Blanche Wins Backing From Two Key GOP Holdouts After Rescinding Anti-Weaponization Fund
The Morning Buzz: August 3, 2026
1. Blanche Wins Backing From Two Key GOP Holdouts After Rescinding Anti-Weaponization Fund
At NPR, Claudia Grisales reports that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche formally rescinded the Justice Department's controversial $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund," a move seen as an effort to push his nomination as Attorney General forward. The Trump administration's plan to potentially compensate allies of the president and Jan. 6 rioters had been holding up Blanche's confirmation in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Two Republican committee members who are both leaving Congress, Sens. John Cornyn (TX) and Thom Tillis (NC), had said they wanted written assurances the fund was dead. PRRI finds that fewer than half of Americans (47%) say they have a great deal or some confidence in the Department of Justice, with Democrats (32%) and Republicans (69%) remaining deeply polarized.
2. Black Protestant Clergy Responses to LGBTQ+ Nondiscrimination Protections
In a new Spotlight Analysis, PRRI Public Fellows Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Ph.D., Darrius Hills, Ph.D., and Shatavia Wynn, Ph.D., share their collaborative research exploring how progressive Black Protestant clergy respond to nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people in the Black church, to better understand the rich diversity of Black American religious life, social worlds, and theological commitments. From their survey of 40 Black clergy members, the fellows find that while 73% of respondents support women’s leadership in the Black church, views on LGBTQ+ leadership are more divided. The fellows also observe that many clergy appeared open to broadened understandings of gender and sexuality and willing to draw from diverse theological worldviews, while upholding a commitment to Christian theological tradition, based on additional oral history interviews they conducted. Read more.
3. Young Latinos Abandoning Churches To Be “Nones”
Russell Contreras at Axios highlights how the declining religious affiliation of Latinos ages 18 to 29 — particularly among Catholics — is challenging long-held assumptions that their growing Latino population would boost traditional religious values in American culture. The PRRI American Values Atlas finds that the percentage of Hispanic Americans identifying as religiously unaffiliated rose steadily from 18% in 2013 to 23% in 2025. PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman, Ph.D., notes that "A lot of young women, including young Latinas, are not buying into the trad wife sort of theme that's often pushed by people on the right to sort of counteract the fact that younger women are more progressive and less religious."
4. Houston Mothers Challenge Texas Ten Commandments Law Under State Religious Freedom Protections
At Religion News Service, Ellie Ashby reports that three Houston mothers have filed a lawsuit against Texas Senate Bill 10, which requires the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public school classrooms, arguing that it violates Texas's religious freedom law and a voter-approved parental rights amendment. This lawsuit is the first challenge to the law under state rather than federal law and asks the court to act before the school year begins in mid-August. According to the PRRI American Values Atlas, 57% of Texans qualify as Christian nationalism Skeptics or Rejecters, a percentage that rises to 82% among Texans who are religiously unaffiliated.
Last week, PRRI Senior Democracy Fellow Katherine Stewart received the Age of Reason Award at the Congressional Reason Reception. Watch her award acceptance speech here.
What’s Buzzing
Learn more in the Survey Report: Trump’s Unprecedented Actions Deepen Asymmetric Divides