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GOP Turnout and the Mail-In Ballot Fight: Jim Pfaff on The Vicki McKenna Show | Aug 28, 2026

Published: August 28, 2026
Network: The Vicki McKenna Show
Analysis: Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff

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On the August 28 edition of The Vicki McKenna Show, Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff and host Vicki McKenna framed the midterms as a GOP turnout fight first and a process fight second. McKenna opened on the same ground TCC has pressed all year: Democrats will manipulate mail-in and election process wherever they can, Republicans cannot count on the Save America Act or a post-office rule to finish the job for them, and the only reliable answer is a turnout win that matches 2024. Pfaff traced that process fight back to a longer pattern — Democrats using law to change elections so they do not have to change what they believe — then connected it to a $30 trillion debt track, the September 9-10 GOP midterm convention in Dallas, Trump putting his record on the ballot, and a Texas Senate primary that still needs work ethic from Ken Paxton.

Topics Covered

• Process Fights, Mail-In Rules, and Why Turnout Still Decides It
• From Surpluses to $30 Trillion: The Debt Track Democrats Built
• Tea Party, Boehner, and Why Process Beats Broad Messages
• Dallas, Trump’s $400 Million, and Putting the Record on the Ballot
• Texas, Cornyn, Talarico, and Ken Paxton’s Work Rate
• Key Takeaways

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Process Fights, Mail-In Rules, and Why Turnout Still Decides It

McKenna put the midterm math in one sentence: this has to be a big turnout win for the GOP, because Democrats will do everything in their power to manipulate the process, and Republicans are not going to be able to rely on the Save America Act or a post-office rule. She credited the Senate dynamic with a dry “Thank you, John Thune,” and said the repeated trips to friendly judges should put an exclamation point on a simple fact — Democrats do not try to win fair because they cannot win in a fair fight.

Pfaff agreed on the turnout requirement and widened the frame. The Republican platform is so ingrained in American culture, he said, that Democrats decided this century they would use law to change elections rather than align with that platform. That is the same fight behind mail-in expansion, process litigation, and the Mark Elias / Norm Eisen reaction to a Supreme Court decision that no longer gives them a free run.

“They decided this century that we are gonna use law to change elections so that we can win without having to change what we believe.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

On turnout itself, Pfaff was blunt. Massive turnout worked in 2024. It has to happen this year. If Republicans spent the last legislative days of the year doing even a little of what voters asked for — including election-integrity legislation — that turnout would come more fully. He did not pretend the Senate clock was cooperative. That is why the Save America Act fight and holding Congress in 2026 sit in the same argument: process rules matter, and so does whether the Republican base shows up.

“But your point about having a massive turnout, absolutely. It worked in 2024. It’s got to happen this year.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

From Surpluses to $30 Trillion: The Debt Track Democrats Built

Pfaff used the 1990s as the contrast. Bill Clinton was forced to work with Newt Gingrich on fiscal constraints that produced surpluses. The Office of Management and Budget, on then-current spending patterns, projected paying off a then-$5 trillion national debt by 2013. Twenty-six years later, he said, the country is about $30 trillion in debt, Democrats show zero interest in fiscal stability, and even Republicans have largely abandoned the issue in favor of blowing through the debt ceiling every fiscal year.

He described a recent exchange with a Democrat acquaintance who asked whether they could talk about the debt. Pfaff’s answer: sure — but no one on that side wants to, and only a handful on the Republican side still do, because Democrats moved the debate off the table. The result, in his words, is an almost permanent track toward a debt crisis.

“A lot of them, not all of them, don’t realize it’s a fight for the survival of this country. Now we’re $30 trillion in debt.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Tea Party, Boehner, and Why Process Beats Broad Messages

Pfaff located himself in the Tea Party wave as one of the organizers who turned out thousands outside the Colorado statehouse against the Obama stimulus when he was running Americans for Prosperity Colorado. The electoral win was real — about 54 new seats, roughly 62 Tea Party-aligned members — and then John Boehner worked against them. About 25 of those members eventually became the House Freedom Caucus. The rest, Pfaff said, got co-opted the way new members of Congress often do.

The concrete fight he cited was Boehner’s “Plan B” at the end of 2012, when the Bush tax cuts were expiring. Pfaff was chief of staff to Tim Huelskamp of Kansas. Leadership’s path was a bill that would raise taxes on the wealthiest and play into the Democrat frame. Huelskamp and the conservative groups beat that plan. Pfaff’s lesson was not nostalgia. It was that Republicans had the cards and still fought against getting on a Republican track.

Obama, he argued, proved a second lesson: you do not need a broad message to win if you turn on deep constituencies and use the election process itself — microgroups, microtargeting, process — rather than running a Bill Clinton-style broad coalition message. Democrats have gotten more radical chasing those constituencies. Republicans who want to “work with everyone” become part of the problem when the moment requires a fight.

Dallas, Trump’s $400 Million, and Putting the Record on the Ballot

McKenna and Pfaff treated the Democrats’ decision to put Trump on the ballot as an opening. Trump’s answer, as Pfaff recounted it from about two days earlier: fine — he has $400 million, he will talk about his accomplishments, and every Republican can draft on that record. The intention Pfaff described is rallies, resources, and deploying that war chest so Republican enthusiasm has somewhere to go.

That effort begins, Pfaff said, on September 9 and 10 with the GOP midterm convention. The Conservative Caucus is making a deep investment: a platinum suite, a lot of live media, and extra programming beyond Pfaff’s normal interview load. He said he was impressed with how organized the event is for something stood up in months rather than a year and a half. If it works, it is a first step — not a finish line — toward rally after rally through September and October.

“That begins on September 9th and 10th with the GOP midterm convention. Now, the Conservative Caucus has made a deep investment in being there in a big way.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

The closing message, he said, is not Iran and not most international fights, even if Canada and Mark Carney will linger. Highlight what has been working, admit it is nowhere near far enough, and drive that record home. Republicans should not be at risk of losing the House after a Supreme Court redistricting decision they failed to use the way Democrats used Wisconsin. That failure is why the turnout and convention fights matter now.

Texas, Cornyn, Talarico, and Ken Paxton’s Work Rate

McKenna’s last question was the Texas Senate picture: how a progressive challenger could be tied with Ken Paxton in red Texas. Pfaff named three forces. First, a Republican establishment / Cornyn faction that hates grassroots conservatives — the same dynamic as Washington. Second, money and effort on behalf of Talarico. Third, Paxton himself needs a higher work rate: more airtime, event after event, and the kind of contact Pfaff said he hoped to make soon.

He still thinks the dynamic favors Paxton and that the race can move the way Ted Cruz’s race against Beto O’Rourke moved at a similar point on the calendar. The larger point was energy. Grassroots conservatives matter because campaigns need the energy of the voters they should already have before they can expand. Most of what Democrats have won this century, Pfaff said, came because Republicans were feckless and weak in opposition. Paxton is a fighter; every Republican candidate has to be one.

“Land some blows. No more platitudes. Bust your butt. Land the blows.”
— Vicki McKenna, host, The Vicki McKenna Show

Key Takeaways

1. Turnout is non-negotiable – McKenna and Pfaff agree Republicans cannot outsource the midterms to the Save America Act or mail-in process rules. Massive GOP turnout worked in 2024 and has to happen again.
2. Process is the Democrat strategy – Pfaff’s line is that Democrats decided this century to use law to change elections so they do not have to change what they believe. Norm Eisen and Mark Elias going apoplectic over losing a free run is the tell.
3. Debt is a survival fight – From 1990s surpluses and an OMB path to pay off a $5 trillion debt by 2013, to roughly $30 trillion now, with Democrats uninterested and Republicans mostly abandoning the issue.
4. Dallas is a first step – The September 9-10 GOP midterm convention is where Trump’s on-ballot energy and a $400 million war chest start converting into rally turnout. TCC is investing with a platinum suite and heavy live media.
5. The message is the record, not Iran – Highlight what is working, admit the distance left, and keep the House so the executive run is not hampered.
6. Texas still requires work rate – Cornyn-faction resistance, Talarico money/effort, and Paxton’s need for more events and airtime — with Cruz-Beto as the reminder that late dynamics can move.

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About The Conservative Caucus:
The Conservative Caucus is a grassroots public policy action organization, formed in 1974. Headed by President Jim Pfaff, the Caucus is committed to advancing free enterprise, limited government, and traditional values.

Originally broadcast Aug 28, 2026 on The Vicki McKenna Show.