• Vice President Mike Pence is in Alabama today.
• He’s attending a fundraiser for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in Birmingham. Gov. Kay Ivey is expected to greet Pence at the Birmingham airport later this morning.
• Even though there is no Senate race in Alabama this year, Birmingham is a popular fundraising destination for Republicans. Money will go toward the NRSC’s efforts to get GOP candidates across the finish line in neighboring Florida and Tennessee, as well as states like Nevada, Missouri, North Dakota, Montana, and Texas.
• The latest forecasts show Republicans with a good chance of keeping the Senate majority and maybe even gaining a seat or two.
• This is a make-up trip, as the original one was cancelled due to Hurricane Michael.
• The trip also comes as the VP is facing some criticism for having a Messianic Jewish minister lead a prayer for the synagogue shooting victims. Pence’s office says he didn’t invite the rabbi and didn’t know who he was, but that’s an unnecessary, avoidable mistake that probably amounts to bad staff work.

• Did you know Alabama small businesses and middle-class families will be hit with a new tax on January 1, 2020?
• Absent immediate Senate action, the 2020 Health Insurance Tax (HIT) will begin driving up the cost of care for hardworking Alabamians by as much as $450 in 2020.
• Senator Doug Jones can help address skyrocketing healthcare costs by co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation (S. 3063) to suspend the Health Insurance Tax in 2020.
• Ask Senator Jones to stop the HIT on Alabama small businesses and hardworking families.

• The Pentagon is sending 5,200 troops to the Southwest border in an extraordinary military operation ordered up just a week before midterm elections.
• The move comes as President Trump has ramped up his warnings about refusing the 5,000 or so Central American migrants headed to the U.S. border in a caravan.
• He told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham last night that Homeland Security is prepared to erect tents to house people while processing their asylum claims.
• All that and more in a full story HERE.
• New this morning, Trump told AXIOS reporters Jonathan Swan and Stef Knight that he plans to end “birthright citizenship” via executive order.
• The order would remove the right to citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born on U.S. soil, they report via their new “Axios on HBO” show.
• Trump is looking to cut off one of the strongest incentives for illegal immigration. He’ll also kickstart a firestorm of controversy that will last up to the election and well beyond.
• That interview and story HERE.

• Pepper Bryars is doing a lot of thinking and writing since joining up with the Alabama Policy Institute. That’s good because Pepper is a good writer who makes me think.
• He has a timely piece on the “explosive growth” of anti-semitism online and how the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting is a “wake up call” for what’s been building for sometime now.
• Conservatives who care about high-minded ideals and principles ought to beware that their platform is being quietly co-opted by the alt-right who have some reprehensible beliefs.
• Here’s an excerpt:

Conservatives should be especially concerned, because even though these uninvited bigots are relatively few, they have indeed glommed on the fringes of our movement and must be shaken off before they do lasting damage.

I know what my fellow conservatives are thinking: “We don’t have anything to do with those guys.”

Right.

But they’re trying really hard to have something to do with us.

• Read the full column HERE.
• Also, new this morning Pepper wrote about Texas’ controversial decision to remove legendary Alabamian Helen Keller from their list of influential Americans and how it is an example of one-size-fits-all policies could be “disastrous” for schools.
• That column HERE.

• Almost 150,000 new voters have registered since the June primary to participate in Alabama’s November 6 elections.
• Mike Cason has a full report on the numbers with helpful links for absentee voting HERE.

• Gov. Kay Ivey raised $146,000 last week to Walt Maddox’s $45,000.
• She has $223,000 cash on hand going into the final week while he has about $151,000.
• Full, detailed report from Mike Cason HERE.

• Alabama’s political world is saddened by the passing of Mike Adcock.
• Mike was a staple of Alabama’s Capitol Hill community for more than 20 years. He was Chief of Staff for former Congressman Bud Cramer and worked in the defense industry for years after.
• He died Saturday after a battle with cancer. Read the obituary w/ info on funeral arrangements HERE.