Republican voters who see ads attacking South Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Ralph Norman as insufficiently MAGA might be surprised to learn about the major donor behind those messages.

“Ralph Norman: MAGA Traitor,” reads one ad from the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC. “Ralph Norman betrayed President [Donald] Trump by endorsing against him in 2024. … Ralph Norman is a MAGA traitor.”

So, what is the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC?

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, the PAC received more than 88% of its funding—$6 million out of $6.78 million—from one man, Chris Larsen.

So, is Larsen a Trump donor? Far from it. He contributed $1 million worth of cryptocurrency to Future Forward, a PAC supporting then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in 2024. In May, he told Politico he was “a big believer in Gavin” Newsom for the 2028 Democrat presidential primary, and he plans to boost California’s Democrat governor “any way we can.”

Larsen in May called the PAC’s advocacy “political warfare,” according to Politico. “The worst that you want in a political fight is for your opponents to think you’re weak,” he said.

He is not the only green energy advocate backing the PAC. Mark McCall, who led the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office under President Barack Obama, contributed $200,000. Jigar Shah, who directed the same office under President Joe Biden, contributed $50,000. Michael Brune, former executive director of the Sierra Club, co-founded the PAC.

“The clean energy industry’s political muscle is only getting stronger and more intimidating,” Brune, said. “So our hope here is that clean energy will go back to being a bipartisan issue, and maybe one of the few issues that all Americans can agree on. But before we get there, we’ve got to continue our retribution tour and take out a few more members who have voted the wrong way.”

The “retribution tour” refers to getting revenge on certain Republicans in Congress who pushed for a quick phaseout of renewable energy incentives in what became the One Big Beautiful Bill. The PAC targeted Republican Reps. Norman of South Carolina in his campaign for governor, Andy Ogles of Tennessee in his congressional primary, and Chip Roy of Texas in his race for Texas attorney general, all of whom pushed the phaseout.

As with the recent ads against Norman, Invest in Tomorrow Coalition’s ads against Roy in the attorney general race attacked the congressman as having “turned his back on MAGA more than once.”

The PAC spent $2 million opposing Ogles, who lost his primary. It spent more than $650,000 opposing Roy, who also lost his primary. Norman faced similar negative ads in the South Carolina governor race and lost that primary. Now, he’s running for the GOP nomination for Senate against Darlene Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. The PAC reportedly plans to spend $1 million against him.

The PAC has supported some Republicans but appears to have spent more money opposing sitting candidates.

It has reportedly considered targeting other Republicans, including Rep. Barry Moore in Alabama’s Senate race, Rep. Nancy Mace in South Carolina’s governor race, and Rep. Byron Donalds in Florida’s governor race. Moore and Donalds prevailed in their races, while Mace lost decisively.

MAGA messaging may resonate with Republican primary voters more than climate narratives, but the messaging decision also makes sense at a moment when climate activism appears to be on the back foot.

The Environmental Protection Agency under Trump slashed funding for climate projects, citing waste, fraud, and abuse. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, a major climate donor, has dialed back his previous alarmist rhetoric. Meanwhile, the climate group Greenpeace is seeking to appeal a $345 million court judgment that the group says might bankrupt it.

The Daily Signal asked the PAC why it uses MAGA-themed messaging to pursue climate-related goals and whether Larsen has decision-making authority regarding candidate targeting. The PAC did not respond before publication.

The Daily Signal also reached out to the companies led by Larsen, McCall, and Shah and did not receive a response.

An important law for education and the future of Ohio was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine in June and is about to make an impact on the new school year.

Senate Bill 19, sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Brenner, a Republican, passed overwhelmingly.

The law is meant to improve math rankings, which have seen a dip in Ohio due to the pandemic. It’s a law that Aaron Churchill, Ohio research director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, calls “a very multifaceted approach to try to tackle the issue.”

Among other reforms, the law ensures that math proficiency starts with the teachers—meaning, elementary and middle school teachers have to be proficient in math before they can teach it.

Churchill stressed the need to start early through prospective teachers passing licensure tests. He called it “common sense” to ensure that teachers have “a baseline knowledge of math,” with early years being “so foundational for kids.”

Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, shared coverage of the law from NBC 4 to call out the ongoing learning loss suffered during the pandemic era.

Brenner told the Daily Signal that the pandemic response hurt student learning. “I can tell you that we were improving up until COVID hit. The lockdowns, the masking of teachers and students, and the remote learning, it just went to a massive amount of learning loss,” he said.

The problem got so severe that institutes of higher learning have had to change their math curriculum, as is the case at the Ohio State University, which has “the need to remediate every kid coming in,” Brenner said.

“So not only are we paying taxpayer money to the kids to learn, who aren’t learning, these kids are now getting out, taking out student loans, going to higher ed, and needing to get remedial classes to learn what they should have learned in high school and all the way down,” he added.

According to Churchill, math scores “really tanked” during COVID-19, to the point where limited students, those scoring in the low 0-25% range, “probably went over 30%.” He added that math learning was especially bad because it’s “such a sequential topic, where if you get lost, it’s hard to get back on track.”

“We’re spending a lot of money and we’re not getting the results,” Brenner insisted. “I’m saying no, if you have the right curriculum … and you’ve trained the teachers properly, you should be able to get some improvement in performance, and for all these students, regardless of their socioeconomic background.”

Brenner spoke of another provision of the new law. For this 2026-27 school year, a school must develop a math achievement improvement plan if 51% or less of the students who took the third-grade math achievement assessment achieved at least a proficient score. “We’re raising the bar for everybody in third grade for math,” he explained.

Still another provision requires schools to help with intervention services so that struggling students improve, with Churchill emphasizing the role the school plays.

“What we’ve seen in the past is that too many students just keep scoring limited. And by the time they hopefully graduate high school, they just don’t have very strong math skills,” he said. “[The new provision] does put some responsibility and requirements on our schools to make sure that students don’t fall through the cracks and that they do get some help the next year, and remediating some of the deficiencies in that.”

The law looks ahead to future years in a way that further puts schools on notice. Beginning for the 2027-2028 school year, the Department of Education will randomly select up to 5% of schools to review their intervention services. Schools with those services “are going to know that we’re going to be taking a look to see” if they’re actually being provided and doing their job, Brenner noted.

There is also a provision for gifted students with accelerated math programs, which Churchill praised. He sees it as addressing “an equity issue,” where students who deserve to be on that accelerated path might not otherwise be if they lacked “parent advocacy.”

This provision, Churchill continued, “makes sure that these high-achieving students, no matter your race, your background, anything like that, plays a role in placement, but that your test score actually is what places you in the advanced course.”

As for how long it may take for the law to improve math rankings, analysts suggest that it’s anyone’s guess.

“Dramatic improvement doesn’t happen overnight in education; there’s no miraculous kind of thing that can just wave the wand and every kid can do math,” Churchill said. “It does require patience and a whole lot of effort and implementation, and making sure the implementation of these policies is done right.

“It is going to probably take some time and a lot of effort from the state to see the achievement move in a significant way in math. I can’t wait to see what happens.”

Vice President JD Vance poured people beers and served chili dogs during a stop in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Friday.

The post JD Vance Serves Customers Beers, Chili Dogs During Visit to Ohio appeared first on Breitbart.

Five loads, zero malfunctions and plenty of .45 ACP. The Springfield Garrison proves a good 1911 doesn’t have to break the bank.

The post The Springfield Armory 1911 Garrison .45 ACP Proves Simplicity Still Wins appeared first on The Truth About Guns.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported more illegal alien gang members from the United States, including those convicted of attempted murder, burglary, and vehicle theft.

The post ICE Deports Illegal Gang Members Convicted of Attempted Murder, Burglary appeared first on Breitbart.

This week began with everyone getting worried about the long bond, and then everyone got worried that the Treasury Department started buying long bonds.

The post Breitbart Business Digest: People Are Worried About the Bond Market appeared first on Breitbart.

An illegal alien is accused of pouring hot wax on herself and one of her daughters before setting a fire inside the kitchen of her Miami, Florida, home, law enforcement officials say.

The post Illegal Alien Accused of Pouring Hot Wax on Daughter, Setting Fire Inside Miami Home appeared first on Breitbart.

Vance called out The Wall Street Journal directly over their long-standing support for open borders and the policies which led to the hollowing of American manufacturing in the Midwest.

The post Vance Demolishes Wall Street Journal, Globalization in Middletown appeared first on Breitbart.

Vice President JD Vance criticized the Wall Street Journal and Democrats for supporting open border policies that have allowed millions of illegal aliens into the United States.

The post JD Vance Slams Wall Street Journal, Democrats for Pushing Open Border Policies appeared first on Breitbart.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, has filed an emergency motion asking a federal judge to block the Kennedy Center from putting President Donald Trump's name back on the building's facade and renaming the center's grounds "President Donald J. Trump Plaza."

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of the latest edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Victor Davis Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes.

Sami Winc: Victor, the midterms. Florida was the big attention, I think. And it looks like Oliver Larkin lost out to Jared Moskowitz, a Democratic representative candidate, and Oliver Larkin was the DSA candidate. So the DSA did not do well in that case.

And then the second thing is the Senate race. Angie Nixon will face off with Ashley Moody, and Angie Nixon was the DSA candidate, and I was wondering if you had thoughts.

Victor Davis Hanson: Well, he [Larkin] was running against Moskowitz, who was Jewish, but he had a whole record of endorsing, at various times, the entire agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America. So when they were asking him about defunding the police and the Pentagon, he would say yes. So he was way too liberal left, even for the Democrats in Florida.

And those districts had… There’s about 700,000 Jewish American voters in Florida, and they tend to be people who have left New York and the East Coast, whether just for the weather or for political conditions or for tax reasons. And they’re very–I can tell you, as someone who’s spoken to a number of Jewish groups in Palm Beach, they’re very politically aware, and they were not going to support somebody who had trashed Israel as Larkin had done.

And so I think that was a given that he was going to lose.

And the same thing, Nixon was running against Vindman, and Vindman was notorious for being the quasi-whistleblower when he was on the National Security Council. He claimed that he heard Donald Trump issuing ultimata to Zelenskyy.

Now, the problem with that is, in the years since then–and that led to the first impeachment–we have now got the whole story, and even the electorate knows a lot about it.

Number one, Vindman violated protocol by disclosing a classified phone call to someone who was not on the call. He wouldn’t answer questions about whom he talked to, but he did lie and say that he had not met with Adam Schiff. He did call Eric Ciaramella up, who was not on the call, who volunteered to be the official conduit, or whistleblower.

So when the hearings came out, we weren’t really sure of that. He just said, No, I can’t speak about that. But in the time since then, we’ve got the whole story that he called his friend Eric up and said, look, I just listened to Trump, and I can interpret that he was leveraging weapons for political harassment of the Bidens.

Because Trump said something, you should look at the Bidens. You know, I’m giving you aid, but you’re interfering in U.S. politics. That’s what he claimed.

And a lot of people since then have seen that Vindman is culpable and that he did violate the law and that he did lie and that Adam Schiff cooked up the entire impeachment writ. And Adam Schiff lied about it and said that he had not met with Vindman.

Then the other thing that came out with Vindman was that he was a Ukrainian dual citizen and he had been bragging that he had been offered the defense minister slot in Ukraine while he was involved so heavily in the United States government.

So it doesn’t look good when you’re on the National Security Council of the United States and, under testimony, you brag that the Ukrainians wanted you to be their defense minister as a dual citizen.

And then you add to that that the Ukrainian ambassador in 2016 had written an op-ed—that was really a taboo—and interfered in U.S. politics, aside from the Steele dossier, basically endorsing Hillary Clinton.

Add all of that up, and he didn’t age very well.

And then he got involved as a middleman. So he was constantly lobbying for the Ukraine war, which is fine, but he wanted more and more weapons. And then we found out that he had some kind of what he called a nonprofit or some kind of private company, but it wasn’t nonprofit, and he was refurbishing or transferring vehicles into Ukraine.

So you can’t be an advocate, a U.S. citizen advocating for your former homeland, and then be involved with your former homeland in various mechanisms, whether supplying them weapons in your private capacity or launching impeachment against the president of the United States.

So he came off, what I’m trying to say, as arrogant and shady and duplicitous.

Sami Winc: Just a quick question. Everything you say right now seems to me that he would be a shoo-in for the Democrats. Why did he lose out to Nixon?

Victor Davis Hanson: He wasn’t in a congressional district. That’s what you’ve got to remember. He was statewide, and usually that hurts the socialists. But in this particular case, he didn’t have a constituency like Moskowitz did. He didn’t have a moderate and wealthy base to work within and a large Jewish vote within that congressional district.

And he didn’t have what Debbie Wasserman Schultz had. She had been redistricted also out of her job, and she went into the 20th District. There were five African Americans there.

Elijah Manley, as I say, I’m sure I’ve been chastised by a couple of readers for getting the names wrong. But in his case, he was leading, and he made a statement that she had no business coming out of her district that no longer existed to prey on what he said were Black candidates.

So then he got the idea that the leader would consolidate the Black vote and they would have more than Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who outspent everybody because she had a lot of very wealthy donors and had a monopoly on the Jewish vote within the 20th District, like Moskowitz did.

And lo and behold, she won handily. But when you sum up all of the Black candidates, had they united and voted along racial lines, which they seem to have done, then she would have lost.

So what I’m getting at is there’s a lot of dissension. This was a microcosm of what’s going on. You have Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was a hard-left, big-DEI person, and then she loses her district in the redistricting wars between the states and jumps into a district that wasn’t a majority-Black district, but I think it was 48% or something, a plurality. And she jumps in there in a district that wasn’t her own.

But she was the one that was telling us that we need to racially gerrymander. Then she takes a seat away that would have been won by a Black candidate.

Then we have these… Nixon is a crazy socialist. She was outspent by Vindman, but I think that vote was unique statewide among the Democrats because people did not like Vindman. He comes across as arrogant. I mentioned the history that he had, and he’s not a likable person. There was a personal animosity toward him. Everybody who meets that guy is turned off.

Sami Winc: I saw Ashley Moody. So this is a senatorial race that Nixon is running in, and she’s against Ashley Moody. And I have to confess that Ashley Moody didn’t seem terribly impressive for the Republicans. So how do you think that race is going to come out?

Victor Davis Hanson: She’s going to win. She’s the incumbent. She took over Marco Rubio’s seat. She has the advantage of incumbency. She’s got DeSantis’ endorsement.

And there’s been a revolution that we forget in Florida since the days of the hanging chad in 2000. The Republicans have taken over the state, and they have about a million and a half more registered Republicans.

If you total up in these races all the Democrats who voted and all the Republicans, the Republicans have something like 400,000 more votes than the Democrats. So they’re going to turn out the vote, and they voted in much higher ratios than they had before. That kind of surprised everybody. They thought all the Republicans were mad at Trump. It’s a midterm. But they got out and voted.

So she’ll win, and Byron Donalds, now the Republican nominee for governor, I think he’ll win, too.

Sami Winc: Easily?

Victor Davis Hanson: Yeah, easily. Florida’s a red state now.

Sami Winc: What do you make of Jon Ossoff in Georgia, who just recently said the sailors out there, our military out there, are fighting Trump’s war, number one. So he’s accusing them. It sort of harkens back to Vietnam and blaming soldiers.

But the other thing he said that he’s getting a lot of flak for is that Trump, all he wants to do is build his ballroom and go on flights with Natalie Harp.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yeah, that was stupid.

Sami Winc: It’s getting a lot of press out there.

Victor Davis Hanson: Well, it’s getting a lot of press because nobody knows who he is. So he was getting worried he had no name recognition.

Georgia is a purple state now because Atlanta has a lot of yuppies there. It’s got a huge Black population. So it’s a 50-50 state now, and you can see it’s highly weaponized. We saw that with Fulton County and Fani Willis’ lawfare that was waged against Donald Trump.

So he wants to be known. But he’s kind of like Mayor Frey, remember him from Minneapolis? He was doing a little dance the other day with a rap. It was just embarrassing. He was a nerd.

And Ossoff is the same. He’s a privileged guy. He knows he would never have won that race had it not been for the day before Jan. 6. […] And even then, Ossoff didn’t win by that much.

He was very careful about what he said because he understood he was the result of a fluke. But now, with this Democratic socialist stuff in the air, it’s gone to his head, and he’s trying to get out there and talk a little bit more abrasively. But as soon as he did, as you said, he made a fool of himself.

Natalie Harp is known to almost every conservative columnist and writer because her job is to disseminate information. She has a Rolodex of I don’t know how many hundreds or thousands on her email list, and she’ll send, like the Democrats do, tidbits. And she does it very professionally.

She is a devout Christian, and she’s a cancer survivor.

So he was trying to insinuate, because she was young and blonde and attractive, that Donald Trump is having some sort of relationship that’s extraordinary or taboo. But that was just character assassination.

Then he just cemented the idea that the Democrats are either ambiguous about who wins the war or, when they say Trump’s war and they hate Trump, they want him to lose it. Is that what they do, when we have thousands of Americans out there fighting. That was stupid.

Sami Winc: And Trump called him Pee-wee Herman, and he does kind of look like Pee-wee Herman.

Victor Davis Hanson: Well, the problem with Trump’s epithets is not that he says them and they’re crude, but that they fit and people laugh. […] After the initial shock that the president of the United States or a presidential candidate is engaging in that vitriol, passes, they stick.

Sami Winc: What do you think Ossoff’s chances are, given all of that? Do you think he’ll be reelected?

Victor Davis Hanson: No, I don’t.

Sami Winc: You think he’s going to lose?

Victor Davis Hanson: It’s going to be a very close race, and he’s going to lose. Because Trump and the Republican PACs will make up whatever lead he has. And I just don’t think you’re going to get a lot of Black voters who are enthused by him on the Democratic side to come out.

When he won the first time, the other candidate was African American, remember? He was a preacher and had a lot of resonance in the Black community, and they all came out because there were two elections. But I don’t see that happening.

And I think he’s going to lose.

Sami Winc: And then finally, the Alaska ranking system is being put to the test by two candidates with exactly the same names, first and last.

That was deliberate.

Victor Davis Hanson: I believe it’s Sullivan.

Sami Winc: The Democrats did it.

Victor Davis Hanson: Sixteen candidates, you put one in with the same name, and then people get confused. And then they split the vote. I’m very confident about the Senate. I think El-Sayed is going to lose. I think Talarico is going to lose. I think Susan Collins is going to win. Jackson is going to lose. I think they’re going to keep Lindsey Graham’s seat. I think they’re going to knock off Ossoff.

So I’m cautiously optimistic they’ll hold the Senate, and they have a 40% to 50% chance of holding the House. These socialist candidates are stupid, and the Democrats are not reacting well to them.

Well, I shouldn’t say they’re not reacting. They don’t have a choice. If they attack them, they’ll stay home in the general election. If they cater to them, then they’re going to be hit by their Republican colleagues for endorsing these crazy positions.

Just take two races, El-Sayed, who won, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She’ll probably win, but I have a sneaking suspicion a lot of Black voters on the Democratic side will stay home and not vote for her.

I have a sneaking suspicion there are going to be a lot of independents, but especially Democrats, who will not vote for El-Sayed.

I have a sneaking suspicion there are some in Maine who will not vote for Jackson.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Talarico, for all of that high visibility, a lot of Black voters in Texas remember they wanted Jasmine Crockett, and they won’t come out.

So the Democratic Party either comes out with endorsements of these people, and then they lose moderates who don’t want them, or they stay silent.

And if these candidates do win, a lot of Democrats won’t come out. If they lose, then they get bitter. And don’t think the Democratic socialists won’t stay home if they lose a primary race, which they have in some cases. I don’t think they’re going to be very eager to get out and vote.

Sami Winc: Just to add to your sneaking suspicions, we have a sneaking suspicion that the polls are going to be all wrong in favor of the Democrats the whole time.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yeah. Ten points for El-Sayed was wrong. Twenty for Hong was wrong. Ten—

Some of them were made up, admittedly so.

21-year-old Rahil Prakash is the person who published a number of fake polls that entered the media ecosystem.

The post Nolte: 21-Year-Old Was Behind Fake Polling Firm Median Strategies appeared first on Breitbart.

North Carolina's Democrat gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper has "never" offered an explanation for letting thousands of criminals out of jail during the coronavirus pandemic, Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily.

The post Exclusive — Michael Whatley: Democrat Roy Cooper Never Explained Letting Thousands of Criminals Out of Jail appeared first on Breitbart.