Wisconsin residents voted on Tuesday to elect Susan Crawford as the next member of their state supreme court, according to the Associated Press, which declared Crawford the winner. The vote will put the liberals in charge of the state’s highest court during a time when the court’s decisions on congressional redistricting in the state could very well lead to more House seats for Democrats. While Wisconsin judicial races are nominally nonpartisan, the official backing of political parties for both candidates left little doubt about how they would be making their rulings if seated on the court.  In addition to the issue of congressional redistricting, the candidates were also sharply divided on abortion. Schimel is known to be a practicing Catholic with involvement in the right-to-life cause. Crawford, on the other hand, has represented Planned Parenthood in court as a lawyer in prior private practice. The election is seen as a bellwether for the GOP’s future prospects during the 2026 midterms, when the party in power historically has a tough time maintaining control of the legislature. Republicans currently have a razor-thin majority in the House, which prompted President Donald Trump to pull the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for her to remain a member of Congress. Known for being the most competitive of swing states, Wisconsin was won by Trump in 2024 by fewer than 30,000 votes. The pivotal nature of the Wisconsin race prompted an unprecedented amount of outside money to flood the state from both Republicans and Democrats. Groups affiliated with tech industrialist Elon Musk spent at least $18.2 million, whereas liberal billionaire George Soros and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, doled out millions of their own. In total, spending on the race has exceeded $90 million and could very well top $100 million when the dust settles.  Despite the plethora of money from liberal billionaires, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a Democrat, portrayed the election as a rebuke of Musk, posting on X, “Wisconsin beat the billionaire.” Wisconsin beat the billionaire.— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) April 2, 2025 Taking a page out of his 2024 presidential playbook, Musk visited Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Sunday, for a rally, at which he gave out two $1 million checks to Wisconsin voters and donned a cheesehead hat. President Donald Trump also weighed in on the race on Tuesday. Posting on Truth Social, the president endorsed Schimel and voiced his support for a state referendum to amend the state constitution to require voter ID. The referendum passed, and it was celebrated by Elon Musk on X. Yeah! https://t.co/x99NunhUkA— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2025 Wisconsin already required voters to show voter identification in the form of photo ID when requesting a ballot or at the polls. Acceptable forms of ID include a Wisconsin’s driver’s license or a passport. Enshrining the requirement into the state constitution would prevent a liberal state Supreme Court from ruling the voter ID law unconstitutional. The post Progressives Keep Wisconsin Supreme Court; More Democrat US House Seats Likely appeared first on The Daily Signal.

China currently has a significant advantage over the United States in terms of critical minerals. These minerals are “critical” for the production of green energy technology, the semiconductors used in consumer electronics, and military hardware—including missiles, aircraft, and ammunition. The PRC controls over 90 percent of the world’s production of gallium, over 80 percent of the production of magnesium, tungsten, and bismuth, and over 70 percent of the production of graphite. China also controls between 40 and 50 percent of the world’s supply of refined rare earth elements. Domestic production of critical minerals is comparatively weak, and the construction of new mines was repeatedly blocked by the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden. If we are to successfully counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific, it is imperative that we secure new sources of critical minerals and grow our ability to refine them. In light of these challenges, President Donald Trump has indicated his intent to promote the production of critical minerals both at home and abroad. The Ukraine minerals deal, which will set up a “reconstruction investment fund” with the revenues from Ukrainian government-owned natural resources, is a significant step in the right direction. The deal accomplishes several important goals. First, it provides capital for the reconstruction of Ukraine’s devastated infrastructure and is designed to attract additional private sector investment, giving Ukraine a path toward financial recovery from the war. Second, it compensates the U.S. for billions of dollars’ worth of military and financial assistance provided to Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion. Third, it will create Western buy-in for the region’s stability that could deter future Russian aggression in lieu of a formal security guarantee. Finally, and most importantly, it will give the U.S. a new source of the critical minerals and rare earth elements needed to expand semiconductor production and rebuild and modernize the military. Ukraine is of particular importance because it is one of the most resource-rich countries in Europe. The Ukrainian government estimates that the country contains 5% of the world’s critical minerals, with large deposits of graphite, titanium, lithium, beryllium, uranium, and rare earth elements. Moreover, because of a lack of capital and sophisticated mining technology, only 15% of deposits were being exploited when the invasion began in 2022. According to the director of a Ukrainian graphite factory, 70% of Ukraine’s critical minerals have not been mined. Up to $350 billion worth of these minerals are found in areas under Russian occupation, but the remainder are still accessible to foreign and domestic mining interests. The deal is good for both Ukraine and for the United States, and ought to move forward.  The post How the Ukraine Minerals Deal Supports US Strategy and Ukrainian Security appeared first on The Daily Signal.

For the past four years, the very foundations of America have been shaken. Formerly a nation with “liberty and justice for all,” the United States has seemingly strayed from its founding, claiming equal opportunity for all, while openly favoring some based on immutable characteristics like race or gender. This has posed a critical threat to military readiness and lethality at the Department of Defense. Changes in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion have occurred across the federal government, redirecting attention away from the core competencies of the military and toward politicized, left-wing concerns. However, thanks to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, this damaging trend is being reversed. To abolish inherently racist practices that reward the possession of immutable characteristics, instead of true merit, Hegseth headed the creation of the “Restoring America’s Fighting Force Task Force,” charged with eliminating DEI efforts in the Pentagon. The task force will champion efforts like ensuring fairness by eliminating the preferential treatment of students based on race or gender at universities, and no longer using gender or race when considering employees for promotions or special tasks. Under the Biden administration, corrosive DEI policies were forced on the United States’ military. Some of the DEI initiatives the Biden administration implemented ultimately hindered the effectiveness of the DOD. For instance, the former secretary of the Air Force openly advocated for his goal of cutting down on the number of white males serving as Air Force pilots by 33%. This initiative showed that the real priorities were not inclusion or true merit. In the last year of the Biden Administration, the Department of Defense asked for $114.7 million for DEI “initiatives” as part of Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 defense budget request.  Hegseth wasted no time in fulfilling the orders of Trump, who just days before had issued an executive order titled “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” rescinding certain executive orders issued by the Biden administration. Many of President Joe Biden’s orders were tailored to DEI practices within the federal government. Some of these initiatives  include his executive order on June 25, 2021, that “improves the collection of demographic data on the federal workforce, which included information on which employees are able to access professional development and advancement opportunities.” This shows that Biden was more concerned with prioritizing so-called “inclusion” over an equal playing field for all employees. Hegseth affirmed his commitment to President Donald Trump’s wishes through his elimination of race and sex as factors for military promotions, and unveiled his intention to set in motion a new task force to champion “merit-based, color-blind policies” in the U.S. military. Additionally, he called for the elimination of months being dedicated to LGBTQ ideals at the Department of Defense. This task force has several main objectives: eliminating race or sex-based preferences for employees when offering promotions, abolishing sex or race-based quotas, ending instruction/workforce training on DEI, and stopping task forces that deal with subject matters like critical race theory or gender ideology. In addition to these tasks, the force has been directed to include the teaching of American exceptionalism, as opposed to divisiveness and hatred for our country. Instead of bowing down to the DEI policies that have impacted Washington for so long, Hegseth is embracing new reforms to sweep across the nation that will focus on necessary traits for all DOD personnel like “lethality, meritocracy, and accountability.” Drill sergeants used to tell soldiers that nobody in the Army was black or white – everyone was green. Highlighting and exacerbating divisions based on race is a recipe for failure that serves only as a dangerous distraction from the serious business of warfighting. Focusing on what brings us together as Americans and why our troops choose to serve this great nation would be a better policy. Luckily, the Defense Department under Hegseth is once again focused on defending the national security interests of the American people and bringing all our troops together under one flag. The post Hegseth Bids Adieu to Military Wokeness appeared first on The Daily Signal.

There is only one way to reclaim Western civilization, Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday night: Exhibiting the courage to speak the truth. “We’re not going to rebuild prosperity and opportunity,” Vance said, “We’re not going to rebuild the kind of society where we teach children the important virtues and skills to thrive, as opposed to trying to tear our kids down, which is what I think our education system does all too often. We’re not going to rebuild a foreign policy that’s rooted in our shared interest, rather than in liberal values that were invented 20 or 30 years ago, but have become the innovating concept of the foreign policy of too many Western leaders and too many Western nations. We’re not going to solve any of these problems unless we have the courage to speak the truth, unless we have the courage to live the truth.” President Donald Trump has this courage, Vance said. “One of the things that makes me most proud of our administration, not that we’ve won every battle, or win every battle. Some of these battles are going to take 20, 30, 40, years for us to see, I think, through to ultimate victory,” Vance said. “But the president, I’m very proud to say, is not a person who is afraid of criticism from those in power.” “And I think there’s anything that sort of ties the first Trump administration to the second Trump administration and the president’s entire political career, is that this is a guy with incredible courage,” the vice president continued. “He just doesn’t care what other people say about him. He doesn’t care what the media writes about him. He’s going to do what he thinks is right.” Vance gave remarks at The Heritage Foundation before a private premiere of a new docuseries from Angel Studios based on Rod Dreher’s book, “Live Not By Lies,” which tells the story of USSR-era Christian dissidents. The founding ideas of the West, including the Christian faith, have fallen into disfavor with the ruling elite, Vance said. But this truth does not lead him to despair. “The way to deal with this, the way to deal with being attacked by the ruling elites of a given society, is to speak the truth, is to live, not by lies,” Vance said, referencing the title of Dreher’s book. “The incentives, the financial rewards, the social benefits of living by lies is too often very great, but Rod’s lesson is important that you’re going to sacrifice your soul, you’re going to sacrifice your civilization, you’re going to sacrifice your family. You’re going to sacrifice your country, if you give in to the easy pathway.” Conservatives in the past have struggled with giving way to despair when elections don’t go their way, Vance said, yielding to the idea that Western civilization is on a negative trajectory. This is something Vance himself said he has struggled with. “But I think that what we’ve learned over the last few months is that the American people,” Vance said, “and I think Western peoples, are a hell of a lot more resilient than our elites give them credit for. Rebuilding Western civilization will not be easy, according to Vance. In Europe, people are arrested for praying outside abortion clinics, and the police question them about what they’re praying about. “Yes, you see people who are thrown in prison or have their jobs destroyed because they don’t believe the right things, or they don’t say the right things, according to the liberal intelligentsia, that rules some of these societies,” Vance said. “But at the same time you have that happening, you have people of incredible courage speaking up and saying, ‘No, we’re not going to live by lies. We’re going to speak the truth.'” Vance listed a few examples, such as Western peoples pushing back against their government on issues like migration and religious freedom. “My point is that part of living, not by lies, is to continue to maintain the optimism that I think is really at the root of the Judeo-Christian tradition in the United States of America and in the West,” Vance said. As a devout Christian, Vance has faith that God is in control. “The promise of the Christian faith is not that we’re always going to win on a short-term horizon, but that ultimately God calls the shots,” he said. “He is in control. And if we keep on fighting, and we keep on working and we keep on having faith, and we keep on pursuing the values that we know are right, I really do believe that we are going to see great things happen.” The president believes great things are happening in America and in the West, Vance said. “In the past two months in this administration, we’ve gone from a country where we would harass and threaten and investigate and even arrest pro-life protesters to one where we’re encouraging pro-life activists to do what they can to persuade their fellow Americans,” Vance said. “A couple of months ago, we had social media censorship run amok,” he continued. “We were threatening people’s right of free expression for not saying the things that Silicon Valley technology companies told them to say. Now I believe that we have more free speech on the internet today than we’ve probably had in 10 or 15 years. So we’re making progress. We’re making steady progress. We’re making solid progress, and we’d all do a lot better if we remember Rod’s advice to live, not by lies.” The post Trump Has the Quality Essential for Reclaiming Western Civilization, Vance Says appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Republican Randy Fine emerged triumphant Tuesday in a special election in Florida’s 6th Congressional District, The Associated Press projects, putting an end to speculation that the district could flip and hand Democrats a seat in Congress. The race received national attention and millions from Democrat donors who sought to send a message about their party’s continued relevance with a victory in the ruby-red district between Jacksonville and Orlando. Falling on the same day as Wisconsin’s high-profile state Supreme Court election, the Florida elections received a high level of attention. Democrats had hoped to flip two ruby-red districts to send a message of their continued relevance and to weaken Republican legislative power. Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin even traveled to Florida to promote both of the party’s candidates and continuously framed both races as referendums on the Trump administration. He described both Valimont and Weil as “proven leaders who will fight for Social Security, veterans, and public schools—while keeping [President Donald] Trump and [Elon] Musk in check.” Republicans, on the other hand, were keen to maintain their current margins in the House of Representatives, as they have their sights on passing a budget reconciliation bill, which requires only a simple majority in the House. Trump had both Republicans’ backs as well, delivering enthusiastic endorsements on social media. He described Fine as an “America First Patriot” and Patronis as “a wonderful friend to me, and to MAGA.” Despite both Gaetz and Waltz winning two-thirds of the vote in both districts in November, both of their would-be Republican successors faced fierce opposition.  In the 6th Congressional District, for example, Democrats outraised Republicans nearly 10-to-1, raising around $10 million. In the 1st Congressional District, Valimont raised about $6.5 million against Patronis’ $2.1 million. The post Republicans Fend Off Democrat Bid to Seize Florida House Seat appeared first on The Daily Signal.