Campaign Financing: One of the major reasons for the current primary campaign success of Donald Trump is that he is self-funded, period, which means that no donors own him, and the very same is true of me. Once you take that first dollar from anyone, you are owned, and that I will not have! President Grover Cleveland once said, "What’s the use of being elected and reelected unless you stand for something?" and I concur. I’ll take that a step further: "What’s the use of being elected at all if you’re owned right from the start?" The only way I know to "get the money out of politics" is simply to get the money OUT of politics! It’s just that simple! Accordingly, my favorite email this year as in years past to those seeking to sell me political goods and services has been this: "We are raising and spending no money," period. Nor am I accepting any contributions at all. Accordingly, I paid the US Senate election filing fee of $ 290 myself, as I also have in years past. I simply know of no other better way to do it than that, so there it is.

Congressional Redistricting: Maryland has the worst Congressional map in the entire country, making us, rightly, the laughing stock of the 50 states. It is the worst mess I’ve ever seen, and if you haven’t yet looked at the map, you should: it’s a complete disaster, the result of incumbent Congress people of both parties choosing the voters they wanted, rather than the voters choosing them, the way that the system is supposed to work! In 2017, as your next United States Senator from Maryland, I’ll introduce legislation to see what we can do to reform this mess, as well as support our current governor in his efforts to do so. In the end, however, I expect that it will take the US Supreme Court to step in and redraw all the Congressional districts of the entire country in a way that makes sense. If I’m historically correct, this was the way in which segregated Congressional districts in the South and elsewhere were finally broken up by the Court in the 1960s, which I lived through.

Immigration & Our National Frontiers: I agree with Mr. Trump on this: either we have a Sovereign state with recognized, defined, and enforced national frontiers, or we don’t: it couldn’t be any simpler than that. Maybe a wall will work and maybe it won’t, but it’s clear to me that the current US Border Patrol is not up to the job. Thus---as both a Vietnam War veteran under enemy fire and also as a military affairs magazine writer and book author since 1967---I say this: as a US Senator, I would introduce legislation in 2017 to deploy as many US Army and Marine Corps divisions as it takes to get the job done, and keep it that way forever. If we’re willing to send our troops overseas, but not to Mexico, what sense does that make? I would also consider our joining the Mexican Army in wiping out all of their deadly drug cartels that it seems to be unable to control, much less defeat. That is the first invasion of our country from the west, and the second is the unstopped and now foreign army of occupation of 14 million undocumented aliens. I don’t care where they’re from: they should go, pronto, all of them. The third invasion would be the Syrians, and I will vote against all of them as well, period. History shows that any country that doesn’t defend its own borders will fall, and deserves to. After we have secured the Rio Grande, we need to take a look at our frontier with Canada. Invaders aren’t stupid: if they can’t get in one way, they’ll try another. We should be ahead of them next time!

Thank you for your kind consideration!

Blaine Taylor