Ripon Forum


Vol. 57, No. 6

View Print Edition

In this edition

With the 2024 election less than 12 months away, the latest edition of The Ripon Forum examines what new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson can do to help GOP candidates on the campaign trail and the state of the race heading into next year.

Gavin & Kamala: Too Left Wing for the West Wing?

While California’s Governor and the Vice President both played starring roles in San Francisco’s decline, each has also had a significant hand in spreading the city’s radical politics beyond the peninsula.

Bidenomics Defined: What Every Voter Should Know

Compared to when Biden took office, Americans are paying 20 percent more for food and 38 percent more for gasoline. It also costs 28 percent more to keep your home warm this winter.

America’s Quantum Leadership

Breakthroughs in quantum technologies are changing the world, and unless we continue to strengthen our domestic quantum industry, adversaries like China will dominate the field.

Advice for the New Speaker: Govern Like It’s 1999

Nearly 25 years ago, Congressional Republicans, facing daunting poll numbers after a failed (and unpopular) attempt to oust President Clinton through impeachment, decided to go positive.

State of the Race: Where the candidates stand, and the issues that will matter next year

One of the important dynamics for 2024 is that if the current primary frontrunners, Biden and Trump, have a rematch, both would go into the campaign with negative brand images.

The Elections Last Month & the Lessons for the Coming Year

The election results in November did not point to big problems for Democrats. Of course, presidential elections are different than mid-terms or odd-numbered year elections.

Candidates to Watch in 2024

We asked top GOP strategists a simple question — when you look out across the country, who do you see as being some of Republican rising stars that America will be hearing more about next year?

Should the Electoral College be Preserved? Yes, it Protects Against Tyranny

Abolishing the Electoral College would be mistake. It helps make self-government work. Delegates to the Federal Convention rejected allowing the people to elect the president directly.

Should the Electoral College be Preserved? No, it is Time to Bid Farewell to the Electoral College

The Electoral College, a mechanism devised to preserve the relative electoral power of smaller states, now stands as an antiquated relic that undermines the principles of fairness and equality.

Ripon Profile of Thom Tillis

Thom Tillis explains explains why “securing our border and implementing comprehensive immigration reform” are among his top legislative priorities and what Republicans need to do to retake the Senate next year.

Ripon Profile of Thom Tillis

Name & occupation: Thom Tillis, United States Senator for North Carolina.

Previous jobs held: I served as Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives for two terms; before that, I served two terms in the minority. I was the minority whip and led the campaign effort that gave Republicans a majority in the North Carolina General Assembly. Before serving in the North Carolina House of Representatives, I was PTA President at Hopewell High School, a Town Commissioner, and a Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Commissioner.

In the private sector, I joined the tech industry at age 20, working in insurance. I moved to Boston to work for Wang Laboratories and then joined PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where I was admitted to the partnership in six years. In 2009, I joined IBM Global Business Services, which PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) management consulting services acquired.

If there was one thing you could tell your younger self today, what would it be and why? I’m a no-regrets kind of guy. Probably never purchase those really short shorts that were popular back in the late ’70s. I don’t know.

What is one of your top legislative priorities and why? Securing our border and implementing comprehensive immigration reform remains one of my top legislative priorities. We must avoid the mistake of many Western industrialized nations that become so successful and focused on work that having families and the demographics to support the future are forgotten about. You can have the demographics necessary to support the future through immigration reform, but you can only have meaningful immigration reform through first securing our border.

If you could have Congress solve one problem affecting North Carolina, what would it be? Immigration. North Carolina has a thriving economy, and through the efforts of Republican majorities in our state legislature, we have become one of the best places for businesses to invest. We desperately need resources that even our universities can’t provide. We have chronic shortages of engineers, doctors, and nurses, so our economic potential is not fully realized. We have both short-term and long-term needs in North Carolina for these workers. Demographers say that by 2100, we will start losing population, and we are about to hit the apex. We have time to fix it, but we will start experiencing problems long before we begin shrinking. We already see it in the chronic job shortages, even in states of high unemployment. That needs to be fixed for a thriving economy like North Carolina.

Finally, what does the GOP Senate need to do in order to regain the Majority in 2024? We need to be a steady influence and understand the Senate is structured to force compromise. We need to be focused and steady to produce results for the American people. There’s a lot of childish behavior right now, and we can differentiate ourselves by being thoughtful, professional, and respectful.