December 13, 2024

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

North Carolina is Home to a Massively Diverse MAGA Realignment 

By Bill Wilson

President Donald Trump won North Carolina this year by 3.2 percentage points after winning the state by a narrow 1.3 points in 2020, with the help of a highly diverse coalition of voters. 

North Carolina is on track to become one of the most diverse coalitions of President Trump’s working-class alliance, with the president making strong gains among Black men, Latino women, young people, and independents.     

According to CNN exit poll data, Black men more than doubled their support for President Trump, shifting twelve points to the right this year. Eight percent of Black men supported Trump in 2020, but that number rose to 20 percent of Black men this year. That is one out of every five.

One of Trump’s largest gains in Black support came from Anson County, which is nearly half Black. A historically Democrat County, Anson has not supported a Republican candidate since Richard Nixon won it in 1972. Trump flipped the county this year, winning Anson by three points after Biden won it by four points in 2020.

The Latino vote in North Carolina also hints at a stronger and more diverse working-class coalition of Trump supporters. Nearly two-thirds of Latino men (62 percent) supported Trump this year, up slightly from 59 percent in 2020. The real shift occurred among Latino women, who shifted a startling 16 points toward Trump, from 22 percent to 38 percent.  

Minority voters, particularly those without a college education, are rapidly becoming new Republican voters. Nationwide, Democrats lost eight points with non-college minorities between 2020 and 2024 and exit poll data shows non-college minorities shifted seven points toward Trump in North Carolina.

North Carolina’s youngest voters also played a crucial role in Trump’s increased margins, with voters 18–24 supporting Trump over Harris by two points this year, 50 percent to 48 percent, after supporting Biden by twelve points in 2020. This works out to a seven-point gain for Trump among young North Carolina voters.  

Trump also gained eight points among voters 25–29, going from 36 percent of their vote in 2020 to 44 percent last month. What is also interesting here is that despite Trump gaining among both groups, he outright won 18–24-year-olds by two points, but still lost 25–29-year-olds to Biden. There is increasing evidence that Gen Z voters are more conservative than those a few years older in many states, including North Carolina.

Trump also gained five points with independents in North Carolina, going from losing them to Biden 46 percent to 50 percent in 2020 to winning independents 51 percent to 47 percent this year.  

Trump’s inroads in North Carolina among young people and minorities are part of a larger nationwide trend of working-class voters aligning behind the president’s America First message. As we pointed out recently, Harris lost eight points among minorities without a college education this year compared to how Biden performed, and she lost eleven points among young people. Democrats have largely lost the working-class through their political antics, and even the next generation of young voters is deserting them. North Carolina is on track to become ground zero for the new MAGA alignment.   

Bill Wilson is the former president of Americans for Limited Government.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2024/12/north-carolina-is-home-to-a-massively-diverse-maga-realignment/

Speaker Johnson May Start Trump Healthcare Agenda in End-of-Year Spending Package

By Rick Manning

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said the spending bill to clear the decks for the incoming Trump administration and keep the U.S. government operating is almost done. He expects the bill text to be released over the weekend. It could include a critical part of President-elect Donald Trump’s healthcare agenda: cracking down on Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) middlemen who drive up drug prices for seniors.

One of the biggest reasons for high prescription prices is Big Insurance PBMs. Three giant PBM middlemen—CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx—control about 80 percent of the entire PBM market and administer drug benefits for over 270 million Americans.

PBMs inflate their profits by pushing more expensive medicines when designing formularies and the list of drugs available to their customers. By setting favorable prices and cost-sharing amounts, PBMs practically dictate the amount patients pay out of pocket and which medicines they can access. If a drug isn’t on the formulary, insurers won’t cover it; and often, doctors won’t prescribe it even if the patient needs it.

Kevin Duane, a pharmacist from Jacksonville, Florida, recently told the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, “Patients and their doctors have virtually no say in what drugs are used, since the PBM essentially forces which drugs can be used – not because a drug is better or worse, but because the PBM can make more money from it.”

Essentially, PBMs are incentivized to prescribe more expensive medicines. It’s a broken system that Trump started to fix before. In 2020, Trump introduced a policy allowing seniors to directly benefit from rebates that drug manufacturers pay to PBMs for preferential placement on insurers’ drug formularies. These rebates were intended to reduce the cost of expensive medications for seniors. Trump presented a detailed plan to deliver these savings to seniors, potentially saving them billions of dollars.

“So, the patients are going to be now getting the benefit, instead of these very wealthy individuals,” Trump said at the time. “Today’s action ends this injustice and requires that these discounts go directly to the people. These are the people that need it.”

Unfortunately, Joe Biden repealed the Trump drug rebate rule with the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, preventing those seniors most at risk from getting the savings they needed.

President Trump and his healthcare team will undoubtedly bring back the Trump Rebate Rule and massive savings for seniors. In the meantime, Speaker Johnson and Trump’s allies in Congress can get a head start on Trump’s healthcare agenda.

Recently, over 20 conservative groups encouraged Congress to pass The Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability Act (S. 2973). The bill would reset the money-making incentives to benefit patients by delinking PBM fees from the price of medicine. Breaking the link between the price of drugs and the fees PBMs charge will help to fix incentives in the system that drive up seniors’ drug costs and PBM profits.

Congress can add this to its final bill of the year and pass it next week. Fix a corrupt system. Deliver savings to America’s seniors. It would be a great start to Trump’s healthcare agenda.

Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.

To view online: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/12/13/speaker-johnson-may-start-trump-healthcare-agenda-in-end-of-year-spending-package/

ALG Praises Senate For Blocking NLRB Power Grab

Dec. 12, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising the U.S. Senate for blocking the confirmation of Lauren McFerran to chair the National Labor Relations Board:

“The U.S. Senate blocking Lauren McFerran to chair the National Labor Relations Board is a major victory for President-elect Donald Trump, and stymied an end of presidency power play to keep Democrat control over the board by President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the lame duck session. We look forward President Trump’s choice to chair the NLRB and thank the Senate for respecting the will of the American people.”

To view online: https://getliberty.org/2024/12/alg-praises-senate-for-blocking-nlrb-power-grab/