While massive media attention lights up this year’s presidential race, key races are taking place downballot. Two of the 11 governor’s races on 2024 ballots are currently rated toss-ups: North Carolina and New Hampshire. Eight of the 11 governor’s mansions up for grabs this year are currently Republican-controlled.
State-elected positions such as governor, state attorney general, senator, and House representative are crucial to checking federal abuses of power. A coalition of approximately half the nation’s attorneys general, for example, has been challenging Biden administration power grabs with big lawsuits against mass censorship, rules requiring woke investments, and environmental communism.
Democrats are on the defensive in the Senate, with 10 Republican senators, three independents who support Democrats, and 20 Democrat senators up for election this year.
“Republicans need just one or two seats to reclaim the [Senate] majority — depending on which party wins the White House. Sen. Joe Manchin’s retirement almost certainly puts West Virginia in the GOP’s column, and Democratic incumbents are also up for reelection in the red states of Ohio and Montana. Other races to watch: Pennsylvania; Wisconsin; Michigan, Nevada and Arizona,” says Politico’s Ally Mutnick.
It’s not just whether Rs gain in the Senate, of course, but what they do while there. For some 60 years, Republican voters have endured capitulation and betrayal from the politicians they send to high office. In 1964, Phyllis Schlafly spoke for millions of Republican voters demanding “a choice, not an echo” from our representatives. We still demand that today, and it helps account for Donald Trump’s vociferous support.
Politicians are notoriously slippery. Many avoid tough interviews — which come from right media, not corporate. When a real question slips through, they dodge. Yet it remains crucial that they be put on the record as one way to hold them accountable for their use of the public trust.
What should the public learn about the individuals asking for positions of great public responsibility? As co-moderator of a Jan. 26 forum between the five Republican candidates for Indiana’s governor, I and other First Principles Forum advisers worked for weeks to craft questions. We couldn’t fit into 70 minutes of answer time even a quarter of those we wanted to ask and those voters sent in as suggestions.
Strikingly, the five candidates repeatedly repudiated the policies of the current governor sharing their own party, including: his self-extended emergency powers and Covid-19 lockdowns; instillation of a diversity, equity, and inclusion cabinet position; decommissioning of coal plants in obedience to the Biden EPA; and failure to specifically commit National Guard troops to assist Texas in defending the U.S. border. Two of the five candidates implicitly trashing Gov. Eric Holcomb on stage have held positions in his cabinet, one as his lieutenant governor.
Here, to assist any voter or reporter helping vet those who seek power in our eroded republic, are all the questions we did ask, plus many we couldn’t fit in. They’ve been edited to apply outside of Indiana, to any state.
Question: Would you emulate DeSantis’ pace-setting education policies to improve curricular content and school leadership, or do you support allowing DEI governance inside this state’s businesses and schools? Please explain your reasoning, including what equity means to you.
Question: Would you make it a policy priority to require proof of citizenship for voter registration? Also, should this state return voting to a single day and eliminate mail-in voting for all who physically can vote in person?
Question: As governor, what criteria will you use to appoint judges? What can this state do about the fact that the professional legal institutions are extremely politicized to the left, affecting the equal justice Americans have a constitutional right to expect from their courts?
Question: If the state attorney general challenges a federal regulation or action, how would you require your state agencies to cooperate with the attorney general with that challenge?
Question: Is it right to use taxpayer money to reward favored economic activity and why? And what can state government do to unleash citizens’ ability to better themselves and their families economically?
Question: How would you shift state workforce priorities to put the needs of families, especially children, above the desires of businesses to offer fewer benefits and wages that can’t sustain a family on one income?
Question: What is your plan to provide citizens with the reliable, locally controlled, and low-cost energy necessary to fuel economic growth and widespread prosperity?
Question: What should the governor and state legislature do to control health care costs?
Question: Should emergency executive orders be limited by law to a maximum of 30 days? Under what conditions do you think any executive emergency order is necessary and justified?
20 Questions To Ask Republican Candidates In Your State
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31.01.2024
While massive media attention lights up this year’s presidential race, key races are taking place downballot. Two of the 11 governor’s races on 2024 ballots are currently rated toss-ups: North Carolina and New Hampshire. Eight of the 11 governor’s mansions up for grabs this year are currently Republican-controlled.
State-elected positions such as governor, state attorney general, senator, and House representative are crucial to checking federal abuses of power. A coalition of approximately half the nation’s attorneys general, for example, has been challenging Biden administration power grabs with big lawsuits against mass censorship, rules requiring woke investments, and environmental communism.
Democrats are on the defensive in the Senate, with 10 Republican senators, three independents who support Democrats, and 20 Democrat senators up for election this year.
“Republicans need just one or two seats to reclaim the [Senate] majority — depending on which party wins the White House. Sen. Joe Manchin’s retirement almost certainly puts West Virginia in the GOP’s column, and Democratic incumbents are also up for reelection in the red states of Ohio and Montana. Other races to watch: Pennsylvania; Wisconsin; Michigan, Nevada and........
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