Politics

The women who could make or break MAGA

Published

4 months ago

June 7, 2026

Among the sweeping tent of President Donald Trump’s winning coalition in 2024, there’s a niche that’s often overlooked despite the potency of its role in the burgeoning young right: conservative women.

It’s these women, like Christian conservative influencer Savanna Faith Stone, who say “we’re not really identifying with the MAGA party anymore.”

“Promises that were made have not been delivered on at all, and I think young women are realizing that,” Stone said in an interview with Blue Light News. “They’re realizing, ‘Hey, you promised lower gas prices. You promised the economy would be better. Like, that’s why we voted for you.’”

Stone, who turns 21 this week, is one of a flurry of influencers who flocked to San Antonio this weekend, young families in tow, to gather under a bevy of bright pink lights at Turning Point USA’s Women’s Leadership Summit. It’s the biggest gathering of its kind for the young female right — a space for a collective disdain for “woke” culture, a love for God and kinship under the theme of “faith, family and freedom.”

But bubbling under the surface are divisions within the GOP that have enveloped the online voices of the young right and a budding disillusionment among young women with the politics of the second Trump administration. It’s all part of a growing divide between being “MAGA” in 2026 and being “America First.”

Trump is “not America first,” Stone said. She voted for a president who promised no new wars, who was pro-family and would bring down costs. “It’s harder than ever for a young couple to be able to buy a home,” she added.

Young women moved from 33 percent for Trump in 2020 to 40 percent in 2024, while recent polling has shown the partisan gender divide is more stark than ever. Now less than six months out from the midterms, the young female right’s biggest voices are warning women could sit out the midterm elections.

“I cannot express to you the level of alarm bells that should be ringing for the GOP,” as women consider not voting, conservative influencer Alex Clark told Blue Light News, adding that young women are looking at everything from the ongoing war in Iran to the persistence of pesticides and it’s breaking their trust.

Clark is a Turning Point darling, a 33 year-old podcaster with half a million followers who grew under the tutelage of the late Charlie Kirk. She’s built a MAHA-focused health and wellness platform that she calls an “unaggressive way to share conservative ideals” with a loyal following. (“You’re trailing my show!” she recalled Kirk telling her in 2024. “Yeah, you better watch out!” she responded.)

She hasn’t shied away from sharing her criticism of the administration. “I straight up told [the White House], ‘People want ‘fight, fight, fight Trump.’ They don’t want ‘ballroom Trump,’’” Clark said. “I feel like some of the magic and the spark that helped us win 2024 is missing.”

Voices like Isabel Brown or Riley Gaines have become emblems of the Turning Point faction of Gen-Z and millennials.

Along with other voices like Isabel Brown or Riley Gaines, they’ve become emblems of the Turning Point faction of Gen-Z and millennials. They believe women’s biology will push them to follow strong men — part of what they credit for some young women’s embrace of the GOP in 2024 as the party penetrated the manosphere. Stone drew controversy for saying voting should be one vote per household. Clark told Blue Light News she doesn’t think a woman should be president.

But the universe of female influencers is vast and oftentimes at odds. Raquel DeBono, the self-proclaimed NYC conservative of “Make America Hot Again” fame, said in an interview that she “would not be caught dead” at Turning Point’s summit and rejects the rigidity of the online faction that has cast out figures like Megyn Kelly. “If you want to let women into the tent and you want more women to vote conservative, you need to be less cringe and horrible,” DeBono said.

And then there’s influencers like Emily Wilson, of “Emily Saves America,” and Priya Patel, conservatives living in West Hollywood who embrace traditional values but often find an audience in women who don’t. “I read my Bible. I want to get married young. I’m saving myself for marriage,” Patel said. But the pair who co-host “Pretty Political” have followers that are “girls that do Only Fans, makeup artists, graffiti artists” who all “love America,” Wilson said.

Whether city conservatives or Turning Point young moms, they agree on key issues — including around foreign policy or accountability for the Jeffrey Epstein files — that they say are diverting them from MAGA or the White House. And with young voters already a turnout challenge in midterm years, they’re all concerned many young conservative women simply won’t show up come November.

The White House, in response to a request for comment, touted the “most pro-woman agenda in American history” — pointing to women’s sports, decreasing violent crime, expanding the child tax credit and cutting food dyes, as well as “creating the most renter-friendly market we’ve seen in years,” in a statement from spokesperson Anna Kelly.

The administration, Kelly says, has “achieved win after win on issues women care about most — and we’re just getting started. The MAGA coalition is stronger than ever, and women continue to play a powerful role in the movement.”

But GOP women politicians know it’s “100,000 percent” a problem. “It’s something that I have spoken to the White House about, ” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) — who co-chairs the Republican Women’s Caucus — said in an interview. She added the GOP has to be “laser focused” on delivering on affordability, “and if we don’t, we’re failing at earning their trust and support in the election.”

And the Republican Party made the mistake before of not messaging directly to women, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Blue Light News. “Women want a lot of those same things. We want safe neighborhoods. We want the opportunity to make decisions about how we raise our families,” she said.

Yet there’s skepticism about whether the GOP will take these concerns seriously, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former congresswoman who appeared with Turning Point more than once, texted. “I think about all the single mothers and women out there trying to make it, and it is extremely difficult, with inflation continuing to rise and overall cost of living continuing to rise,” she said. She also called Trump’s tone and language “a major turn off to women.”

These young conservative women — some clad in florals, others still donning their ruby-red Trump hats — don’t regret their vote, and many expressed a desire for the administration to succeed.

But any future for the growth of the budding female right has a bridge of trust to re-build.

“After Trump in 2028, if we want to see this energy continue that we had in 2015 and 2024, if we want that to have any sort of life after 2028 — it has to become an America First movement,” Clark told Playbook. “That is the cry of the base right now.”

Politics

Poll: Voters see Republicans as the party of Big Tech tax breaks

Published

37 minutes ago

October 20, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Americans are fed up with data centers and Big Tech, and Republicans are poised to take more of the political blame in the Nov. 3 midterms.

The Blue Light News Poll found last week that Americans were far more likely to associate the GOP with giving tax incentives to tech companies at a time when the public’s concerns about artificial intelligence and data center sprawl are only deepening.

Nearly half of respondents — 47% — called Republicans the party of tech tax breaks, more than double the 21% who said the same for Democrats.

Voters are also far more likely to want candidates who propose stripping away tax incentives for the data centers needed to fuel the AI boom, according to the new poll, conducted by PF Global.

About a fifth of respondents said that ending those tax breaks would be among their most important tax issues in the midterms, while only 1 in 10 wanted to offer new preferences for data centers.

The top tax priorities for voters, according to the poll, are hiking taxes on billionaires and curbing breaks for big companies.

The findings come as lawmakers in both parties have scrambled to respond to the growing voter concerns over AI and data centers — and as Americans increasingly associate Silicon Valley titans with the Republican Party.

But in both Democratic and Republican-led states alike, governors have sought to put new limits on tax incentives that were already approved for data centers.

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) rolled out a proposal last week that would take that a step further by imposing a 100% tax on any state or local incentive offered to AI data centers.

But it’s Democrats who have gone more on the offensive about the issue.

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, for instance, has made data center incentives a key issue as he tries to unseat Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), a former state lawmaker and lieutenant governor.

“Jon Husted’s ‘deals’ gave wealthy tech companies a windfall and left Ohioans footing the bill,” Brown recently posted on social media.

Democrats have specifically homed in on Meta, which has cut its tax liability in recent years by billions of dollars as it builds out its AI products. And they have sought to tie expanded tax breaks approved by Republicans in last year’s megabill to the increase in data center construction.

The GOP enacted incentives for companies in a broad array of industries as part of the 2025 tax cuts. But Big Tech has found those tax breaks particularly useful, helping to drive a big decrease in corporate tax payments as AI spending keeps trending upward.

Meanwhile, Democrats with 2028 ambitions have floated new taxes on AI companies, while Democratic lawmakers have teed up legislation that would keep data centers from taking advantage of incentives like Opportunity Zones and bonus depreciation, both of which Republicans expanded in 2025.

In fact, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) recently gave last year’s megabill another new name in a recent debate with his opponent, Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.).

“I want to know if you will commit to voting to repeal that data center tax scam that you voted for,” Ossoff said.

It’s not clear how much the current anti-AI energy will lead to new legislative limits in the coming months. But the new poll found Americans have a real fear of the unknown with artificial intelligence.

A majority of respondents said that tech chief executives had been secretive about the potential risks of AI, while a plurality of Americans believe both that the risks of artificial intelligence development outweigh the benefits and that the government should strictly regulate the emerging technology.

Politics

Two Dans, four choices, one big headache for GOP in Alaska Senate race

Published

3 hours ago

October 20, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

ANCHORAGE — Alaska Republicans have railed for years against ranked-choice voting. Now some worry it could cost them in a critical Senate race.

GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan is facing not only well-known former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in the four-way general-election field, but a same-name challenger who Republicans think could siphon votes from him in the close contest.

Some GOP operatives fear the senator will lose first-choice votes to retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan Jr. — and that supporters of his longshot rival might not rank the incumbent at all in the state’s unusual election system where voters can pick backup options that get counted if no candidate clears 50% of the initial vote. Two recent polls that simulated ranked-choice tabulations showed Peltola as the victor.

Art Hackney, a Sullivan ally who runs a super PAC boosting the senator, said Dan J. Sullivan is “going to get a percent of the vote” and warned it could be “potentially” be “significant in terms of impacting” the result of the race.

“Sullivan can win … but it makes it a heck of a lot harder,” added a Republican operative working on other Alaska races. “It’s what the race is going to come down to: If he loses, it’ll for sure be because of that. And if he wins, it’ll be in spite of that.”

Republicans have for years bemoaned the system that allows voters to rank their preference and eliminates candidates until one reaches a majority as “costly” and “confusing,” and argue it has undercut their party. Top Republicans like outgoing GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy and President Donald Trump have urged voters to repeal the system via a ballot measure this fall after a previous effort failed two years ago.

“Even if he gets a percent or 2% or 3% percent with the phony ranked choice stuff, you never know what they’re going to do with it,” Trump said of Dan J. Sullivan in a rally in Wasilla last week, adding that it “could be the difference.”

It’s happened before: Peltola benefitted in her House win from a split GOP field, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) warded off a Trump-backed challenger in 2022 partly because of ranked-choice voting. Alaska Republicans are also fretting about the governor’s race this year, where three GOP candidates are competing, urging voters to “rank the red.”

Dan J. Sullivan, Heikes and Peltola’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

The similarly named Sullivans are separated on the ballot by their middle initials and party affiliation (the incumbent is listed as a Republican, the challenger without a party).

But the senator and his allies aren’t taking any chances.

They’re employing several of the tactics Murkowski used during her successful 2010 write-in campaign, including giving out rubber wristbands branded with the senator’s name and party affiliation, and airing a radio jingle with the NRSC.

“Dan S. is your No. 1,” the jingle goes. “If he’s not, rank him second, don’t throw your vote away. Dan S., Daniel, Gerry — just don’t rank Mary.”

“Dan S. Sullivan has two opponents in this race: Democrat Mary Peltola, and the ranked choice system she and her allies have deceptively manipulated to her advantage,” said Nate Adams, a spokesperson for the senator. “But our campaign is confident that Alaskans aren’t confused. They know the real Dan, and we’re making sure every voter can find him: ballot facsimiles on every mailer, voters reached at the door and on the phone, and even a jingle.”

Those pushing to keep ranked-choice voting in Alaska argue the system helps mitigate the so-called spoiler effect. The group behind this year’s repeal measure said in an email that it’s a nonpartisan effort focused solely on eliminating the system.

Outside GOP groups boosting Sullivan like Americans for Prosperity Action and Club for Growth Action have been urging voters at doors and via mailers to rank the incumbent first, a slightly different approach than Sullivan’s campaign. “Make Republican Incumbent DAN S. SULLIVAN your 1ST CHOICE and ONLY CHOICE,” read one Club for Growth Action mailer seen by Blue Light News, a slightly different approach than Sullivan’s campaign.

“In a tight election, it doesn’t take a ton of people to get confused to possibly change the trajectory and the outcome,” said Kevin Greene, senior adviser for AFP Action in Alaska.

A version of this article first appeared in Blue Light News Pro’s Morning Score. Want to receive the newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to Blue Light News Pro.