Sorry to sound like a dinosaur, but I recall when my colleagues and I in the House of Representatives believed we were on the cutting edge of America’s great philosophical divide.
It was a heady time. The Class of 1994 was labeled the “majority makers” – the first Republican majority in forty years. It was accordingly easy to assume our policy battles would define the direction of American politics for generations to come.
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Miami’s conservative Mayor Francis Suarez announced Thursday morning he’s seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, joining an increasingly growing GOP primary field.
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Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the Republican presidential nomination on Saturday.
The two-term governor threw his support behind DeSantis during a speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma, following the endorsement from 20 of the state’s legislators and former Oklahoma Congressman and Trump-appointee Jim Bridenstine, according to a campaign press release. Stitt said he endorsed DeSantis because he’s a “strong conservative and principled leader.”
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I must admit, when former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie removed himself from the 2016 Republican presidential primary race very early in the contest, I thought we’d seen the last of his oversized run as a major influencer in the Grand Old Party.
Like with other Republican comers and goers in recent memory, Christie had, at one point at least, been considered the future of the post-Bush GOP, a semi-common man who wasn’t the least bit afraid to stand on a stage, look liberals in the eye, and tell it like it is. To make the newcomer’s phenomenon even more enticing, Christie appeared to enjoy the resistance. Unlike most Republicans who were more than content to take a verbal beating from the much more aggressive Democrats, Christie punched back, and for a few political moments, appeared to be a great possible candidate for president. It seemed like a “when” not “if” proposition.
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Apparently there’s some confusion about what some of us are actually proposing for winning in 2024. The best place to start in clearing up that confusion is by defining terms correctly.
We argued here and here, that if MAGA wishes to turn out its voters and win, the movement and its candidates must aggressively pursue their vote by securing their consent, and then, protecting them by implementing that agenda. Some have found these arguments less than persuasive because they fear Republicans are joining the Democrats in their less-than-honest methods of securing votes. So, we must explain further for those who appear confused.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to launch his 2024 Republican presidential bid.
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North Dakota GOP Gov. Doug Burgum may be eyeing a 2024 presidential bid, according to reports.
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The head of Twitter’s engineering operations has resigned after the platform’s hosting of Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’ glitch-plagued 2024 presidential campaign launch.
“After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday,” Twitter’s Foad Dabiri tweeted. “The combination of the fantastic community, the impact it has, and its limitless potential sets Twitter apart.”
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Former President Donald Trump is gaining support from minorities and both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – the top two potential Republican candidates for 2024 – are poised to beat President Joe Biden, spelling trouble for the president as he runs for reelection, according to a poll released Sunday.
Biden is losing support from black and Hispanic Americans as Trump is gaining, according to a Langer Research Associates poll produced for ABC News.
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Reminding gun owners what he did for the protection of the Second Amendment and pledging to do much more, former President Donald Trump closed the National Rifle Association’s main event Friday with a stemwinder that brought the crowd to its feet.
In a full-on campaign speech, the Republican presidential frontrunner told those assembled at the NRA-Institute for Legislative Action Leadership Forum that he was running for another term to right the ship listing from “nation-wrecking, globalist marxists, RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) and tyrants.”
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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will not run for president in 2024, he confirmed on Friday. The former Trump cabinet member announced his decision of Fox News’ “Special Report,” saying “[w]e have prayerfully come to the conclusion we are not going to join the race in 2024.”
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Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday he has decided to run for president and plans on formally announcing his campaign in April.
“My decision is, I’m going to run for president of the United States,” he told ABC News’ “This Week” during an interview. He said he will formally announce his campaign in his hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, later this month.
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Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is strongly condemning a New York Grand Jury’s indictment of former President Donald Trump, calling it a “dark moment in American history.” Thursday’s indictment follows a years-long investigation of Trump in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels who claims to have had an affair with Trump years ago. The payment was made in advance of the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied the affair.
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Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says an indictment against fellow candidate and former President Donald Trump would be a “national disaster.”
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Vivek Ramaswamy, the latest 2024 GOP presidential candidate, called on former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to support the eventual Republican nominee and sign onto an “Anti-Woke Policy Pledge” in a Monday press release.
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Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are both set to appear at fundraising events in Palm Beach, Florida, this week for their respective campaigns as the race for the GOP primaries intensifies.
MAGA Inc., a political action committee campaigning for a second Trump administration, is hosting an event at Mar-a-Lago, and DeSantis is gathering a group of conservative donors and leaders for a retreat just eight minutes from Trump’s estate the next day, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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The gridlock that paralyzed House Republicans over the past week in their quest to elect a new Speaker could be a foretaste of more to come, with party moderates and conservatives set to tangle in the months to come over raising the debt ceiling and reining in reckless government spending.
Although newly elected Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy ultimately prevailed in his bid for the office over a small but determined band of House Freedom Caucus members, his slim GOP majority in the House will be vulnerable if and when conservatives rebel again down the road, as some are predicting, in an effort to reassert debt reduction as a top priority for the party.
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Former President Donald Trump is the top choice for the 2024 Republican presidential primary, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis coming in as the runner-up, according to a new poll.
The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll released Friday found that 48 percent of GOP voters said they would support Trump if the primary were held today, while 25 percent said they would vote for DeSantis. If Trump does not run in 2024, 48 percent of GOP voters said they would support DeSantis, with former Vice President Mike Pence as the runner-up with 15 percent support.
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The Minnesota GOP State Central Committee reelected Chairman David Hann and Deputy Chair Donna Bergstrom Saturday. The committee also elected Jenna Dicks to serve as secretary.
Hann was initially elected in October 2021 after Jennifer Carnahan resigned following a sex-trafficking indictment against a major donor. He appointed Bergstrom deputy chair.
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In August, Carl Benjamin, also known as Sargon of Akkad, posted a persuasive intellectual case for Donald Trump’s candidacy in which he said that “Trump is the protagonist of an important moral story whose narrative arc has yet to resolve. And resolve it must.”
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A Minnesotan will be the third most powerful Republican in the U.S. House come January.
U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer was elected by his caucus Tuesday for the House majority whip position, defeating Reps. Jim Banks and Drew Ferguson. He will be outranked by just the speaker and majority leader.
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PALM BEACH, Florida – As the November 8, 2022, election night results rolled in to Mar-a-Lago, the resort membership club and primary residence of 45th U.S. President Donald J. Trump, he was uncharacteristically reserved in his comments and interactions with those in attendance.
With some polls closing as early as 7 p.m. Eastern time, including the swing state of Georgia, it became evident early on in the evening that the forecasted “red tsunami” was going to fall well short of predictions.
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A new NBC/Telemundo poll shows that Latino support for the Democratic Party has dropped by 50 percent in the last 10 years.
Mark Murray from NBC News tweeted out the poll’s results which show that in 2012 Latinos preferred a Democrat-led Congress over Republicans by 42 points. By 2022, that difference dropped to 21 points.
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The 2022 midterm election is officially underway in Minnesota, as early voting commenced Friday. Recent polls showed the economy, crime, and abortion were in the forefront of voters’ minds. Then Minnesota made international news again when U.S. Attorney Andy Luger issued indictments of nearly 50 individuals accused of perpetrating the largest COVID fraud on record.
Commentators now say concerns about fraud will influence voters. But there’s another issue that’s garnered little attention. I wonder how it will play out as voters weigh in.
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Many American voters head into midterm elections wearied by political polarization. Subjects that might have merely led to an uncomfortable dinner table conversation yesterday are more likely to be relationship-ending today.
It’s often assumed that political positions come with a Democrat or Republican party label. But beneath many of the most divisive issues of our time – think the COVID-19 pandemic response, the 2020 election, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade – lies an issue that is neither red nor blue. Would you believe me if I said religious liberty is not actually a partisan issue?
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President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan will be costly for American taxpayers, a coalition of GOP governors said in a letter sent Monday to the White House.
The letter, signed by 22 GOP governors, tells Biden to “withdraw” the plan, citing cost estimates of up to $600 billion, or $2,000 per American taxpayer.
“As governors, we support making higher education more affordable and accessible for students in our states, but we fundamentally oppose your plan to force American taxpayers to pay off the student loan debt of an elite few,” the coalition wrote.
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There has been a lot of talk during this election cycle about “voter enthusiasm;” which side has it, what are its causes, and what might it all mean for the final result. Much of it is propaganda that should be ignored, but there are some numbers and data that can help illuminate the terrain. All that attention is appropriate, given that each and every election depends entirely on who shows up to vote.
Let’s start with the propaganda.
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Immigration. Trade. War. The GOP already has the formula it needs for sweeping victory in this fall’s midterm elections. Republicans just need to follow it.
Donald Trump showed the way. His presidential announcement speech in 2015 was a masterpiece of political rhetoric. It was also a blueprint for a message that could cut through the nightmare web of corruption, decay, and incompetence that characterizes our modern political system.
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by Theodore Roosevelt Malloch Too many conservatives constantly stay on the defensive. They have no strategy, let alone tactical plans or a complete gamebook to go on offense and run up points. You don’t win by playing defense. You win by scoring points and controlling – dominating – the…
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The 1968 presidential election was my first. I voted for the erstwhile Republican, Richard M. Nixon. And because I wrote a college paper about my decision at the time, causing complete consternation for that professor, I still have a clear idea of why I did it. The choice was between Nixon and Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey. The other candidate on the ballot, George C. Wallace, was a populist with proven racist views and unpalatable.
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The Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary is still too close to call and likely headed for a recount which could delay the declaration of a winner into mid-June.
Per the Associated Press, Dr. Mehmet Oz currently holds a narrow 1,079 vote lead over rival David McCormick, amounting to 0.08% of the 1,340,248 total votes.
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Nearly 100 House Republicans are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, saying they had the hallmarks of an influence peddling scandal.
The letter led by Reps. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.), the chair of the House GOP Study Committee, comes as the U.S. attorney in Delaware enters his third year investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes, foreign lobbying and money movements.
In all, 95 House GOP members signed the letter.
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A Republican representative blasted a House committee chair this week for not allowing groups with opposing views to testify against a clean fuel standards bill.
House File 2083 seeks to bring California’s clean fuel standard to Minnesota in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2035. Enforcing the standard could raise gas prices by 20 cents a gallon, according to research from the Center of the American Experiment.
The House Climate and Energy Committee held an informational hearing on the bill Tuesday and allowed several pro-climate justice groups to testify in favor of the bill.
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Analysis from election forecaster Sabato’s Crystal Ball released Thursday argues that Latino voters’ recent shift toward the Republican Party may not be permanent.
Former President Donald Trump performed better with Latinos in 2020 than he did in 2016, but there does not appear to be a long-term shift in the demographic’s voting habits, wrote political scientist Alan I. Abramowitz.
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No one ever said that the business of politics made good sense, but if you’re a politician, and the vast majority of your constituents — including a high percentage of those in your own party — no longer want you to represent them, shouldn’t you take their distaste as a hint and get the heck out of office?
Such is the case for notorious Donald Trump bashing RINO congresswoman Liz Cheney. As everyone knows by now, Cheney is the lone House representative from the huge but sparsely populated state of Wyoming, which means hers is the sole voice of every single Cowboy State resident and citizen in the lower chamber. Liz has never had an issue with winning elections in blood red Wyoming, which would seem to be an argument in her favor. But times and circumstances have changed markedly in the rocky mountain high plains and there’re hardly any folks there who hanker to send Cheney back to DC for another two years.
Yet onward Liz trudges. Because Cheney has fallen so far out of favor with conservatives and Republicans in her jurisdiction, she’s now relying on Democrats to try and (literally) save her seat. The optics alone are odd, but reality is even weirder. In a piece titled “Liz Cheney turns to Democrats to save her hide,” Tara Palmeri wrote at Politico:
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As part of his Contract with America, House Speaker (and my former boss) Newt Gingrich helped first introduce the Child Tax Credit (CTC), passing it in 1997. Originally the idea of President Ronald Reagan, the CTC was founded on the conservative principles that raising children is God’s work, and parents should not be punished or held back for choosing family in a country that is always moving forward. President Trump continued this tradition by doubling the CTC in 2017. As Speaker Gingrich said during a 1995 speech, “We believe that parents ought to have the first claim on money to take care of their children rather than bureaucrats.”
Democrats reformed the CTC in 2021, as part of their wildly overdone American Rescue Plan. They’ve sought to continue their changes to the CTC in the even-more-overdone Build Back Better Act (BBB), a hulking Frankenstein of bad Democratic ideas. But the new version of the CTC may be an exception. It continues fulfilling Speaker Gingrich’s contract, empowering families to work and earn, and to raise their children with their own values. The spirit and core of that policy is even better reflected by flat, poverty-busting monthly disbursement of the credit. It’s the only salvageable ship in the sinking BBB fleet.
The CTC – in its 2021 form – does not stray too far from the $500-per-child tax cut that was initially passed in 1997. The payments, which provided eligible families with up to $300 per month for each qualifying child under age 6 and up to $250 per month for each qualifying child aged 6 to 17, stimulated regional economies, protected families from rising costs, provided direct cash relief, and removed bureaucratic hurdles.
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A federal district court judge granted the Biden administration’s request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by more than 20 Republican attorneys general challenging the Keystone XL Pipeline’s permit revocation.
Judge Jeffrey Brown, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, ruled that he couldn’t determine the constitutionality of President Joe Biden’s action because TC Energy, the pipeline’s developer, had abandoned the project. On June 9, TC Energy announced its intention to permanently halt construction of the pipeline, saying it would focus on other projects.
Biden canceled the pipeline’s federal permit immediately after taking office on Jan. 20 in an executive order. The order said the U.S. “must prioritize the development of a clean energy economy” and that the Keystone project would undermine the nation’s role as a climate leader on the world stage.
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At least nine Republican U.S. senators are continuing to pressure the Department of Homeland Security for answers over its vetting process of Afghan evacuees entering the U.S.
Three Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee members sent a letter last week to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and to Secretary of State Antony Blinken requesting information about Afghan evacuees. This week, six additional senators sent a letter to DHS asking for an overdue report they were supposed to have received Nov. 30.
Their letters followed news reports that the State Department didn’t have reliable data on everyone who evacuated Afghanistan and what types of visas they qualified for, and after a convicted rapist on an evacuation flight reached Washington-Dulles Airport. The letters also were sent after assaults and arrests were reported at military bases in New Mexico and Wisconsin where evacuees were being housed, and after several of the senators expressed concerns at a senate committee hearing in September.
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Canadian energy firm Pembina Pipeline Corp. pulled the plug on a years-long project that would have led to greater natural gas exports from to Canada to the U.S.
The multi-billion-dollar Jordan Cove project included plans to construct a marine export terminal, which would have been the first of its kind in the continental U.S., and a 230-mile pipeline across Oregon, The Associated Press reported. The terminal would have liquefied up to 1.04 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day for export and hosted two full-containment storage tanks on site, according to previous federal permit records.
But the project, which dates back to 2004, was fiercely opposed by environmentalists while state officials created permitting roadblocks that Pembina struggled to hurdle. In 2020, the Republican-majority Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project, but the agency rescinded approval in January, upholding Oregon’s rejection of the plans.
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Bob Dole, a son of the prairie from Russell, Kan., who survived grievous injuries during World War II to battle for decades as a Republican Senate leader and presidential candidate, died Sunday at the age of 98 after a battle with lung cancer.
His death was announced by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation founded by his wife and former North Carolina senator.
“Senator Robert J. Dole died early this morning in his sleep. At his death, at age 98, he had served the United States of America faithfully for 79 years,” the statement said.
The family had announced in February he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was beginning treatments.
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On Thursday, the state of Oklahoma filed a lawsuit to exempt members of the state’s National Guard from the nationwide coronavirus vaccine mandate, The Hill reports.
The suit, filed in federal court by Governor Kevin Stitt (R-Okla.) and Attorney General John O’Connor (R-Okla.), names Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin as defendants. The suit requests that the courts declare the national vaccine mandate for all members of the armed services to be unconstitutional, and thus enjoin the federal government from enforcing it on the Oklahoma National Guard; the suit also seeks to prevent the federal government from imposing its penalty for refusal to comply, which would include withholding federal funds from the state’s National Guard.
“This mandate ensures that many Oklahoma National Guard members will simply quit instead of getting a vaccine,” the suit reads in part, “a situation that will irreparably harm Oklahomans’ safety and security.”
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The incoming chairman of the House Freedom Caucus says congressional Republicans must create a clear agenda and messaging in the 2022 election to overcome voter perceptions that there’s little difference between the establishment parties in an era of freewheeling spending and large government.
“We need to be in contact with more individual citizens and every single district in every state bringing the message to them so that they understand what the difference is and that there is a true difference,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) told Just the News.
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, look, there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats.’ And you know this, John, when it comes to the establishment cartel in Washington that can’t stop spending taxpayer money, there is some truth to that,” he acknowledged, adding that “we should be here to say, ‘Just do what you said you were going to do.'”
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Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared to misuse the English language in an attempt to hit back at a Republican colleague.
On Wednesday Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a freshman member of Congress, took the opportunity to blast some of her colleagues after the House voted to censure Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona and strip him of his committee assignments.
One of Gosar’s Twitter accounts had retweeted a doctored anime clip depicting him slaying Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, though according to House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy he “didn’t see it before it posted.”
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Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced Friday that she will seek reelection in 2022, setting up another tough primary battle that includes efforts by former President Trump to unseat her.
A campaign video for Murkowski does not directly mention the challenge from Trump but warns voters about the race attracting much outside interest.
“In this election, lower 48 outsiders are going to try to grab Alaska’s Senate seat for their partisan agendas. They don’t understand our state and frankly, they couldn’t care less about your future,” she says.
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz snapped at reporters Friday when he was asked about Republican priorities for a special session that has been in the works for months.
“They wanted an absolute ban on vaccine passports, which we don’t have a damn vaccine passport so quit pretending on the politics. My patience level is gone,” Walz said Friday during a visit to North Memorial Hospital.
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Former Secretary of State Colin Powell died Monday morning due to complication from COVID-19, according to his family. He was 84.
Powell was the first black U.S. secretary of state, serving in the second Bush administration from 2001-2005. From 1989-1993, he served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the presidency of George H.W. Bush.
He was fully vaccinated, the family said.
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The House on Tuesday voted to lift the debt ceiling by $480 billion, temporarily averting widespread economic calamity after weeks of partisan gridlock and sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk.
The House briefly interrupted its weeklong recess to pass a rule governing debate for three separate bills to which the ceiling raise was attached. It passed on a party-line vote given Republicans continuing opposition to lifting the ceiling.
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Every so often we receive a comment to the effect that we are paranoid and should stop seeing a Communist under every bed, however, it appears that based on the views expressed by Prof. Saule Omarova, President Biden’s nominee for Comptroller of the Currency, our concerns about the takeover of the Democratic Party by Socialists and Communists have received some very solid confirmation.
Indeed, Omarova is so far out in Communism’s Left Field that Janet Yellen, Biden’s Treasury secretary (a garden variety liberal Democrat) raised concerns about her taking the post.
And Secretary Yellin’s concerns are amply justified.
In 2019, Omarova posted to Twitter in support of the “old USSR” where there was “no gender pay gap.” She attempted to do damage control after being criticized for it, but failed to fully condemn the Soviet Union.
As the first year of a Biden presidency that has felt like a decade nears its end, only the most ardent Democratic partisans still insist that the country is on the right track. The rest of us are left to debate whether the rancid fruit of this regime is a result of incompetence or design. By analysis of this administration’s immigration agenda alone, the inescapable conclusion is that it is indeed the latter. The macabre consequences of this fact threaten to take America into one of the darkest chapters in its history.
These kinds of conclusions run contrary to the traditional American ethos. Those who grew up with Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill” imagery or John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier vision experienced leadership that sought the best for America and its citizenry. In those eras, politicians from both major parties seemed to prioritize the good of the country; they only disagreed on the means to get us there.
Such notions seem quaint given today’s realities. Beneath the surface of Biden’s genial Uncle Joe schtick is an executive branch controlled by some of the most dogmatic left-wing apparatchiks ever seen in American politics. Among their witch’s brew of radical ideas, they have seized upon immigration as one of the quickest and most effective ways to transform the country to their vision.
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California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder’s campaign hit back at the Los Angeles Times Friday, accusing the publication of using a photo to suggest he was hitting a supporter.
A white woman in a gorilla mask threw an egg at Elder’s head Wednesday in an attack that he says would have been called a hate crime if he were a Democrat and not a Republican. The attack quickly circulated on social media and was widely reported.
The LA Times headlined its report on the incident “LAPD is investigating altercation involving Larry Elder at Venice homeless encampment” accompanied by a photo showing Elder with his hand apparently on the face of a woman.
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