Virginia’s 1st Congressional District is shaping up as one of the tightest races in the country this year. At the end of September, the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics shifted the race into the toss-up category. It had been listed as “leaning Republican.”

Republican Rob Wittman has represented the district since 2007, when he won a special election to fill the seat. As recently as 2024, Wittman was reelected by 13 points, besting Democrat Leslie Mehta 56% to 43%.

This time, Wittman is facing a well-funded Democrat, Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor. Her campaign website promises she “will fight to lower costs, clean up Washington’s culture of corruption, and make Congress serve the people first.”

The most recent Washington Post poll, conducted late last month with George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, showed Taylor at 50% among likely voters, while Wittman was at 46%. “The national landscape is driving everything this year, and the president’s unfavorable ratings are dragging Republicans down even in places where they normally would be safe,” GMU’s Mark Rozell told the Daily Signal.

When it comes to fundraising, Wittman has outraised Taylor overall, $5.17 million to her $4.1 million. However, in the third quarter, which ended on Sept. 30, Taylor brought in $2 million while Wittman raised $1.1 million. The Democrat will take part in a Rally for Virginia on Oct. 19 along with fellow candidates Tom Perriello (5th District) and Elaine Luria (2nd District).

On a rainy Saturday morning, just before he walked in the annual Midlothian Day Parade, Wittman told the Daily Signal that this race isn’t much different from his previous 10 campaigns. “This election is about issues of the economy, affordability, public safety, and immigration. You name it, folks are still very engaged about things, and this is a competitive election, as you would expect it to be in the off-cycle election.”

Wittman said he is approaching this race as he has all of his earlier contests. “It’s all about getting out and talking to people,” he told the Daily Signal. That ranges from seeing veterans off for an honor flight to Washington, D.C., to joining Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly for site visits at the Jefferson Lab and Naval Weapons Station Yorktown.

“It’s really all about as much personal contact as you can put out there in talking to people,” Wittman said, “and a lot of times they have, you know, very good questions.” The Daily Signal asked what the best question was that he’d been asked recently.

“The best question, I think, was ‘What are we going to do about our future, our national security?’” Wittman said. He noted that the 1st District is home to plenty of active military members. The Virginia Public Access Project counts more than 8,500 people on active duty, while the Census Bureau counted more than 52,000 veterans.

Wittman said all these military families want to know “what we are going to do to modernize in the face of these increasing threats from other nations around the world as the threats change. Especially these unmanned systems that have people obviously concerned, so they want to know what we are doing to modernize with that.”

The congressman told the Daily Signal that the first step in responding to such threats would be for lawmakers to return to Washington next month for a lame-duck session and pass a $67 billion supplemental bill that is pending in the Senate. He said that bill could encourage contractors to build more high-tech weapons.

Constituents also ask Wittman about “the typical affordability issues.” Those include questions about ways to bring down the cost of diesel fuel, gasoline, and healthcare costs.

China’s state-run Global Times on Thursday gushed over a visit by U.S. anti-war group Code Pink.

The post State Media Applauds Radical Leftist Group Code Pink for Propaganda Trip to China appeared first on Breitbart.

In an address to the nation on Sunday evening, French President Emmanuel Macron refused to take any accountability for the national riots that erupted on Saturday, as he sought to shift the blame onto the far-left and even external forces like the Iran conflict while failing to acknowledge the role mass migration played in creating a groundswell of support for the unrest. 

The post Macron Addresses Nation: Refuses Blame, Ignores Immigration Impact on Riots, ‘How Can French People Do This?’ appeared first on Breitbart.

DALTON, Ga.-President Donald Trump rallied supporters from across the state at the Dalton Municipal Airport on Friday in support of Republican candidate for governor Rick Jackson and U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Mike Collins.

Before the president’s arrival, Jackson, Collins, and other notable speakers came to the podium to speak, enthusing the crowd.

Once Trump arrived, he greeted supporters from the stage, walked to the podium, and opened by saying, “I want to say a very big hello to a very, very special place. Hello Georgia, and hello Dalton. We like Dalton a lot.”

“Two years ago, I won this state with more votes than any presidential candidate or any political candidate in the history of Georgia.”

Trump Rails Against Ossoff’s Far-Left Policies

He continued to build enthusiasm and excitement among the crowd, saying, “18 days from now, the people of Georgia are going to defeat your weak, arrogant, hate-filled, radical left senator, who is really, I call him Pee-Wee Herman. His name is [Senator] Jon Ossoff, highly overrated.”

“We’re going to send Mike Collins to the United States Senate. And we’re going to send a great friend of mine and an amazing man, Rick Jackson, [to] be your next governor.”

He urged Georgians to vote, saying, “If you have the 49[%], you’re gonna have Rick [and] you’re gonna have Mike.”

He said of Ossoff, “From the moment Jon Ossoff became your senator, he partnered with the crooked Joe Biden administration … Sleepy Joe, crooked Joe. He was a terrible president … to demolish America’s border and turn your beloved state into a dumping ground for the prisons and jails from all over the world.”

He warned Georgians, saying, “If the Dumocrats get in, they will do that immediately again. They’ll open up your borders. You’ll have people coming in from mental institutions, murderers with Ossoff’s support for open borders. 25,000,000 people poured into the United States, totally unchecked and unvetted.”

He continued, “You’ll have open borders again; you’ll have the transgender (mutilation) of your children again. Ossoff wants to pack the Supreme Court in order to open your borders, which are now the safest and most secure borders in the history of our country.”

“He [Ossoff] wants to take away your Second Amendment; he’s going to take away your guns. He’s always wanted that.”

“[By] using his power as a senator, Ossoff and the Biden administration brought these complete animals and thugs into Georgia. They imported sadistic, illegal alien gang members, and cartel savages to plunder, rape, and kill.”

In contrast, Trump said, “In the past 17 months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted into the United States through our southern border.”

A bit later in the rally, a couple of protestors caught the attention of the crowd but were quickly escorted out, followed by the crowd chanting, “U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A.”

Trump commented on the protestors’ actions, saying, “They’re paid protestors, so we had two or three of them. They get paid. Far-left loser Jon Ossoff, he probably paid them. The guy’s a loser.”

He continued to rail against Ossoff, saying, “He does not represent your values. And he never won the election. He’s an imposter.”

“He voted for every single Biden disaster that gave you the highest inflation in American history.”

“Ossoff and the radical left Democrats handed us the dark age of America.”

Collins Urges Voters to Get Out the Vote, Jackson Speaks on Motivation for Running

Toward the end of the rally, Trump invited Collins on stage, and Collins said, “Georgia, I want you to know something too. Listen, this race is sitting right here. Early voting’s already started. All we gotta do is reach out and grab this, grab it and hang on.”

“How do you do that? You go vote. And you make sure you take people with you to go vote. And I promise you, you’ll get one more vote for that SAVE America Act so that we can secure our elections in this country.”

“You’re going to get a senator in the U.S. Senate that’s going to have this man’s [Trump’s] back.”

Trump also invited Jackson on stage, and Jackson said, “I’m running to help vulnerable people; I call ‘em the least of these. There’s never been a president that has done more for foster children that are abused and neglected than this man here.”

Until Next Saturday …

Trump closed the rally with his standard mantra: “Together, we will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again.”

“We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again, and most importantly, and without question, we will make America great again.”

Trump’s next Georgia rally will take place in Macon on Saturday, Oct. 24.

Following days of riots, violence, arson, buildings destroyed and mass looting, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a national address to the people of France.  Remarkably, in the beginning of his remarks Macron says no one in the French government understands what is happening, but he is demanding an investigation. A few paragraphs into the prepared […]

The post During National Address to France President Macron Says He “Doesn’t Know What is Going On” but He’s Sure President Trump is to Blame appeared first on The Last Refuge.

ATLANTA–Several election equipment vendors made their pitch to committee members Thursday morning at the State Capitol as to why they are the best fit to guide the Peach State’s next voting system.

The committee consists of two co-chairs, state Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, and state Rep. Victor Anderson, R-Cornelia.

Voting Works Seeks to Win Over Committee Members

After some introductory comments and state Sen. Bo Hatchett’s prayer, the first vendor to present, Voting Works, sought to win over the committee members and implement its products in all of Georgia’s counties.

Emphasizing the need to ensure election integrity, Ben Adida, executive director for the organization, said, “We’re here to focus on the mission of trustworthy elections before the profit.”

Adida boasted of the company’s VVSG (Voluntary Voting System Guidelines) 2.0 certification, something that sets it ahead in the election industry.

According to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), these guidelines “are a set of specifications and requirements against which voting systems can be tested to determine if they meet required standards.” The 2.0 VVSG standard was accepted by Election Assistance Commission commissioners in February of 2021.

Adida continued to say, “The biggest change that the people of Georgia have asked for, and that you are asking us to consider is the move to hand-marked paper ballots with ballot-on-demand printing at the point of voting.”

Adida highlighted the significant change to hand-marked paper ballots for voters, saying, “Almost all of them [voters] in 2028 will vote by hand-marking a ballot.”

Speaking on expectations for the next voting system, he continued to say, “You have the opportunity in Georgia, as you push for more election transparency, to require that your next voting system by fully open-source, disclosed source-code to the public.”

Adida’s recommendations boiled down to “VVSG 2.0 certification, independent evaluators for security, robustness, and readiness for Georgia, testing with your local county officials, commercial off-the-shelf reports from vendors [and] open source so you can lead the way in transparency of your future voting system.”

Liberty Vote and KNOWiNK Make Their Pitch …

The next vendors to make their pitch were Liberty Vote and KNOWiNK. Liberty Vote bought out its predecessor, Dominion Voting Systems, following the controversies that surfaced surrounding the 2020 presidential election results.

Scott Leiendecker, founder and CEO of KNOWiNK and owner of Liberty Vote, spoke earlier in the conversation, highlighting that they were the first company to bring about “the first federally-certified electronic poll book in the United States.”

The “poll pad itself is in 31 states,” Trisha Bandstra, vice president of sales at KNOWiNK, said.

She also highlighted the strong security of the system. “We’ve never had a cradle point in a polling location or had any sort of internet connectivity to be able to print ballots,” Bandstra said. “The number one reason being is because of security.”

Blake Luna, director of product strategy at KNOWiNK, also highlighted a feature that allows for “a running log of every print that occurs. [This] allows us to be able to go back and look at every single print that occurred directly on this device.”

Liberty Vote presented next, and Bryan Hoffman, vice president of sales for the company, spoke about their new platform. “It’s called Frontier,” Hoffman said. “It’s the newest election system designed by Liberty Vote, and it’s built around the desire to have paper ballots for all voters, and it will fully meet the VVSG 2.0 standards.”

Later in the presentation, Robert “Bob” Giles, vice president of certification and compliance, spoke about the current VVSG certification that the equipment has. He noted the current certification level of the “Democracy Suite 55-A system…[that has been] certified to VVSG 1.1, and it incorporates functionality aligned with VVSG 2.0 requirements.”

He also added, “Our Liberty Vote VVSG 2.0 system, Frontier 1.0 now is in for [Election Assistance Commission] certification testing and is expected to be certified in December of this year, with deployments following shortly thereafter.”

Clear Ballot Makes Software Boasts and More

The next vendor that sought to win over the committee members was Clear Ballot.

Helen Michaud, vice president of product, noted that “it is currently in certification [and] is being tested to VVSG 2.0 standards.”

Michaud boasted of the company being “born in the age of the hand-marked ballot. So, we have always been built around the full-face paper ballot.”

Following the company’s presentation, Burns raised the question of software updates. He said, “How do you anticipate updates, and what would be the timeframe for that and the potential investment by the state of Georgia?”

Jay Bollenbacher, vice president of professional services for the company, answered, “Everything would come with the most current software. We would want to load that in state, verify it, have it verified by the state and then deployed out to the jurisdiction. But when it comes down to updates, counties can certainly do that on their own.”

“We don’t hold the keys to that.”

Last but Not Least, Civera …

After Adam Friedman, Civera founder and CEO of the organization, focused “on the core substance of your election infrastructure, all the hardware, [and] the election management,” he noted, “there’s this neglected, last mile of the process, which is public reporting and engagement.”

“That gap has been a key driver in the political, cultural meltdown that we’ve experienced in this country.”

After Friedman explained some of the different products Civera offers, such as Ballot Verifier and Election Stats, Burns asked about the difference between Ballot Verifier and what the Secretary of State’s Office does, which provides “ballot images available publicly so than an individual could access those and look at any contest, but they would have to manually go through that.”

Friedman replied, “What the state’s doing now is effectively a file drop. Our view takes that data and actually presents it in a way that’s usable. We’ve already done that work for your voters.”

“We’re presenting those ballots next to their cast vote record and connecting it to the contest results above.”

The Future of Georgia’s Election System

At the end of the presentations, Anderson made clear to reporters that they’re not concerned with specific vendors. “We’re looking at features, benefits, [and] we’re looking at things that we’ve got to consider for a recommendation for specifications.”

He went further and clarified that “The actual selection of what system Georgia will go to, that’s the next step in this process.”

Later in the conversation, Burns told reporters that this process is important because “11 million Georgians depend on it, 7 million voters. We’re in the middle of early voting right now.”

The committee will reconvene on Thursday, Oct. 29, at the State Capitol for its next meeting.