Dems Send Mixed Messages. Senator Darline Graham Advances. More on President’s Plane Switch. Is Fashion Fascist? Mac Donald: Head Start Has Never Worked. More
Socialists of the world didn’t exactly unite to sweep the board in last night’s primaries, but they claimed several important wins. So did more traditional Democrats.
In the most closely watched primary last night, Thanksgiving won (for now). Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong, who spent the tail end of her campaign insisting that she no longer hates turkey day, lost to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley:
The left wing suffered a high-profile setback on Tuesday at the hands of the center-left establishment in their ongoing battle for the ideological future of the party.
Crowley was heavily backed by retiring Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, with both warning that a Hong primary victory could jeopardize Democratic control of the governor’s office.
The governor’s race in Wisconsin opened after Evers announced he would not seek a third term. With Evers stepping aside, the race offered Democrats their first opportunity in 16 years to choose a nominee without an incumbent governor on the ballot.
The primary was closely watched as an early test of whether Wisconsin Democrats favored the party’s progressive wing or its establishment, with the winner advancing to a high-stakes general election in one of the nation’s premier battleground states.
Hong, a former chef and single mother, was endorsed by Reps. Ilhan Omar and the hapless Ro Khanna of California, but Bernie and AOC steered clear. Politico described Hong’s loss as the “far left” “hitting a wall.” Crowley faces Trump-backed Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in the general.
But Senate hopeful Peggy Flanagan “deliver[ed] another win for progressives” in Minnesota. Senate hopeful Flanagan, Minnesota’s Lieutenant Governor, defeated Rep. Angie Craig, described as a moderate, to replace Sen. Tina Smith, who is retiring. The New York Times:
Ms. Flanagan, 46, campaigned as an anti-establishment fighter, calling for universal health care and a higher federal minimum wage. She prevailed over Representative Angie Craig, a moderate Democrat from a swing district, leading by nearly 20 percentage points with more than 95 percent of votes counted.
Ms. Flanagan has said she plans to tie Ms. Tafoya to Mr. Trump, saying her Republican rival would be a “‘Yes Sir, Mr. President’ Senator.” Even before Tuesday, Ms. Tafoya, who was not endorsed by Mr. Trump, had begun to focus on Ms. Flanagan, casting her as a career politician and attacking her over a major fraud scandal in the state government’s social safety net programs.
Flanagan’s win is considered good news for Tafoya.
Senator Amy Klobuchar easily smothered the gubernatorial bid of My Pillow guy Mike Lindell, who was endorsed by President Trump, and will face Republican state House Speaker Lisa Demuth in the general. Powerline, the go to source for Minnesota politics, calls Lindell a “crank candidate” and takes a swipe at Klobuchar (“Klobuchar wants more than anything else to preside over an era of good feelings — of good feelings about Amy Klobuchar”).
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer must be feeling more isolated as longtime Democratic Rep. John Larson was defeated by Luke Bronin, a former Mayor and Navy Intelligence officer, who capitalized on calls for generational change:
Mr. Bronin, 47, centered his campaign around a call for generational change, arguing that Mr. Larson, 78, was not prepared to confront the challenges posed by the Trump administration’s efforts to aggressively push a conservative agenda through Washington.
“Donald Trump won re-election for a second time, and then we saw a Democratic Party struggle to bring enough energy and clarity to that fight in this moment,” Mr. Bronin said at a debate in Hartford last month. “We would be a stronger Democratic Party if more of our leadership recognized that part of leadership is knowing when it’s time to pass the torch.”
South Carolina voters gave Senator Darline Graham, appointed to fill her late brother Senator Sindsey’s seat, a shot at winning the seat outright: Senator Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman will advance to a runoff later this month in the South Carolina special Republican primary for Senate. Graham won the most votes Tuesday but not enough to avoid a runoff.
We’re still reeling from news of President Trump’s being spirited away from his plane in a catering cart. Because of a serious threat. In “Iran’s Trump Strategy—Dead or Alive,” an editorial in the Wall Street Journal sheds light on this escapade:
Mr. Trump flew out of Turkey secretly on a military jet and then was returned to the original Air Force One after landing. The reporters aboard never knew he was gone.
The press corps, which had been left on the decoy Presidential plane, understandably is up in arms. But the real story is the seriousness of Iran’s efforts to kill the President. These attempts are longstanding and help explain why the U.S. is fighting.
The regime doesn’t hide its intentions. It puts up billboards and murals around Tehran of Mr. Trump lying in a coffin or drowning in a sea of blood. The regime’s clerics brand Mr. Trump with labels that demand violence under Shiite Islamic jurisprudence: “one who wars against God,” “one whose blood must be spilled,” “corruptor of the earth” and “warring infidel.” At times Iran’s regime has put a bounty on his head. …
For all the talk of how this war has “helped” Iran’s regime, it’s no accident that its state media and approved experts stress the need to use the Strait of Hormuz to hurt Mr. Trump in the November elections. The regime is desperate to run out the clock on the Trump Presidency—or speed up that clock with deadly violence.
President Trump isn’t the only one faced with changes in traveling plans. Rama Duwaji, wife of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is yet another inconvenienced traveler:
A seemingly red-faced Mayor Zohran Mamdani blamed a “miscommunication” Tuesday after an awkward public clash between City Hall and NYPD officials over whether the department would provide security for his wife Rama Duwaji’s upcoming Middle East trip.
The high-profile back-and-forth appeared to end when Hizzoner asserted that Duwaji would not receive a taxpayer-funded police escort on her jaunt to Syria and Lebanon next month — despite his own senior spokesperson claiming she would the day prior.
A source familiar with the security detail said the first lady, whom the mayor has described as a “private person,” requested the escort, and Mamdani’s office had confirmed she would be accompanied by city cops.
Wonder if the Hizzoner needs a vacay, too? A a report in the Wall Street Journal is headlined “Mamdani’s Honeymoon With New York Is Over.” The report cites the “messy rollout of pied-à-terre tax and fraying relations with local politicians.”
Mamdani can’t like the latest poll for New York’s gubernatorial race either: Republican Bruce Blakeman appears in the poll to be close to unseating Gov. Kathy Hochul and turning the Empire State red than Lee Zeldin was in the home stretch of last election.
There was great gnashing of teeth when the Trump administration announced some changes to the way the Head Start program is administered. Head Start was described as the “gold standard” of public assistance programs. Nothing could be further from the truth. “Head Start Has Never Worked” is the headline of a bang-up piece by Heather Mac Donald at City Journal.
Mac Donald, who believes that the administration should have stuck with earlier plans to zero out the program, writes:
The Times’s reporting on the Trump deregulation effort ignores the most significant research ever done on Head Start. A randomized controlled trial found that any early gains in school readiness among enrollees had faded by the end of first grade and were absent by third grade. The results were published by HHS in 2010 and 2012. Academic attempts to discredit this “fadeout” effect have failed.
So advocates have taken to touting Head Start’s alleged non-cognitive benefits, such as alleged small improvements in high school and college completion rates, workforce participation, and wages. Later studies dispute even those findings. Some research shows that Head Start produces worse outcomes in certain areas.
My Compliments to the Headline Writer: “Margaret Brennan Exists to Speak Power to Truth,” at The Federalist. Ms. Brennan is a CBS moderator. … The Free Beacon has uncovered Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s alleged loyalty to Sharia law. … And Unherd ponders whether the fashion industry is fascist.
