Top Pollster Rich Baris Finally Snaps on RINOs Who Keep Betraying Voters Back Home

John Thune just called the millions of conservatives demanding election security a "paid influencer ecosystem."

He might want to learn from the six Indiana RINO senators who told Trump and the GOP base “no” on redistricting – and voters fired every single one of them Tuesday night.

The country's most accurate pollster got fired up explaining exactly why that had to happen and Rich Baris just issued a warning to every establishment Republican who still thinks they can play by the old rules.

The Era of Playing Nice Is Over

Rich Baris has been tracking Republican and Democrat voters longer than most pundits have had their shows.

And what his polling reveals about the modern Democratic Party is something every Republican in a leadership position needs to hear.

More than 6 in 10 Democratic voters now identify with some form of socialism.

Not liberalism. Not progressivism. Socialism.

The old coalition that Bill Clinton held together – moderate, ideologically flexible, open to compromise – is gone.

What replaced it is a base of true believers who want results, not press releases.

And they are getting results.

"Your friends put your friends in jail now," Baris told Benny Johnson. "Your friends take the IRS and financially bankrupt people. Your friends get all of their Attorney General and District Attorney friends around the country to indict you."

These are not negotiating partners.

The Ghost of Bill Clinton Is Killing the Republican Party

Here is the problem Baris identified on Benny Johnson's show.

A generation of Republican leaders is still mentally negotiating with Bill Clinton in 1993.

Liz Cheney voted to impeach Donald Trump and was praised on the front page of the New York Times as a hero.

Mitt Romney voted to convict the president of his own party and received a glowing profile in the Washington Post.

The pattern is simple: Republicans who stab their voters in the back get rewarded by the press and celebrated as statesmen.

That model is a disaster for the 75 million people who voted for Donald Trump.

And now that disaster has a very specific face.

John Thune is blocking the SAVE America Act – the most important election integrity legislation in a generation – by hiding behind a Senate procedural rule that Democrats will nuke the second they have the votes to do it.

Trump demanded action.

Thune's response, per PJ Media, was no pressure campaign, no arm-twisting, and no willingness to do what Democrats do automatically when their priorities are on the line – just the assertion that the votes weren't there.

Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio finally said what Republican voters have been screaming for months: "John Thune asked to be the leader of the Senate but he is not leading. He keeps throwing up excuse after excuse. Anyone can find an excuse. Leaders find a way. And it's time for John Thune to do that or step aside."

Baris Has Been Shooting Flares for Months

This is where Baris's polling becomes more important than any pundit's opinion.

Republican voters are not asking Senate leaders to break the rules.

They are asking them to use the same tools Democrats use routinely.

The talking filibuster. Reconciliation. Sustained pressure on holdouts until the votes are found.

"This is within the rules," Baris said flatly. "We're not asking you to go outside the rules here. We're asking you to fight fire with fire."

And the cost of failing to deliver is already showing up in the numbers.

His Big Data Poll shows Democrats now leading on inflation, the economy, jobs, health care, and foreign policy.

The MAGA coalition that delivered 2024 is fracturing – not because voters changed their minds about the agenda, but because the Senate keeps refusing to deliver it.

Trump himself told the Daily Caller he was disappointed, calling out "foolish Republicans" for protecting a filibuster rule that Democrats will eliminate the moment it costs them something.

When voters gave Republicans the trifecta in 2024, they expected results.

What they got back was John Thune calling their activism a manufactured campaign by "paid influencers."

https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/2052077879119274019“>https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/2052077879119274019

Step Up or Get Out

Rich Baris did not mince words on Benny Johnson's show.

He looked into the camera and said something decades of establishment consultants told Republicans they should never say out loud.

"You've been riding high on the achievements of prior generations for decades. Step up or get out and let someone else fill your shoes who has the balls to do it."

That is not a talking point.

That is a warning from the man who saw 2024 coming when most pollsters were still calling it close.

The Bush-Cheney-Romney-McCain-Pence era is over.

The voters ended it.

The only question left is whether Senate Republicans figure that out before November – or after.

Sources:

• Matt Margolis, "The Filibuster, John Thune, and the Question Republicans Are Tired of Asking," PJ Media, May 2, 2026.
• Daily Caller Staff, "Trump Slams Thune, 'Foolish' Republicans For Failing To Nuke The Filibuster," Daily Caller, May 5, 2026.
• Jim Hoft, "Weak-Kneed RINO John Thune Mocks American Voters," The Gateway Pundit, March 11, 2026.
• Florence News Journal Staff, "Step aside or else: Republicans Demand Thune's Head After Brutal Betrayal," Florence News Journal, May 5, 2026.
• Benny Johnson, "Rich Baris Finally SNAPS on RINOs Who Betray Their Voters," The Benny Show, May 6, 2026.