10th most religious state in the Union. Roughly 70 percent of Kansans identify as Christian, and about forty percent of them attend church at least fairly regularly. Ms. Holscher might be able to get away with saying something that stupid in the heathen state of Vermont, but that's not going to play well in the middle of the Heartland.
In Texas, where I'm reliably told by polling that James Talarico is going to steal the open Senate seat away from Ken Paxton, Talarico continues to demonstrate he is more likely to move back into his mom's basement by Christmas. On a Center For American Progress podcast, Talarico was asked about recent legislation passed in the Lone Star State reimplementing the Bible as an educational tool in school. Talarico, who professes faith in Christ, popped out with this beauty.
Excuse me, Bible stories to kids are propaganda? If one claims to be Christian, the Bible is literally the Word of God. It isn't just full of true events, it is truth. I guess James forgot about Matthew 19:14, where Jesus says, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
As a 2026 Senate candidate, he has the wherewithal to understand it's political death to support gender-reassignment surgeries on minors in Texas, and said he opposes the practice on a podcast. But his voting record as a state representative? That's a different matter entirely. In 2023, the Texas legislature wrote and passed a law banning gender-dysphoric surgeries on minors. Any guesses on who voted against that legislation? Does he square that contradiction? Not a chance.
On another podcast, Talarico was asked about a ProPublica story on him that in the last five elections spanning a decade, Talarico was registered and voted using his mother's home address. We already know his checking account has his mom listed as a co-signer. This is a 37-year-old man we're talking about.
Notice he doesn't deny the facts presented — he's either lived at mom's house for the last decade, or he's committed election fraud. It's one or the other. He dodges the question entirely and blames it on Paxton, his Republican opponent. Except ProPublica isn't exactly what one would consider a right-wing site with Ken Paxton on speed dial.
In Minnesota, the Republicans have nominated former sports journalist, Salem podcaster and colleague Michele Tafoya, a terrific candidate with very good media instincts and an aura of normalcy around her. Her draw for the open Senate seat vacated by Tina Smith, who I'm stunned to learn has been one of the Gopher State's senators for a few years now, is Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. Until yesterday, she's been joined at the hip with Governor Jazz Hands - Tim Walz. They've been inseparable...until the fraud and corruption stinking up the state to high Heaven became so pungent that she now practically claims to have never known the man.
Oh, it gets better. On illegal immigration, especially when those here commit violent crimes, at a minimum, it's an 80/20 issue. AP-NORC polling shows 83 percent of Americans, including 79 percent of Democrats and 89 percent of Republicans, support deportation or stiff sentences for illegal aliens who commit violent crimes against U.S. citizens. PBS News/NPR/Marist report very similar numbers, and Pew has a survey that 97 percent of Americans believe if you're here illegally and commit a capital offense against a U.S. citizen, at the very least, you should be deported.
Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student who committed the sin of going out one morning for a run and caught the attention of an illegal alien looking out his window into the park. He kidnapped her, raped her, and killed her. Ultimately, her death brought about the Laken Riley Act, which had bipartisan support, but not unanimous support, bringing me back to Ms. Flanagan. She criticized her Democrat primary opponent for supporting the Laken Riley Act, intimating that such a position is disqualifying.
But the most fun was watching her roasted on the spit of gender assignment surgeries for minors on what I'm sure she believed to be a friendly media outlet — CNN. Here's Pamela Brown, to her great credit, repeatedly pressing the issue.
In Maine, just when you thought Der Oysterfuhrer, Graham Platner, would never be seen raising his hand in support of the party again, he's baaaaaack.
Bangor Daily News: Graham Platner will headline Ellsworth, Maine Labor Day rally
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) August 13, 2026
Platner will speak at the rally, slated for noon on September 7 outside Ellsworth City Hall, about the history of unions and the role organized labor plays in communities across the country,…
You'd think, wouldn't you, that Democrats in the Pinetree State would pull him aside and say he's not helping? Like the state Democrat Party chairman, Charlie Dingman, perhaps? Nah, he's too busy chuckling on a podcast about how quick they were able to swap out Senate nominees without a vote being cast, for muh democracy.
Alas, what seemed to escape transparency, along with actual votes being cast by Mainers, was the news that Troy Jackson, their replacement candidate, married his second cousin and has his own history of violence.
A man we spoke with in Allagash claims he witnessed Troy Jackson open-hand slap his girlfriend outside a pub.
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) August 13, 2026
He also disputed the claim that Troy is a "fifth generation logger." pic.twitter.com/cl7kEur5nt
In Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy has drawn about the easiest opponent possible in a state continuing to get redder by the year. Amy Acton, Ohio's former director of the Department of Health, was the one in charge of what you couldn't do during the COVID pandemic. If in hindsight you are not a fan of schools being shut down for a year or longer, Amy Acton is who ordered it. If you hated bars, restaurants and non-essential businesses being closed for an extended period of time, Amy made that call. If you felt more than a little cooped up by extended stay-at-home orders, she was responsible for those orders.
Dr. Anthony Fauci infamously gave us the "flatten the curve" lie at the national level, but Dr. Amy was every bit as responsible for perpetrating the fraudulant lie in the Buckeye State. At the height of the pandemic, she wanted the entire weight of state law enforcement to go after any violators of what we now know to be non-scientific, insane public policy over a virus slightly more virulent and lethal than a normal flu strain. And yet, today, she holds an entirely different view of law enforcement when it's being used to enforce federal law, not public policy decrees she makes.
ICE agents are just like the KKK, except unlike the KKK, ICE agents are not burning flaming crosses on the front lawns of illegal immigrants. Nor are they lynching illegal aliens. They are, *checks notes*, enforcing federal laws on the books, and in the vast amount of cases, carrying out deportation orders after those illegal aliens have had their cases adjudicated in a court of law.
In Georgia, Jon Ossoff, who is gaining ground as a potential 2028 presidential contender, got caught in the wayback machine of GOP oppo research as calling for reparations.
🚨UNEARTHED
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 13, 2026
Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff supports reparations.
OSSOFF: "There is a debt unpaid. I think it is a very, very difficult question how to pay it.”
HOST: “That should be the question, not if it should be paid.”
OSSOFF: “Exactly.” pic.twitter.com/WXPENM31vp
It's a tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, Democrats and offers of reparations.
Ossoff, if one sees or hears anything about him from media, is told that he's a normie — a man of the people, not a radical crazy like so many of the current crop running this cycle.
🚨 BREAKING: Jon Ossoff is heading to the Hamptons to fundraise with Alex Soros and Hillary Clinton.
— Mike Collins War Room (@TeamOverhaulGA) August 13, 2026
Less than 20% of Ossoff's fundraising comes from the state of Georgia.
The rest of it comes from left-wing elites who know he will do their bidding. pic.twitter.com/J9CCsy2l39
Yes, like any American, the Hamptons with Hillary and Blofeld is exactly the normie weekend we envision.
Let's see, am I forgetting anyone? Oh, yes. Of course. How could I possibly forget the guy that is giftwrapping the Senate seat in the Wolverine State to Mike Rogers?
I know, he's trying to win over the Blues Clues voters, but I saw this emerge yesterday morning and imagined the conversation that had to take place between Hasan El-Sayed (they're really the same person, so why not merge their names?) and his digital comms guy.
Digital guy/Genie: "So listen, we have the capability and resources to scrub the internet for either all references to you saying fireworks and/or July 4th suck, or we can delete the Pee Wee Hasan video. It's your choice. We can't do both. Which one would you like disappeared?"
El-Sayed: "No question, lose the July 4th stuff. I'll get killed over that, politically."
The worst of both worlds happened — reporting that El-Sayed indeed gave Independence Day the same treatment Francesca Hong in Wisconsin gave Thanksgiving, and this tone-deaf, cringe-fest was the talk of the internet Thursday. Meanwhile...
Every DC Democrat right now: pic.twitter.com/IsaDlETFf6
— Duane Patterson (@Radioblogger) August 13, 2026
Fox News polling, for what it's worth, shows Mike Rogers opening up a four-point lead over El-Sayed, and that's before the impact of whatever the heck this video was gets absorbed into the bloodstream of Michiganders.
I titled this column the Dog Days of August Bite the DSA for a good reason. While some people might laugh off the El-Sayed video as lighthearted and goofy, if not cheesy and cringeworthy, another story surfaced that is far more nefarious and disturbing about the character of the man who wants to replace Gary Peters in the upper chamber.
Abdul El-Sayed oversaw animal 'slaughterhouse' as over 4,000 puppies and kittens killed under his watch https://t.co/B3KQhUCiMD
— Daily Mail US (@Daily_MailUS) August 13, 2026
I recall in 2012 when Mitt Romney was branded an inhuman monster by the Democratic left and their allies in media for strapping the family dog, Seamus, to the roof of the Chevy Caprice for a 12-hour road trip. Romney built a windshield to make the trip for Seamus more comfortable, but Seamus' stress levels were manifested systemically by the decorative brown racing stripe going down the rear window of the car by the end of the journey. Cruelty to animal charges were hurled all over the place. I wonder what they'll say now about a man who oversaw the extermination of thousands of animals.
For parts of three years, 2015-2017, El-Sayed ran Michigan's Department of Health. Included in his portfolio was oversight of Detroit's troubled and much-publicized animal control program. For a guy who likes to throw the word genocide around when talking about the Middle East, he seems to be awfully quiet about what happened on his watch to dogs and cats in the Motor City.
Abdul El Sayed oversaw an animal slaughterhouse where over 4,000 dogs and cats were put down under his watch.
— Great Lakes HQ (@GreatLakes_HQ) August 13, 2026
“In 2015, DACC euthanized 1,988 dogs and 272 cats – a total of 2,260 animals, which was 26.4% of ALL dogs euthanized in the county.”
Nearly 4,680 total. Absolutely… pic.twitter.com/rokQMKA6Nr
It's not a good look at all, especially in a state that boasts 62 percent of its residents owning at least one pet, and oftentimes, multiples.
El-Sayed is turning out to be his own worst enemy, but he has a more-than-capable wingman in self-destruction — Hasan Piker. The podcaster required his audience to go out and defend him, even if they have a hard time defending everything he's said out of context, like antisemitism, misogyny, racism, bigotry, terrorism, and anti-Americanism.
And speaking of being commanded to go out and defend the indefensible, perhaps his minions can begin by downplaying this little number from Piker's speaking gig at Yale.
Oh, no, he couldn't just drop the mic at 'we must end the American empire'. He had to throw in his lamentations for the falling of the Soviet Union. This is the guy Brokeback El-Sayed just can't quit. This is the wannabe kingmaker that causes Democrats in interviews to squirm and say we need to be a big tent. They're terrified of crossing Piker and the fever swamp on the far left he represents, and when cornered by a reporter on camera about why they won't denounce him, Democrats deploy Patches O'Houlihan's five rules of dodgeball — dodge, duck, dive, dip, and dodge.
Well, almost all. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has been rock solid in saying he wants nothing to do with the entire lot of socialist/communist trust fund brats. But there is another — Rahm Emanuel.
While we are happily gorging on popcorn watching this unfold, I am constantly reminded by my Duane's World podcasting partner on Tuesdays, former Missouri Senator Jim Talent, of one of the axioms of American politics — you can't beat something with nothing. It's not just good enough to point out the crazy, although it's very satisfying as a conservative, a talk show producer, and a writer for HotAir. You have to give voters a positive reason to vote for your candidate, or slate of candidates nationally. And fortunately, we have a case to make in a lot of areas, but especially economically. The boom coming from restarting the manufacturing engine in America is underway, and it's going to be huge.
Ford plans to shift production of some Lincoln cars from China to the US beginning 2030, as the automaker confronts 52.5% tariffs on its China-built Nautilus model under the Trump administration's trade policy https://t.co/P9BlI1owtn pic.twitter.com/wkpdK6sJHH
— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) August 13, 2026
Our Advanced Manufacturing Center in Houston is now open & we will begin manufacturing Mac mini this year!
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 13, 2026
Great to meet some of the first attendees with Secretary of Commerce @howardlutnick. They'll learn the same advanced manufacturing techniques we use to build Apple… pic.twitter.com/trMZeZCK76
Under President Trump, auto manufacturing is coming back to America.
— U.S. Department of Commerce (@CommerceGov) August 13, 2026
Toyota is investing $3.6 billion in San Antonio to bring Tacoma production to Texas, creating thousands of high-tech American jobs.
America First trade policy is delivering. pic.twitter.com/0RBL1yWS8W
That's just three announcements in the last 24 hours, and all of that coming after a manufacturing report last week being the highest it's been in four years. With major industries and companies onshoring production lines in the United States again, providing good-paying jobs to go with it, there is a positive story to tell.
Vice President J.D. Vance realizes you can't just win elections by going negative on your opponents, and warned our candidates to spend time accentuating the positive on Fox News with Will Cain.
He's right, and I will attempt to do my part in the closing months to make that positive case for Republican votes.
But I'd be lying if I didn't also plan to remind you that if you don't like what Abdul El-Sayed did to 4,000-plus four-legged friends, imagine what he'll do to those on two legs if he gets into the Senate with other crazy colleagues around the country backing his play.
Editor's Note: We now have the room to run outside commentary by some of our favorite and most provocative thinkers on the Right. That only happens because of the support of our readers, who ensure that we have the resources to keep providing an independent platform and independent voices in a sea of Protection Racket Media domination.
Help us maintain that fight! Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member