28th Sec'y of the Senate, ex-US House Chief of Staff, & recovering ex-corporate food lobbyist. Substack writer. Veteran of House & Senate GOP campaigns.
Western Loudoun County, VA
Joined March 2019
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"I attack ideas. I don't attack people. And some very good people have some very bad ideas."
-- The late Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia.
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
This is just beyond the pale. “Accused”??!!
Here’s exactly what happened: terrorists murdered two Israeli soldiers in an ambush and the IDF swiftly neutralized the deadly threat.
This reporting is so shameful (it’s done with intention), and this is not an isolated example. You must do better, @NBCNews.
BREAKING: Israel orders a “full lockdown” of the occupied West Bank after its military kills two Palestinians accused of launching an attack that injured five people near the city of Hebron. nbcnews.com/world/middle-eas…
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
Politico: Internal polling from both sides show Republicans closing the gap in the Midwest.
Democrats are privately warning they might not get 2018-level numbers, a notable shift from their bullish predictions earlier this month.
Link to article: politico.com/newsletters/pla…
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
I worked for Obama twice. Never voted for Trump. I’m supporting Mike Rogers in Michigan.
El-Sayed’s positions on Israel and American security cross a line for me. Party loyalty has limits.
dorybenami.substack.com/p/wh…
Even @ABC can’t ignore a major corruption scandal involving Virginia’s Democratic State Senate President, and probably many more of her Democratic colleagues. @CatoctinGOP
Federal authorities have indicted Virginia Democratic state senator L. Louise Lucas and several family members and associates on charges stemming from a yearslong marijuana trafficking conspiracy and corruption probe, according to the Justice Department. abcnews.link/gPimK8A
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
I don’t see how any rational voter can say “Yes, I think this guy will make an acceptable United States Senator.” I have seen high school speech contestants make more sense than his parade of deflections and non-sequiturs.
🚨 NEW: Fox’s @BretBaier challenges Abdul El-Sayed over his astonishing ‘well sucks for them’ response when asked about medical wait times
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
It’s wild to see that she ‘allegedly’ used her office and position to benefit her weed business.
Duh. We all know she did. Huge conflict of interest and yet she has never been held accountable by the state of Virginia.
It took the Feds.
That’s just pathetic.
🚨IN-DEPTH: 10 things to know about the federal indictment of Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas
"The federal indictment of state Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, is like lightning during a thunderstorm — not surprising since we’ve seen the dark clouds forming for a long time but still stunning when it strikes." ...
"Last week, a federal grand jury indicted seven people — Lucas, two daughters, a grandson and three business associates — in connection with an alleged racketeering conspiracy. The indictments were unsealed Thursday morning. Lucas is charged with five of the eight counts: racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and maintaining a drug-involved premise."
"In layman’s language, these are allegations about drugs and public corruption, plus a firearms charge and a wire fraud charge against two of the defendants. The gist of the indictment is that Lucas and the other defendants were involved in selling marijuana in large quantities and that enterprise strayed into other crimes that fit together as racketeering." ...
"The politically damaging part of the indictment are the allegations that Lucas used her position as a state legislator to further her weed business and even demanded money to help someone secure a cannabis license." ...
"The indictment alleges that on Nov. 15, 2025 — after the election — Lucas texted an unnamed and unidentified coconspirator: 'You know I will be carrying the legislation as the chief co-patron. Yes, we can make a lot of money but, before we start down that road again; how about we begin with you sending at least a good faith payment of the money you owe me with arrangements for the balance. Then we can talk about future business plans.'"...
MORE:⬇️
cardinalnews.org/2026/10/23/…
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
It's simple. California does not verify citizenship status. We did the work for them. We obtained the registered voter list and told them who we believe are noncitizens on their rolls. Knowingly processing noncitizen ballots is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. §§ 611 and 2. We will hold election officials accountable. No one is above the law.
BREAKING: In an escalation from the DOJ, prosecutors sent demand letters to individual registrars across California, giving them 48 hours to sequester the ballots of suspected noncitizen voters. sfchronicle.com/politics/art…
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
So it turns out that Ukraine's issues with Starlink were caused by Ukraine.
Starlink terminals disconnected at speeds above 160 KPH, as determined by the Starlink terminals internal GPS.
To get around this, Ukraine hacked the Starlink terminals to think they were stationary regardless of speed.
SpaceX figured this out, and updated the system software to detect excessive speed by seeing how rapidly the terminal switched from on satellite to another. This broke Ukraine's hack, and Starlink would no longer work at high speeds.
Ukraine was using Starlink in a way that violated the terms of service.
Starlink figured it out and stopped it.
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
🚨 Wow.
According to a Democrat operative, David Crowley originally dropped out of the Wisconsin governor's race and endorsed Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez in exchange for $250,000 and a job guarantee for his wife in a future Rodriguez administration.
This is the worst kind of public corruption and rigged political establishment dealmaking that voters hate. But it's exactly who corrupt David Crowley is.
Here's Corrupt David Crowley on July 9 lying to voters about this very kind of arrangement:
"Nobody called me or anything like that to ask me to step out of this race."
Wisconsin is not for sale.
Elect @TomTiffanyWI!
NEW: A Democrat insider has alleged that Wisconsin's Democrat gubanatorial candidate first cut a deal to drop out and endorse a rival in exchange for $250,000 and a job for his wife. After his rival's campaign imploded, he got back in:
dailywire.com/news/pay-to-no…
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
🚨Virginia voters, remember: If you're wondering why the gas price is lower in a state next door, Virginia Democrats passed a law to automatically increase the state gas tax EVERY July 1. We are now paying 42.4 cents PER GALLON in the combined state gas tax! They also refused to suspend it. Democrats don't care about gas affordability. They're just exploiting it.
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
2026 Maricopa County, Arizona early vote vs same day in 2022 per @StealthPolling
2022:
🔵 Democrats: 38.9%
🔴 Republicans: 37.8%
2026:
🔴 Republicans: 38.4% (+0.6)
🔵 Democrats: 38.3% (-0.6)
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
In a divided America, from left to right we all agree on one thing: Everyone hates Putin.
.@EconUS/@YouGovAmerica:
In the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, who do you sympathize with more?
Registered voters
🇺🇦 66%
🇷🇺 3%
Dem
🇺🇦 82%
🇷🇺 1%
GOP
🇺🇦 52%
🇷🇺 4%
Ind
🇺🇦 64%
🇷🇺 4%
Lib
🇺🇦 88%
🇷🇺 1%
Mod
🇺🇦 65%
🇷🇺 2%
Con
🇺🇦 52%
🇷🇺 6%
MAGA
🇺🇦 50%
🇷🇺 5%
Oct. 19-20, 2026
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
A related note: In 2024 @MikeRogersForMI ran against Elissa Slotkin. The average of the polls from that year showed Slotkin leading by about 3.3 points, but her actual margin was only 0.3 points.
Quinnipiac, in an Oct. 17–21 poll, had Slotkin up by 8%. But that “miss” wasn’t the biggest. The UMass Lowell poll conducted Sept. 11–19 had Slotkin up by 13%.
These are not fake polls. They were just very bad polls. Very bad polls impact races even as very good ones do because if the average political reporter/analyst can’t sort reliable polls from junk neither can the average consumer of news.
There are excellent reasons to believe Michigan has a significant “shy” anti-Abdul El-Sayed voter. If someone can tell me how they find and collect data from someone who doesn’t want to identified as anti-Muslim Brotherhood or pro-Israel and accurately predicts outcome in MI, that would indicate a very good pollster after the fact and going into 2028.
When does legacy media “fire” pollsters who are way wrong in big races in October. Voting has begun almost everywhere by then. Big misses should lead to being shut outs from legacy media coverage in 2028.
Meanwhile, Rogers looks very strong and a better candidate than in 2024. El-Sayed is the most radical major party candidate of my lifetime and campaigns angry. As with Senator Collins, folks betting real money on El-Sayed are not that bright.
Among the biggest polling busts in 2020 was a Quinnipiac poll from that September which had Senator Collins down by 12 points to Sarah Gideon (who was a far, far stronger candidate than Troy Jackson). The final polling average that year was Gideon by 3.8%. @SenatorCollins won by 8.6%. The difference between the final polling average and the result was approximately 12.4%. So Maine is a very difficult state to poll.
Senator Collins is a formidable political opponent —b/c she is a terrific senator blessed with intellect and an incredible work ethic. Joe Manchin labelled her the “soul of the Senate” when the Democrat from West Virginia stumped for her yesterday. The respect for her 10,000 consecutive roll call votes in the Senate is immense. Her work ethic is that of the state: Wholly committed to her job. And as pointed out on @SpecialReport, she is the most powerful woman inside the Beltway and uses that power which comes from the combination of seniority and respect to do everything for Maine.
Even when the perfect opponent —and Sarah Gideon was close to that— had an enormous financial advantage (Gideon spent $64.1 million and Collins spent 29.2 million) Gideon still got blown out. Because Mainers are more private than, say, New Yorkers? Who knows.
But we do know Collins runs through the tape and has every six years. People betting against her on the predictions markets are not very bright.
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
People are always asking me about Republicans having a shot in California statewide elections.
I always come back with simple math. There are roughly as many registered Rs in the state as there were a quarter century ago. Every four years, 100,000 or more registered Rs find a home in another state. You’re already down 3+ million votes. So now, you gotta find another 100,000 or more just to get back to the 3 million deficit - OR you have to convert 1.5mm people to switch sides to tie the race. The math doesn’t work, not in the short run.
Now look at the Democrat problem in Texas. Texas grows by a million people every two years. So every midterm cycle they’re looking at probably at least 150,000 brand new (R) voters who moved there specifically because of political grievances with their former state. When they hear the war drums beating that Dems are going to ransack Texas, they immediately become the most “high prop” voters there are.
150,000 brand new R votes every 2 years is enough to cancel out and margin erosion in suburban counties and sponge up Travis/Dallas.
Plain old chalkboard math is as valid in election analysis as anything else.
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
🖕🏼First amendment includes abortion up to birth.
🖕🏼Second amendment uses gay marriage to sneak in gender nonsense.
🖕🏼Third amendment allows violent felons to vote.
Vote no on all three.
Reproductive freedom is on the ballot in Virginia this November 3. It would establish constitutional protections for reproductive freedom: abortion, contraception, fertility care.
I am the Senate’s chief patron of the constitutional amendment.
Vote YES!
buff.ly/QEcMOBB
Kelly D Johnston retweeted
I’ve been sounding the alarms that the polls are WRONG — and the evidence is now piling up! The implications of this are huge.
As FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said yesterday: “During this election season, there has been a significant surge in entirely Fake Polls and Suppression Polls designed to do nothing more than interfere with the regular functioning of the electoral process and alter the normal patterns of voter turnout and enthusiasm.”
Every American patriot needs to ignore the “experts” and vote their values! politico.com/news/2026/10/22…
