Grand Canyon Times

Despite the questionable results of the 2020 election, the current state of the 2022 midterms have proven that the "America First" movement is far from over.

In fact, it is facing a whole new beginning. Even though former President Donald Trump is no longer in the White House, the "America First" mantra is being carried on by a wave of new dynamic candidates for office all across the country.

Many of them are young, dynamic and have never run for office before. And some are already well on their way to victory.

In Ohio, J.D. Vance had already proved his "America First" credentials long before he announced his bid for the Senate.

His powerful autobiography, "Hillbilly Elegy," laid out in graphic detail the degree to which the American working class – once the backbone of this nation – has been systematically hollowed out by the political elite.

Having witnessed this calculated self-destruction in his childhood, the 37-year-old Vance is prepared to bring his fight for the working class directly to the halls of Congress as the Trump-endorsed nominee in Ohio this November.

In Washington, one of the most important primary battles pitting a conservative challenger against an establishment incumbent is in the state’s 3rd Congressional District.

Incumbent Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) was one of the 10 Republican members of the House of Representatives who voted in favor of Trump’s second impeachment.

Challenging Beutler in the Republican primary is 42-year-old Joe Kent, a former Army Green Beret whose late wife, Shannon, was killed in Syria by ISIS.

As Kent has repeatedly noted, his wife was killed in January of 2019, long past the date by which Trump commanded American forces to withdraw from Syria; she and other American troops, including other victims of the bombing, would still be alive if the military brass had not defied Trump’s orders by keeping American forces in Syria as long as possible to maintain their state of perpetual war.

His is a deeply personal story about how the insidious machinations of the deep state have directly led to unnecessary American deaths, and he would bring his crusade against the military-industrial complex directly to the heart of the swamp if he defeats Beutler and wins the general election.

And right here in Arizona, Blake Masters represents this new brand of "America First" populism with his campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Masters, like Vance in Ohio, understands the existential threat that is presented by the declining status of the American family, the ongoing crisis at the southern border and the unsustainable radicalism of far-left concepts like critical race theory.

He has called for America to return to a society where an entire family can be comfortably sustained by one income, vowed to oppose all forms of amnesty and denounced critical race theory as blatant anti-white racism and fundamentally anti-American.

Like Vance in Ohio, Masters is seeking to represent one of the most critical swing states in the nation. If a state that has previously been plagued by a string of so-called “moderates,” from John McCain to Jeff Flake, could turn around and elect a true conservative firebrand to the upper house of Congress, it would mark a major shift in the state and the Republican Party as a whole.

Like Kent in Washington, Masters is running just as much against the incumbent GOP establishment as he is against the radical Democrats like incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly.

If the 35-year-old Masters is elected, he would be the second-youngest member of the U.S. Senate, bringing new energy into an increasingly aging and out-of-touch deliberative body.

The year 2022 has the potential to introduce a whole new generation of Americans to the "America First" movement.

If the American people are fortunate enough to get candidates such as these elected to office, then the country as a whole will be much better equipped to face the ongoing challenges of the disastrous President Joe Biden years.