26 House and 11 Senate Races: Jim Pfaff on On Second Thought | Aug 6, 2026
Published: August 6, 2026
Network: WHKY, On Second Thought with Chuck Boozer
Analysis: Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff
The Conservative Caucus is heading into the November elections with a target list: roughly 26 House races and 11 Senate races, backed by millions of dollars in direct mail, automated calls, text messages, and television and radio ads. On the August 6 edition of WHKY’s On Second Thought with Chuck Boozer, Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff walked through that campaign plan, what Tuesday’s Michigan Senate primary win by Abdul El-Sayed says about the Democratic Party’s direction, and why — notwithstanding the polls — he says Texas is not going blue. The conversation closed on a lighter note with the FIFA World Cup and what visiting fans discovered about America.
Topics Covered
- Getting Ready for November: 26 House Races, 11 Senate Races
- The Michigan Primary and the Democrats’ Socialist Drift
- A Big Tent That Isn’t
- Texas Is Not Going Blue: Reading the Senate Map
- What the World Cup Showed the World About America
- Key Takeaways
Getting Ready for November: 26 House Races, 11 Senate Races
Asked what he is doing with himself these days, Pfaff’s answer was simple: getting ready for November. The Conservative Caucus is building out databases of people to target, and — as he put it — “We’re connecting with folks in the states.” The scale of the plan is specific:
“we’ll probably target about 26 House races and 11 Senate races, trying to get a message out that, you know, the Democrats are not an American party. They are a socialist communist party that seeks to overthrow the Constitution.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
The effort means spending millions of dollars on direct mail, automated calls, telephone, text messages, and television and radio ads — and supporting “the good guys,” including some RINO Republicans the Caucus is not always happy with, because the alternative is worse. Pfaff does not think Democrats can take the Senate. But the House is a different question, and his warning about what a Democrat House would actually look like was specific: the Squad and the Democrat Socialists of America would in effect be running the Democrat efforts.
“And Hakeem Jeffries will not be Speaker of the House, and it’s going to be someone kooky and weird.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
It could go downhill very fast, he said, if the effort is not put in between now and November.
The Michigan Primary and the Democrats’ Socialist Drift
Host Chuck Boozer brought up Tuesday night’s Democrat Senate primary in Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed defeated Democrat Representative Haley Stevens. Pfaff placed the result in a wider pattern he sees across the Squad — naming Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, whom he described as a Democrat Socialist of America member while serving in Congress for at least two terms.
“These people, and it’s really interesting too, I’ll just add on Ilhan Omar, her dad was involved with the murder of thousands and thousands of people in Somalia when he was working with the government there.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
Two forces are feeding the drift, in Pfaff’s telling. The first is 20 to 30 years of what he called the government school monopoly teaching socialism to kids, with the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association committed to socialist principles. Not every teacher does it, he stressed — “I don’t think all of you are bad” — but “that momentum that goes through there, particularly in the major cities, has been informing children everything wrong about America and/or just neglecting what’s real about America.” It is the same ideological current we tracked in our report on the Madison protests and socialism’s polling among young Americans. The second force: by Pfaff’s estimate, some 90 percent of this cycle’s democratic-socialist nominees are from Islamic countries by heritage or immigration, and he sees an alliance forming.
“the Islamists are connecting with the communists because many of them have designs to bring in things like Sharia law and something— things antithetical to our Constitution.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
If that alliance gains enough influence, Pfaff warned, the fight shifts from reasserting the Constitution to defending it against things directly hostile to it.
The Book Pfaff Says Everyone Should Look Up
Pfaff pointed listeners to Raymond Ibrahim, who was writing a PhD thesis at Cal State Fresno with Victor Davis Hanson as the chairman of his thesis board. Working later at the Library of Congress, Ibrahim found letters in Arabic from Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri saying something different from what they were telling the West publicly. He published them as The Al-Qaeda Reader, which made big waves when it came out around 2006.
A Big Tent That Isn’t
Boozer observed that the Democratic Party seems to take anybody and everybody under its roof so long as the agenda is getting back in power and getting rid of Trump. Pfaff flipped the premise: the party is not actually building a big tent at all. It is bringing in the socialists and communists it already agrees with — and shutting the door on everyone else.
“I mean, if you are a heterosexual who believes that one man, one woman marriage is actually the most beneficial thing for society, well, they’re not going to let you in there.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
The same goes, he said, for anyone who believes unborn babies should not be destroyed at a whim, or that God is the ruler of the universe who judges the affairs of men. Because the party does not broadly appeal to Americans, Pfaff argued, it works to change how elections are run — voting 20, 30, or 60 days before Election Day to “keep working it”, plus a mass influx of illegals — because “they would never win if we had a single Election Day.”
The Republican side of the ledger is its own problem. Most Republicans believe these things but won’t assert them, Pfaff said. The entire 2024 Trump coalition — including Hispanics who voted for Trump in very large numbers — wanted government severely pared back, yet Washington keeps running $2 trillion deficits, a failure we examined in our analysis of the Republican Senate’s spending record. Republican ideals of limited government, lower taxes, and constitutional fidelity broadly appeal to Americans who feel these things day by day. The party simply won’t press its advantage.
“So that’s why I always say they have a real flair for grabbing defeat out of the jaws of victory.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
Texas Is Not Going Blue: Reading the Senate Map
Boozer asked whether the growing wave of stories about possible GOP Senate losses — North Carolina, Texas, Michigan, Minnesota — is real, or a mainstream media campaign to depress Republican turnout. Pfaff went state by state, starting with the biggest prize on the board:
“notwithstanding what you’re seeing in the polls, Texas is not going to go blue.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
Texas evangelicals, he said, know James Talarico “hates Christians even though he claims to be a Christian,” and the state remains deeply culturally and politically conservative. Georgia is a long shot — it would take a wave, because Mike Collins won’t appeal to voters the way John Ossoff — “a very effective campaigner” — does. North Carolina is complicated: activists in the western part of the state are not excited about the Republican nominee who ran the Republican National Committee — “a bit of a RINO” — while Roy Cooper is, in Pfaff’s blunt phrasing, a jackwad but an excellent candidate. Still, he thinks the seat may be picked up. And Michigan? Pfaff thinks it is going to be a Republican pickup.
“Susan Collins is going to hold Maine, and Ohio is gonna, is gonna stay Republican, and that’s a firewall against which Democrats cannot win.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
What the World Cup Showed the World About America
The hour ended with the FIFA World Cup, which Pfaff has followed since the 1970s — back when he listened to matches on shortwave radio. Having the tournament in the United States, and having it succeed, mattered beyond the game itself:
“people from around the world figured out, wow, America isn’t what everyone out there in my country keeps saying that it is. Amen. They experienced it. They’re taking that back to their countries.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
He singled out the Asian fans and athletes who cleaned up their sections of the stands and the locker rooms — “from our country, we don’t have people who are sanitation people. We do it ourselves” — as an example of pride in your own place, a trait he knows firsthand through college friends in Singapore, Indonesia, and Taiwan. If America would just desire to be the light when it comes to political freedom, he said, it would inspire people who want to be inspired that way in every country. That is the note he closed the interview on: hope for the Constitution and the country, asserted firmly and without cowardice.
“We’ve got a better message, and it’s a hopeful message for Americans.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus
Key Takeaways
- 37 races on the board – The Conservative Caucus will target about 26 House races and 11 Senate races for November, spending millions on direct mail, calls, texts, and TV and radio ads.
- The stakes in the House – Pfaff doesn’t believe Democrats can take the Senate, but if they take the House, the Squad and Democrat Socialists of America would effectively run the party — and Hakeem Jeffries would not be Speaker.
- Michigan’s primary is a signal – Abdul El-Sayed’s defeat of Rep. Haley Stevens fits a pattern Pfaff traces to decades of the government school monopoly and an emerging Islamist-communist alliance.
- The big tent is closed – Believers in traditional marriage, protection of the unborn, or God’s rule are not welcome in the Democrat Party, Pfaff argues — which is why it works to change how elections are run.
- Texas is not going blue – Despite the polls, Pfaff sees Texas holding, Michigan as a pickup, Collins holding Maine, and Ohio staying Republican — a firewall against a Democrat Senate.
- The World Cup dividend – Visitors discovered America isn’t what they’d been told, and they’re taking that back to their countries.
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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 6, 2026 on WHKY’s On Second Thought with Chuck Boozer.
Peter J. Thomas is a veteran conservative political strategist and seasoned policy expert dedicated to upholding the principles of the Constitution and democracy. As a founder and the chairman of the Conservative Caucus, he has played a pivotal role in promoting and shaping the conservative agenda across the nation for over half a century.