Do Primaries and Mid-Term Elections Matter?

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Get ready. It's one of America's most important, influential, and respected voices on cultural and political issues. An apologist, Christian political advocate, and author, here is the founder and chairman of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes. Hello, and welcome to Christopher's Faith. I'm so glad you joined us today, and I hope that you'll listen each and every day at your favorite radio station today.

I've got a special friend of mine, Mike Mears. I'm so glad that you're here with us today, and I'm thankful for the work that you're doing across the country. Folks, we're talking about the midterm elections. It's election year. It's an important election year for us. And I know we always say it's the most important election ever, but this one really is very, very important. And my guest today is on the front lines, fighting the battle each and every day to elect Christian conservative, godly men and women to public office. And he's done a great job in the past. He is the former National Faith Engagement Director for the Republican National Committee, and he now has his own company called Mordecai Strategies. Mike, in case somebody did not hear you when you were home with us last time, do you mind taking a few minutes and just kind of sharing people your background, who you are, and what you're doing?

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me on again, Chris. This is great. I think I got to be a part of your first week of doing these broadcasts, so I'm honored to be back.

Sounds like I must have done a good job the first time, so you're having me back, and I appreciate it. So yeah, I am what many people would call a movement conservative. I'm a Christian, evangelical Christian, first and foremost. And because of that, it informs my politics, and my career track is, I'm a political guy. And when I first got involved in politics, what I really wanted to be was salt and light wherever I went. And you'd think, oh, so you're going to be a Democrat, right?

Well, I got news for you. The Republican party needs to hear the gospel just as much as anybody does. And again, I want to do my work in a godly manner, a way that glorifies Him. And do I fall short?

Sure, sure, absolutely. But before I went to the RNC eight years ago, I worked for some groups that I think folks would know. I had just left Family Research Council. Before that, I worked for Beverly and Kim LaHay at Consumer Women for America and ran their pack. I worked with Susan Bialyst. I would like to joke that I broke the glass ceiling because I was the first guy that they had ever hired.

So I've kind of knocked around. And then there was an opportunity in 2013 to come to the RNC and work with what we call our strategic partnerships, folks who have an affinity towards the platform, who are probably going to vote for Republicans primarily. And so the problem was in 2013, we had lost two elections in a row. And conservatives were really getting fed up with the party. And so I was one of those guys. And so I got tired of hearing about a third party and feeling like, well, if we get a third party, I'll probably never see any electoral success again in my lifetime.

And so what can I do? And so I came over and I wasn't sure I would last eight months, let alone eight years. And it's been a great and fantastic education. It's easy to have people say, well, well, you're going to the establishment.

You're going to where all the rhinos live. I wish it was that simple. A lot of these folks are great people. Some are beginning of their careers. They're often taught as an RNC employee.

You don't have opinions. Your job is to elect Republicans. As long as they have an R by the name, your job is to help them get elected. And so I always throw it back on the folks that I'm talking with and say, that's the truth. And it is.

I've seen it happen. And our job out in the districts and the local levels is to bring the Republican Party candidates who are going to reflect our values. And I think that's where I take my claim now as I've come out and started Mordecai Strategies. I am unapologetically Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ. And so if you're a candidate for Congress or for U.S. Senate or as governor, if you're going to hire me, you understand that I'm going to have your back.

You're a believer. I'm going to have your back. I'm not going to tell you you need to tone down your rhetoric or things like that, especially if what you're saying is Christ-like. I'm probably not going to want to mess with you too much. A lot of these consultants out there, sadly, you know, giving these hands some bad advice. And so I just come out as an alternative.

And it's been pretty busy. Why don't you share, you had some success. You worked in the governor's race in Virginia, and that was a race that y'all were not supposed to win, no way in the world, and God just used you and your team in a mighty, mighty way. Share with our listeners, because we've got a great Christian governor in Virginia now.

Absolutely. I had my first client, it was Glenn Youngkin, who was running for governor, and what they wanted was somebody to come in and really talk to the faith community and kind of build this faith coalition for them. And so that's what we did. One of the first things we started was a prayer call.

And, you know, I've had candidates all across the country talk to me about doing the same things. And the hurdle is, the great thing about Governor Youngkin is that he believed it, right? This wasn't, I mean, he was going to do it regardless.

He didn't need to have to have somebody come in and help him do it. He was already doing it. So all of a sudden, now, after this big win, I've got candidates all over the country who've talked to me and said, hey, you know, can you help me start this prayer call? Will you be a part of it?

Well, you know, when I can, and things like that. And so that's been kind of a hurdle. Glenn Youngkin really lived it out, lived his faith out. I mean, if you know anything about him, he helped found a church, started in his basement of his home, and then helped fund a building. He has been, I think, I believe he's on the board. I know he's been a donor of the Bible Museum. I mean, this guy's got some bonafide. And so anyway, so that was a first big win for my little one-man company, and I've been pretty excited about it.

Well, I thank you so much for helping him get elected. And, you know, you and I both worked in the political world for many years, and it frustrates me when I see candidates, and I know you've seen these, Mike, that they court the Christian vote and act like they're Christians. But, you know, they show up at an event, and they carry like their big family Bible, you know, and you can tell it's never been opened. You know, they're not reading it, but they're trying to act like you're a Christian when they're at a Christian event.

And that was a neat thing about Governor Youngkin, is he was, as you say, the real deal. I know somebody that sent out, I won't tell his name, but somebody that was at Governor Youngkin's inauguration, and sent out a text and said, you won't believe this, he's not got anybody here to pray at the end of his inauguration. And then the next few minutes, the text comes out, wait a minute, he doesn't have anybody else to pray, because he's doing it himself. And he did, you know, they gathered the family and leaders and held hands, and the governor himself led a prayer.

And it wasn't some pre-scripted thing, something he was reading, it was from the heart. And I don't think you'll mind me sharing this, a good friend of mine, I don't know if you know Byron Fox, he's an evangelist that lives in Virginia. Byron works a lot with an organization called Faith Wind. As a matter of fact, Chad Conley, your predecessor, or who runs Faith Wind, and he and Byron travel around the country trying to get Christians to register to vote, and get churches to hold voter registration drives, and they did a tremendous effort there. As a matter of fact, they registered, I don't remember, but the number of voters they registered was more than the winning numbers for Governor Youngkin and his race, so they feel like they had a part to do in that by getting Christians to register to vote. But anyway, Byron's wife was very, very sick with COVID, almost died, and Governor Youngkin himself, on more than one occasion, called, but one time in particular called to check on Byron Fox's wife, and asked if he could speak to her, and he prayed for her and with her. And Mike, I don't know that I've ever heard, now certainly there are plenty of Christians that are in public office, and I'm sure that others have done that, but I mean this man was governor now.

If he wasn't the real deal, he didn't have to fool around with Byron Fox, or Mike Mears, or Chris Hughes, or anybody else after that election. And here he took time away from being governor, said I'm going to stop what I'm doing, and prayer is the most important thing that I can do right now for this lady, and called and prayed for. What a powerful testimony that is, and Mike, y'all did not just the governor's race. We have a Christian lieutenant governor in Virginia, and a Christian secretary of state, and y'all took a state within serious, serious trouble. The liberals had really infiltrated, because a lot of the liberal DC establishment lives right there in Virginia. You know, they drive to work from their homes in Virginia to DC, and y'all took a very liberal state, and really kind of cleaned house on the ballot, and put a lot of Christians into public office. And I'm just so thankful you did, because the influence that Virginia has is powerful across the country, and y'all were just successful.

And I thank you so much for what you, and your team, and your volunteers, and workers did to elect godly men and women. You know, Winston Sears has kind of become a rock star in the conservative person movement now as well. It's exciting.

Yeah, and so has Jason Mears, who is the attorney general. It was a real trifecta. You know, it's funny, because a lot of these political types, they compete with each other.

They don't often like each other, and this was one of those rare times. I mean, I'd probably be saying this, whether we had prevailed or not, this was just a fantastic and very fun campaign to be on. And like I say, Glenn Youngkin made it easy, made it very, very easy. Yeah, I've even heard that he opens every meeting with prayer on.

That is pretty accurate. He certainly did that on the campaign. You know, one of his, I'm going to do what I've been doing every morning, you know, for I think, I forget how many years, 30 years or whatever. It's not going to be any different when I'm governor.

I'm going to start my day with prayer. You know, there's a pretty low bar in some respects, which tells you just how sad the state of affairs are nationwide, and why having a believer in a governorship as influential as Virginia is, is so critical and so important. And he walks the walk and talks the talk.

You know, one of the things that, again, I know we're talking about this, because I think it's important to have good models for politicians, especially Christian politicians. And the day after the election, we were at a food bank. That was how we kind of celebrated. He was there.

We all, you know, we were all very excited, but we were, we were packing up lunches for school children. And again, it's a testament to a man's heart. And I appreciate that.

It's fruit. It sure is. Folks, I'm talking to my good friend Mike Meers, who owns Mordecai Strategies. When we come back, we're going to jump into the election season of 2022, talk about races to watch and what boss-ups are with the Democrats and what Mike is doing after we learn just a little bit more about his company.

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For a free transcript, call American Minute at 1-888-USA-WORD. Welcome back to Christian Perspective. I'm Chris Hughes. My guest today is Mike Mears. Mike owns Mordecai Strategies. Mike, how did you come up? I mean, I know how you did, but share with our listeners, you know, why Mordecai Strategies?

Why do you call it Mordecai? Well, I'm kind of laughing because, you know, you kind of had a side sidebar was, well, I know, I know, I know where you got that. But a lot of people don't. A lot of people do. A lot of my colleagues who are not of any faith at all, you know, scratch your head and said, why did you do that? And when I say to them that Mordecai is found in the book of Esther and was what I would call a political advisor to Esther.

I mean, he was the man behind the scene. He had a strong faith in God. He understood what God was going to do and invited Esther to, you know, show up, be bold, and, you know, for such a time as that. And so Mordecai has always been one of my favorite biblical characters. I've often joked with my Jewish friends that if he was Catholic, Mordecai would probably be the patron saint or political consultant.

He's probably being. To which they don't often laugh at that. But a lot of my Jewish friends have been very, very interested in, for the same reasons that you are, and that is, why faith from Mordecai? Well, for me, it reflects my values. It reflects my faith. And, you know, it's a nod to a very, very important person in the Old Testament. Well, I think it shows where your heart is, Mike, because a lot of consultants, you know, would be like Chris Hughes and Associates or Chris Hughes Consulting or whatever. And you're just showing that this isn't about Mike Meyers. This is about God. And here's a guy in the Bible that did what I'm hoping to do and is the voice behind the power. And so I just commend you for it. Thank you so much. All right.

So I've stalled long enough. Let's jump into what people are wanting to listen to today. You are working races across the country. There are a lot of important states and important races and toss ups with Democrats.

So why don't you kind of give us a feel for the landscape of what to look for in 2022? Absolutely. You know, this is what we call a target rich environment if you were a conservative and a Republican. I think, you know, since the election of Joe Biden and just all the disastrous things that have happened from inflation to watching gas prices go sky high, I think we're already starting to see the housing market soften. Folks are going to be pretty disgruntled.

And we didn't take tea leaves to figure this out. I mean, this midterm election is going to be very, very critical. Is it going to be the most important? It's the most important right now.

That's for sure. And so normally, when you're looking at races, and I'm a campaign junkie, you know, for fun, if I'm in a town and there's a candidate that I care about, I'll go knock doors with them. Or they're volunteers. I just love, I just love voter contact.

I enjoy talking to people. You know, I don't necessarily hit, you know, a thousand doors in an hour. But when they get it done, and it gives me a feel for the district and what people are thinking. And right now, if you go to a door anywhere in America, whether they're Republican, Independent, and even some soft Democrats, they're not happy with the direction of the country. And with all that, you know, normally I'd be looking at maybe 40 congressional seats that might be in play.

I'd dare say 70, maybe. There's a tool that I use, you know, it's not perfect, it's not perfect, because they don't, with congressional races, you don't always have access to polling, like you do with like Senate races and things like that. So you've got to kind of do kind of a man on the ground type of thing, which is why, you know, I'm always on the phone talking to somebody in a district and, hey, what's going on? Well, this, you know, we just had a rally and we had, we had 25 people at it.

Well, okay, that tells me, that tells me maybe it's not as strong as you think it is, brother. But, you know, at other rallies, like, you know, Trump, President Trump, you know, he has a rally and he still commands 10,000 people. Okay, that shows me some enthusiasm and stuff like that.

So I'm looking at about 70 seats. The tool I use is a website called cookpolitical.com, which is the Cook Report. And basically they have, it's a page site, but there's a freebie area, and they do their congressional and Senate and governor's ratings.

And anybody could go to that and look and kind of see what I'm looking at. And that is, okay, so here's all the races that are toss-ups, here are all the races that are leaning Democrat, here's all the races that are leaning Republican, and then the columns at the end are the likely Republicans and likely Democrats. And I would tell you, normally, in a normal year, I'm not even going to look at either of those two columns, those two last columns of the likely Republican or likely Democrat.

I'm not sure if you're following, you know, let me know that you understand me. But because of this environment, I'm almost putting those likely Republicans in a safe seat. There might be some anomalies, maybe there's some folks who've got some personal baggage that have just come to fruition, or people are hearing about it for the first time. But those likely Democrats, where a lot of people, most people would normally say, ah, they're going to be fine, I would say they are in play. And so, like I said, it's a target-rich environment. With just a Democrat toss-up seat, there are 24 races that we've already considered that are toss-ups. There's like four or five that are Democrat seats that were already saying, eh, we think the Republican's going to win, right? So they're actually in the likely Republican column.

Anyway, I'm getting in the weeds here, so I'm not sure everybody's following. No, I think this is good. So are you saying that we're going to pick up, the Republicans can possibly pick up 70 seats? No, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that.

I don't go out on a limb like that. I'd say there's about 70 seats that are competitive, that are going to be competitive, especially if it continues, the environment that we're in continues to happen. Oh, and by the way, when Roe v. Wade is overturned, and I believe it's going to be overturned, I think you're going to see excitement on both sides, but I daresay that conservatives are going to be very, very motivated. And so all that, you mix it up, and I look at, like I said, between 60 and 70 that are in play, and I hate to go out on a limb before Labor Day, but I'd say at least 30, 35 seats that I think the Republicans will pick up.

And probably maintain most of what they have, too. Yes, correct. Correct. So are there any, okay, I don't want you to go to where you don't want to go, but are there any bigger, more of, you know, there are plenty of congressmen and women that most people have never heard of, and then there are some of the bigger players that we see on the news all the time.

Are there any of the bigger names that you think might be in trouble this year, or have a big race on their hands? Oh my goodness. Well, sure. I mean, in Colorado, normally Colorado, I think most people consider that the Virginia of the West, in a sense. I mean, if anybody knows Virginia, they knew that it was trending very, very purple, if not Democrat, if not blue. Well, in Colorado, Colorado is kind of the same way, and we're looking at the possibility of the Senate seat being in play. We're looking at two seats that normally should be on the Democrat side as being considered either a toss-up or maybe leaning Democrat.

And again, I think if it's in the leaning column, I would, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it should be in the toss-up. But, so Nevada. Nevada is another great example. So you've got Adam Laxalt, who will be facing a primary in the state of Nevada, and he's going to be a primary in the state of Nevada, Adam Laxalt, who will be facing a primary in a couple weeks. I suspect that he will probably most likely win that primary. Having said that, it certainly looks like the environment is such that whoever the Republican is in that U.S. Senate race will have the inside track to knock off a Democrat. But that doesn't tell the whole story, because there are three seats in Nevada, congressional seats, that are held by Democrats, and they are now in play. If they're not toss-ups, they are leaning Democrat.

So these are very, very competitive. You know, look, you're probably not going to ever be able to defeat electorally Nancy Pelosi. I certainly think that we're going to fire Nancy Pelosi by the end of this campaign, but we're probably not going to take her out.

AOC, Congresswoman AOC out in New York, probably not going to replace her with a conservative, but in some of these other states or other seats where they're not household names, but they're either progressive Democrats or they've been in Congress for many, many years, they're not sitting pretty like they have in the past. Yeah, this is going to be an exciting year. Folks, we're talking to Mike Mears of Mordecai Strategy, and he's giving us a great layout of what to watch and follow, particularly if you're a political junkie like me. He's going to share with us races to watch and why this year is so important. We're going to take a commercial break. When we come back, we're going to talk more about the primaries and some strategies.

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Welcome back to Christian Perspectives. Chris Hughes, my guest today, is Mike Meares of Mordecai Strategies. He's a conservative Christian Republican political strategist, and he has done work all over the country and he's got a great feel for what's going to happen in this 2022 election year, which is so important for us as conservative Christians to be educated on the issues, know who the candidates are all across the country, and we'll find out how we can get engaged too.

Mike, before the break, you mentioned it kind of in passing AOC and how that's one we won't beat. Now it's interesting, AOC is part of a very liberal left-wing group, a socialist even, in the Democrat party, and there's a group within the Democrat party that is targeting Democrats that they don't consider to be liberal enough, and they are knocking them off in the primaries, and that's exactly how AOC won. I can't remember his name, but she ran against a guy that was like number two or three under Nancy Pelosi, very powerful congressman from New York, but he wasn't as liberal as the very new left-wing progressive, social, really communist in my opinion, people were, so they targeted and they started with him, and they did almost like a casting call, Mike.

I don't know if you've read her story. Her brother sent in her information, and it was like they were looking for an actor to play lead in a movie, and they were interviewing people to find people to run for office, and she beat him. Is there any kind of strategy within the conservative wing, whether it just be conservative Republicans or Christians, to go after, and you know you may not want to address the future of the business, but I won't say that you're doing it, but have you heard if there's any movement, because there are certainly some rhinos, Republican in name only is what rhino stands for, within the Republican party who are not as conservative, but particularly we as Christians, so have we looked at that strategy and said, you know what, we've got people like, now my mind's going blank, Chaney, Liz Chaney, and you might not want to cross her on the extra radio, but I mean, so I'll say, okay Liz Chaney is not where I would like her to be in the conservative Christian spectrum politics. Is there a movement on the conservative side to try to do the same thing that happened with AOC and maybe get rid of some of these questionable people on our side? Yeah, I think there's always been, and not necessarily from like the Republican apparatus, like I said, the Republican apparatus wants you to have an R by your name, and then with you coming out of that primary, they're going to support you.

There are some rare occasions where they will not, but at the same time, if you've got an R by your name, the Republican quote unquote establishment is probably going to get behind you. Where there's a movement is really with some of these conservative organizations like, you know, Family Research Council, you know, Clubs for Growth, some of these folks who are who are realizing that, you know, if you're in Wyoming, it's a pretty conservative state. Chances are if you're a Republican there, you can be a member of Congress there for many, many years, as long as you don't cross Republican orthodoxy, and I would dare say, and I am kind of being careful a little bit, but I don't think I need to be. Personally, I'm not all that impressed with how Liz Cheney has handled things since January 6th, you know, and so I think that she, you know, she does have a challenge, and I believe that that challenge is probably going to prevail.

The president is going to be spending a lot of time in Wyoming. He wants to make sure that Liz Cheney is gone, but beyond that, I think you're seeing it in some of these open seats and some of these open seats that are in solid red districts. That's really where you can have a champion, somebody who doesn't really need to worry about, you know, what some of the folks in suburbia are thinking, because they've got these solid red districts, and they have the freedom to push the caucus a little farther to the conservative side, and I think that's fantastic, and I think it's, you know, folks who, there's folks that I care about, that I, you know, hang out with, who are not very happy with Marjorie Taylor Greene out of Georgia, right?

My standard line is, well, guess what? You know who likes her? Her district. Her district thinks that she's running just fine. That's why she just won another primary, and she's, you know, you may not, I don't always like her style.

You know, I don't always like what everybody, what comes out of folks' mouth, but at the same time, you know what? That's up to her district, and, you know, sometimes if somebody goes, and I'm not thinking about Marjorie Taylor Greene as much as, there's quite a few, if they say something that's so outrageous, that's where somebody comes in and goes, you know what? Yeah, they've gone too far, you know, that kind of thing. Now, you don't have that on the Democrat side.

That's why you have these outrageous things that the so-called squad is saying, and nobody stops them. Nobody, Nancy Pelosi doesn't say, wait a second, you've gone too far. I almost wonder if there is a too far when it comes to Nancy Pelosi. I think secretly, she, you know, wants those folks to do her dirty work, right?

Whereas on the Republican side, they try to be a little bit more disciplined, and that's how sometimes they get in trouble, and it's one of the reasons why being Speaker of the House is just not the greatest job in the world, if you're a member of Congress, because your job is to worry about what all your Republican colleagues think, not just, you know, your district. So, can you tell me, I get a little excited about this stuff. Look, I get a little bit in the weeds, so you've got some questions, I'm happy to answer them. No, I think this is great, and it's educating our listeners, so let's get in the weeds a little bit more and talk about primaries.

There might be people, you know, believe it or not, there are a lot of people that are not like you are, and I am, Mike, who don't eat and breathe this stuff and don't love it like we do, and they hear terms they don't even know what they mean. So, do you mind sharing with us, explain to our listeners what a primary is and why they're so important, because there's a lot of them going on right now. So, a primary, let's just talk about it from a Republican standpoint. Republicans generally have a primary date anywhere from February till around September, where, you know, anybody who is a registered Republican, and meets the constitutional requirement, can run for office as a Republican. And they, you know, in some of these races, we've had as many as 15 people, Republicans, in Alaska. I've lost count of how many Republicans are running.

You know, most people think about Sarah Palin running for Congress again. But there are, I'd say like 25 other Republicans in that race, and that might be a conservative number. And so, you have this primary, and basically it's kind of market-driven, in a sense. You know, whoever got their message out, you know, the enthusiasm of their volunteers and their supporters allow these folks to prevail and come through the other side. Those are traditional primaries. There are some states that have some screwy things, like, so for instance, California just recently had their primary, and they have what is called a jungle primary. And so, everybody, both Democrats, Republicans, and independents, are running together. And whoever the top two vote-getters are, regardless of party, they go on to the general election. And so, in a couple cases in California that I saw, there are, sadly, there's no two Republicans running against each other, because that would be great, but there's like two or three in California where it's two Democrats running against each other.

And normally, it's a progressive versus a more traditional, and I put my air quotes up, traditional Democrat. And that'll be fun to watch in November. So, we've had, I tell you what, before I jump into this, let's take another quick break, and then I'm going to kind of jump in to have you tell us about some of the primaries that have happened already, and any surprises there, and maybe some big races to watch in the primaries coming up in the next few months. Y'all were talking to Mike Mears. He is with Mordecai Strategies. He's a great political strategist, and he's giving us kind of the lay of the land of what's going to come in the next few months.

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Order your coffee today at shopgenerousjoes.org and even subscribe to a subscription coffee plan and never forget the coffee you love or the causes you care about. Share useful tips and proven strategies to help you navigate the seasons of motherhood, faith, and life with confidence and joy. The United States of America has a strong Christian heritage, but most Americans don't know the truly important role that God in the Bible played in the founding of this great nation. This June, join nationally syndicated radio host and founder of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes, for four amazing days in our nation's capital. With Chris, you'll embark on a journey of discovering the hidden secrets of Washington, D.C. and rediscover much of America's forgotten Christian heritage. Your tour will include an up-close and personal look at the nation's establishment and how it's evolved over the centuries. Learn about the government and the men who helped forge this new kind of republic, one that acknowledged the creator from its very inception. Know the truth about the creation of the United States of America, about the faith of the founding fathers, and how Christian principles were used to establish this form of government. Visit citizensforamericafoundation.com today and secure your spot to join Chris Hughes in Washington, D.C. this June. Welcome back to Christian Perspective.

I'm Chris Hughes. My guest today is Mike Mears of Mordecai Strategies. Mike is a Christian political activist and consultant who works in conservative Christian campaigns across the country, and this is an important election year. There's so much going on in our country and, you know, with gas prices, inflation, and no groceries on the shelves, no baby formula. We need to be paying attention to what's going on, and races that may not have seemed important to us in the past are so important now as we have an opportunity as conservative Christians to take back the United States House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and state house and senate races and local races across the country. And we're talking with Mike Mears about races that are going on right now, and he was before the break explaining to us what primaries are.

Primaries are basically where people within the same party in most cases are running against people within their party to pick the winner that will go head to head with the person in the opposite party in what's called the general election in November. So, Mike, in the last few months, we've had a series of states where there have been important primaries. I live in North Carolina, and, you know, one that was kind of, I think, it didn't surprise me, but surprised some, I think, were Madison Cawthorn, who was, I think, the youngest congressman in the country, and certainly he liked the headlines. He was in the papers a lot, and Madison lost his primary election, which, you know, a year ago people would have thought that's unheard of because, you know, Madison's on the news all the time. He's all over the country. He's like this young rock star, and he lost. And I thought it was funny because I know the liberal media, Mike, was saying, well, this is just an example because President Trump had endorsed Madison Cawthorn, an example of where President Trump is losing his power.

Mike, I didn't see that at all. In fact, the national media didn't really cover, but Madison had other aspirations, and he had jumped around. He left his congressional district in the Asheville, North Carolina area, which is in the southwestern North Carolina mountains, and was going to run in one district, and then he was going to run in another district, and then finally came back to run in Asheville. But when he got out of the Asheville race initially, Mike, people that were friends of his, you know, you were talking about somebody running against Sarah Palin, a bunch of people got in that race that would have never gotten in the Republican primary had Madison stayed where he was in the beginning. And then when he came back, you know, people that in the media, you know, the media tried, it had nothing to do with President Trump. It wasn't a reflection on President Trump. It was a matter of people that were friends of Madison were now running against him, good friends.

I know some of them. I endorsed one of them because Madison was out of the race. You know, so I kind of get a kick how they try to make it, you know, the win rate for President Trump has been tremendous in the primaries so far. But that was a race. And then we had a Senate race because, you know, the Senate is very tight right now. And we had a very interesting primary. But the man, Ted Budd, who is a congressman right now, was endorsed by President Trump, and he ended up winning Herschel Walker in Georgia.

So what are some of the races? Have you seen any surprises? And again, I mean, I think to the world medicine conference, what a surprise to dozens of us who knew what was really happening. Have you seen any surprises in the primary so far? And do you think there are races we need to be watching in the coming months? Surprises?

No, in my opinion, it's going kind of scripted. There's a real diverse cadre of candidates on the Republican side. I'm thinking about in Indiana one. Indiana had their primary, gosh, back in May. And there's a freshman congressman by the name of Frank Mervan.

I'm not really educated on his voting record, although I'm pretty sure he's lockstep with Nancy Pelosi. But we just put up a candidate, Jennifer Green, African-American woman, lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, now as a commercial pilot. And so that's not a surprise to me because I've seen some real great diversity in our party, especially in the last five years. But this is a race that I'm watching.

I'm watching a lot of the California races. California is a liberal state, but there's a lot of pocket of conservatism in the state of California. And there's probably about, oh, I think about seven or eight seats that are in play on the Democrat side. And then there's probably another three or four on the Republican side that I'm just kind of watching.

I think they're going to be fine. So, like, I think about the Orange County. Everybody should know Orange County. That's the home of Disneyland, home of my beloved Anaheim Angels, also John Wayne. Orange County was considered the bastion of conservatism in the West.

It has been trending blue. We've got a couple. We've got Young Kim out in the Diamond Bar area who looks like, you know, she's going to have a tough race, but I think that she's going to prevail again. She's the first freshman Congresswoman.

You've got Michelle Steele, who's out in the Huntington Beach area. She knocked off a liberal Democrat last cycle, and I think he's going to try to come back and get his seat back. I bring those two up again because there's, again, diversity within the Republican Party. Michelle Steele is Korean, and so is Young Kim, both very, very good candidates, solid candidates. And then, gosh, look, with 70 campaigns that I'm looking at, it almost all gets jumbled together, but I'm watching the Colorado race.

We haven't... The Senate race, we haven't had a primary there yet. I don't have a good sense of who's going to come out of that, but my suspicions is that this is going to be a competitive race, and a lot of the outside groups are going to spend money there.

I'm trying to look at them on my list. While you're thinking about this, let me ask you about Florida. Do you think Marco Rubio is in trouble?

No. I mean, it's going to be competitive. That would be a surprise to me if Marco Rubio, or if somehow we, if Ted Budd doesn't win that seat in North Carolina, or J.D. Vance doesn't win the race in Ohio. I would be really shocked.

Does that mean we shouldn't spend some time there? And I know if you go to my, like, my favorite tool, Cook Political Reports, they're going to have those three as leaning Republican. I think it's more likely Republican.

It's not going to be safe. That doesn't mean it won't be close, because it's always close in Florida, always close in North Carolina, but if I was a betting man, and I'm not, just in case somebody in my family is listening, I am not a betting man. If I was, I would be pretty confident that those three, Marco Rubio, Ted Budd, and J.D. Vance would win those.

Yeah, there would be big money spent on those races. What about Georgia Herschel Walker and then Arizona, another interesting race in Arizona, too? Yeah, so Arizona hasn't had its, their primary yet. It's coming up. President Justin Doris Blake masters, but there's some other candidates. I haven't looked at the polling.

I tend to look at polling about a week out, or two weeks out. I don't have a real sense of that. In Georgia, you know, I don't know if we talked about this the last time we talked, but I spent 65 days in Georgia for the runoff last year, or in 2021, and it was just heartbreaking. And so, in seeing the Reverend Warnock become U.S. Senator Warnock, and listening to some of the things that he has said, I mean, at one point, he gave like an Easter tweet out, and talked about how, you know, there are many ways to come to faith in Jesus Christ and to go to Heaven. And it's not just one, and I'm, and it's like, he was way against Christian Orthodoxy. Now you've got Herschel Walker, who's got strong faith. This is another man who is not afraid to talk about his faith on the campaign trail, and was not afraid to talk about his faith even before, and he's been very, very candid about some of his health problems. He did play football for many years, and he's had, I don't know if he's been diagnosed with what they call CTE, where you get your head banged in enough times that things get a little nutty up there, but they caught it. It sounds like he's doing well, but I'm not telling any secrets here. This is something that they have been very, very open and transparent with, and so that's a race that, you know, I may not get to sleep for three or four days that first week in November, because there may be so many, you know, races that may or may not be determined the winner on election night, sadly.

Yeah, isn't that so frustrating? I mean, when you and I were younger, every race you knew that night, and they all just dragged, you know, just like I recently with Dr. Rogers' race, they'd just go on and on and on, and certainly in Georgia, you know, with Stacey Abrams there, you know, that one's going to probably make the governor's race and the Senate race are going to probably drag on for a while. Well, Mike, thank you so much for being with us. It's always great when you're on the show and you know so much, and we're going to have to have you on periodically between now and November to get you to continue to share wisdom. Thank you for being with us today. My pleasure.

Thank you. Folks, if you're thinking about running for office, I want to encourage you to take a look at Mike Mears with Mordecai Strategies, a strong, strong follower of Jesus Christ, and as you've heard today, he is a brilliant statistician and political consultant. He is following things and has his finger on the pulse of the nation and what's going on.

You couldn't have a better consultant than Mike Mears of Mordecai Strategies. He's just a great guy. And I'm going to ask you all, our listening audience, to be praying for Mike and his team because they're doing hard work.

They're involved in races where many times a lot of Christians running for office don't come from this world, they don't understand it, and they need to have somebody that they can trust to guide them. And just pray that Mike will have sound wisdom when he's guiding his candidates and that God will continue to use him in a mighty, mighty way. Thank you all for listening today.

This has been a great show. Download the podcast that will be released later today, and of course, listen to your favorite radio station tomorrow and every day. Now let's go impact the culture for Jesus. Thank you for listening. The Christian Perspective with Chris Hughes. Learn more about impacting the culture for Jesus. Visit citizensforamericafoundation.com.