Believer. Buckley conservative, recovering from Party politics. Marketer turned Development Officer. Took a leap of faith from WA to AZ in early 2020.
Scottsdale, AZ
Joined April 2011
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Stephanie Cates retweeted
Your occasional reminder that “RINO” now means believing in things Republicans have championed for 50+ years. Things that worked to make this country great (see what I did there?). Free markets, free trade, conservative values, love of country, and limited government just to start. Believing in these things make you a “RINO.”
To not be “RINO” you need to believe in right-wing socialism, regressive protectionism, and extreme executive authority, just to start.
Got it?
Stephanie Cates retweeted
Saying "Old ideas are for old people" is *literally* the antithesis of conservatism.
“This new initiative’s organizers want to see a Republican Party aligned to the conservatism that Vance, a close ally of the Claremont Institute, has come to represent.”
politico.com/news/2026/11/09…
Stephanie Cates retweeted
.@charlescwcooke: I have no time whatsoever for people who move here and are unpatriotic. We do not have to let you in.
Stephanie Cates retweeted
Vice President Vance is mistaken. The reason we Republicans lost yesterday is not just the war in Iran. Yes, the resulting higher fuel prices contributed to the inflation that infuriated Americans who were promised lower prices by this administration. But the war is not the only cause. Arbitrary and capricious tariffs directly raised costs for all American consumers. Lower income Americans can least afford them. Many voted for Democrats yesterday.
Tariffs should be a central part, but only part, of the “honest conversation” VP Vance wants Republicans to have about the future of our party. For instance, we all seem to oppose government-owned grocery stores. But are we ok with government ownership of semiconductors companies and rare earth miners? We oppose rent controls. But do we support price controls on medicines and credit cards?
The bigger question is does the Republican party now agree with the left that we need a large, powerful central government to run the economy, allocate capital and control prices? Or, do we believe that free men and women should be able to engage in commerce as they see fit and that a free enterprise system will create a higher standard of living and the greatest opportunities for the most people as it always has?
Let’s have an “honest conversation.”
One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up.
So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us."
Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.
There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true.
But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.
Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:
1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel
Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.)
In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.
The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.
If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest.
But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.
I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.
Stephanie Cates retweeted
.@jimgeraghty: It’s a slim silver lining to a very dark cloud for Republicans, but the 2028 Republican presidential primary became much more interesting tonight.
Donald Trump is an utterly spent political force. MAGA may continue in one form or another, but no one is just going to sit around and wait for Trump to anoint J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio or anyone else.
The Republican Party may well be best served by some figure who is completely disconnected from Washington and the Trump era. Ron DeSantis, Brian Kemp, Glenn Youngkin…the Republican Party might be a lot more open to an outsider or a fresh face, starting tomorrow morning.
nationalreview.com/2026/11/2…
Stephanie Cates retweeted
If you look on the fringes of the far left, you’ll find disaffected, under-employed, angry young men (and some women), prone to conspiracy theories and virulent antisemitism, who are itching to violently lash out at an American society that they believe has failed them.
If you look on the fringes of the far right, you’ll find . . . er, more disaffected, under-employed, angry young men (and some women), prone to conspiracy theories and virulent antisemitism, who are itching to violently lash out at an American society that they believe has failed them.
That’ll preach.
Governor DeSantis BLASTS Kristi Noem for bungling mass deportations and turning it into a shit show for her own glory.
DeSantis BLASTS Congressmen like Byron Donalds for making millions on the stock market.
DeSantis BLASTS Alina Habba for getting a $10 million government contract and securing a presidential pardon for her boyfriend.
“If the people in office don't display some civic virtue about public service as a sacrifice. It's not to use the public office for private gain.
I declined the pension in Congress. I declined the health care. I didn't trade the stocks.
And I believe in congressional term limits. I mean, imagine if you went to the American people and actually tried to get that done. That's not right or left. That's something that a lot of people realize.. These guys work for themselves. They should be working for you.”
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Soooo funny🤣
"Oh...my...GAWD, JD, look at his butt. It is sooo big. It looks like one of those athlete's butts. Who understands those athletes?"
Near the end of the road, Donald Trump finally finds the one topic he cannot lie about, at @NRO: nationalreview.com/carnival-…
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Thank you, Brian Kilmeade, for pushing back on your colleague with moral clarity here.
There are still some republicans that have a spine. This interview is worth watching.
It is between Rachel Campos-Duffy and Brian Kilmeade, both conservative commentators.
Rachel: Yesterday, the president said maybe it’s time for an election, a new leader in Ukraine, because he keeps blowing up these refineries after the president said, “Please don’t do that,” especially before midterms. He keeps doing it, and it’s hurting President Trump’s administration, who’s been very generous towards him and his war.
Brian: The president got ticked off because Zelenskyy came out and said, “Do not buy 500 million tons of diesel, which is in violation, I thought, of the bill that they just signed, Lindsey Graham’s bill, that if you buy any energy from Russia, you’re going to get sanctioned and tariffed. Are we going to tariff ourselves? So, I have no idea. So Zelenskyy’s frustrated because now all this money is going to flow into Russia, who started this whole war unprovoked. They are the bad guys, and there is no way Zelenskyy turned down any plausible deal. In fact, since that time, when they told him he was going to lose the Donbas, he has gained back portions of the Donbas.
Rachel: Are you saying that there were not peace efforts?
Brian: There was no plausible, practical peace effort that Vladimir Putin would participate in effectively that would end this war. There’s one person who’s responsible. Vladimir Putin. That is it. And he’s getting his ass kicked.
Rachel: There was a peace deal that was, I think, Turkey was trying to broker it, and Boris Johnson advised Zelenskyy not to take that deal.
Brian: It doesn’t matter. I don’t know what Boris Johnson’s doing now. Is he in a retirement home?
Rachel: No, but I think that there’s a reason why the president is buying the diesel from Russia, and that’s because Zelenskyy keeps blowing up the refineries.
Brian: Can you blame him? That’s the war machine that’s killing his people, that bombs apartment buildings.
Rachel: But he is dependent on us, and the president said, “Don’t do that.”
Brian: The diesel fuel got stopped because Iran was blowing up the Gulf states’ oil and their refineries. And now all of a sudden there’s new emphasis on Russia. But for me, the way they innovated drone technology in order to take out what is fueling the Russian war machine is phenomenal. They’ll be writing about this in war journals forever. Ukrainians have modernized modern war before our very eyes.
Rachel: But I’m not so sure that’s a positive, Brian. I mean, there are 30,000 young men on each side that are dying every single month.
Brian: Vladimir Putin.
Rachel: Every single month. We should not be practicing drone technology and using these kids as guinea pigs. Have you seen the videos?
Brian: What kids?
Rachel: The soldiers. These are young men. These are young men.
Brian: Rachel, these are responses to attacks. They’re getting rocketed.
Rachel: The president said he wanted peace in Ukraine.
Brian: Tell Vladimir Putin!
Rachel: He said he was going to do that. Well, now, because of what Volodymyr Zelenskyy is doing, we’re probably going to get peace there because President Trump is now working with Russia.
Brian: It would be the biggest mistake of this administration to work with Russia. That is the modern Hitler of our generation. He is the cause of all the problems in the region, and now is helping Iran kill our guys and blow up our bases. And now, the story you pointed out to me today in The Wall Street Journal, you see that they and China are providing drones to the Houthis. China and Russia are the problem.
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Stephanie Cates retweeted
Socialism is government control or ownership over the means of production.
For example, government shares/ownership in what used to be private companies is a step towards socialism.
Same thing has happened to me on a long flight. This looks like the same guy, too. (Thankfully his shirt stayed on...)
We need to have a serious conversation about overweight people flying on commercial airlines.
I’m flying on @AmericanAir and after paying extra money to upgrade my seat, I got stuck next to a man who is 300+ pounds and stripped mid flight.
None of the flight attendants wanted to confront him.
He smells like 💩 and weed.
He’s literally sitting in my seat and keeps touching me.
For context, he’s literally 300+ pounds and I’m 120.
Why does American Airlines think it’s acceptable to treat people this way?!
I tried reaching out discreetly during the flight, but they have no avenues to do that.
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I miss when Republicans used to oppose redistribution of wealth... and when they cared about the national debt.
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Stephanie Cates retweeted
Counterpoint: Government actors telling private businesses what they can and can't do is BS.
Our message to corporate America is simple: We’re not going to let you lay off American workers so you can replace them with cheap foreign labor.
whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2…
No one tweets a better story than Ben Sasse. I still remember the #driveallnightforneil Twitter thread. Good stuff.
alright here we go…
but these are
#ChemoBedOnlyStories …
- it may or may not be the case that one time when my 8-yr-old son was with me in DC (we used to travel back-n-forth betw Nebr and DC as a fam) that one Tues morn before the Senate started voting, Breck and I were gunna run a few errands
- in particular, we were going to swap out one Goodwill sofa for another Goodwill sofa for our temp rental house
- while southbound at a red light at 4th & Penn SE, I might have accelerated just a tick too fast
- …and our $17 sofa went airborne out the back of truck
- at this point, my 8-yr-old, with spectacular glee, shouted: “Big Red is on the loose!“
- we went around the block, and like a crazy person I hatched thus plan:
Somehow, in an act that would defy extant physics, my 54-pound kid would help lift a full-length couch into a rusty truck, in the sleet, during rush-hour. (Follow me for more #ParentingTips)
- by the time we got around the block, a homeless guy had commandeered the sofa and lugged it onto an island-median and set up shop
- It became immediately clear to all that it was in both his and our interest to just let him keep it.
Honestly, great great morning
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"His legacy will continue through the policies he helped to shape, the institutions he strengthened, and the freedom and success of the country he loved. We would all be well served to follow in his example."
The former senator treated public service as a duty rather than a platform. | @GoldwaterInst's Victor Riches
nationalreview.com/2026/09/j…
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