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Across the Red States blog
When Washington Splits, the Statehouse Is Where Republicans Still GovernDemocrats won the House and Senate in 2026; here is how governors, legislatures and attorneys general can still move the conservative agenda.Interstate Competition Is Why States Cannot Afford to Be LazyBecause people and firms can cross a state line, states compete for them; that pressure disciplines government better than any agency in Washington.Brandeis Called the States Laboratories and Conservatives Took Him at His WordThe best-known line about states as laboratories comes from a dissent about ice, and it still frames the case that federalism works only when states may fail.State Constitutions Versus the U.S. Constitution, Side by SideThe federal Constitution is short and hard to amend, while state constitutions are long and amended often, which is why a state can lock a policy in place.The Drinking Age Story Shows How Washington Buys Control of the StatesCongress never ordered a drinking age of 21. It threatened highway money, the Supreme Court said fine, and a template for federal control was born.Why Your State Cannot Print Money the Way Washington DoesWashington runs deficit after deficit while nearly every state must balance its operating budget. That is a free civics lesson, with real limits.Income Tax or No Income Tax, and What Each Choice Costs a StateA state with no income tax still has to pay for schools and roads. Five states side by side show where the money comes from, who pays and what can go wrong.What a Governor Can Actually Do and What Only the Legislature CanA governor is the most visible official in a state and often the least free. Here is the real job, power by power, so you can judge candidates against it.Subsidiarity Is the Old Idea Behind Keeping Power as Close to Home as PossibleDecisions belong at the lowest level that can handle them. Where the idea comes from, how it works, and the cases where a higher level must act.Governor Reagan, Sacramento and the Welfare Fight Nobody RemembersReagan's eight years as California governor taught him to bargain, sign tax bills he disliked and win welfare reform from a Democratic legislature.Who runs foster care, who pays for it and what the 1997 law changedFoster care is a state and county system under federal rules tied to money. Here is who sets what, what the 1980 and 1997 laws did, and where you can push.A Seven-Point Checklist for Judging Any Governor's Emergency PowersEmergency powers are real and necessary, and they are dangerous without an end date; here is a seven-point test that works no matter who holds the office.NFIB v. Sebelius Lost the Mandate Fight but Won a Limit on Federal StringsEveryone remembers Roberts calling the mandate a tax. The lasting conservative win in the 2012 case was the limit on forcing states with federal money.Three Imaginary States Show What a Trifecta Really Buys YouHolding the governorship and both chambers lets a party govern instead of propose, but it does not buy unity. Three hypothetical states show the math.Your Questions About What State Attorneys General Do, AnsweredEleven plain answers about the state attorney general, from what the office does and who it represents to how to file a complaint.What Can a State Do About Immigration? Ten Answers From Arizona v. United StatesStates have more room than critics say and less than boosters hope, and one 2012 Supreme Court decision draws most of the lines.The Hardest Questions About Limited Government, Answered StraightTen tough objections to limited government, from roads to Social Security, answered with texts, cases and dates, including where the critics land a point.How a bill becomes a state law, and where a citizen can step inThe rules that touch your family are written in short, fast state sessions. Here is the route a bill takes, and the doors where a citizen can walk in.How to testify at a hearing in three minutes and be rememberedA playbook for citizens: find the bill, sign up, build a three-minute statement, answer questions, and send the follow-up a staffer remembers.Article V Explained, and the Amendment That Took More Than 200 YearsAmending the Constitution is hard on purpose. Here are the four routes, the 27 amendments, one that took 202 years, and a balanced budget try that missed.The Conservative Case Against the 17th Amendment, Weighed HonestlySome conservatives want state legislatures to pick senators again. The argument deserves a fair hearing, and so does the case for why repeal will not happen.A County Sheriff's Playbook for Joining ICE Under 287(g)Section 287(g) lets a local agency be trained and deputized for immigration tasks. Here are the steps for a sheriff or county board, and how a citizen can ask.Initiative, Referendum and Recall Explained in Ten Straight AnswersVoters in many states can write laws, veto laws and fire officials directly. Here is what each tool is, where it came from and how conservatives should use it.Red-flag laws are only as good as their due process protectionsThe case for extreme risk protection orders at full strength, then the due process questions every statute has to answer before conservatives should support it.How a Bill Becomes State Law, From Idea to the Governor's DeskMost bills die in committee, and that is where citizens have the most leverage. Here is the path in order, with where you can speak at each stage.Open meetings and public records, a citizen's toolkit for any local governmentSunshine laws let you watch your local government spend your money, and almost nobody uses them. A grouped checklist, with the reason behind every item.Kelo v. New London and the Backlash That Reached Statehouses NationwideA 5-4 ruling let a city take homes for a private development plan. The anger that followed rewrote property laws in state after state.Why Your City Can't Do That, Dillon's Rule and Home Rule ExplainedCities are creatures of the state; here is how Dillon's Rule, home rule and preemption let a statehouse overrule a council, and where conservatives disagree.Before you drive across state lines with a gun, run this checklistFederal safe passage protects a lawful gun owner only if every condition in 18 U.S.C. 926A is met, and this checklist walks through each one.Initiatives, referendums and amendments, how ballot measures really workHow initiatives, referendums and amendments reach the ballot, the conservative wins from Prop 13 to TABOR, and why wording decides the vote.Vouchers, Tax Credits, ESAs and Charters Compared for State LawmakersSchool choice is a family of mechanisms, and the legal and fiscal differences decide which ones survive in a given state. Here they are side by side.The Tenth Amendment Rule That Protects Red States Also Protects Sanctuary CitiesConservatives won the anti-commandeering rule, which bars Washington from conscripting state officers. A principle cuts both ways, and it has limits.Why abortion law differs from state to state, mechanism by mechanismThe post-Dobbs patchwork is not chaos. Six legal mechanisms explain it, and each one has a different group of people who can change it.How a Citizen Initiative Gets on the Ballot, Signature by SignatureMost initiative drives fail on procedure and not on popularity, so here are the steps in order, with where to find the exact rules for your own state.E-Verify Explained, the Free Federal Check Most Employers SkipE-Verify is the quietest powerful tool in the immigration debate, and where it is required it changes the incentive to hire off the books.The license you need to braid hair and the jobs it quietly killsOccupational licensing grew into a gate on roughly a quarter of American jobs. Who it keeps out, what the research says, and the reform that is spreading.You Need the Government's Permission to Braid Hair? Licensing Gone WildLicensing began as protection from real danger and drifted into protection from competition. Here is how that happened, and what a sensible fix looks like.Do Damage Caps Hurt Victims? The Best Case Against Tort Reform AnsweredTrial lawyers say caps on noneconomic damages punish the worst-injured. Here is that argument at full strength, then a numbered answer.Three Towns, Three Rule Books and the Case for Letting States DifferThree imaginary towns show how federalism lets families choose, lets ideas get tested cheaply, and what it costs when a state chooses badly.Seven Right-to-Work Myths From Both Sides, Tested Against the RecordBoth camps in the right-to-work fight over-claim, and a conservative who wants to win should know which claims on his own side will not survive a fact-check.What Right-to-Work Means and How Taft-Hartley Let States DecideRight-to-work is a state law that exists because Congress let states choose in 1947. What it bars, what it leaves alone, and how Janus changed public jobs.Four ways a state can regulate carrying a gun, side by sideNo-issue, may-issue, shall-issue and permitless carry compared in one table: who decides, what standard applies, and what the citizen must do.Why your carry permit works in some states and fails in othersA carry permit is a state document, and no federal rule makes another state honor it. How reciprocity works and the arguments for and against a national rule.