June 30, 2026 - Court Upholds Mail Ballot Grace Periods

Yesterday I sat with John Fetterman and Dave McCormick at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, a perch overlooking Independence Hall. The setting was deliberate. We were there to talk about America at 250, and there's no better backdrop than the cradle of where it all started. You'll hear the conversation this Thursday on SiriusXM and see it this Saturday on CNN, timed to the Fourth.

Here's what struck me. Pennsylvania is one of the most contested, purple states in the nation. Fetterman is a Democrat. McCormick is a Republican. They've run hard, they disagree plenty, and in this era that's usually the end of the story. Polarization says the two of them should be enemies.

They aren't. Somehow they've forged a friendship, and they treat each other with respect. I wanted to know how.

The proof is fresh. This weekend I was in Washington and walked through the Great American State Fair on the National Mall. I was disappointed - embarrassed, frankly - to find no representation for Pennsylvania. The birthplace of American independence, missing from the country's 250th birthday party.

The state had pulled out. Governor Shapiro said businesses weren't interested, citing the event's politicization.

Then Fetterman and McCormick went to work. A Democrat and a Republican, together, building a private coalition - the Farm Bureau, the Chamber, manufacturers, agriculture groups - to put Pennsylvania back where it belongs. No taxpayer dollars. Just two senators who decided the Commonwealth wasn't going to sit out its own founding story.

Good news: it's fixed. Pennsylvania will be represented.

That's the model. At 250, maybe that's the whole point.

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