Restoring America with Grace Reilly

Democrats didn't win. Republicans lost. And Doug Truax, founder and volunteer CEO of Restoration of America, says there's a way to fix this. In this episode, I sit down with Doug to walk through his RealClearPolitics op-ed. He says Americans punished Republicans for not producing on what they promised. DOGE ended too soon, the SAVE America Act stalled, and the abortion pill stayed in the mail. A l...

The midterms were brutal for Republicans. The morning after, I sat down with Paul Kengor of The American Spectator to figure out what went wrong. In this episode, I talk with Paul about Talarico winning Texas, the Michigan result, and a Florida night that was far closer than it should have been. Paul thinks voters punished Trump over Iran, gas prices, and inflation. I think Republicans spent too l...

Can we save America, or are we too far gone? One year into Restoring America, and right after a hard election, I'm answering that question. In this episode, I go back to why this show exists and apply it to today: a secular culture that thinks it can outgrow God, expressive individualism, and a division so deep we no longer share the same moral vision. I also talk about political violence, Charlie...

Republicans lost Congress last night, and James Talarico and Abdul El-Sayed both won. It's a hard morning, but I still have hope, and you should too. In this episode, I share my first reaction to the midterms: the margins that surprised me, why Florida was closer than it should have been, and my biggest message today. The Lord is sovereign, and our hope comes from Christ alone. That doesn't mean w...

We are faced with an important question right now in the intense political landscape. What kind of country are we leaving to the next generation? Troy A. Miller joined Restoring America with Grace Reilly to share analysis on our future given the state of politics right now, as well as where the American dream stands and the importance of Christian leadership. Troy A. Miller is President & CEO...

In the last part of my midterm series, I explain why Trump is on the ballot even though his name isn't, and what's at stake when so many socialist candidates are this close to winning. Then I look at two Democrat Senate candidates who've changed their tune. James Talarico in Texas has walked back "God is non-binary" and once said Texas leading in oil and gas is like being a cassette tape leader in...

If you're on the fence about voting in the midterms, this one's for you. In Part 2, I'm putting President Trump back on the ballot on the border, crime, and government waste. I go through his record on the border: record-low crossings, 17 straight months with zero catch-and-release, more than 3 million migrants gone, and fentanyl trafficking down 56%. Then crime: violent crime arrests up 90%, the...

President Trump keeps telling rally crowds to pretend he's on the ballot this midterm. So I'm taking him up on it, starting with American manufacturing. In this episode, I go through the numbers since Inauguration Day: blue-collar wages up nearly 8% and 72,000 manufacturing jobs added in 2026. Then the specifics, from $1.3 billion for fertilizer plants in Nebraska to Stellantis reopening its Belvi...

Gen Z did what we were told. Good grades, college, a career. Now first-time homebuyers are around 40, and a lot of us think socialism is the fix. In this episode, I sit down with three fellow Gen Zers: Dom Davis and Sean Griswold from Restoration News, and Noelle Bradley from the Leadership Institute. We talk about housing and student debt, the death of the summer job, dating apps, marriage, falli...

Keisha Lance Bottoms was mayor of Atlanta when crime surged in 2020. Now she's running for governor of Georgia against Rick Jackson. In this episode, I sit down again with Robert Rose, Dominick Davis, and Sean Griswold from Restoration News. We go through Bottoms' record as mayor: the Wendy's that became an occupied zone for 23 days, the city jail she promised to close, the overcrowded Fulton Coun...

Early voting is underway in Arizona's governor race between Katie Hobbs and Andy Biggs, and Hobbs has a record she'd rather nobody talk about. In this episode, I bring back Robert Rose, Dominick Davis, and Sean Griswold from Restoration News. We go through Arizona falling from 4th to 47th in job growth, $2 million wired to scammers, $2.4 million spent entertaining CEOs at the Super Bowl, the Color...

Thomas Sowell said the welfare system pays people to fail. Dennis Prager asked where all the leftist hospitals are. Milton Friedman said a society that chooses equality over freedom ends up with neither. Today, I play clips from Sowell, Prager, Friedman, and a Laura Ingraham conversation with Mark Meadows, and I build the case for why limited government is a moral question and not only an economic...

Mailing abortion pills has been a federal crime since 1873 because of The Comstock Act. Even with this being the law, thousands of pills still arrive by mail across the country, including in pro-life states. In 2025, more than 300,000 unborn babies were killed by mail-order abortion drugs, and at least 1 in 4 abortions now happen with no in-person care. Restoration of America Foundation Founder an...

Trump proclaimed Columbus Day with no mention of Indigenous Peoples' Day, and Paul Kengor says Italian Americans noticed. This is a Weekend Spectator conversation from The American Spectator and Restoration of America. Kengor walks through how Columbus Day started in 1892 after a mob lynched 11 Italian immigrants in New Orleans, tells the story of his own family's stowaway journey from Calabria an...

James Talarico called capitalism one of three "oppressive systems." Now his Texas Senate campaign says he's a "proud capitalist." In this episode, I play the 2020 climate forum where he talked about "dismantling" those systems and compared Texas oil and gas to "cassette tapes in the 1980s." I walk through his record on Texas's 2021 election law and on parents and gender identity, and his campaign'...

Today, I react to Willy Rice's Fox News interview and Ike Wingate's Newsmax monologue on why so many Christians sit out elections. I also read what Lucas Miles and Josh Howerton are saying, plus a Charlie Kirk quote that's been going around, and I answer the two excuses I hear most: "I don't get into politics" and "there are no good candidates." Politics was never morally neutral, and there will n...

Wealthy allies like Germany have been freeloading on American drug innovation for years. The Trump administration is finally doing something about it. In this episode, I break down Jeffrey Gerrish's Newsweek op-ed on the wealthy countries that let Americans fund a disproportionate share of the world's drug research. Germany has been blocking the push to get allies to roll back their price controls...

A Massachusetts lesbian bar dropped its mask mandate in 2026 and its own woke patrons turned on it. The Last Ditch is socialism in miniature. In this episode, I break down the Boston Globe story. Three idealistic housemates opened the bar last year, turned no one away for lack of money, and welcomed the poor and unhoused but not the police. Now two of them have left, and the one still standing is...

Grace hosts her first panel with Restoration News researchers Robert Rose, Dom Davis, and Sean Griswold to break down Wisconsin's November 3 governor's race between Tom Tiffany and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. They cover Crowley's tax record, Evers' 400-year property tax veto, Tiffany's day-one plan, the three constitutional amendments on the ballot, and what the race means for Gen Z...

Bella Dodd spent years in the Communist Party with one job: get into the schools. After she left, she told the Senate the communists would use every classroom from nursery school to university. Today 38% of Gen Z views communism favorably. I walk through the Cato numbers, the American Spectator piece on Florida's new History of Communism standards, and what Governor DeSantis says kids need to lear...

For the first time in 112 years, no Atlantic hurricane formed by peak season. A former climate reporter says she knows why stories like this get buried. In this episode, I get into Lucy Biggers' admission that she never covered positive climate stories because they would "muddy the narrative." We look at the record-quiet season, a Language Watch clip on how global cooling became global warming and...

The Trump administration wants to pay married stay-at-home parents $9,000 a year per child. JD Vance is pushing it, and conservatives are split. In this episode, I get into where that $9,000 actually comes from (a fund that's existed since the Clinton years, not a new one), who would actually qualify for it, and why this has turned into a real fight on the right. Kevin Roberts, Michael Knowles, an...

Should there be age or term limits for Congress? Mitch McConnell just returned to Congress after 93 days away due to medical reasons. There are many similar examples of this happening, which has brough the question of age limits to the forefront. In this episode, I go through what the true cost has been. Polling shows that 85% of Americans want term limits. It is not often Americans agree on somet...

Only 13% of pastors say they don't use AI at all. A quarter are using it to write or edit sermons, and I think the line should have been drawn well before that. In this episode, I go through Barna's research on how pastors are actually using AI, why I'd stop at administrative work instead of brainstorming, and what gets lost when the silence before a sermon gets filled with a prompt instead of pra...

Asked how he wanted to be remembered, Charlie Kirk said courage for his faith. A year after his assassination, Grace goes through the moments where he shared it, from the campus stops to his testimony to his advice on keeping a Sabbath. Then she takes you inside his memorial in Arizona, where she sat through hours of worship before anyone spoke, and closes in prayer for his family.