THE FUTURE OF MAGA

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]And staying with the primaries, joining us now is Rod D. Martin. He's a political analyst and founder and CEO of Martin Capital. Good morning, Rod. Great to have you with us. Want to get your reactions last night. First, starting with the congressional primary between the incumbent Thomas Massie and of course, President Trump endorsed Navy Seal Ed Galin.

[00:00:19]>> Well, it's just kind of glorious. I I couldn't be happier. Not because Thomas Massie hasn't been a good guy on many, many things. He really has. most of his career he was a pretty impressive guy and he always took this very principled stand on on various libertarian positions in particular. The problem is at some point he completely lost the plot. This is a guy who in the last year twice voted for the government shutdown, twice voted for the largest tax hike in American history, and voted to defund ICE. So, okay, all of this has these incredibly principled reasons, we're told, but the effect is he's caucusing with Hakeim Jeff and the Democrats, and of course, the president was going to come after that. So we have in Galine, I believe, a congressman who will much better represent the fourth district of Kentucky and actually be a team player in a Congress where we have a razor thin margin and we can't afford to lose uh even one vote on key essential votes that were part of what the president ran on. Thomas Massie just wasn't that guy.

[00:01:40]and the voters of district 4 sent him home so that they could have someone who would be.

[00:01:46]>> Yeah. And let's stay in Kentucky and explore what you're commenting on further, the different types of Republicans because you have more of this sort of tea party libertarian in Massie. Uh then you have more of the old school in Mitch McConnell and he's the longest serving leader of the Republican party in the Senate. He's on his way out due to retirement. Um, but Trump is now endorsing Bar. Um, but there's also Daniel Cameron who's very popular in the state. So, what do you make of first McConnell and the people vying to replace him?

[00:02:19]>> Well, I think that what we saw last night in the Senate primary confirms what we saw with Massie. The the battle is much less now between the the Republican wing of the Republican party and the rhino wing. It's much more between what is the future of MAGA and and that was certainly the battle in the Massie case. Are we going to just strike out on our own and call anything that someone decides is America first actual MAGA? Or are we actually going to follow the guy that we chose three separate times to be the leader of the Republican party? And yeah, what we're going to see in in the Senate race in Kentucky isn't going to look anything like Mitch McConnell. And I say that with no no uh uh heartburn toward McConnell. McConnell saved the republic by refusing to allow Barack Obama to have Antinine Scalia's Supreme Court seat in February of 2016.

[00:03:27]McConnell stepped up, held off on that vote until a new president was elected.

[00:03:32]And that was one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history. So kudos to Mitch McConnell. But Mitch McConnell has been every bit as bad in his own distinctly different way as Thomas Massie. Massie supposedly was voting for these crazy things out of principle. McConnell is the ultimate pragmatic operator and not a fan of Donald Trump. All of that is getting swept away. You saw it in Louisiana with the defeat of of Cassidy, which is just extraordinary. We we don't normally beat sitting US senators in their own primary. That's a very rare thing. Last time it happened was Dick Luger uh two decades ago. And and now you have now you have John Cornin probably about to get trounced in Texas which is just glorious too. And Ken Paxton is a great candidate. He's going to be a great senator. But the future of the Republican party is make America great again.

[00:04:36]>> Yeah. And that was the the other primary that I wanted to highlight. Uh certainly interesting because President Trump has said he likes both but prefers Paxton.

[00:04:45]Paxton frequently getting national headlines for the things he was doing in Texas. As we finish up, Rod, just love to get your thoughts on the very unusual top two governor race in California.

[00:04:58]>> Well, it is really extraordinary and I know Steve Hilton a little bit. Uh certainly not uh certainly not from here. This is a a a immigrant from the United Kingdom. Uh he is famous for having helped David Cameron become prime minister. Then he moved to the United States, started a new career on television and and is is looking quite impressive. Uh can he actually make it?

[00:05:26]It's a little hard. California's primary is is rigged in a way that frequently puts two Democrats at the top for the general election every year. It it basically cuts out the minority party more often than not. Not just not just beats them, but makes it impossible to vote for them. So, if Hilton doesn't prevail uh in this, he he we probably don't even have a Republican in the general election. And that's just absurd and wrong. Party primaries matter, and honestly, closed primaries matter for the same reason that they matter at your church. You don't want the Methodists coming to your Baptist church and picking your preacher. Well, we don't want the Democrats coming into the Republican primary and picking our nominee. It's crazy. You You don't want the Republicans going and picking the Democrat nominee. The California primary system is designed not only to make it impossible for the Republicans to pick their own candidate. It's designed to make it impossible for Republicans to be on the ballot in November at all. So, we're rooting for Steve Hilton here.

[00:06:38]>> Well, always a colorful discussion.

[00:06:40]Appreciate it, Rod. Martin, great to talk to you. And you.