Free Republic

Martin O’Malley, the former Democratic governor of Maryland and 2016 presidential candidate, says he will not run for president in 2020 and is backing Beto O’Rourke. O’Malley’s endorsement of O’Rourke, who catapulted to the national spotlight in his close Texas Senate race against Sen. Ted Cruz, comes in a column published in the Des Moines Register. […] O’Malley says that O’Rourke has “the wisdom to listen, the courage to lead, and a rock-solid faith in the powerful goodness of our nation.” …

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has her eyes set on the 2020 presidential race, but the controversy surrounding her claims of Native American ancestry may have cost her political future, RealClearPolitics associate editor A.B. Stoddard argued Monday night on the "Special Report" All-Star panel. [Snip] In October, Warren released the findings of a DNA test that show that she may be 1/1,024th Native American, in a bid to quiet her critics. She had been accused of claiming she had Native American heritage to advance her career, something President Trump has repeatedly suggested. Stoddard ... expressed that Warren's deflection from the ancestry...

In an exclusive interview set to air during Fox News' 'All-American New Year' special Monday night, President Trump suggested that only Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren's "psychiatrist" knows whether she thinks she can win the White House in 2020. Warren announced Monday she is filing paperwork to launch an exploratory committee for president, becoming the first candidate to take the major step toward a 2020 run for the presidency. Fox News' Pete Hegseth asked Trump whether Warren really thinks she could make him a one-term president. "Well, that I don't know," Trump responded. "You’d have to ask her psychiatrist."

The new governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis has named Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel as the new Secretary of State, who will be overseeing elections in Florida. Although he is a Republican, he does not endorse candidates nor does he allow corruption from anyone, regardless of political affiliation. He counts the votes and that is all. Seminole County under Ertel has an excellent record of tabulating votes. Snipes has been an embarrassment to the entire state and Florida elections will be much better in 2020 under his leadership. That will likely not be to Snipes liking because if...

If Democrats are optimistic as 2019 begins, it is understandable. Their victory on Nov. 6, adding 40 seats and taking control of the House of Representatives, was impressive. And with the party's total vote far exceeding the GOP total, in places it became a rout. In the six New England states, Republicans no longer hold a single House seat. Susan Collins of Maine is the last GOP senator. In California, Democrats took the governorship, every state office, 45 of 53 House seats and both houses of the legislature by more than 2-to-1. In the Goldwater-Nixon-Reagan Golden State bastion of Orange...

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is prepared to spent upwards of $100 million should he mount a 2020 bid for the White House, according to CNBC. Howard Wolfson, the billionaire business magnate's top political advisor, told the news outlet that Bloomberg spent more than $100 million in his last campaign for New York City mayor in 2009. "Last time I looked, NYC is a fraction of the size of the country as a whole," Wolfson said in an email to the outlet. ADVERTISEMENT Wolfson added that Bloomberg would spend "whatever is required" on his own campaign if he...

Democrats are worried that they have a problem: The three people leading polls in the very early stages of their presidential race are all white men. The party traditionally battles over identity politics and wants to be seen as promoting diversity. Its last three nominees have been Barack Obama, who became the nation’s first African-American president, and Hillary Clinton, the first woman to win the popular vote. Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) are this year’s top-tier candidates, according to a recent and very early Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll. It showed that 32...

Democrats will hold at least a dozen presidential primary debates starting in June 2019 and running through April 2020, with party Chairman Tom Perez promising rules that will give everyone in a potentially large field a fair shot at voters’ attention. Making public his first in a series of decisions over the 2020 debate calendar, Perez said Thursday that the national party will sponsor six debates in 2019 and six more in 2020. That could be extended if the nomination process drags deep into the spring. Exact dates, locations, media partners and qualifying thresholds will be announced in early 2019....

The idolatry of failed Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke continues unabated in Politico despite the mockery of such an attitude in their own publication. The latest outbreak of Beto worship is actually quite bizarre since Politico National Correspondent David Siders assures his liberal readers that while O'Rourke might come off as playing fair, he is actually a duplicitous soul who is quite capable of fighting dirty. Siders reassures nervous liberals about how O'Rourke will hold up in competition with other Democrat presidential candidates in the December 17 Politico by telling them that inside his feigned cloak of political saintliness, there lies...

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander announced Monday he will not run for re-election in 2020, saying it’s time for “someone else” to have the privilege of representing Tennessee in the Senate. “I will not be a candidate for re-election to the United States Senate in 2020,” the 78-year-old Alexander said in a statement. Alexander, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, previously served as governor of Tennessee. He also worked as secretary of the Department of Education under then-President George H.W. Bush. “The people of Tennessee have been very generous, electing me to serve more combined years...

British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who wrote the Democrat-financed anti-Trump dossier, said in a court case that he was hired by a Democratic law firm in preparation for Hillary Clinton challenging the results of the 2016 presidential election. He said the law firm Perkins Coie wanted to be in a position to contest the results based on evidence he unearthed on the Trump campaign conspiring with Moscow on election interference. His scenario is contained in a sealed Aug. 2 declaration in a defamation law suit brought by three Russian bankers in London. The trio’s American attorneys filed his answers Tuesday in...

Camille Paglia is a rare bird: A liberal who’s not afraid to tell the truth about liberals. In a recent Q & A with Spectator USA, Paglia sounded off about a variety of topics, including the likely class of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. And let’s just say she didn’t mince words: "If the economy continues strong, Trump will be reelected. The Democrats (my party) have been in chaos since the 2016 election and have no coherent message except Trump hatred. Despite the vast pack of potential candidates, no one yet seems to have the edge. I had high hopes for...

Okay, despite LOSING his bid to become senator from Texas, Beto O'Rourke has actually risen to #3 in Democrat Presidential Polls. Therefore the time is RIPE to give him a nickname that President Trump could use. I'll kick this off by referencing his DUI flee from the scene of a traffic accident he caused with this monicker: BETO BAILOUT.

Where do I go to get my reputation back? Do you know how many times I've been called a "racist" over the last six years for calling Elizabeth Warren exactly what she just called herself in Baltimore - "not a person of color." In other words, a fake Indian. She finally admitted the obvious on a Friday afternoon, just before Christmas, in front of what she must have assumed would be a somewhat sympathetic audience at a black college. Two months after offering what she claimed was definitive proof of her Native American ancestry, she is now acknowledging that she’s...

President Donald Trump made an unannounced visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday to honor America’s fallen as thousands across the country laid wreaths on veterans’ graves. Trump paid his respects as volunteers for ‘Wreaths Across America‘ waited in long lines to place a Christmas wreath on the tombs of America’s greatest heroes. The event, which is held every December, aims to “remember, honor, and teach” about those who served, and perished, fighting for America’s freedom. In addition to Arlington National Cemetery, Wreaths Across America Day is observed at more than 1,400 cemeteries in all 50 states, as well as...

Past and current advisers to Biden have held frequent conversations about options to alleviate concerns about age, including teaming him with a younger running mate. One option that has been floated, according to a source with knowledge of the talks, is outgoing Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who at 46 has become the subject of intense 2020 speculation after nearly beating GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.

Number of the week: A new Fox News poll finds that only 38% of voters said they would re-elect President Donald Trump if the election were held today. A majority, 55%, said they would vote for someone else. That's in line with previous Fox News polls, which also found that a majority of voters wanted someone else to be president. What's the point: The findings of Fox News are no surprise. The President has consistently had a negative net approval rating (approval rating minus disapproval rating). The re-election question is merely an offshoot of that and indicates that voters are...

"... the tin cup is such a low-tech way to beg. There’s a better way. Meet Jovan Hill, digital beggar. Hill is an unemployed Brooklyn man who spends his days asking strangers for donations on social media and is now bathing in other people’s money ...

Want a good morning laugh? Get a load of National Review's Kyle Smith and his hilarious vivisection of Michael Avenatti, whose rise and fall show just how absurd he and his Democratic cheerleaders always were. Here's the start of the piece and don't tell me you don't want to read further : Remember when Michael Avenatti was the Democrats' big hope for 2020? He wasn't just that, though. Parachuting in to launch his presidential campaign to the DNC's "Ethnic Council" and its black caucus in Chicago in August, he enthusiastically adopted the party's guiltspeak. "People that look like me, white...

It was only a few weeks ago when outgoing Ohio Governor John Kasich said he was seriously considering a 2020 primary challenge to President Trump, if only to “send a message.” (Who that message was intended for remains unclear.) But hey… the guy is going to be unemployed come January so he needs something to keep himself busy.But now, with Christmas fast approaching, something seems to have changed. During an interview with the Associated Press, Kasich was striking a decidedly different tone. Clearly, if you’re going to mount a primary challenge, you need to believe that you at least have...