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WASHINGTON—The Founders built America on a rock, but today, because of the Left, the rock is crumbling, and the country must assert moral clarity on several fronts to fix it, said Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who fired up the crowd at the Road to Majority Conference Saturday.
“They built it on rock. They unleashed a wave of freedom across the world with the prosperity of seeing a shining sea, the greatest nation ever built,” Youngkin said. “Yet today, we can feel the great American house shaking. Across our college campuses, echoes of extermination speech, while chaos roars across our borders.”
He noted that “Joe Biden and the progressive Left began to attack the basic foundation of our nation. The rock began to crumble and turned to sand, and those shifting sands compromised in America.”
Youngkin said bouncing back would require moral clarity.
“A nation built on rock has moral clarity—moral clarity to say that having thousands more across our border every single day is wrong, moral clarity to never question that we stand faithfully and unapologetically with Israel, moral clarity to say men playing sports with women is wrong. A nation built on rock sees the role of faith across our history.”
The governor talked about inflation “stealing from hardworking Americans’ paychecks,” government regulations, and challenges to national security.
“We see a weakened America on the global stage with Iran and Russia waging war and the Chinese Communist Party threatening to take advantage of America’s weakness,” Youngkin added.
Despite these challenges, he added that he has “unbridled optimism.”
“We know one basic truth: God has blessed America,” he said.
Youngkin, a Republican, was elected in blue Virginia in 2021, defeating former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, in an election based largely on parental rights and public school policy.
“Parents have a fundamental right to make decisions in their children’s life with regard to their upbringing and their education,” he said. “Parents matter.”
The post Youngkin: America’s Foundations Crumbling Under Biden, Progressives appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Recent polling suggests that Virginia could prove unusually competitive in the November election pitting President Joe Biden against former President Donald Trump, raising the stakes on the security of elections there.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, signed an executive order June 7 directing state agencies to share more data with the Virginia Department of Elections to help determine the eligibility of individual voters.
However, some question whether the governor’s order is sufficient this close to the Nov. 5 election.
Last year, the Virginia Department of Elections released revealing findings on election data. The agency, which the state refers to as “ELECT,” says it addressed voter registration problems in the past year.
“In 2023, the Virginia Department of Elections (ELECT) examined its data-sharing relationship with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH),” Andrea Gaines, external affairs manager for the elections agency, told The Daily Signal in an email. She added:
After ELECT requested a review of all VDH death records going back to 1960, VDH discovered death records that had not been previously shared with ELECT. After additional data analysis by ELECT staff, 18,990 records of registered voters were identified and sent to local registrars for processing.
Last July, the Virginia Department of Elections mailed the U.S. Postal Service’s “national change of address” forms to about 115,656 registered voters who apparently had moved to a different jurisdiction than the one reflected on the voter rolls.
“Approximately 39,437 cancellation request mailers were sent to voters’ out-of-state addresses,” the Department of Elections report says. “As a result of the confirmation mailing process, approximately 172,501 voters were classified as ‘Inactive’ in February 2023 and 88,152 voters were classified as ‘Inactive’ in August 2023. The total number of voters classified as ‘Inactive’ from September 1, 2022, to August 31, 2023, were 260,653.”
Youngkin’s executive order directs the state Department of Elections to provide “lists of individuals who voted in primaries and elections, where available, to and from other states.”
This, the governor’s order says, will “identify duplicate registrations, voters who no longer reside in the commonwealth, and other persons who are no longer entitled to be registered, to maintain overall accuracy of the voter registration system.”
But Virginia is just three months away from early voting, so the timeline for implementation should be expedited, according to a report from The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
“The American people deserve transparency on elections, election data, and whether or not illegal aliens are registering to vote at the state level,” Colin Aamot, an investigator for Heritage’s Oversight Project, told The Daily Signal.
“It’s 2024. It’s beyond time for states to get their act together without further excuses towards cleaning voter rolls of ineligible voters,” Aamot said. “Further, the federal government has become an impediment, not a transparent partner, in sharing citizenship data with the states in order to facilitate the removal of ineligible voters from voter rolls.”
The news site RealClearPolitics now classifies Virginia as a “tossup” between Biden and Trump, despite the state’s reputation as reliably Democrat-leaning in presidential elections since 2008.
An Oversight Project issue brief contends that Youngkin’s executive order came too late and should be expedited. It says, in part:
Timeliness: with early voting approximately 3 months away, this effort is too late, or at best has too long a timeframe for it to make a difference and impact the upcoming election cycle. None of the points addressed are new, and such an EO [executive order] could/should have been executed long before June 2024. Consider rescheduling of the timelines (expediting) for compliance to enable reform in this election cycle.
Youngkin’s order also calls for creating an Interagency Data Review Work Group. Its purpose would be “to examine and make recommendations regarding the quality, accuracy, sharing, and security of commonwealth data provided to the Department of Elections for use in the existing Voter Election Information Registration System in support of conversion to the new statewide voter registration system scheduled for implementation in mid-2025.”
To achieve more accurate voter rolls, the work group will include representatives of the state’s Health, Motor Vehicles, and Elections departments, as well as Virginia State Police.
“The interagency working group created by Gov. Youngkin’s executive order is currently working to strengthen Virginia’s voter rolls and ensure better data accuracy, while safeguarding Virginians’ confidential data,” Youngkin press secretary Christian Martinez told The Daily Signal.
In a public statement on his order, Youngkin said: “As we transition to a new statewide voter registration system, it is imperative that every state agency provides accurate and valid data. This executive order continues our improvements to list maintenance processes, providing a reliable election system for voters.”
Virginia’s work group should include a “citizen participant” who isn’t affiliated with any party or organization, the Oversight Project’s brief says, also contending that all the group’s sessions should be “public meetings.”
Virginia was among nine states to withdraw last year from the Electronic Registration Information Center, a coalition of states established in 2012 to cross-check data and avoid duplicate voter registrations. States that withdrew noted that the system didn’t flag noncitizens and shared voter data with third-party organizations.
Virginia has a score of 63 on The Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard, achieving the rank of 23 in the top half of states.
Virginia ranks high for accuracy of voter registration, for reasons that include state election officials running data comparisons between the statewide voter registration list and the DMV; running data comparisons between that list and Social Security Administration death records; using the U.S. Postal Service system to find voters who have moved from registered addresses; and ensuring that voter registration forms ask registrants to identify their previous registered address.
A report last year from election experts at The Heritage Foundation and Public Interest Legal Foundation said the Electronic Registration Information Center should reform itself for states still participating in the coalition. Their report also called for states that departed ERIC either to start their own agreements for data sharing with other states or begin an alternative national group free of partisan politics.
“These changes must also ensure that ERIC provides more accurate information to member states, attracts additional member states, bolsters participating states’ confidence in its work, eliminates unlawful actions, and prevents partisanship to guarantee that it functions at the highest standard to ensure election integrity,” says the April 2023 report, authored by Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at Heritage, and J. Christian Adams, president of Public Interest Legal Foundation.
“Otherwise,” the report says, “state election officials need to consider forming an alternative organization that accomplishes these objectives without ERIC’s defects, which will require financial capital, development time, and a dedicated commitment from state officials.”
The post Election Integrity Stakes Grow for Virginia, Now a ‘Tossup’ State appeared first on The Daily Signal.
When the Republican National Convention kicks off in Milwaukee next month, conservative leader Morton Blackwell once again will be in the middle of the action. This year’s convention will mark Blackwell’s 16th consecutive appearance, dating to 1964.
Upon the convention’s closing gavel, it also will be the beginning of his 10th term as Republican national committeeman representing Virginia.
Blackwell’s tenure puts him just behind Delegate Amata Radewagen, who was elected as American Samoa’s national committeewoman in 1988. She also represents American Samoa as a nonvoting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives.
With the defeat in April of Massachusetts’ Ron Kaufman, Blackwell is poised to be move up in tenure among the 168 members of the Republican National Committee. (Each state and territory—56 in all—elects one committeeman and one committeewoman; each also has a party chairman).
When Virginia Republicans gathered for their party convention May 31 at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, Blackwell defeated Tim Anderson and Patti Lyman defeated Jean Gannon. Lyman will begin serving her second four-year term at the conclusion of the GOP convention in Milwaukee.
“I appreciate the honor of being elected to a tenth consecutive term as Virginia’s Republican national committeeman,” Blackwell told The Daily Signal. “The office is pretty much what one makes of it, because it comes with no special powers and few defined duties.”
“My focus is on improving Republican political training programs and making sure that ‘the rules of the Republican Party’ continue to permit some power in the party to flow from the bottom up and not just from the top down,” he said. “And I always fight for conservative principles.”
Blackwell is known in the conservative movement for founding the Leadership Institute in 1979. For 45 years, it has trained more than 250,000 individuals on campaign tactics, fundraising, grassroots activism, and communicating effectively. The institute also has a network of 2,300 campus groups and conservative newspapers to reach the next generation of Americans.
Turning Point Action congratulates @MortonBlackwell and @pattilyman2 on their win in Virginia.
— Turning Point Action (@TPAction_) June 1, 2024
These patriots have served tirelessly on the RNC and will continue to defend our conservative values for another four years.
We are excited to see them continue to represent @VA_GOP… pic.twitter.com/HaireeCwDr
Starting with Sen. Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign in 1964—when Blackwell was the candidate’s youngest delegate to the San Diego convention—he has made a point of taking an active role in Republican politics.
He served as an alternate delegate for Ronald Reagan in 1968 and 1976, and was a Reagan delegate in 1980 when he secured the GOP nomination for president. Blackwell led Reagan’s youth effort for the 1980 campaign, then worked as a special assistant on the White House staff during Reagan’s first term.
Blackwell’s conservative principles have made him a favorite among movement activists, particularly at times when the Republican National Committee didn’t reflect the sentiments of the grassroots.
“As an oasis of conservatism in the RNC desert of establishmentarianism over the last 40 years, Morton Blackwell has been a steady and dependable defender of conservative principles,” said Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s former attorney general. “Virginia is proud to return the longest-serving dedicated conservative, probably in the entire history of the Republican National Committee, for another four years!”
Former President Donald Trump was among the high-profile endorsements Blackwell received in advance of his reelection. Virginia’s trio of statewide elected officials—Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, and Attorney General Jason Miyares—also backed his bid along with several other political leaders.
Following his victory, Blackwell credited two GOP power players in Arlington County: Republican Committee Chairman Matthew Hurtt and former Chairman Andrew Loposser.
I want to thank the delegates to the @VA_GOP Convention for re-electing me as your National Committeeman and to the volunteers who helped get me across the finish line.
— Morton Blackwell (@MortonBlackwell) June 2, 2024
I especially want to thank Andrew Loposser and @matthewhurtt for all your hard work. pic.twitter.com/XjG1ISCrea
“As someone who has traveled with Morton to nearly every RNC meeting since 2013, I understand what an asset he is to grassroots conservatives on the RNC,” Hurtt told The Daily Signal. “His knowledge of rules and process and his commitment to empowering conservative activists within the GOP is unmatched. Virginia Republicans—and conservatives nationwide—are lucky to have such a well-respected and staunch advocate in their corner.”
In 2020, The Heritage Foundation honored Blackwell with its Titan of Conservatism Award, noting his dedication to training conservatives over the span of 50 years.
Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, told The Daily Signal that he personally benefited from Blackwell’s training during his own public service in the Virginia General Assembly.
“Morton Blackwell has a long and storied history of training conservatives who are called to public service,” Anderson said. “Morton has an equally impressive period of lengthy service as a member of the Republican National Committee, and I am pleased that he and I will continue to partner as members of the governing body of our national party.”
With the @VA_GOP State Convention in the history books, the people have spoken–and our RNC delegation team is set for the next 4 years. Congrats to @MortonBlackwell & @pattilyman2 on their reelections. We look forward to working with @ChairmanWhatley on a WINNING year in 2024! pic.twitter.com/9nzSp8FyUE
— RPV Chair Rich Anderson (@RichAndersonRPV) June 3, 2024
Anderson and Blackwell will be together in Milwaukee next month to officially nominate Trump as the 47th president of the United States.
The post Conservative Stalwart Morton Blackwell Prepares for 10th Term as Republican Committeeman appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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