Fellow Conservative,

It’s been a wild week across the country. Minneapolis is on fire, the government is partially shut down, both the SAVE Act and education freedom are gaining momentum, and we’re preparing for the Supreme Court to rule in the all-important Louisiana v. Callais.

But we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our card celebrating the announcement of a Vice-Presidential baby! It’s the first time in history! Read to the end to add your name to it!

What’s going on in Minnesota is not normal. Elected officials are publicly encouraging, radical, criminal agitators to cause chaos and obstruct enforcement of immigration law.

Now all eyes are on the White House. Our message is simple: full steam ahead.

The President cannot reward the Left’s illegal tactics by backing down from his promise to protect the American people’s safety and economic security through the largest deportation operation in American history, including in so-called sanctuary cities. Unless the administration continues to enforce the law in Minnesota, the Left will see this as a victory and similar, highly organized interference will start in other places.

Given the facts, the President has clear authority under the Insurrection Act to federalize the National Guard or deploy the military. Federal agents cannot be obstructed in their mission to enforce immigration law.

Why is all of this happening in Minnesota and not Texas?

Sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one. It’s because Texas isn’t run by insane Leftists and isn’t dominated by sanctuary cities. Texas is the state where ICE is most active, yet there are no sanctuary cities there to impede them. Yes, you heard that right. Texas has zero sanctuary cities. Not even the so-called People’s Socialist Republic of Austin is a sanctuary city.

Meanwhile, both of Minnesota’s main population centers — Minneapolis and St. Paul — are sanctuary jurisdictions.

Repercussions in Washington

Congressional Democrats smell blood in the water and are holding the country hostage again with a (partial) government shutdown. Their demands? Handicap ICE even more. Last night, the Senate passed a revised appropriations minibus containing five of the original six House-passed bills. Included in that package was a two-week continuing resolution for DHS, a key Democrat demand this week.

The House is expected to return this coming week to take up the revised package and end the partial shutdown.

Not to be outdone by their Democrat counterparts, some wobbly Republicans are ALREADY calling for a deal that would grant PERMANENT amnesty to “non-criminal” illegal aliens. That’s what we call moving the goal posts. If an individual is in this country illegally, they are, in fact, a criminal.

KEY VOTE — BONUS ROUND!

Over the past several weeks Heritage Action has issued Key Votes to strip the funding package of some of the worst provisions in the appropriations bill — specifically amendments to strike funding for the left-wing National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and a slew of wasteful earmarks in the Labor-HHS portion of the bill.

Both of them failed in the House, but the fight continues to save taxpayers billions of dollars and defund woke nonsense.

That’s why Heritage Action issued an identical Key Vote supporting Senator Schmitt’s amendment to defund NED. Unfortunately, the Senate didn’t even have a recorded vote on it and killed it through what’s known as a “voice vote.” Make of that what you will, but remember, NED is just as much of a liberal slush fund today as it was two weeks ago. Read all the details here.

The second Key Vote was in favor of Senator Lee’s amendment stripping ALL earmarks from the bill. Last week, 81 House Republicans voted to protect earmarks in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill that contained many of the most egregious examples, such as millions of dollars for sex-rejecting surgeries, abortion on demand, and DEI. However, there’s no such thing as a “good” earmark, and we thank Senator Lee for leading this effort to get rid of them. Unfortunately, 20 Republicans joined with Senate Democrats to reject Senator Lee’s amendment.

Read more about the Key Votes here!

>> KEY VOTE: “YES” on Schmitt Amendment #4241 to H.R. 7148

>> KEY VOTE: "YES" on Lee Amendment #4236 to H.R. 7148 to Strike All Earmarks from the FY26 Funding Bill

SAVE Act Update

Why is the SAVE Act so important?

Representative Ilhan Omar said the quiet part out loud — the anti-ICE violence in Minnesota isn’t about protecting illegal aliens from deportation; it’s about protecting their ability to vote in OUR elections. Unfortunately, it’s not just Minnesota either. Virginia is now attempting to pass legislation to block ICE officers from coming within 40 feet of a polling booth.

The SAVE Act is about one simple principle: only U.S. citizens should vote in U.S. elections. Because the grassroots have been calling and emailing, nearly every Republican Senator is now a cosponsor!

There’s no way to diminish what the grassroots are doing. They’re making it loud and clear that they demand secure elections, and Washington is feeling the heat from back home.

They actually felt so much heat that they made the bill even better. On Thursday, a new and improved version of the SAVE Act was released — this time including photo ID requirements!

Stay tuned — this fight is far from over. And Heritage Action will be at the forefront.

In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to add your name to the petition and share it with likeminded conservatives!

>> Sign the Petition to Tell Congress Election Integrity Matters

It’s National School Choice Week!

On Thursday, Heritage Action Executive Vice President, Tiffany Justice, spoke at a White House School Choice roundtable with other leaders in the education freedom movement, including Secretary Linda McMahon.

There’s no doubt about it: BIG things are happening!

The roundtable recognized the great accomplishments for students and parents across the country. The Trump administration has been delivering on their promises of school choice.

Here’s the message Tiffany delivered:

“School choice is our Declaration of Independence. It is the mechanism that restores the natural order of the American family. It is time to break the clutches of the education monopoly and return the power to the people who actually love the children: The parents.”

Although progress has been made on many fronts, Heritage Action is determined to keep advancing the principles and values of education freedom across all 50 states until every student can get the best education for them.

One State, Two States, Red States, Blue States

The courts just put Virginia Democrats’ unconstitutional power grab on hold.

After Virginians overwhelmingly voted to take redistricting power out of politicians’ hands, some lawmakers in Richmond decided that the rules don’t apply to them. So, they just tried to do it anyway and fight it in court. Shocker — they lost.

Here’s how we imagine the judge was looking when he heard the Democrats’ argument:

When the law prevents the Left from expanding their power, they try to rewrite, bypass, or flat-out ignore it. And that’s why Republicans must be willing to fight back. We’ve been fighting with our hands tied behind our backs for decades — enough is enough. Our country is on the line.

For years, Republican states have been trapped in a catch-22 where they’re told race can’t be the primary factor in drawing districts, while simultaneously being sued for not drawing race-based maps by the Left’s legal cabal who are purely seeking power, not fair maps.

The Supreme Court now has an opportunity in Louisiana v. Callais to bring clarity to that contradiction and rein in the misuse of the Voting Rights Act. If this happens it will allow Republican states to fix their maps and restore equal representation for millions.

But having the green light to redistrict and actually doing it are different things, as we have seen with Indiana.

Republicans must have a backbone. Pretending this fight doesn’t matter is how you lose Congress before the first campaign ad runs. This is a street fight for congressional control, and 2026 may be the last off-ramp before Democrats lock in structural advantages that last a generation.

Baby Vance 2026!

Congratulations to Vice President JD Vance and his wonderful wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, on their growing family!

>> Add your name to the congratulations card that we're sending the Vances! <<

- The Heritage Action Team

Join the fight to advance the conservative agenda.