Become a Supporter

When I first started dating my husband in 2018, I avoided asking who he voted for in the 2016 presidential election. Part of me already knew the answer, but I wanted to bury the uncomfortable truth: he’d voted for Donald J. Trump.

If I’d asked him the question then, I’m not sure we’d be where we are today: happily married and head-over-heels in love.

When we met in the fall of 2018, I was a political reporter at the local FOX-TV affiliate in Seattle and President Trump was less than two years into his first term. While I’ve always been right of Seattle’s hard-left politics – it was difficult to break free from the groupthink of a newsroom. Especially a newsroom in one of the bluest cities in America.

Donald Trump had declared the “fake news” media the enemy of the American people and, in turn, we waged war against him, too.

To be clear, not all our coverage was unfair. It’s the media’s job to hold politicians accountable and there’s no doubt, when it came to Trump, the Fourth Estate took that job seriously. The problem, as I’ve come to realize, was they took it less seriously when it came to Democrats. They still do.

During my years at FOX 13 News, I like to think I did my best to hold Washington state progressives accountable for their failures on homelessness, crime, and the anti-business policies that were driving companies like Amazon to move jobs elsewhere.  But, in truth, I spent far too much time as a local news reporter covering the White House. I even convinced my bosses to send me to the border in 2019 to cover the so-called family separation crisis – an unusual expense for a local newsroom to agree to. It’s worth noting that local FOX affiliates are different from the network and don’t necessarily share the same conservative bias. Ours certainly did not.

My family and friends knew I was vehemently anti-Trump. I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and often chided my older brother for flying a Trump flag outside his home in Minnesota. By 2019, I’d moved in with my then-boyfriend – but still avoided talking to him about Trump and left the room when he’d turn on his favorite network news show.   

In hindsight, I had what the right calls Trump Derangement Syndrome. And my diagnosis had the potential to be terminal.

But things started to turn at a most unexpected time.

The January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol had a different effect on me than you might expect. Rather than deepen my disdain for Donald Trump, it opened my eyes to disturbing depths of hypocrisy that I cannot unsee.

I’d just spent six months covering acts of leftwing political violence in Seattle that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

I watched as cop cars were torched in the streets downtown. My security guard disarmed rioters of stolen police rifles. Stores were looted to the studs – bare manikins left strewn in the streets. Officers were assaulted and hit with improvised explosive devices. My crew was mobbed in what later became known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHOP) – six square blocks surrounding a police precinct that were taken over by armed anti-police extremists. A few days into the occupation, rioters tried to light the precinct on fire after putting quick-drying cement on a door to lock officers in.

Those are just a few examples of what unfolded in Seattle during the racial justice movement of 2020. Our mayor at the time, Jenny Durkan, famously referred to it as a “Summer of Love.” The acts of that summer were ignored and even supported by many in our city’s Democratic leadership. Then-Councilwoman Tammy Morales scolded anyone who questioned the behavior of criminal demonstrators.

“What I don’t want to hear is for our constituents to be told to be civil, not to be reactionary, to be told that looting doesn’t solve anything,” she said during the unrest.

Our state’s chief law enforcer at the time, Attorney General Bob Fergson, stayed mostly silent about the destruction happening on our streets. He had by then made a national name for himself by suing the Trump administration dozens of times and had his eye on the governor’s office (which he went on to win in 2024). There was no way he’d risk angering his base by condemning leftwing extremism. Instead, he issued a short statement focused on criminal justice reform.

The media downplayed the violence, too. Even my own station took great pains to excuse or ignore criminal acts and play up non-criminal elements of the protests. 

No such pains were taken with J6ers.

That hypocrisy was the beginning of my yearslong red pilling.

In 2021, frustrated by new management and our coverage of both the riots and the pandemic, I quit my job in news to launch an independent show.

The biggest supporter of me walking away from my $185,000/year dream job?

My sweet, Trump-voting boyfriend.

I married him in the fall of 2023, five years after I almost let his support for Donald Trump steal the joy we now share. There’s little doubt that had I asked him in the early days of our relationship who he’d voted for in the 2016 election, I would have ended things.

Typing that now makes my heart hurt.

This past November, I voted for Donald. J Trump for the first time. And yes, my husband did too.

Today, more than any other emotion, I am full of hope and optimism for our country – finally free from the echo chamber that once soured me on Trump and his agenda. But I am also battling a tinge of guilt. Guilt for the viewers I let down in those early days of the Trump administration. Guilt over the wonderful life I almost cost myself.

For that, I offer a sincere apology to our 47th President (and my husband, for that matter). And I offer this advice to anyone upset by a second term of Donald J. Trump: Never let politics stand in the way of your happiness. And never be too stubborn to change your mind. 

Become a Supporter

Become a Supporter

It's the equivalent of finding the Christmas gifts your parents tried hiding under their bed. Washington State Senate Democrats have inadvertently leaked their plans for new taxes in 2025 – and unDivided snuck a peek.

Friday afternoon, Democratic State Senator Noel Frame (Yes, Noel – could you get a better name for an X-mas political story?) appears to have accidently sent an email intended for her caucus to Republicans as well. In the email, provided to unDivided by several of its unintended recipients, Frame summarizes what was discussed at a Democratic "retreat."

The email and its attachments are worse than getting a lump of coal in your stocking. Democrats plan to introduce a string of new tax policies that will target the wealthy, businesses big and small, and allow localities to increase your property taxes at a higher rate.

'Identify the villain'

The word "villain" is used a lot throughout the proposals, as Democrats work to coordinate their messaging on tax increases. The slides contain do's and don'ts of selling the policies to the public.

"Be specific about the villain. Talk about the wealthy few and those who wrote our flawed (sic) tax code 100 years ago."

Don't "focus on the budget hole." Instead, "focus on the solutions and how it will make people's lives better."

Don't say "tax the rich" or "pay their fair share." Instead, say "pay what they owe."

Democrats plan to use the same strategy that was successful in defeating I-2109, which sought to repeal the capital gains tax, in order to sway public opinion in favor of taxing the wealthy and businesses.

Expanding Seattle's bad tax policy statewide

In the summer of 2020, the Seattle City Council pushed through a tax on high paying jobs (known as the Jump Start Tax) that led the city's largest employer, Amazon, to move 10,000+ jobs to Bellevue.

Now, Democrats want to expand that tax statewide. In the documents, they offer two possible versions. One would replicate the Seattle tax more closely, limiting the tax to only companies with $8M+ in payroll. The second version would be more wide-reaching, removing "the requirement that the company have $8 million minimum payroll, so it applies to all businesses not just big businesses."

Wealth tax

We already knew a tax on unrealized gains was coming, because even Governor Jay Inslee proposed it in his budget – signaling mainstream Democratic support for what used to be a fringe desire of Leftists on the Naughty List.

Add that to the other anti-business taxes, and Washington's largest employers are no doubt looking to migrate south for the winter – or forever.

How the Grinch stole common sense

Not a rich person or business owner? Cheer up, there's still something for you under the tree.

How about an added 11% tax when you buy guns or ammo?

Expansion of the Real Estate Excise Tax?

Or, worst of all, lifting the property tax lid so cities and counties can raise your property taxes at a faster rate.

Ignorance is holiday bliss

All of this so Democrats don't have to wrestle with the reality that they have misspent taxpayer funds and failed to budget during times of exceptional revenue growth. While our state's budget has doubled over the past 12 years, Democrats have no plan to take a serious look at spending.

Their excuse for out-of-control spending and a looming budget deficit of $14B?

Inflation.

Bah humbug.

Become a Supporter