Jim Antle, the magazine’s executive editor, brings to life the pages of the Washington Examiner magazine in the show Inside Scoop. Each episode features exclusive insight from the article authors and expert analysis.
Antle asked, ‘Can Democrats find religion?’ This week on Inside Scoop, Antle discusses how Democrats are taking advantage of tensions between President Donald Trump and the pope over America’s handling of the Iran war.
He highlights Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, a liberal Presbyterian seminarian, as a possible draw. However, Talarico’s views on abortion and transgenderism may alienate some voters.
“Do evangelical Christian voters want to hear that God is nonbinary, or that abortion rights are somehow divinely ordained? Possibly not,” Antle said. “In the past, when Democrats have nominated people who indulge in right-coded behaviors but are still pretty liberal, like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in 2024, it doesn’t really work out so well.”
The pope’s criticism of Trump and his meeting with Democratic strategist David Axelrod raise questions about the pope’s political neutrality and its effect on the midterm elections.
“Republicans are going to need to try to keep conservative Catholics and conservative evangelicals together to have any hope of defying the odds in the midterm elections.”
Antle then sits down with Washington Examiner’s commentary editor, Conn Carroll, to discuss the magazine’s cover story on how public-sector unions are making blue states ungovernable.
“It just makes these states unaccountable in that these same agreements often set policy on class sizes, or on police disciplinary measures,” Carroll said. “When you do have someone who might run on a campaign of, ‘Hey, we want real change,’ they come into office, and then they can’t do anything, because all those policies are already locked in stone by these collective bargaining agreements.”
Carroll points out that states such as Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Idaho have made progress by reducing government union membership. However, states still burdened by these agreements struggle with economic growth and population retention, with New York, Illinois, and California losing residents to states such as Texas and Florida.
“No one’s leaving LA because of bad weather, right?” Carroll said. “It’s clearly because they’re exercising voice. They’re getting out of a badly managed situation.”
Virginia, and Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) specifically, are dominating the news cycle lately. The Washington Examiner takes an in-depth look at how Spanberger tossed affordability out the window, along with her popularity.
Spanberger ran on making life more affordable in Virginia, but now she is working with Democratic lawmakers in the General Assembly to introduce more than 50 new proposed tax hikes. More than half of business owners believe these taxes will hamper their company’s ability to grow.
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington, told the Washington Examiner there are some benefits being passed as well, and the higher taxes are needed to fund these.
“While businesses are concerned about some of the challenges that may be part of higher taxes that they may be facing,” Farnsworth said. “They’re also going to be some tax benefits and tax breaks for people in other positions. It’s going to be easier, for example, to build a house in Virginia.”
Democrats have defended the proposed hikes, branding them as measures to make the rich “pay their fair share” of taxes. Farnsworth acknowledged that any tax increase is a red flag for business owners.
“When you think about tax increases, that’s a potential problem that may stymie or limit the potential growth,” Farnsworth said. “If you create an environment that increases taxes to a significant degree, businesses reconsider what they’re doing.”
Farnsworth said he is most interested in seeing Spanberger’s final budget.
“When we’re looking at Virginia politics right now, I think we have to give the legislative session and the governor an incomplete,” Farnsworth said. “There isn’t a budget yet, and until there’s a budget, we don’t really know the key questions of the priorities for Virginia going forward.”
INSIDE SCOOP: DEMOCRATIC PARTY PROBLEMS, GOP ROAD TO 2028, AND DC CRIME COVER-UP
Virginia has until July 1 to pass the budget for the next fiscal year.
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