There are sometimes stories that you really don’t want to cover, but to remain true to yourself, you have to. This is one of them.

When I was in high school, I don’t know how many times I saw Walking Tall at the drive-in. It was Joe Don Baker’s breakout role, and the movie, part of that 70s vigilante genre that included Billy Jack, Death Wish, and Dirty Harry, was hugely popular in rural Southside Virginia. It was the story of Buford Pusser, the real-life sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee. He was a former Marine who turned into a pro wrestler. He returned home to McNairy County and, after a brief stint as the chief of police in Adamsville, Tennessee, he became the youngest elected sheriff in Tennessee. He carried on a very public war with the Dixie Mafia and the State Line Mob, using a four-foot hickory club as his weapon of choice.

In the movie, the culminating event is Pusser and his wife, Pauline, being targeted in an ambush on  August 12, 1967. Pusser was struck on the left side of his jaw by at least two, or possibly three, rounds from a .30-caliber carbine. Pauline, who was accompanying Pusser on a call, died from gunshot wounds.

This event motivates the locals to stand together and oust the mobsters who had long dominated McNairy County.

Pusser vowed to bring his wife’s killer to justice, but no progress was made. After Pusser died in an auto accident in 1974, there was no interest in devoting time or energy to Pauline’s murder.

In 2023, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced that the murder investigation was still open and asked the public to come forward with tips; see Pauline Pusser investigation still ongoing since 1967. Based on “[a] recent tip,” Pauline’s body was exhumed in early 2024 because no autopsy had ever been conducted.

According to the TBI, a recent tip prompted a new review of the case file, and the discovery was made that an autopsy was never performed on Pauline Pusser’s body.

“The fact that the TBI had a tip that prompted this new look into Mrs. Pauline’s case, such an interesting thing though because if an autopsy was never performed it just raises some questions that I hope could provide more clear answers to what actually happened,” Wheeler said.

The Pusser’s family has supported the TBI’s decision to exhume her body.

Now with the recent update of technology, the TBI can hopefully answer a few questions.

“You realize although it’s been however how many years it’s been, forensics can take and do amazing things today that wasn’t even imagined back then,” said Dennis Hathcock, a retiree.

This brings us up to Friday.

It’s been said that the dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so. In this case, that duty has been carried out 58 years later. The TBI, then the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, excuse me, Identification, took the lead on this investigation into the 1967 murder of Pauline Mullins Pusser. She was a wife, a mother, and a sister whose life ended violently and unjustly. Her husband, McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser, reported that his wife volunteered to ride along in the dark early morning hours on a disturbance call. He claimed that a car pulled alongside his and fired several shots, killing Pauline and injuring him in what he clamed was an ambush intended for him and carried out by unknown assailants. Buford Pusser recovered from his injuries. No viable suspects were developed and no charges were filed. This was a cold for decades but in 2022, TBI agents took another at the archive file and coordinated with our office. That work accelerated in 2023 and in 2024, Pauline Mullins Pusser was exhumed for an autopsy. TBI completed their investigative process this year and the file was forwarded to our office to review. The file is voluminous, over 1,000 pages, and employed modern investigative techniques and forensic science unavailable in 1967. It is thorough and exhaustive and the scope and breadth of it exceeds our ability to discuss it in detail today. That is one reason we’re making this a public record.

You can watch the full press conference by District Attorney General Mark Davidson of Tennessee’s 25th Judicial District; the video below is cued to his remarks.

The bottom line is that the statement Pusser gave about his wife’s death doesn’t match the crime scene photos. The autopsy results indicate Ms. Pusser was beaten and shot outside the vehicle, and the entire incident was staged.

The TBI says that autopsy photos of the cranial trauma Pauline Pusser suffered did not match the crime scene photos of the inside of the vehicle. According to the TBI, the autopsy also revealed that Pauline suffered a nasal fracture sometime before her shooting death. 

The TBI also says that blood splatter patterns on the hood of the vehicle contradicted Pusser’s version of events. 

Investigators have reportedly determined that the gunshot wound on Pusser’s cheek was done by a close-range shot that was “likely self-inflicted.” The TBI says that physical evidence suggests that the crime scene was staged. 

“There is probable cause to believe that Pauline’s death was not an accident, not an act of chance, but, based on the totality of the TBI investigative file, an act of intimate, deliberate violence,” District Attorney General Mark Davidson said during Friday’s press conference.

In the words of Davidson, “There is enough evidence that if then-McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser were alive today, prosecutors would present an indictment to the grand jury for the murder of Pauline Mullins Pusser.”

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Sometimes, it’s best to just let them talk and listen to what they have to say.  The propaganda machine of the violent “pro-Palestine” movement, especially in the West, requires constant lying and aggressively ignoring realities.  They pretend to care about particular ‘concerns’ or incidents, but it’s all a smoke screen.  Karol Markowicz encapsulated the point by noting that openly wishing for the destruction of the Jewish state is a vile stance, but at least it’s honest.  It’s all the obfuscation and misdirection that is both vile and dishonest.  If people believe the one Jewish country in the world should be eradicated, they should say so openly.  This is why public comments from Hamas officials and Hamas supporters can be useful.  They inform this debate.  Indeed, they form the very crux of the debate.  It’s not about “settlements,” or disputes over how humanitarian aid is delivered, or anything else.  It’s about whether Israel has a right to exist and defend itself against existential threats. 

As has been stated many times, with many variations, if Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups laid down their weapons, there would be peace.  If Israel disarmed, there would be a genocide.  Not a fake “genocide” like the one Israel’s haters invented as a slander; a real one.  After the October 7, 2023 terrorist massacre, Hamas vowed it would continue perpetrating October 7ths forever, until Israel is gone and the Jews are dead and cleansed:

Just recently, Hamas celebrated the “fruits” of October 7, reveling in the hate rallies held in their honor around the Western world, and relishing various leaders’ moves to formally recognize Palestinian statehood:  

This was their plan — to murder as many Jews as possible, then turn as much of the world as possible against the Jewish state through a campaign of lies, all while refusing to surrender or release the hostages they stole that day (and are currently, actually starving in the dungeons of Gaza).  Those tunnels, incidentally, have not been used to shield civilians from bombs.  They’re reserved for terrorists and hostages.  They want the civilians in harm’s way.  Civilian harm is the central ingredient of their propaganda.  Rewarding such evil is despicable, as is feigning concern about suffering in Gaza without pressuring Hamas to end the war they started.  Hamas is 100 percent responsible for any and all misery in Gaza.  The craven or demented politicians in the West who are giving aid and comfort to Hamas by becoming willful pawns in this sick game should be ashamed of themselves.  Here’s one recent example:

Here’s the Conservative leader in the UK torching Prime Minister Starmer on the same front:

You can tell a lot from what a politician is ashamed of – and what he’s not. It should have been deeply unsettling for Keir Starmer that Hamas described the Labour government’s plan to recognise a state of Palestine as “one of the fruits of October 7”, but he barely flinched. The prime minister’s grandstanding on Palestinian statehood is more than a distraction from his inability to deliver for the British people. This affair exposes a deeper rot at the heart of government – a political inclination to surrender without shame. Days after Labour’s intervention, Hamas released chilling videos of emaciated hostage Evyatar David, forced to dig his own grave. It was a harsh reminder of the evil and psychological cruelty of Hamas. This is an organisation which holds an innocent 24-year-old man in dark tunnels for 680 days, simply because he is Jewish. While Israel cooperates closely with the UK on counter-terrorism intelligence so that we can be safe from terrorism within our own borders, Starmer rewards the terrorists that hold Israel’s civilians hostage, creating a perverse incentive for Hamas to keep torturing them. None of it makes any sense because Labour’s goal is not to help build a lasting peace, to influence any real prospect of statehood, or to ease the terrible suffering of civilians in Gaza. Instead, their only goal is to appease anti-Israel sentiment in their party and the Islamist groups whose pressure they cannot resist. In the process, they betray Britain’s security interests, and they betray humanity.

Devastating and deserved.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been hammering this elementary but crucial point, which is intentionally lost on the gutless panderers:

Appeasing Hamas and their followers emboldens them, and makes the possibility of peace more remote.  It’s disgraceful.  Then there’s the “Zionism” fig leaf.  They don’t hate Jews, per se, they are just fanatically opposed to Zionism.  Set aside that Zionism means supporting the right of the Jewish state to exist, that the overwhelming majority of Jews are Zionists, and that the ‘anti-Zionist’ BDS movement is quite rightly regarded as a form of anti-Semitism.   Listen to what the true believers, who feel less encumbered by the need to lie and deflect, have to say:

This isn’t some random woman, by the way.  She’s a disgusting, bloodthirsty bigot who was featured in the New York Times as an “international symbol of Palestinian resistance.”  It’s not really about Zionism, you see, it’s the Jews.  Out of her own mouth.  She speaks for so many of them, having not received the memo (or disregarding it) that the correct propaganda is to frame everything for plausible deniability.  She doesn’t want deniability.  She is bluntly stating the core view of the violent, bigoted “pro-Palestinian” movement.  I’ll leave you with this:

They published this sham report just as much of the ‘starvation/genocide’ crowd was quietly slinking away, waiting for the next spurious claim to pursue.  Having one international standard for famine, then altering the definition exclusively as a means to condemn the world’s lone Jewish state (ignoring the dispute over how much hunger there truly is inside Gaza, as well as Hamas’ moral culpability for everything that has arisen from their war) is textbook anti-Semitism.  Some might insist that it’s merely “anti-Zionism,” naturally, but the pro-Hamas Jew-haters have little time or appetite for such niceties. They know what they want, and why they want it.

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A report from the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) issued Wednesday highlighted the Minneapolis trans shooter’s desire to follow in the footsteps of mass shooters James Holmes and Adam Lanza by attacking unarmed people.

James Holmes is the gunman who opened fire in a gun-free movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012, killing 12 and injuring dozens. Adam Lanza carried out the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 28 people including himself and injuring two others.

CPRC used its report demonstrate that the trans attacker who allegedly shot and killed two children at Annunciation Catholic school and wounded many others wanted gun-free victims, like the ones Holmes and Lanza shot.

They translated a portion of the trans shooter’s manifesto, which was written in Russian, and it says:

I recently heard a rumor that James Holmes, the Aurora theater shooter, may have chosen venues that were “gun-free zones.” I would probably aim the same way… Holmes wanted to make sure his victims would be unarmed. That’s why I and many others like schools so much. At least for me, I am focused on them. Adam Lanza is my reason.

On the same page of the manifesto on which he noted his focus on attacking a schools, because they are typically gun-free, the trans shooter admitted that localities and facilities with security are unattractive targets: “I understand that high-security places like prisons or airports are different.”

In 2018, the CPRC released a study showing that 97.8 percent of mass shootings that occurred over a 68-year period were carried out in “gun-free zones.”

Breitbart News reported that three people were shot in New York City’s gun-free Times Square August 9, 2025, and, three days earlier, five soldiers were shot at Fort Stewart which also has gun-free policies.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

Labor Day is coming, and it would be a heckuva time for a road trip—because gas prices have plummeted to their lowest levels since before the COVID pandemic.

Earlier today, I wrote about the revised GDP numbers, which were better than “expected,” and now this:

The prices are the best we’ve seen in a long time:

This Labor Day, motorists will see the lowest gas prices in half a decade.

GasBuddy projects the national average at $3.15 a gallon — the cheapest holiday weekend at the pump since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought global travel to a halt.

“Thanks to President Trump fully unleashing American energy dominance, gas prices this summer are at five-year lows and families are saving significant money at the pump,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital.

“President Trump ended Joe Biden’s green new scam policies and is making America affordable again,” Leavitt added.

In 2024, gas prices stood at $3.29 per gallon, and the year prior reached $3.77.

Anyone missing Joe Biden about now? Not me.

It would be remiss, however, to fail to point out that not all the news is good. California Gav. Newsom and his social media staffers have become a 24-hour Trump-hating, gaslighting propaganda outfit, blasting the president at every turn for being a fascist and for destroying the country. Let’s remind him of what life is like in his own state on this (and virtually every other) issue:

READ MORE:  The Rise and Eventual Fall of a Humorless Hack

Oops: Dems and Liberal Media Pundits Sure to Mourn As Revised GDP Numbers Come In

With the highest gas prices in the nation, filling up your tank in the Golden State is an entirely different experience than it is virtually anywhere else in the country, except perhaps Hawaii. Reminder: they’re an island almost 2,400 miles off the U.S. coast.

But back to the good news:

Rather than kneecapping our energy resources, as Joe Biden and the Democrats desperately wanted to do, Trump wants to unleash our power, and we could be seeing these more favorable prices for years to come:

The revelation comes as the Trump administration pushes ahead on energy dominance — a key pillar of the president’s economic and national security agenda.

With fuel prices heading into the holiday weekend at the lowest point in years, Energy Secretary Chris Wright argued that the administration’s energy agenda is directly benefiting consumers.

“President Trump campaigned on lowering costs and this Labor Day weekend, the American people will see the results firsthand at the gas pump — with the lowest gas prices in years,” Wright told Fox News Digital.

“His approach is simple and commonsense: more American energy means lower costs, more jobs, and more prosperity,” Wright added.

Have a great Labor Day weekend – and know that taking a trip won’t break the bank as it would have so recently. 

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Dozens of CDC employees turned a “clap-out” for fired and resigning members of the CDC hierarchy into an impromptu walkout to protest the change of policies imposed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Particularly bold were those who shook hands with the former “monkeypox czar,” without knowing where that appendage had recently been.

RELATED:

MAHA: RFK Jr. Makes Good on COVID Vaccine Promise – RedState

Report: CDC Director Out After 1 Month on the Job, Along With Several Other Resignations – RedState

Infamous Biden-Era CDC Official Resigns, Immediately Shows He Should Have Been Fired Long Ago – RedState

The event was the culmination of the tumultuous 30-day reign of CDC Director Susan Monarez, during which she made it abundantly clear that she was not interested in collaborating with RFK, Jr., on his “MAHA” agenda. Once it became clear that Monarez was out and CDC was no longer a personal playground but part of the federal government, three other officials, including Dr. Monkeypox, resigned.

Last Wednesday, as sort of a prelude to today, 750 CDC employees sent a letter to RFK, Jr., and Congress accusing him of contributing to harassment and violence against government employees because someone who, rightly or wrongly, blamed CDC for his health problems, fired some 180 rifle rounds into CDC Headquarters. In the process, he killed a DeKalb County police officer before killing himself.

In response, the White House tapped top RFK, Jr. aide, Jim O’Neill, currently the deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, to head up the agency.

There is a near certainty that this gambit will backfire. First and foremost, CDC is not held in high regard by anyone who is not wearing a facemask while driving their car alone. Outside the fevered minds at its Atlanta HQ, CDC was never a major player nationally in any major health crisis. I worked there for seven years, and the absolute dumdass stuff I saw, particularly surrounding the anthrax attacks that coincided with 9/11, would leave you slapping your forehead in disbelief. The resignations will allow Kennedy to place his personal selections into the non-Senate-confirmed jobs and keep acting CDC directors in charge until the Democrats get around to allowing John Thune to schedule a vote on President Trump’s nominee. 

As an added bonus, the 750 signatures on the letter lambasting Kennedy would be a good place to start for a reduction in force.

The misuse of science is one of the many hallmarks of Marxism and its classier relative, progressivism. Whether it is trying to convince you that a baby is a clump of cells, a vaccine that offers no protection is vital to your health, or the same models what can’t predict the temperature two weekends from now are accurate to within a fraction of a degree two decades in the future, when you hear “the science is settled” you know you are in danger. Join RedState VIP and help continue our coverage to keep you informed about this charlatanism so we all can fight it. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.

Ten FBI whistleblowers who say the Biden administration punished them for their “political beliefs” and for disclosing misconduct in the bureau will have their security clearances reinstated and collect back pay, according to a settlement announced Tuesday.

“These ten (whistleblowers) collectively suffered 12-years-worth of unjustified suspension time,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, posted on X after getting word of the settlement. “They were punished (because) of their disclosures/political beliefs. In other words, they were treated like skunks at a picnic. Now they receive justice.”

Sen. Grassley has long advocated for the whistleblowers and has helped navigate the settlements to their retaliation complaints. According to the Senator’s office, under the Biden administration the ten whistleblowers received retaliation that included demotions, loss of pay, and revocation of security clearances.

The legal nonprofit Empower Oversight represented the ten FBI employees. The organization detailed in a 12-page, March 5 letter to the FBI’s general counsel the improper “retaliatory targeting” of the men and women it represented.

The letter also stated:

While it is our belief that new leadership of the FBI has the authority to remedy the wrongs suffered by our clients through management directives and should do so immediately, we are willing to work cooperatively on each of the fronts outlined above in order to explore amicable resolutions in each case.

The New York Post highlighted several whistleblowers and some of their conduct that spawned the reprisals.

One special agent was suspended indefinitely and lost his security clearance after he objected to a SWAT team being used to arrest a January 6 riot defendant on a misdemeanor charge.

Another was suspended without pay and lost his security clearance after being wrongly accused of leaking information to Project Veritas, a conservative undercover journalism operation.

Another agent in New Orleans lost his security clearance when he reported prosecutorial misconduct related to a sweetheart plea deal given to a district attorney charged with sex crimes.

A female FBI staffer was punished for reporting mismanagement and a “gross waste of funds” in connection with how criminal background checks were being processed.

“The actions taken against our clients were in reprisal for protected whistleblowing and/or improper targeting because of their political beliefs,” the March 5 letter by their attorneys stated.

Four of the whistleblowers remained anonymous.

Empower Oversight Founder Jason Foster and President Tristan Leavitt, in a letter dated Tuesday, thanked Grassley for his advocacy while also stating the fight to protect whistleblowers was not over.

“For each of these cases where whistleblowers finally received at least some measure of justice for the retaliation they faced just for telling the truth about wrongdoing, there are many more who still need a remedy,” they wrote. “The work to combat weaponization and whistleblower retaliation is far from over.”

Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pushed gun control before facts in the Minneapolis Catholic School shooting were known.

Breitbart News noted that police confirmed the shooting occurred around 8:30 a.m., when the gunman opened fire through the church windows while children were sitting in church during Mass.

Two children were killed and seventeen other individuals were injured.

Before any details were released on what weapons were used–or how said weapons were acquired–Sen. Schumer used an X post to push for gun control:

Breitbart News noted that Schumer also pushed gun control before facts were known following the Midland/Odessa, Texas, shooting that occurred August 31, 2019.

He specifically pushed for universal background checks before anything was known regarding how the attacker acquired his firearm.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

In July, in Ontario, California, ICE agents pursued an illegal alien into a medical clinic. Several of the clinic workers challenged the ICE agents, interfering with their legal arrest of the illegal alien, and two of them allegedly assaulted the ICE agents.

Now a grand jury has returned indictments, and these medical workers are now counting the cost.

This is good news. It’s almost like “equal treatment under the law” was still a thing.

There is, of course, video of these medical workers interfering with ICE agents. See for yourself:

Also in July, Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported that the two medical staffers were facing criminal charges.

Now a grand jury has returned indictments, and these two medical staffers will be facing a trial.

Read More: ICE Busts Two Illegal Aliens – Watch What Happens When One Runs Into a Hospital

Southern California Surgery Center Staffers Who Blocked ICE Apprehension Are Charged With Obstruction

Look, freedom of speech applies to us all. These same medical personnel, had they remained on the sidelines and shouted, would have been within their rights, as long as they did not interfere with federal agents in the conduct of their duties. These same medical personnel are free, in their spare time, to wave signs and shout on the sidewalks, so long as they do not interfere with their fellow citizens who are going about their business. They are free to write letters to the editor of their local papers in opposition to ICE and President Trump’s immigration policies. They are free to petition their congressional representatives. The First Amendment guarantees this.

But they are not free to physically interfere with federal officers in the legal conduct of their duties. They are not free to interfere with those officers legally detaining an illegal alien, with the presumed intent of repatriating him back to where he rightfully belongs. 

These people may have acted without thinking. They clearly didn’t think through the possible consequences of their actions. From the video, it sure looks like an emotional response, not a rational one. But that doesn’t matter. It’s illegal to interfere with law enforcement in the legal conduct of their duties.

Now, assuming a federal jury convicts them – due process, after all, is also a right guaranteed to them by the Constitution – they will learn that their actions have consequences.

What is it Democrats are always saying? No one is above the law?

If most Republicans are truthful, it has been a ton of fun watching Democrats flail about with no leader, no realistic message, and continuing to reap what they sow by ignoring the American people. It has also been beyond stunning to watch them double and triple down on ridiculous policies that voters, by a resounding margin, told them they were not interested in. Our most recent chuckles have come from clips from the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) summer meeting, and their most recent penchant for breaking out in song at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests. But an old idea may be coming out of the mothballs.

The latest in the “what can we throw up against the wall to see if it sticks” saga was kicked around at the summer meeting. The idea: to hold a national Democrat mini-convention before the 2026 midterm elections. The purpose, of course, would be to fundraise, but also put the party on a national stage for Democrats running in crucial House and Senate races. Such a convention would garner maximum media attention as Democrats attempt to win majorities in the House and Senate and present arguments against President Donald Trump and the Republicans’ agenda.

READ MORE: Trump Raises Massive Amount for GOP As Cash-Strapped DNC Works to Pay Off Harris Campaign Debt

While the idea is in the early stages, and nothing is definite, DNC Chair Ken Martin has been shopping it to party leaders. As 2026 looms, Martin is in the hot seat. The Democratic Party has a significant cash-on-hand problem. At the end of the first half of 2025, Democrats have $15 million on hand, Republicans have $80 million. That is a whopping $65 million gap that can’t be ignored. Adding to their cash woes, the DNC made what was described as a “handshake deal” with former Vice President Kamala Harris to pay off her roughly $20.5 million campaign debt. 

Democrats lost the presidency, the House, and the Senate to Republicans, the party appears to be struggling to find its footing and is looking at Communist and Socialist voters to bail them out.

The midterm convention idea is a moldy oldy one for Democrats. Conventions were held in 1982 in Philadelphia and in 1978 in Memphis after the midterms, but the party scrapped midterm conventions in 1986, after it was argued that it was a waste of time and energy. But now, Ken Martin is tasked with pulling a rabbit out of a hat for Democrats.

So, is a pre-midterm convention, where potential 2028 presidential candidates could mix and mingle with party leaders and donors, a good idea? Given the favorability rating of the Democrat party, which, according to Real Clear Polling, is at 34 percent, and the fact that they effortlessly find every rake to step on, it could also blow up in their faces in a way they never anticipated.

ALSO READ: DNC Summer Meeting Shows Exactly Why They’re Failing

Dems Double Down on Idiocy As New Poll Shows Huge Popularity of Trump’s Crime-Fighting Efforts

National media attention, of course, means that the propaganda arm of the DNC, the media, would have a huge collective tingle up their leg, and coverage would be as if 50-seat majorities in both the House and Senate had already been won. But what it also does is again showcase just how out of touch with real Americans the Democrat party is. My colleague Nick Arama reported on the goings on at the DNC summer meeting, including a stolen land acknowledgment and a classic Tim Walz meltdown. It’s a pretty sure bet that a summer 2026 Democrat convention would be a never-ending parade of illegal immigrants, drag queens, and people like Vera Institute of Justice Vice President Insha Rahman, telling the crowd that “migrant crime and carjackings don’t matter to that many Americans.”

Democrats have the distinct aroma of desperation, so a summer 2026 convention might be getting some serious consideration. How generous of them to offer up a voter’s guide of who to steer clear of in 2026.

Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.

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It’s not often enough that you get to witness the Democrat Party facing the consequences of their own actions, but a great reckoning may, in fact, be on its way for Virginia Democrats and their gubernatorial candidate, Abigail Spanberger. A new poll from the firm co/efficient shows Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is surging and has substantially cut the lead previously enjoyed by Spanberger.

To recap, a poll from back in May showed Spanberger with a whopping 17-point lead; by last week, that lead had shrunk to 7 points. The new poll from co/efficient shows that Spanberger now only leads by 5 points, a fairly dramatic change over so short a period of time. 

MORE: Shock New Poll Shows VA Governor’s Race Tightening—Here’s Why Spanberger’s Campaign Is in a Death Spiral

It’s Time for President Trump to Endorse Winsome Sears

It’s important to note that this poll was not commissioned by either candidate or any candidate’s campaign committee.

So, what has happened to send Abigail Spanberger into a free fall with just a few short weeks until early voting begins? It could be the fact that she’s Joe Biden in heels; she’s basically been hiding in a basement somewhere and refusing to answer any hard questions. Or it could be that she’s on the wrong side of the issues most important to Virginians in 2025; stick a pin in that, we’ll discuss it more in a minute.

Then again, it could be that one of her foot soldiers showed up at a rally last week holding a vile, racist sign directed at Winsome Earle-Sears.

In true Spanberger fashion, she issued a tepid rebuke of the sign through her team. It was only after it became clear this story was not going away that she managed to tweet a somewhat stronger statement; most decent people would have immediately gone on camera to condemn such a vile sentiment, but that would require having a strong moral backbone. 

RELATED: Sick, Sick, Sick: Liberal White Woman Waves Appallingly Racist Sign at Winsome Sears

Total Chaos at Arlington School Board Meeting, and You Won’t Believe What Left-Wingers Were Defending

Keep in mind that the sign was directed at Earle-Sears ahead of her speaking out against the transgender bathroom policy of Arlington County Public Schools that allowed a creepy old man to access the girls’ locker room at a local high school. A policy that Abigail Spanberger supports. 

Now, about those issue-focused crosstabs—there’s not a lot of good news for Spanberger in there. The raw polling data shows likely voters care about deporting violent illegals (and a decent number want the non-violent illegals gone, too), are concerned about rising crime rates, do not support boys competing in girls’ sports, and want to see an end to the commonwealth’s absurd car tax. All of these things work in favor of Winsome Earle-Sears.

Earle-Sears has been out in front of these issues for months now, and in recent weeks has been particularly focused on fighting the five Northern Virginia school systems that are defying the Trump administration’s mandate requiring students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their biological sex. And Racist Granny just helped shine a bright, blinding spotlight on the fact that Abigail Spanberger supports those school systems sending boys into girls’ spaces.

When asked why the needle was moving in Earle-Sears’ direction, Matthew Hurtt, chairman of the Arlington County GOP, told RedState:

“With one tone deaf sign, Arlington leftists completely changed the tone and tenor of this campaign, exposing their bigtory and giving Winsome Earle-Sears a significant boost in both grassroots enthusiasm and fundraising. The latest poll reflects a continued shift in support for the Republican ticket with cross-tabs revealing the far-left’s radical gender ideology is wildly unpopular across every demographic. The last week has been a game changer in the race for governor in Virginia.”

We also reached out to Carrie Sheffield, a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) who also leads the Northern Virginia chapter of the Independent Women’s Network. IWV has been running radio ads educating voters on Spanberger’s record voting to keep men in women’s sports.

“I think Winsome is rising in the polls because her policies empower parents, workers and business leaders,” Sheffield said, pointing to Earle-Sears’ outspoken defense of boys and girls in five Virginia school districts found in violation of Title IX and risk losing tens of millions of federal tax dollars as a result.

Sheffield also praised the Youngkin administration, with Earle-Sears as its second in command, which has achieved a historic deregulatory agenda saving Virginia taxpayers $1.2 billion annually and lowering housing costs for home buyers.

“Winsome’s policies would continue to strengthen Virginia’s economy,” Sheffield said. “Virginia’s families deserve an administration that works for them instead of undermining them.”

Earle-Sears’ press secretary, Peyton Vogel, said in a press release, “It’s no surprise Abigail Spanberger has been running a basement campaign.” Vogel continued, “She knows most Virginia voters disagree with her vote to allow biological males in female spaces. Voters are taking notice and rallying behind Winsome Earle-Sears because she is fighting to protect their children from an extreme ideology run amok.”

RedState will, of course, be bringing you all the last on the Virginia governor’s race. Early voting begins September 19.

Editor’s Note: President Trump is fighting to dismantle the Department of Education and ensure America’s kids get the education they deserve.

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