Secretary of State Chuck Gray on the SAVE Act, Sen. James Lankford hands out MVPs, a “die in” roils the Iowa Senate race, and more

Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray has been at the forefront of the battles for election integrity in America for years, recently testifying before the House Committee on Administration about his work implementing proof of citizenship and voter ID in Wyoming.

“The hearing was just wonderful, and it was really great to engage in a conversation about Wyoming being a leader on these issues, and how these common sense election integrity measures that over 90 percent of Americans support, are implemented,” Gray told the Washington Reporter in an interview. “They are more than implementable. They are very easy to implement. And that’s what I want. That’s one of the things that I spoke to, and I want to continue to speak to: Wyoming has been a leader on these issues…. We have implemented proof of citizenship for registering to vote. We have implemented voter ID.”

While Gray said that Rep. Bryan Steil (R., Wis.), who chairs the House Admin Committee, is “just an incredible person,” he added that the committee’s Democrats were “out of control…with histrionics. They were refusing to allow us to answer the questions and they were saying things that out of context and that weren’t factual. They were grasping at straws for some narrative, because they don’t want this bill that over 90 percent of Americans support.”

INTERVIEW INCOMING: Our editor-in-chief Matthew Foldi scored another interview with President Donald Trump — we’re going to roll out a special edition of the Washington Reporter featuring a series of articles Foldi wrote about his latest conversation with the 47th president. HISTORY MADE: President Donald Trump celebrated one year back in the White House following his historic 2024 comeback earlier this week. Rep. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.), the House GOP’s Conference Chair, hosted another media row that the Washington Reporterwas on-site for. Stay tuned for coverage of that! 2026 WATCH: Austin Rogers, the general counsel to Sen. Rick Scott (R.,…

Although a top House recruit for Democrats in Pennsylvania is running as a working class champion, a Washington Reporter investigation casts doubt on that categorization — and local and national Republicans are eager to drive a wedge between that image and what they view as the reality of her finances.

A review of Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti’s financial disclosures show that Scranton’s mayor has little in common with working class families in Pennsylvania’s 8th District.

Cognetti’s financial disclosure shows that her net worth is between $533,000 and $2.3 million, even though her salary as mayor is $75,000. Cognetti is nevertheless running as “Paige Against the Machine” in a district where the median household income is just over $65,000.

Even though the Super Bowl is over, Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.) is keeping the spotlight on fumbles, in his newest initiative “Federal Fumbles.” 

In his latest ESPN-themed report, Lankford offered a bleak outlook in the game between taxpayers and Washington, D.C. “Even though the Super Bowl is behind us, it’s still Federal Fumbles season in Washington,” he told the Washington Reporter. 

Iowa Democrats have been largely quiet on an anti-Israel “die-in” targeting one of Iowa’s largest employers, while the state’s likely GOP nominee told the Washington Reporter that she “stand[s] with Israel.”

At a University of Iowa job fair, activists wearing COVID masks and doctors’ uniforms drenched in fake blood demanded that Collins Aerospace — one of the largest employers in Iowa — “end [its] complicity” with Israel.

The Committee on House Administration continued its push for election integrity with a recent hearing on “How to Restore Trust and Integrity in Federal Elections.”

The committee, led by Rep. Bryan Steil (R., Wis.), invited Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Michigan State Rep. Ann Bollin, Judicial Watch’s Russ Nobile, and Advance Elections’s Karen Brinson Bell to serve as witnesses for the hearing.

Republicans’ agenda was implementing citizenship verification, which has been a priority of Gray’s for years, as he told the Washington Reporter in an interview following the hearing. 

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) continued its election integrity measures by bringing in some of the most prominent advocates for secure elections to complement its legislative agenda.

Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R., Ariz.) led a roundtable for RSC members alongside Rep. Bryan Steil (R., Wis.), the chair of the House Committee on Administration. They were joined by Scott Presler, a conservative activist who has made election integrity his cause, and Cleta Mitchell, an election integrity expert. 

“I hear from voters all the time, and they say ‘Scott, what’s the point of me voting if my vote can be negated and diluted by a fraudulent vote? Why should I come out and work tirelessly to elect candidates when elections could potentially be stolen via fraud?’” Presler said. He also addressed potential concerns from the right about the federalization of elections. “It was the Democrat Party in 2019, the first bill out of the House of Representatives was HR1, the For the People Act. There is precedent from the Democrat Party pushing for election reform on the federal level, and while I myself am a federalist and I believe in the separation of powers between the federal government and state governments, our Constitution specifically and definitively says that Congress may regulate our elections. We’re not asking for anything other than guardrails.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and the Senate Commerce Committee are in the middle of one of the Trump administration’s biggest antitrust fights, which is pitting President Donald Trump against one of his allies in conservative media.

During a hearing on “Media Ownership in the Digital Age,” Cruz welcomed in “my friend Chris Ruddy,” the CEO of Newsmax, who made the case against a Trump-backed planned merger of Nexstar and Tegna, which Trump wants the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to green light.

“The Nexstar deal works for Wall Street but it doesn’t work for Main Street,” Ruddy told lawmakers. The Washington Reporter previously covered a Public Opinion Strategies poll which showed that an overwhelming majority of Republican voters side with Ruddy and oppose a potential merger. 

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is making its case for the SAVE Act with two of the GOP’s most election integrity-focused advocates. 

In the RSC’s latest podcast episode, obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas) interviewed Scott Presler, whom Roy said is someone who has “done more than just about anybody who doesn’t have elected office or frankly, maybe even more than anybody who’s elected to get us to the point right now where we’re going to have the SAVE America Act over in the United States Senate, and hopefully the Senate will be able to move the bill.”

The RSC has emerged as one of the key players on Capitol Hill in the push for the SAVE Act. The RSC hosted an election integrity roundtable last week that featured Reps. Bryan Steil (R., Wis.), Abe Hamadeh (R., Ariz.), and several others, along with Presler and Cleta Mitchel. 

Most Americans can feel it: the world is on edge. Things are moving fast, and actions carry real consequences. This is one of those moments when leadership matters — not flashy speeches or empty promises, but steady hands and clear judgment. That’s what people expect from a president, and it’s what President Donald Trump has shown he understands.

No president has a record for peace like the current one, and we the American people need to do one thing only: continue following the America First playbook the Trump administration has used over the last year and during the first administration.

This weekend, when an Iranian drone moved toward a U.S. warship and was shot down, it sent a simple message: America will defend its people. No panic. No overreaction. Just a firm response that kept our sailors safe and avoided a wider fight. That’s how strength is supposed to work — calm, confident, and clear, and always with the American people front and center. 

The greatest challenge facing the United States today is not a distant or theoretical threat. It is happening now, and it will determine whether we lead the world in the decades ahead or if we watch a hostile foreign power set the rules. This challenge will shape economic growth, national security, and global power for the next century. 

That challenge is artificial intelligence (AI).

Research shows that China is rapidly closing the gap with the United States in AI research and talent development. If America fails to lead, China will set the standards for how artificial intelligence is developed, deployed, and used around the world. China has made its ambitions unmistakably clear. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has declared artificial intelligence central to its national strategy, with President Xi Jinping calling AI an “epoch-making technological transformation” capable of reshaping humanity and directing Chinese firms to lead humanity’s development. Beijing is backing that rhetoric with massive state investment in AI research, industrial capacity, and talent pipelines.