A sign sits in Fountain Square asking Ohioans to vote in support of Issue 1 during an event hosted by Created Equal on Thursday, July 20, 2023, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (AP Photo/Patrick Orsagos)
  1. Montana AG baselessly alleges Planned Parenthood is involved in human trafficking

During an appearance on a conservative radio station, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) baselessly theorized that Planned Parenthood locations in his state are purposefully not reporting human trafficking.

“I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this could be happening with human trafficking victims, but I will say candidly that’s just not an area we’ve [the attorney general’s office] got the bandwidth to get into,” Knudsen said.

There is no evidence to suggest Planned Parenthood is trafficking humans.

Knudsen formerly served as Montana’s Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. Voters elected him attorney general in 2020, with him defeating Ralph Graybill (D) with 58.5% percent of the vote.

  1. Darren Bailey’s Second Amendment pledge

On the heels of the Illinois Supreme Court upholding an assault weapons ban, former Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey made a Facebook Live post from his house, where he said he would “die on this front porch before I give up any of my Second Amendment freedoms.”

Bailey ran against and lost to Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) in the Illinois gubernatorial election last November. Pritzker then signed the assault weapons ban into law in January. Despite the fact that firearms are the number one cause of death in American children and mass shootings are happening at a record pace in the United States, Bailey and other Republicans continue to stand firmer with gun rights than human lives.

  1. Nikki Haley proposes raising the retirement age

After a relatively good performance during the Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley immediately made an appearance on Bloomberg News to propose controversial retirement policies.

When asked what she would do to combat high government spending, Haley said she supports raising the age of retirement, saying, “65 is way too low.”

The retirement age is already higher than 65, according the United States Social Security Administration. Haley also falsely claimed that Social Security will “go bankrupt” in ten years and insinuated she wants to cut the popular program for younger generations because “the rules have changed.”

  1. Ohio Issue 1 fails

On Aug. 8, Ohio held a special election on a ballot initiative called Issue 1, which voters largely  struck down by a margin of 57% to 43%. Had the measure passed, Issue 1 would have raised the threshold of passage for future ballot measures from 50% to 60%. This is a strategy deployed by Republicans to circumvent the will of voters to institute minority rule and keep Democratic policies off the books. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who made himself the face of Issue 1 with the goal of blocking future reproductive rights initiatives, said the quiet part out loud during a GOP event.

Despite winning reelection in November, LaRose is running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2024, making his Issue 1 blunder the first major blow to his campaign. LaRose’s opponent Bernie Moreno has already publicly criticized LaRose for Issue 1’s failure and his potential misuse of campaign funds. The measure’s failure will likely become a sticking point for the rest of the campaign.

  1. Tennessee fails to pass meaningful gun reform

In early August, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) called a special session of the state legislature and proposed legislation to address public safety. At the time, Democrats in the state criticized Lee’s package of bills for not doing enough to address the mass shooting problem, but Republicans did not even look at Lee’s proposal. The session came after three children and three adults were shot dead at Covenant Elementary School in Nashville in March.

Mothers of Covenant schoolchildren and hundreds of gun reform advocates descended on the Tennessee capitol in Nashville to protest during the special session. But the Republican-dominated Legislature proceeded to censure Democrats through a controversial set of rules that allowed the Speaker of the House to silence representatives for the day as he sees fit. They also were only able to pass a handful of amendments to state programs that already exist.

State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) called for a vote of no confidence in House Speaker Cameron Sexton on Tuesday, but the Republicans promptly ended the session soon after, to the dismay of protesters and Democrats alike. Jones has been a staunch advocate for gun reform to the point he and his colleague state Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) were expelled from the legislature after protesting on the House floor. Both men won special elections and earned their reinstatement earlier this month.

Immediately after the session, Sexton and Pearson almost got into a physical altercation on the House floor after the former accidentally pushed into the latter while the Democrat held a sign above and behind the speaker.

The Tennessee GOP is clearly unwilling to even consider slight adjustments to gun laws in the state, despite the public demand for action.