Good morning. I’m John Byrne, in for Thom Hartmann. Before the news, help us get these stories in front of the most people by tapping the ❤️ and restacking this edition. Those two clicks help more than you know.
Vice President JD Vance is now considering skipping out on the 2028 presidential election after Republicans’ historic losses in last week’s midterms. GOP members of Congress are still more afraid of Donald Trump than they are of their own constituents. In rural Kansas, Hispanic communities are now demanding accountability for ICE in the wake of traumatizing raids. And Florida Republicans’ anti-DEI law is backfiring after residents learned that a beloved St. Patrick’s Day parade that’s been running since 1968 has been cancelled.
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JD Vance Considers Skipping Out on 2028 Election
Before the midterms, Vice President JD Vance was considered the clear favorite for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination just a few months ago. But after the GOP’s humiliating losses last week, roughly a dozen Vance allies and advisors are telling CNN he may not run at all.
One source close to Vance told the network the 42 year-old vice president is “young enough that he can have a comeback should this environment make success impossible,” but that 2028 “just may not be his time.”
Vance made headlines the morning after the midterms by writing a 617-word post on his official X account blaming the midterms on the Iran war, adding that “everyone knows” the Iran war was the deciding factor in demoralizing Republican voters.
That apparently didn’t go over well with Trump. CNN’s sources said the president was privately furious with Vance for refusing to defend his attack on Iran. Trump announced this week that he was immediately pulling Vance off of all Iran talks and in order to focus on his anti-fraud campaign. And when 60 Minutes’ Ross Douthat asked the president if he would make an endorsement in the 2028 primary, Trump was noncommittal, saying: “Probably, not necessarily.”
Even MAGA pollster Rich Baris declared after the election that “MAGA is dead” and that the GOP has “completely lost credibility” with the voters who made up Trump’s 2024 coalition.
Vance doesn’t exactly have history on his side, either. Prior to George H.W. Bush winning the 1988 election, no sitting vice president had ever been elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp are already maneuvering to run in 2028.
Republicans Admit They Let Voters Down, But Refuse to Break with Trump
Republicans returned to Capitol Hill this week in a daze after Democrats flipped more than 40 Republican-held seats in the House of Representatives and as many as nine seats in the Senate (Alaska’s Senate race has yet to be called) and will take control of both chambers on January 3.
Republican Congressman Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who led the House GOP’s campaign arm, admitted to the Associated Press that voters punished the party in power, feeling that they couldn’t be trusted to bring down the high cost of living . Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri didn’t hold back, saying that his party made a choice to abandon low-income working people and take an axe to rural health care. He added that his party deserved to get their “butt kicked” for those decisions.
Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado — who lost her race this week to a Democrat in Colorado’s reddest district — stated that Republican “collectively failed.” But House Speaker Mike Johnson, who decided not to run for GOP leadership in the next Congress, struck a more defiant tone, insisting that voters made the “wrong choice.”
Despite Tuesday’s apocalyptic results for Republicans, it doesn’t appear that Trump’s grip on the GOP has loosened. House Republicans elected Freedom Caucus co-founder Jim Jordan of Ohio to be the new minority leader, and they overwhelmingly voted to shut down Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie’s effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week. Massie was the lone Republican to vote for impeachment.
After the vote, Massie lamented that his colleagues “still haven’t broken from the spell of Donald Trump,” and that Trump clearly “still controls this conference.”
However, there are some cracks finally starting to show among the MAGA faithful. There weren’t many Republicans who defended Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud in the midterms, and Kentucky Republican James Comer — the current chair of the House Oversight Committee — made it clear he disagreed with the White House’s assertion that Democratic investigations could be a criminal act. He said Congress should always play a role in checking the executive branch. Though it may have helped if someone told Comer that in 2025.
Rural Kansas Residents Demand Accountability for ICE
Out in southwest Kansas, the midterms carried a very personal message. In late September, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents swept through the towns of Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal, detaining a total of 104 people. That region is regarded as the Golden Triangle of Beef, and its meatpacking plants are staffed largely by immigrant workers.
Nick Hernandez, who is the first Hispanic city manager of Dodge City, said local officials didn’t even know about the operation until they saw it on social media. Even incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall — who is a stalwart defender of Trump’s ICE crackdowns — complained that local police didn’t get any advance notice of the raid, and that the mass arrests caused significant disruptions for the local economy.
Karla Flores and her husband Alfredo Arrieta were stopped by federal agents while driving to Walmart. After five weeks in ICE custody, they were deported to Mexico. Their 17-year-old son is now staying with his uncle. Arrieta told Reuters that his kids went to school one morning and were then told just a few hours later that both of their parents weren’t there anymore.
On November 3, Kansans voted in droves to elect Democrat Adam Hamilton to replace Marshall. Hamilton, who is a pastor, became the first Democrat Kansas elected to the U.S. Senate since 1932. Reuters and USA Today reported that the three counties hit hardest by the ICE raids broke for Hamilton by more than 20 points on average in comparison to Trump’s numbers in 2024.
Local organizer Amy Soberanes said she has personally never seen a community so fired up to vote. Now, she said residents want people to be held accountable for what happened in their community.
Tell Democrats: Abolish ICE!
Republicans’ Anti-DEI Crusade Backfires After St. Patrick’s Day Parade Cancelled
Our final story this morning: Florida Republicans’ culture war has now managed to anger even white residents. The city of Delray Beach announced this week it won’t host its St. Patrick’s Day parade or its Pride event in 2027, and pinned the blame squarely on Senate Bill 1134, which is the law Ron DeSantis signed in April that targeted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
Starting January 1 of 2027, the law officially bars all cities and counties across Florida from funding, promoting or taking official action on anything linked to DEI. Delray Beach said for the city, that includes all official programming tied to ethnicity, including Irish heritage events like St. Patrick’s Day. Officials who break the rules could be criminally charged under the law, and residents can file lawsuits.
All this means that a day of celebrating Irish heritage that began almost 60 years ago is now being cruelly dismissed as identity politics. This is also a unique reminder that in 19th century America, Irish immigrants were often denied jobs by companies who made it clear they weren’t welcome.
Local residents are infuriated. One resident wrote a post on the city’s official Facebook page asking how they could fight back, defending the parade as one of the most fun days of the entire year. Others online pointed out the blunt irony of people supporting anti-DEI laws until those same laws cancelled their favorite holiday.
Mayor Tom Carney — whose office is nonpartisan — says the city is currently seeking outside help to navigate the new law. City Manager Terrence Moore believes a private sponsor could help revive the parade, though nothing’s been confirmed.
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I’m John Byrne, in for Thom Hartmann. Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting independent news. If you haven’t already, please click the ❤️ and tap the restack button so we can make sure these stories get in front of the people who really need them.
They are starting to realize that they have destroyed their political careers. Once you sell your soul you don’t get it back.
Vance is not presidential quality material. Forget about it JD especially since you highest talking point is that your wife & children are “brown…”