The Daily Signal - Steve Cortes: America Has a Muslim Immigration Problem

Episode Date: October 3, 2026

Steve Cortes warns that the United States could repeat Europe’s experience with mass Muslim immigration, pointing to Dearborn, Michigan, and arguing that assimilation and shared American values should play a larger role in immigration policy. He also discusses what he found while reporting in Michigan, Maine and Wisconsin and how immigration could shape major races in the midterms. Don Palmer also breaks down The Heritage Foundation’s latest Election Integrity Scorecard, including which states have strengthened their election systems and why some states could once again take days or weeks to finalize results.  Steve Cortes’s New Documentary:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOsPelIDx5g Cortes Investigates Website:  https://www.cortesinvestigates.com/ The Heritage Foundations Election Integrity Scorecard: https://electionscorecard.heritage.org/ NEW FILM by the Heritage Foundation: “Preventable: The System That Failed My Daughter.” Available now.   https://youtu.be/HxiwOSSRT6s?si=r9k6BFD-iMmvnvpn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility, Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. So this sort of quintessential industrial American town has been overtaken by mass Muslim migration. There's really de facto Sharia law in these towns. A lot of Americans will be shocked by that. A lot of Michigan citizens are more aware of it.

And so when I poll this issue and I asked them, is there too much Muslim mass migration? By six to one margins, six to one, Rob, they say too much. Muslim mass migration. Welcome back. We are joined now on midterm report by Steve Cortez, a daily signal contributor. He's done some outstanding work for us and does great work for a number of other organization,

including the League of American Voters. Steve, how are you doing today? Hey, I'm great, Rob. Thanks so much for having me. You bet. You bet. Well, you are keeping close track of a lot of the political races that are going to obviously shape the outcome of the next Congress.

a lot of state governments. But I want to focus specifically on a couple of upper Midwest states with you today. Both of these states, Michigan and Wisconsin, played a critical role in President Trump's return to the White House in 2024 and his ability to sweep the seven swing states, as he often reminds us. But these are a couple of states have unique characteristics in terms of what's going on there. I'd like to start with Wisconsin. Obviously, that's a state that has gone back and forth between Republicans and Democrats, a traditional swing state, battleground state in that regard. You've produced a couple of really compelling documentary videos. You've also been tracking some of the political races there. What can you tell us about the issues

that you find that are resonating in this swing state? Yeah, sure. And thank you to Daily Signal for all you do, of course, to help amplify and promote my work and my documentaries and my polling, all of it. And when it comes to Wisconsin, yeah, Wisconsin, as you mentioned, it's not only a swing state, it is the consummate swing state, right? Because the last three cycles, it has been the tightest of all the swing states. I suspect it will be again in the next presidential cycle in 28. And I think it's going to be a relatively tight race for governor there. The sitting governor, Evers, is retiring. I think that's a good thing for the people of Wisconsin and a very contentious race. A lot of interest, a lot of money, frankly, pouring in on both sides. Tom Tiffany is the Republican nominee

congressman from northern Wisconsin. I think he was a heck of a congressman. And I think he'll be an even better governor. On the Democrat side, you have David Crowley, who is the county manager for Milwaukee County. And so we are trying to, in part, highlight the mismanagement of Milwaukee and how Milwaukee like so many big, blue-run cities, has really been a disaster when it comes to things like property taxes and crime. And regarding property taxes, I want to start there, please, my first documentary is about education in Wisconsin. Wisconsin right now, unfortunately, is a thoroughly Democrat-run state. Their State Department of Education, which is called DPI there, Department of Public construction is Democrat run. Of course, Democrat governor. The teachers unions, unfortunately,

hold enormous sway over educational policy in the state of Wisconsin. And what we have seen, unfortunately, is test scores under Democrat reign have plunged. And the reason I say that's relevant to property taxes is a lot of folks may not realize that a good portion, in many cases, the majority of your property taxes, wherever you live, are going toward education. So in Wisconsin, what we see are property taxes are spiking. And in poll after poll, I find that Wisconsinites, are extremely angry, extremely anxious about these soaring property taxes, but what are they getting for it? Well, they're getting a worse and worse outcome, particularly regarding education. And to be specific, only 30% of fourth graders in Wisconsin can read proficiently.

Wisconsin is now behind Mississippi in reading. That's something that I think will surprise a lot of Wisconsinites, that it used to be a state that prided itself on really successful good public schools. And my point is, let's give Tom Tiffany and the Republicans a try to manage education and to make sure that for the exorbitant property taxes you're paying, first of all, those property taxes should be lower, but for the taxes you're paying, let's at least get you a return on your investment in good schools that produce well-adjusted, well-formed citizens of this country who are capable to be productive in the workforce, who are capable to succeed in a digital age who can read, at the least, Rob, can read at grade level. Yeah, Stephen, I want you to talk about some of the

other issues that you're keeping an eye on in Wisconsin, but it reminds me that Scott Walker, the former governor, it was largely, I think it goes back to what, 2010 when he had that big battle with the unions. I think it was teachers union specifically. And so the issue of education is certainly front of mind, I think, for a lot of Wisconsin voters. And that is shocking. I did not realize that Wisconsin had fallen that far when it comes to some national rankings. So we'll be sure to leave a link to your documentary on that topic. But that's not the only issue that you've done a documentary on Wisconsin. Tell us about the other. That's correct. No, I'm very involved in Wisconsin. Poll it a lot, visit there a lot. I'm from Chicago. I live in Tennessee now, but I spent

most of my life in Chicago, so next door, I know Wisconsin really well. But also, and I even, as well as I think I know Wisconsin, I was frankly shocked to learn just how much really violent, illegal alien crime is happening in Wisconsin, someplace really far from the U.S. Mexico border, but someplace that unfortunately has endured really horrific and totally preventable crimes, and specifically in a town of Fondalac. And for folks who don't know Fondalac, it's a really pleasant, wonderful, sort of typical Midwestern community,

roughly in between Milwaukee and Green Bay. It's on a giant lake like so many places are in Wisconsin. You go there in the summertime, and it's just really idyllic. I mean, it's a place of Little League and rolling green hills outside the city and dairy farms, except guess what? This very pleasant middle class community

has seen truly horrific illegal alien crimes. And I'm talking about attempted murder, child molestation, various very severe drunk driving crashes. And so I went to Fondelac to find out what the heck is going on here. And locally, the local sheriff, local prosecutors, they're wonderful and they're horrified by what's going on in their jurisdiction. But the state as a whole functions far too often as a so-called sanctuary state. And many of the criminals who wreak havoc upon Fondalak, they're coming from so-called sanctuary cities like Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital where University of Wisconsin is and like Milwaukee. And when I did a ride-along, actually,

I think this is maybe the most compelling part of my documentary there. When I did a ride, and it's only 13 minutes long, by the way. So I'm not asking you, these are short docs. I'm not asking you for a big investment of time. We find that that's the best sort of, that 13 to 25-minute range is where we get people to watch the whole thing. But I did a ride-along with the local sheriff, and he told me that he was again and again repeatedly arresting cartel members

outside of Fondelac, Wisconsin. And I think, again, when you see the scenery here, this will be shocking to you, at least I hope it will be, but it also should be a wake-up call that we need not only a sealed border, which thankfully President Trump and Vice President Vance had delivered, but we also need aggressive internal enforcement. And that's impossible when you have reckless Democrats in places like Wisconsin protecting illegal aliens. I also have on, and this is certainly the most moving part of my short documentary,

I have on two angel moms who sadly, tragically lost their children in a drunk driving crash, a wrong way driver on the highway, killed their 18-year-old daughter, 19-year-old son, their high school sweethearts who were planning on getting married, a wonderful sort of young, all-American couple. They were returning home from a concert. And the assailant, the offender, the murderer, she was a multiple times arrested drunk driver in the country illegally, but she was protected by Dane County, or University of Wisconsin is she was protected by Dane County because it's a liberal, so-called progressive county, so-called sanctuary city. And so the detainer requests for deportation from ICE were ignored. And this repeat offender was

allowed to stay in our country, ultimately leading the deaths, totally preventable deaths of two American citizens. And I think that any reasonable person who watches these moms and here's their anguish and here's their plea that please don't let this happen again, don't let this preventable tragedy happen to another family. I'm convinced that that will motivate them if they're in Wisconsin to vote for Tom Tiffany or if they know friends and family in Wisconsin to encourage them to a get registered, B vote and vote early if possible, and then make sure that that decision is the right one for law and order in Wisconsin. Steve, I've watched the documentary. It's incredibly heartbreaking to hear that tragedy. Let's play a clip of it right now. We will also make sure that we leave a link in the

show notes for people who want to watch the full video. Why does it happen in Wisconsin? Long way from border. Why is this illegal alien crime happening here? It happens every single day. It sexually assaulted her in a van. Brady was a big guy with a big, big heart. And when it comes down to the immigrants, always say, I'm not an ally, I'm an accomplice. I'm going to be with you no matter what. This would never have happened if she was not in this country. Steve, tell me where people can find your work. What's the best way for them to see not only these documentaries you've been talking about, but the other

investigative reports that you do. Yes, no, I appreciate it. Well, first of all, always look for my content on Daily Signal. That's the first thing. But in terms of one spot where it's Cortez content only, it's Cortezvindexigates.com, Cortez with an S again at the end, Cortezinvestigants.com, all of my documentaries, my polling, my articles, which are all the daily signal, all of that can be found there. Okay, perfect. So speaking of polling, I wrote a story about your poll in Wisconsin. One of the things that stood out to me, and I think you were maybe one of the first people that really Turn me on to the impact of data centers on the elections this year. And Wisconsin was one of those states where that issue has resonated in a way that it's starting to show up in polling data.

What can you tell us about that particular issue? And it seems that Tom Tiffany has really gone on offense against his Democrat opponent on this particular issue. Yeah, and this is a fascinating issue because it doesn't necessarily break down along party lines, neither on the candidate side and certainly not on the voter side. But I was somewhat fortunate or I guess maybe I had some foresight. But I've been test, I've been poll testing data centers in Wisconsin for quite a while, actually, because they're building a massive campus in southeastern Ohio, kind of near the Illinois border. And when I tested that a year ago, it was roughly a 50-50 breakdown.

No real strong emotions either way, you know, for or against the data centers. But as I saw the tide start to turn and as I sense things were turning, I kept polling it. Well, it has now gone down. 80-20 against, 80-20 against data centers. And I'm seeing this actually consistently across swing states, but in Wisconsin specifically, and what's interesting is the more populous elements of both the left and the right are the most fervently anti-data centers. So it's not, again, something that breaks down neatly among Democrat-Republican lines, but it's interesting in this race because Tom Tiffany has very clearly said there will be no data centers unless the

local community has complete buy-in for these data centers. And they need more, and he makes this clear. They need more than just simply, oh, you're going to redo a local park, or you're going to donate the scoreboard at the local gym. No, no, no. We need far more significant investments in the community, things like no property taxes for 20 years. Something like that would be an example. I'll leave it up to the communities to decide exactly what they need. I personally also believe that the residents of the local community should get equity. They should get equity options, have skin in the game, have ownership in the data centers that are local. But here's the thing, too. And a lot of my friends on the right are our

with me about data centers because they know I'm skeptical of them and they know the position I'm taking very similar to Tom Tiffany's. What I'm also saying is this, I don't think it's really as much about the building itself. I mean, yes, that does matter, of course. I think it's much more of a referendum on big tech. And even more specifically, it's a referendum on the moguls of big tech. Because tech titans are some of the most despised people in America and they have earned that scorn because they've been abusing the American people for a very long time and especially those of us on the political right. They had been censoring and de-platform. and diminishing and abusing us for quite a while.

And I think now a lot of American citizens are saying, wait a second, you know what? I have a say in whether or not Mark Zuckerberg, you're going to be able to put this data center into my hometown. Or Sam Altman, are you going to be able to put this into my hometown someplace where it might be marring a beautiful, irreplaceable scenic landscape, for example? So my proposal, personally, and I think a lot of common sense people agree with me on this, is yes, the data centers will get built.

But number one, don't put them in pristine natural environments. they mostly should go actually into depressed urban or suburban areas where there's vacant warehouses and those sorts of things. Number two, they, of course, have to completely pay for their own resources, water, electricity, and so forth. But number three, I think very generous benefits for the community. And again, I think that should include equity ownership. And I think if that happens, they will get built.

I mean, we can get this done. There is a reasonable place to get to. But starting with a haughty attitude and a lot of arrogant spokesmen who are very hard to to even listen to, much less admire. The business of tech showed its typical hubris, unfortunately. And guess what? The people have a say in this, and there's a lot of pushback. And Tom Tiffany has really staked out a pretty aggressive position.

David Crawley's on the exact other side. He's extremely tied to tech, has been for a long time. In a really tight race, Rob, this could be determinative, this factor of data centers. Yeah, I mean, Tiffany's made it a piece of his advertising, obviously using Crowley's own words against him in that particular. case. Okay, let's pivot to another state that you are keeping a close eye on, and that's

Michigan. Obviously, that is a state where you have a couple of state-wide races that could go either way, it seems, but particularly in the Senate, it has been, Abdul Al-Said his surprise victory over an establishment Democrat

who I think has captured a lot of conservatives' attention, because they're concerned. They're concerned about past statements he's made about everything from Sharia law to the pretty extreme positions on various policy issues that he would bring to Washington, D.C. What does your polling tell you there? What are some of the other insights you want to share on Michigan? Yeah, so my polling says that it's definitely a tight race. And by the way, just one quick last word on Wisconsin. I show that effectively tied. I show Tom Tiffany, the last two polls at down

2% within the margin of errors. That is effectively a tied race. I think we're going to win, but it's effectively tied. Almost the same next door then in Michigan. And even though they're neighboring states, they share a lot of elements, these upper Big Ten, I'll call them the original Big Ten, not the expanded Big Ten. These original Big Ten states, they share a lot, but they're also different in some ways, certainly demographically pretty different. And when it comes to Michigan, right now in the polling, what we see is El Cyan in my latest polling up by four. So just outside of the margin of error. And that's pretty consistent in a lot of these tight Senate races. The Democrats are winning, okay, and I'm trying to be honest about that.

I'm trying to do my polling as objectively as I can, even though I clearly am a partisan myself. I don't poll that way. But I also believe all these races are winnable. All of them are. And I think in the case of Al-Saiad, it will be one because right now what's going on with Mike Rogers, who is well-regarded in the state, is he's fighting a lot of negative sentiment about the country. And quite frankly, the citizenry of America is in a bad mood, a bad mood about the trajectory of the economy. I think all of that is going to change once this war ends. but regardless, that's where we are currently.

However, most Michigan citizens, unless they're sort of hardcore dem voters, most of them don't know very much about Abdul al-Sayyad. Well, it's the job of people like me to educate them in the coming weeks and to expose who he is with facts, with his own record, who exactly is this dangerous radical, who is in many ways, I think, anti-American, who does not belong in public office at all,

certainly not the United States Senate from a heartland state like Michigan. And so to try to help, exposed that. I just went there and filmed a documentary. It's not out yet, but it will be very shortly. And I went to Dearborn, Michigan. And I think a lot of folks don't realize that when they think of Dearborn, if they know it, they might know it by Ford Motor Company, which was born there. And so this sort of quintessential industrial American town has been overtaken by mass Muslim migration. And again, getting back to my polling in Michigan, Michigan has several communities like that, Hamtranic is another one, war in Michigan, which have been, which had

become almost completely Muslim towns. And we're in those localities, at least, there's really de facto Sharia law in these towns. A lot of Americans will be shocked by that. A lot of Michigan citizens are more aware of it. And so when I pulled this issue and I asked them, is there too much Muslim mass migration? By six to one margins, six to one, Rob, they say too much Muslim mass migration.

I also ask similar questions asking about Christian migration versus Muslim and the answers were just as stark. People have quite sensibly said, wait a second, they're not assimilating. They don't agree with our values, don't agree with our Constitution, and where they do have governmental control, they are in fact basically bringing a Middle Eastern Muslim culture into the United States rather than try to become part of the broader American fabric.

And I think when I show some of the images from Dearborn of women walking everywhere with hijibs on, including the full deal, you know, with the eyes covered, all of it, prayer calls going out throughout the day over loudspeakers through Dearborn, Michigan. I think a lot of Americans are going to say, wait a second, this is good for our country. And I think if we look across the Atlantic at what has happened to Europe, which I think in many ways, a lot of Europe is largely lost to Muslim mass migration. We should really take heed. We should take a warning from Europe and say, is that what we want for this country? Does this make sense?

Is it consistent with our way of life? Is it compatible with Western civilization? I think the answer to those questions is no. And I think you will then reach the conclusion that putting Al-Siyadh in the Senate, while it is a key for those who believe in Sharia law, for Muslims who literally want to, through the ballot box and through immigration overtake the United States, it's a key for them. But I think it's an impossibility for patriotic Americans, especially those who are either in the center or on the right. So I think ultimately, El Cyan is going to lose that race. But I do also recognize that he's got some political skills. The country's in a sour mood. So I take none of this lightly right now.

I do believe he's in the lead. But I think over in the coming weeks, I think we're going to reverse that situation. Yeah. And to your point about Mike Rogers, I mean, he's somebody. who has made it pretty clear that he wants to see President Trump wrap up the war in Iran. He recognizes that the costs associated with that war are hitting the people of Michigan pretty hard. Now, in your investigation into these various communities in Michigan, how did things get so bad? How did we get to the point where it's de facto Sharia law in these American communities? and do you think that there is the political backlash that they could come back and perhaps motivate people to turn out to the polls and send a message?

Yeah. Well, how do we get there to that first part? A few things. You know, first of all, and this goes all the way back to 1965, but we haven't been doing immigration terribly well in this country, right? Immigration ever since Hartzeller is primarily based on family relationships, and it actually prioritizes third world migration. And that has been disastrous for the United States.

Right now in the U.S., the majority of immigrant-headed households are on some form of public assistance, some form of welfare. That is a complete failure. That number should be zero, or at least very close to zero, not majority getting benefits. And I say this, by the way, as a son of an immigrant, the son of the legal immigrant, but my father also came pre-1965 when it was incredibly difficult to get into this country. And I think we used much better filters that we should be using again. So that's part of it. The other thing is, look, we in the United States are very tolerant, right? And that's a good trait of this country.

And if you are an American citizen and you choose to be a Muslim, you have every right, of course, to be a Muslim, to be a Christian, to be no religion at all. Of course you do. But when it comes to selecting filters for whom we let into this country, it is absolutely appropriate for us to say that we want immigrants into this country who believe in Western civilization, who believe in our values, who believe, for example, intolerance itself. There's nothing tolerant, for example, about mass migration of the intolerant, right, of people who do not believe in freedom of speech, who do. do not believe in freedom of religion, who do not believe in the rights of women to live as they wish, right? I mean, and these are clearly the traits of Muslim majority and Muslim-governed societies across the world. So we have every right and every obligation, I would argue, to use those filters about who gets into this country. And, you know, to your second point about, do we have the will? I think so. I think increasingly we do. And I think one of the best aspects culturally of the

second Trump win is that there is truly a vibe shift. And I know that's kind of a cliche, but I think there is where people are willing to say out loud now things they used to whisper about or things that they would only talk to very close friends and family about, they're willing to say more publicly now or willing to click on with a pollster and say, you know what, I think we do have too much mass migration from the third world generally, or specifically we have too much Muslim mass migration to the United States. And a lot of us, we no longer care if you're going to call us bigots for that. Go ahead. Call us bigots. It doesn't mean anything anymore that charge. I think that, you know, when the left used to throw that accusation at us, it used to sting a lot more,

to a lot of folks in the center or on the right. I think increasingly, thankfully, we're getting to a place where we're impervious to that kind of slander. And we say, no, no, we can take an adult patriotic look at what's good for our country, and you're not gonna call us a bigot just for doing so. Steve, a couple more questions before we wrap up here.

The first is, obviously, you've shined the spotlight on Michigan. Are there other states where you feel the Muslim migration issue could have a potential election implication? this cycle. Yes. No, and very glad you asked. In fact, I have another documentary on this. I often do. I know you do. I'm a busy guy out there, and I'm blessed to be busy because it's that season of life. And as a campaign guy, I better be busy now. But I also went to Maine. Believe it or not, I think a lot of people will be, I think some folks know about Michigan, right? You know, that's somewhat well known. But not Maine. People do not think of Somalis in Maine and particularly Somali Muslims,

completely systemically scamming the state of Maine. But that is happening in Lewiston, Maine, is in rural Maine, it's inland. It was traditionally a mill town settled mainly by French Catholics who came over to the United States and fell on hard times like a lot of those industrial towns did. And largely because of Catholic charities and, you know, as a committed Catholic, it gives me no pleasure to say this, but Catholic charities largely inserted and installed a large 6,000 person Somali community into a town of only 18,000 people. They completely changed the character of the town. They have not assimilated in any way. I went to Lewiston to film. And we detail that. And even worse than just the cultural aspect and really the invasion of Lewiston, Maine, even worse than that, it's a lot like Minneapolis with a Somali community there is systemically stealing from the public treasury. And in both cases in Minnesota and in Maine, it's mainly via health care fraud, mostly via Medicare and Medicaid. And this is at scale. And, you know, I interviewed local experts, local journalists and found out, listen, I knew it was bad. Rob, it was even worse than I thought.

found out, for example, that money from Maine, from the hardworking taxpayers of Maine, and Maine overwhelmingly, except for some really wealthy enclaves on the coast, Maine is not a rich state. Okay, it's a working class place. Demographically, it's the oldest state in America. This is a place, you know, where people work hard to get by. Well, the taxpayers of Maine, through this scam, through the Somali community, Diosper community in Lewiston, they are literally funding in many ways the civil war that is going on in southern Somalia. there's a place called Jubiland. Most Americans have never heard of it.

Jubiland is a semi-autonomous zone in southern Somalia. The citizens of Jubiland largely have made their way to, at least the important ones, have made their way to Lewiston, Maine, where they scam the public treasury via mostly Medicare fraud, and the money then is sent back to buy arms and weapons and fight a war in Somalia. I mean, this is madness, right? It's madness. And it's something that Maine, by the way, can't afford.

In the case of Minnesota, it's awful, but Minnesota is a big state. so at least the scam to some degree can be financially absorbed. Not so in Maine. I mean, it is literally becoming a budget-busting issue for the state of Maine because Maine's a huge state in land, but it's a small state in population. And so it's a very, very big issue there. I think it's going to be one of the reasons that Susan Collins is going to ultimately prevail is because her radical opponent, Troy Jackson, is literally for open borders,

for eliminating ICE, you know, all the kinds of crazy things that the DSA candidates believe in. And I think the citizens of Maine who take a look at Lewiston are going to say, yeah, this isn't a good idea for us. And then the third place, I didn't do a documentary on this one, but the third place I mentioned Minnesota. There's a race there. Michelle Tofoya, I think, is an outstanding candidate. Now, she's not as conservative as I would like,

but I think she perfectly fits her state. She has a tremendous name recognition because of her long and illustrious career is a really successful TV broadcaster. Those of us who are sports fans have been watching her for decades. I think she's one of the best people in the business, especially when it comes to football. And she, I think, has common sense solutions

for Minnesota, a place that also has been systemically scammed by a Somali Muslim migrant community and her opponent, the exact opposite. Peggy Flanagan, the current lieutenant governor, loves to wear hijib, loves to cater to the worst elements of radical American society, and clearly has at least tolerated the scam, if not even participated in it in Minnesota. And I think even though that's not an easy state for Republicans, I think it's one that's very, very winnable. So if I talk about those three Ms of Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, as far as the Senate races go, the three M's, I think all of those are winnable for Republicans.

I think Republicans will win all three. And then on the gubernatorial level, stayed in that northern area. On the gubernatorial level, Tom Tiff, clearly in a tough race, but I think a winnable race. Okay. Well, I've got one more question for you, Steve. And putting your polster hat on here, you know, so many Americans are being bombarded with a whole bunch of data here with about 30 days left until the November 3rd. election. In fact, some states have already started voting, including my own and the Commonwealth of Virginia, where there's a couple of big constitutional amendments that'll be decided.

What, as people consume all this information between now and election day, what could, what is the advice that you have for them? What are the numbers? What are the questions that they should be paying attention to in polls like yours to help give them a better perspective on how things are trending over the next few weeks? Yeah. No, it's just, It's a great question. I would say this. Look, I will defend polling in general. And a lot of folks on the right, which I do understand, a lot of folks on the right are very skeptical.

But if we look at polling averages, if you look at the real care politics average, for example, on generic congressional ballot, going back eight midterm cycles now, which is a lot of data, it has always been pretty close to right, at least within two to three points, and it has never missed directionally. What I mean by that is it's never said the Dems will win and then the Republicans win. It hasn't happened. Now, could it happen this year? Yes, it's possible. But in general, if you use polling averages, you're going to come relatively close on a national basis.

Now, that doesn't necessarily have any bearing on any state race, though, because there can be very candidate-specific issues in each state. When it comes to the states, the ones that vote early, and I think a lot of these states vote vote vote, obviously not up to me. When it comes to early vote, track the early vote percentages in states that have party identification. Not everyone does, but in the states that do, track it relative to previous cycles. I think then you can get an idea in terms of the percentages of who has, who has. an early lead or not because the Democrats are going to be, quote, winning early voting everywhere just because Democrat voters embrace early voting in a way Republicans don't. But are they winning by the same percentages they were winning in last time, you know, in 2022, in 2018 and 2014? That's

the best apples to apples comparison. And I do want to make the case, by the way, and I also made a video on this, not a documentary really, but an interview or video with Ned Ryan, who a lot of folks will know because he's often on TV, often on Fox News. And the two of us are trying to make the case to our voters that you have to vote early. And that's not because we like it. It's not because we believe the current system is well devised. No, in fact, we want to change the current system. But the only way to do that is to win and to win under the current rules.

And the best way to win under the current rules is to vote early. Now, personally, I vote early in person. So I understand if you don't want to put it in the mail, but please, if your state offers, and they really all do now, early in-person voting, take advantage of it. Book your vote for two reasons. Number one, things just happen in life on election day. You have every intention to vote and something serious happens in your

life and you don't vote. Okay, that's number one. But number two, and this might be more important. The earlier you vote, the less money that organizations like mine and affiliate organizations spend chasing your vote. In other words, the second you, and because the decision you make, of course, is private. But the fact that you vote is public knowledge, and it is in most states almost immediately recorded and known. And so once that is known, we stop spending money on you. And the Democrats have a massive advantage because they bank so many votes so early that they then can devote all their time and resources to chasing those additional votes that they need. Whereas for Republicans, we rely so much on game day that we are literally spending time and

money chasing votes all the way into game day. And it just doesn't make sense. When these are the rules of the game, again, I don't like the rules, but when these are the rules of the game, it doesn't make sense for us to every time say we're going to go into the fourth quarter to use football terms, we're going to go to the fourth quarter and we're going to just surrender a 20-point lead because we know we can score three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Okay, maybe you can. and you win 21-20, but it's not the best strategy if we can put some points in the board in the first half. So I encourage folks, I understand your hesitancy if you are resistant to it. But please, please, vote early, drag people along with you, be a little bit of a pest to your friends and family who you think are voting our way.

Get them to vote early. If you don't want to do it by mail, do early in-person voting. That's what I do. It's what Ned Ryan does. And that is the best way for us to be competitive in elections. Yeah, I did it two weeks ago. First day, Virginia opened the poll, September 18th. It just happened to be driving by the local place and stopped in.

Very easy. There was no line. Got in and out. Probably save yourself some time on election day when it might be a little bit busier, too. So that's great, great advice. I hadn't really thought about it that way, Steve, but excellent point on the expenditures that the campaigns have to do to chase your vote, too. So I always appreciate your insight.

Thanks again for spending time with the... The Daily Signal. Tell us again the website and where people can find more of your information. Yeah, Rob, I appreciate it. You do amazing work. Daily Signal does amazing work. You are patriots and you're helping to save this country. Find me on Twitter. I'm at Cortez Steve, or excuse me, no, no, they gave me my name correctly. I misstate that. I'm now at Steve Cortez. I got a notice from Twitter. They said, hey, you can have your name because it used to be Cortez, Steve. And they said, you can have your name in the correct order. So I do. So it's at Steve Cortez, Cortez with an S at the end. And then Cortez Investigates.com. All my content is there.

Steve, thanks so much. We'll be closely tracking your polling and the new documentaries. We'll make sure that we leave links in the show notes. So check them out if you want to watch Steve's work. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it. Many Americans are going to have a big wake-up call. We have never seen net migration as high as it has been in the last few years. This year, there have been more people coming to the UK in small boats than ever before. You did an extreme thing to the country. Britain is facing a migrant crime epidemic. We don't. actually know where they're coming from, who they are, how old they are. Why would you let in millions of people who are undetted, if not to change the country from within? There is no other word for it, demographic replacement. England's a blueprint for America. It's coming. Yeah? It's just a blueprint.

Thousands of daily migrant crossings. A political earthquake threatens to reshape America. We are showing there is a new path for politics in our country. Not all cultures are the same. You cannot ban shedia. America is a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of immigrants. We're a nation of immigrants. We're a nation of immigrants.

The immigration crisis. Watch now on the Heritage Foundation's YouTube channel. We are joined now by Don Palmer of the Heritage Foundation. Don just wrote a piece for the Daily Signal about the brand new edition of the election integrity scorecard, product of heritage, which is a tremendously valuable resource, particularly for those of us who care. about the integrity of elections. And what it does is it grades states based on their election laws. And Don, it's a pleasure to have you at a perfect time to be talking about this issue as we quickly approach less than 40 days until the midterm elections. And so it's top of mind for a lot of Americans. Tell us what the latest scorecard reveals.

So the latest scorecard really lays out the states that are doing a really good job of implementing election integrity laws and making the election and voting process safe and secure for their citizens. And so this is the fifth iteration of the elections. Many legislators work on making sure legislation is passed to sort of adopt some of these measures. And so you're really seeing these systems play out less, as you said, less than 40 days for the election ballots are in the mail. And we had a couple of folks, Tennessee and Florida and Louisiana are in the top five, and they are doing a great job in their states. Don, one of the things that, as you indicated, now that you're on the fifth version of this,

it's really been competition among the states. They do take it quite seriously when they want to surpass some of their rivals. Tell us about some of those stories. and how it has prompted some state lawmakers to make some important changes to their election laws. Well, that's absolutely right. You know, we laid out what we thought was a great blueprint for election integrity and 15 different categories, 50 plus best practices. And the legislators take this very seriously.

They want to do a great job. And they look to heritage to provide that policy guidance. And the secretaries of state, they're usually the chief election official, of that state, they want also to do a good job. They want to implement conservative policies that will secure their elections. And so what you have is a lot of competition, as you noted. They really want to do a great job so they can highlight to their citizens, you know, the strength of their elections. Now, you mentioned a few of the top states. Can you go through maybe the top five? And then conversely, I'd like to hear, you know, who's at the bottom of the list.

And some of the problems those states need to correct to maybe improve their scores. And if there's maybe a pathway to get some of these more reluctant states, say, like a California, to do so. Well, I think that, you know, some of the top states include Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Louisiana. And so those are some of the top five states outside the top five, Virginia. but you see a lot of common names like Kansas and Missouri also up there. I think one of the issues that you have is you have a state like Florida who's able to get their results in a very timely manner, and they're in the top five, able to run efficient and secure elections.

And then you have California that's 50th. They're just not able to get those results in a timely manner to the public. And it reflects in the scorecard. And so those are the type of things we look at. when we determine how states will score. Don, obviously what happened in California with the L.A. mayor's race, and certainly the other primaries that were held earlier this year, drew a lot of attention to that particular issue that you just mentioned.

As we head closer toward election day, what expectation should Americans have in terms of knowing who controls Congress, who won the House, who won the Senate? Is that something that we'll be able to know on election day itself, or do you think because of the way that some of these states do handle mail-in ballots and other voting procedures, we could be waiting a few days? Unfortunately, I think we may be waiting a few days. Now, if the House of Representatives isn't necessarily a close race, the total numbers, you might be able to predict and project that one

party of the other will control the House of Representatives. But like we've seen in the last couple cycles, frankly, we were waiting weeks before we knew who might control Congress, even though there was a pretty good guess that the Republicans, for example, were going to take control of the House, but they couldn't quite nail it down for weeks. And so I think that if it's anywhere close to some of the other midterms we've had, we may be waiting to see who the Speaker of the House is. And that's not great because that is sort of one of the, you know, it's the organs of power here in this country. And when you don't know who's going to control the House Representatives, that's an unfortunate thing. And tell me, explain to our audience why exactly it does

take some states so much longer than, say, Florida, which seems to be very efficient in processing its votes. What are some of the complications that lead to these delays? Well, I wish there were complications. They're actually sort of policies that are, you know, in place by legislators. This is really a system that was designed by politicians for politicians. For example, they will mail a ballot out to every single registrant in the state of California, and they really don't have a deadly on Election Day. You can return that with a stamp or some sort of notation prior to election day and it can be counted after election day. But the real issue in California that sort of extends this process is the lengthy certification program, which allows voters to fix their ballots,

not just for a couple of days, but for weeks. So this is a lengthy process that goes all the way to the data certification when California finalizes the results. And so what you have is, you know, California bending over backwards and then even more backwards, for voters, the reality of it is no other state really does it that way, just extending the period of time for the minimal benefit to the voter that you see there. And while the rest of the country is waiting for those results to be in place, critics will say that that extensive mail ballot process to every voter, that just allows these ballots to be harvested by unions and other interest groups all the way up until the day of election. And so many of those ballots have gone to,

addresses where the registrants no longer live there. So there's a lot of criticism about that. Here's the thing. New York Times and Washington Post themselves that indicated that California really needs to reform the system. Ironically, they took a stab at it just a few years ago, and they slightly decreased the amount of time for curing of the ballots and fixing signatures, but it was a very minimal change, and it really didn't fix the problem. And so California's still dealing with that issue. And frankly, it really comes down to, you know, the state house and Senate in California is really being controlled by, you know, liberal interest groups who are not really concerned about how efficient or accurate the elections are. They just want to have this

extended period of time for voters to send ballots in after election day. Now, let's stick on that topic because mail and ballots have been in the news recently. The Trump administration attempted to put some regulations in place. The courts have weighed in on that. Bring us up to speed about where things stand exactly as it pertains to mail and ballots today. Well, the mail ballot process is really starting for the election. The Supreme Court did stay. the changes that were going to take place at the United States Postal Service.

They really didn't provide an explanation of why they stated, but you can see in the concurrence that Justice Kavanaugh basically articulated that they just didn't feel that the state officials had enough time to implement this. I am less, I'm a little bit skeptical of that assertion because as a former election an official need should always be preparing and working with the United States Postal Service to make sure that the ballots are ready to go and you've effectuated the change. I also sort of as I believe the dissent with Justice Alito and Thomas, they essentially noted that this was a strategy by the plaintiffs in the case to delay.

And the courts sort of went along with that, the lower district courts. And that sort of process makes you feel that there really wasn't a fair shake. at the Supreme Court. Now, observers will tell you that, look, you know, Justice Kavanaugh mentioned that there is a path for these reforms, transparency, security, and accuracy, reforms to the United States Postal Service, that these could go into effect after the election or prior to 2028. So there is a pathway, but for this election, it was delayed, and it sort of feels like, you know, sort of justice was denied in this part. But the, you know, the election, The reality of it is, as many states implement many of these policies, so we encourage people

to go out and vote and make sure their voice is heard. Now, if that is really true that these could potentially go into effect post-election, is that something that could stick from this administration to potentially the next, or is it done in the way that a new president could come in and issue a new set of rules and change everything and upend how mail and ballots are handled in the future? Well, USPS is going to probably revise some of their guidance and end the rule. They'll probably implement part of this over the next couple of years, as I mentioned. It's always possible that a new administration could change that, I guess, in 2028.

I would say that many of the policies, again, in that rule, are being done. in many counties across the country. What we need is a little bit more uniformity and security of these ballots across the country. Many states, rural counties, particularly, they don't have the resource of the personnel to provide these services to voters. And so I'm hopeful that there'll be some uniform practices

across the country where ballots can be tracked and there can be more security of those ballots. But obviously, an an new administration could request a USPS to, slightly modify those rules. Wouldn't it be ironic if many of those were implemented in a new administration? No, Dodd, before I turned to the last topic, you are somebody who's worked on these issues for years in various capacities.

I think it would be helpful to share with our audience a little bit of your background, the work with the Election Assistance Commission and other things that you've done in the space of election integrity. It's an issue that you care passionately about how did you first take an interest in elections, and why is it that you care so passionately to make sure that we uphold the integrity of them? Well, my passion goes all the way back when I was just a practicing lawyer, a judge advocate in the Navy. I first was able to work at the federal level at the Department of Justice in the voting section, and they enforced the federal voting laws. So I got to see this from the

Department of Justice perspective in the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act or the military voting rights. And from there, I went to work in the state of Florida as their election director and in Virginia as their secretary of the board elections. And so I've been able to work with the states and administering elections and overseeing them. And then at the election assistance commission, it went back to the federal level. And they're really there to help the states. And so when I talk about these issues, I try to see it from both the state and local perspective and in the federal perspective. I think that after 2000, we all had a renewed interest in election integrity. And so I was overseas at the time, but we all got to see that. And sort of from

there, I decided to make my career in this area. Don Palmer, thanks for the good work you do at the Heritage Foundation. We'll be sure to leave a link to the election integrity scorecard in the show notes so everybody can check out where their state ranks on the list. We'll be keeping tabs on all of the things between now and Election Day and certainly following your work in the weeks to come. Thanks, Don. Hey, Garab. What does a sunny getaway with Air Canada sound like? Sunny Jamaica moves to its own rhythm. Rio comes alive long after the sun goes down. Philippines slows everything down. And just when you think you've heard it all,

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