Meet the New Vanguard of the Proletariat: Trust Fund Socialists. Is Michigan Most Important Senate Race? Senator Darline Graham Throws Her Hat in Ring. Hewitt’s Iran Update. U.K. Has Another New PM. More
Here is how The Free Press characterizes the political legerdemain that is providing Maine Democrats with a senatorial candidate who is to all appearances bereft of Nazi tattoos:
The oysterman is out; a logger, Troy Jackson, is in. Platner built a powerful movement brimming with anger.
The Dems must feel their search for the elusive white working-class male has been rewarded: a logger! A supporter of Graham Platner, Jackson is the presumptive Dem nominee to challenge GOP moderate Senator Susan Collins. If anger was a criterion to succeed Graham Platner, Jackson seems to brim with it too:
Troy Jackson, a powerful Maine legislator now running for Senate, once angrily threw a water bottle in a meeting after he couldn’t persuade a lawmaker to vote his way.
He yelled at another lawmaker, prompting her to post on social media that straight men were “too emotional” to be in politics. And he cursed and shouted in a meeting with the speaker of Maine’s state House, until she kicked him out of her office.
During the six years Jackson presided over Maine’s Senate, until he left office in 2024, his temper was a feature of his leadership, and one that Democratic lawmakers discussed among themselves as a problem and even raised with the governor.
Jackson is a progressive Democrat who advocates “Medicare for all” but—intriguingly—was formerly against abortion and same-sex marriage. He has since redeemed himself. Five things to know about Mr. Jackson. Graham Platner remains a factor. Peter Savrodnik of The Free Press writes that from immigration enforcement to the war in Gaza, the young leftists inspired by the Maine Senate candidate are still steering their party’s direction.
The Maine Senate seat is key to Dem hopes for taking the Senate. The Examiner’s Joe Concha, however, makes the case that the most important Senate race in decades is happening in Michigan. Abdul El Sayed is running against a prominent former Obama official in the Aug. 4 primary:
El Sayed has called for defunding the police in the past. He wants to dismantle Immigration and Customs Enforcement now. He believes private health insurance should cease to exist and that the government should run the entire healthcare system.
If this were el Sayed’s platform while running in New York City or Seattle or Denver or Washington, D.C., he’d have an excellent chance of winning. But this is Michigan, a state President Donald Trump won twice and narrowly lost in 2020. It’s the perfect test case for socialism succeeding statewide in a purple state.
Polls currently have el Sayed trailing former Obama administration official Haley Stevens by four points in the RealClearPolitics average. But he is favored to win the nomination on the betting market Kalshi by a 66% to 34% margin. Polymarket also has el Sayed as the favorite.
El Sayed has a Jill Biden feature—he calls himself a doctor but, like Jill, doesn’t have a medical license. But that’s a side issue. El Sayed has campaigned with Hasan Piker, who said that America deserved 9/11. Either El Sayed, who won Senator Elizabeth Warren’s endorsement, or Stevens will oppose Republican Mike Rogers, who narrowly lost a Senate race to Senator Elissa Slotkin in 2024, in the general election. All in the Family: El Sayed is graced with a sis who spits at cops.
What we are seeing is the “The Brave New Age of Trust-Fund Socialism,” or wealthy anticapitalists are transforming the Democratic Party, profiled in this highly recommended Free Beacon exposé. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “working costume” seems to be fraying. What is distressing is that the rise of the socialists is being discussed primarily in terms of the midterms—not its long-range ramifications.
While Democrats search for ways to end U.S. attacks on Iran, Hugh Hewitt argues, “America is winning its battle with Iran. It’s only a matter of time.” But do the Iranians have more tolerance for pain than we do? The U.S. is taking casualties, including 100 wounded, which makes the war harder for the public to stomach, but some are daring to ask what a post-Islamic Republic would look like. President Trump will attend the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base of the bodies of two American soldiers killed in an Iranian attack in Jordan over the weekend, 1st Lt. Tyler Feehan and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales.
Saying she wants to be “more than a caretaker,” Senator Darline Graham Nordone, appointed to fill the remainder of her brother the late Senator Lindsey Graham’s term, threw her hat into the race to succeed Graham on the Hannity show. The field already is crowded.
More Politics. “Vance vs. Rubio: The Shadow Primary” is the headline on a WSJ “Free Expression” piece by Matthew Hennessey. Hennessey writes that both men have begun putting down markers on issues like the economy, capitalism, and communism. Hennessey critiques Vice President Vance’s appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast and says that to run at all, Secretary of State Rubio would have to give up his current jobs in the administration.
Hilarity Ensued. Former CNN host Don Lemon says that people have been asking him to run for President, and he just might take them up on it. Lemon claims MAGA people are “Nazis, but Without the Holocaust Stuff.” As Townhall quips, that’s like saying someone is Catholic without the transubstantiation stuff.
“The Constitution, Birthright Citizenship, and a Self-Governing Republic,” by Linda Denno, in Civitas Outlook, summarizes Trump v. Barbara. The birthright citizenship case that made it to the Supreme Court this way: “The decision in Trump v. Barbara represents a missed opportunity for the Court to reaffirm that citizenship is a fundamental aspect of national sovereignty.”
The U. S. Treasury stopped nearly $100M in taxpayer money from going to dead people after a new gov’t measure was implemented, according to a New York Post exclusive:
The department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service discovered the money set to go to ghosts after a review of an eye-popping 885 million payments worth a total of nearly $2.7 trillion.
Since March 2025, the screening has identified more than 4,900 disbursements, worth approximately $99 million, associated with deceased payees, according to the Treasury.
The payments going to the dead – often indicative of fraud – were returned to the originating federal agencies for review before any funds were disbursed, the department said.
The $99 million figure is a tiny fraction (0.0036%) of the $2.7 trillion the department reviewed as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on waste, fraud and abuse — but more than triple what Treasury discovered going to the deceased in the days before President Trump took office last year.
“Treasury has delivered on a key promise of President Trump’s mandate to stop improper payments and fraud before money leaves the Treasury, and strengthen the integrity of the federal payment system,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
You’ve got to love “often indicative of fraud.”
Everybody is talking about The Odyssey, including Megan Cox Gurdon, who has a fine piece on the movie and the World Cup which have united Americans. Don’t miss Ms. Gurdon’s “Return of the Monoculture.” I don’t know if normal, everyday people are talking about Vogue magazine, but I recommend Julie Burchill’s delightfully sulphuric takedown of the “magazine’s woke makeover [that] has proven its downfall.”
I almost forgot: the U.K. has another new Prime Minister. A Telegraph podcast hails PM Andy Burnham’s “mandate.” Ouch.
“Andy Burnham Is Mad for It” is the headline on Dominic Green’s WSJ “Free Expression” welcome for Mr. Burnham. I gather Mr. Burnham is mad for Manchester, where he was until recently the Mayor:
The conquering hero of Labour politics is bringing Manchesterism to London. Nobody knows for sure what that means.
Gareth Roberts, meanwhile, says that Burnham is “stuck in the 1990s.” Raising the question: How long will he be stuck at 10 Downing?
We started on socialism this morning. So why not end on it (before it ends us)? Don’t miss City Journal’s “Why Socialists Want to Shut Down Prisons.” “Far-left, extremist ideology prevents an honest interpretation of crime and incarceration data,” explains the subhead. Also, Ms. Must suggests that they might have a hard time telling good people from bad people.
