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Brannon Howse: All right. Let's go to the U.S. Capital. We're going to check in with Neil McCabe. and Will Upton with the Star News Network. Guys, welcome to the Lindell TV Network Brannon House Live. What a beautiful shot there tonight on Capitol Hill.

Neil McCabe: Yeah, well, thanks for having us with you. And, of course, the Ohio Star is part of that constellation called the Star News Network. And there's big news tonight in Ohio.

Brannon Howse: Well, let's break those down because I see the primaries are going on, and I've been following at results.decisiondeskhq.com. What's going on with J.D. Vance? Trump-endorsed J.D. Vance for U.S. Senate in the Republican primary?

Neil McCabe: J.D. Vance, I would say, first of all, that maybe one of the best-timed endorsements in political history. President Donald J. Trump endorsed J.D. Vance about a minute before J.D. Vance didn't need that endorsement. Will, how would you call the J.D. Vance campaign and his win tonight that's been projected?

Will Upton: I think it's absolutely historic, and it's great for Ohio. We have somebody who, for the first time in the state, really gets some of the issues that we see in eastern Ohio with steel plant closures, the death of the coal industry, and the death of manufacturing in general. It's kind of bringing that political issue to the forefront, an area that the Democrats used to dominate in. It is now kind of, you know, fair game. So, I think it's exciting, and I think it's going to bring a wonderful victory for the Republican Party here in November.

Neil McCabe: Yeah. I think it was pretty much a sad ending for Josh Mandel, who ten years ago was really a favorite and was considered the young gun up and coming. Does Josh Mandel recover from this, Will?

Will Upton: I really don't know. Mandel was a rising star. He did kind of take a shellacking from Sherrod Brown, the Democratic Senator from Ohio. But then, you know, he sort of rode John Kasich coattails into the treasurer's office and did a very fine job there. We'll see if he can kind of pull things back together. I would not be hopeful myself. But, you know, comeback stories do happen.

Neil McCabe: Yeah, well, that's pretty much our take on the Senate race. Did you have any other questions about Senators, or do you want to talk about the Governor also?

Brannon Howse: Well, yeah, let's talk about Governors. Let me go to this screenshot. I don't know if you guys can see this or not. I'm showing that the results.decisionsdeskhq.com are saying J.D. Vance is now got 31.01% of the vote. So, it looks like they've called it for him. Then Ohio Governor Mike DeWine seems to be running away with this thing, almost 50%, 48.13%. What are you guys hearing about this one?

Neil McCabe: Well, you know, Jim Renacci wanted to run for Governor in 2018, and as a favor to President Trump, he did not run for Governor. He, instead, decided to go against Sherrod Brown. He won in the primary. He was the nominee going up against Sherrod Brown, and for some reason, and a lot of people speculate about what went down, President Trump refused to criticize Sherrod Brown, and it's almost like he backed off of Sherrod Brown.

And so, there are a lot of conspiracy theories inside of Ohio about why that happened. Renacci basically picked himself back up again and said, "I always wanted to be the Governor of Ohio, and I'm going to run one more time." He spent his own money. He gave it a good shot, but I think he made a critical mistake not going on TV. Will, Renacci loses why?

Will Upton: I think it's a mixture of you have large parts of the State of Ohio. I grew up in Muskingum County. It's a rural county. Not a lot of people necessarily use the Internet or have access to the Internet. A lot of people get their news from television. Not going up on TV is a huge mistake. You combine that with sort of Mike DeWine's control over the state party. You're going up against an incumbent Republican Governor. That's a difficult lift, to begin with. And not going on TV, that's a critical error.

Neil McCabe: Yeah. I think also it should be noted that the Republican Governors Association, which is not really a PAC, it's more like a trade organization. They spent $5 million to help DeWine and the state party of Ohio. The state Republican Party spent even more millions of dollars on behalf of DeWine, even before DeWine was endorsed by the Central Committee. But that's just the way things go in Ohio.

Brannon Howse: Wow. What do you make of the Ohio Secretary of State race? Whoever Frank LaRose is. I mean, he's running away with it with almost 64% of the vote, is what it's saying here against John Adams.

Neil McCabe: Well, about two weeks ago, there was a rally with Trump. Trump endorsed Frank LaRose. He's a Green Beret. There's a riptide sort of resentment about LaRose because, frankly, everything that Raffensperger was accused of doing in Georgia, LaRose tried to do in Ohio and was stopped by the legislature. What do you think? Did Trump bail him out, Will?

Will Upton: I think Trump bailed LaRose out. There is a lot of hope in Ohio as well, though, that LaRose will kind of be a future candidate against Sherrod Brown. They view him as sort of the vehicle to defeat Brown. So, I think both within the Trump world, and within the Ohio GOP, there are a lot of impulses to protect LaRose.

Neil McCabe: Yeah, and I will say this, going back to DeWine. The fine that First Energy paid was something like $230 million dollars because of the bribes that they paid and all of the influence-peddling to get that referendum so that they could get bailed out of one of their bankrupt reactors. Everyone around DeWine is somehow related to that First Energy scandal. The guy who was going to be the chief witness for the Justice Department committed suicide. They found him in the bushes wearing a DeWine for Governor T-shirt. And so, I've got to really question whether DeWine is going to be hit with indictments and other things now that this primary is over. And, of course, that's how things play in Ohio.

Will Upton: Yeah, you know, the Ohio Star and the Star News Network have done a great job covering this. And I look forward to their coverage in the future as this develops. In the energy sector in Ohio, there is a lot of shady stuff that happens there. We've seen things with the Utica Shale Play in eastern Ohio and sort of property buyouts and things not panning out and then trying to put this back on farmers. So, you know, the energy sector in Ohio is a place that needs a lot of disinfectants. Sunlight.

Neil McCabe: Yeah, Ohio is a pretty corrupt state. It might be the most corrupt state you never thought was corrupt.

Brannon Howse: So, Neil and Will, let me ask you this. There are those saying that Ohio was going to kind of be a test for the fall and for Trump. Do you believe, A, which is true, and if so, B, how is it turning out for us?

Neil McCabe: Well, I think, you know, Ohio was supposed to be close. And Ohio is not a Republican state. Ohio is a Trump state. Will, sort of talk about the Trump takeover of Ohio.

Will Upton: Yeah. So, we actually saw something really, truly historic. You had Mahoning County in 2020 actually flip and go Republican for the first time in over 100 years. So, this is the county that Youngstown, Ohio, is in. This is a blue-collar, union household, steelworker county. Trump appealed to these votes. And this is also, you know, the importance of J.D. Vance as well.

Vance and Donald Trump both appeal to these union households in eastern Ohio that used to be completely off the table for Republican candidates in the state. And now, these households and these voters are open to us. And this gives us complete domination of the state in the long run.

Neil McCabe: Yeah. And I think we should remember that there's a son of Youngstown who'll be running on the ticket with J.D. Vance. So, explain this.

Will Upton: It's going to be a very interesting election. So, Tim Ryan.

Neil McCabe: The democrat.

Will Upton: Would be the Democratic nominee. He is from Mahoning County. He was the Legislative Director for a legendary congressman whose name slips my mind now, but a legendary Democratic congressman from the area who's kind of a proto-Trump populist, actually. Right. And Ryan's trying to catch that magic again. I don't think he will. You know, he's been running some very good ads, though, kind of pointing out that it's been outsourcing in China that is sort of corroded.

Neil McCabe: Very Vance-like ads.

Will Upton: Yeah, very Vance-like ads that have sort of destroyed the steel industry in Ohio and destroyed the coal sectors in Ohio. So, we'll see if that can catch on. But I think a lot of people remain skeptical of Tim Ryan.

Neil McCabe: So basically, you have a guy named Tim Ryan who's running a Trumpian campaign, and I think that speaks to Ohio as a Trump state more than anything else.

Brannon Howse: So, he's a Democrat?

Will Upton: That is who Tim Ryan worked for Traficant.

Neil McCabe: The great James Traficant. Good job, Will.

Brannon Howse: This guy is a Democrat, kind of running a Trump-style campaign in Ohio?

Neil McCabe: Absolutely. Tim Ryan was pro-life up until he had greater ambitions. And remember, it was four years ago or six years ago that he actually took it to the House with Nancy Pelosi. He won 30% of the vote in the Democratic House caucus going up against Pelosi.

And, you know, she went into that thinking she might lose. It ended his career, for all intents and purposes, in the House leadership. But, you know, now he's going to run for Governor. And I don't see the percentages in front of me, but I imagine Ryan is running up some Fernando Marcos, Saddam Hussein margins right now.

Will Upton: Oh, absolutely.

Brannon Howse: Well, thank you for the update. Neil McCabe and Will Upton, let me ask you really quickly, Neal, about your reporting for us earlier tonight during the Lindell report. That crowd, I mean, I know you had to be careful what you were saying, and you were being a little sarcastic, I think. I picked up on it. But seriously, were you concerned about that crowd? Because they seem pretty aggressive to me.

Neil McCabe: No, I wasn't worried about those guys, like hurting me. What I was worried about was, you know, them heckling me. And, you know, as I'm trying to speak, they're sort of shouting me down. You know, they were trying to block Anthony's camera. And so, they were just doing things to make it impossible to actually report. But I wasn't in any physical danger. Frankly, if I got on my hind legs, they were the ones in physical danger, friend.

Brannon Howse: I'm glad to hear it. Well, I was worried about your equipment, but I did notice them even in the shots before we were going live, holding up their signs in front of your face. I'm like, how is he going to get this report off? But you did a magnificent job. Are they still over there? I mean, for those who don't know, the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Capitol are right next door to each other. So, you can just look across and see it, right?

Neil McCabe: Yeah. It's kind of quiet over there. They haven't opened up that road that runs between the Supreme Court and the Capitol, but it's really quiet, and I think they've pretty much gone home.

Brannon Howse: Wow.

Neil McCabe: Well, they got a lot of work to do. They said they've got to figure out, is there any way we can make four bigger than five?

Brannon Howse: Let's show the website really quick. This is the Starnewsnetwork.com. What they do is they report on a lot of news around the country at your state level. Like we have one for Tennessee. Here they are. Here are all the Star News Networks: Tennessee Star, Ohio Star, Virginia Star, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, and Connecticut. See, I visit the Tennessee Star a lot because I want to see what's going on in my state.

So, this is an organization we work with, Michael Patrick Leahy. What we do here at Lindell TV and then what they do. Well, we can actually work together because we're filling a need. They are filling a need. So, it's great to work with the Starnewsnetwork.com folks. You should check it out. Find out particularly if you're living in any of these states listed right here on the screen, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, or Connecticut.

You can find out what's going on with your news from a conservative perspective. And I think they're also going to be launching some local news in those markets. TV news that is local to that market, which, again, is a great idea as well. So, we appreciate the folks at Starnewsnetwork.com. Will Upton and Neal McCabe, thank you guys for being with us tonight. Any closing comments?

Neil McCabe: Now, I just want to thank you for all you guys do. Giving a platform to stories that would otherwise not get out. Will and I really appreciate you having us on. Have a good night.

Brannon Howse: You, too. Thank you. We appreciate your reporting for us tonight from Capitol Hill. There you go, folks. We're going to be doing more of this kind of thing as we grow. We'll be working with more groups, reaching out, and building relationships with more groups like that.