Free Republic

Hillary Clinton has not experienced any sustained after-effects from the concussion that sidelined her from her work at the State Department in late 2012 and early 2013, the former secretary of state told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview in advance of the release of her new memoir, “Hard Choices.” “No lingering effects,” Clinton told Sawyer, when asked whether she had experienced any. “No,” Clinton affirmed, when asked whether she still notices effects of any kind. The first piece of the interview with Clinton will air tonight on ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer,” and the full interview...

Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has won another straw poll, boosting his national profile and elevating his name among potential 2016 presidential contenders. The firebrand freshman senator and tea party favorite was among a handful of 2016 hopefuls speaking at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans this week. Cruz finished in first place in the annual conference's presidential straw poll at 30.33%. Dr. Ben Carson, a Fox News commentator and conservative activist, finished in second with 29.38% while Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, was third with 10.43%. Fox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Governor Rick Perry rounded...

It’s only a small matter of time until the Obama administration finally, rapturously releases what its hopes will be the crown jewel of its rise-of-the-oceans-slowing climate-change agenda: Regulations capping the emissions from existing power plants, a.k.a., stamping out coal plants across the country. This set of regs is going to be even more complicated and controversial than the regulations for only new power plants the administration released last year, and as the AP obliquely explains, we’re likely to start seeing those “necessarily skyrocketing” energy prices Obama once mentioned pretty quickly here: Electricity prices are probably on their way up...

Live results

It was suggested that one be started so I'll take the lead!

The Republican Establishment always says conservative purists would rather lose than compromise. But the opposite is playing out in Nebraska. The moment Ben Sasse got endorsed by the Senate Conservatives Fund, Mitch McConnell went all in for Shane Osborn. Well, Osborn is now toast. He has extremely high negatives, extreme negative poll numbers, and outside groups have just finished him off with an ad blasting his involvement in a made up military memo. That leaves Sid Dinsdale who’d have you know he is a lifelong Republican despite years of significant giving to Democrats. Dinsdale too, however, is behind in the...

Challengers see themselves in the Texas senator, even in races where their odds of an upset are considered steeper than Cruz’s surprise victory over a GOP establishment figure two years ago. He’s made endorsements in the Oklahoma and Nebraska Senate races, plus the Nebraska gubernatorial race, and sent almost $26,000 to federal candidates through his leadership PAC. “Ted Cruz would be extremely helpful as an endorser and a fundraiser,” said C. Edmund Wright, a consultant to longshot South Carolina Senate hopeful Lee Bright, in an email. “Rand Paul and Mike Lee would be great also.” But, he said, “the reason...

(Reuters) - The Arkansas Supreme Court on Friday halted the issuing of marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the first and only state in the U.S. South to allow gay marriage. About 500 gay and lesbian couples have married since a state judge last week overturned the Arkansas ban on same-sex unions. The state attorney general's office had requested the stay to stop counties from issuing licenses and also appealed the decision that struck down the state's gay marriage ban. The Supreme Court issued the stay in a brief, unsigned order, without elaborating on its reasoning. Pulaski County Circuit Judge...

<p>Like those who stood against civil rights for African-Americans, gay-marriage foes are fighting a battle they can't win.</p> <p>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Nine slender statues stand beneath a window to the Arkansas governor's office – bronzed, life-sized images of the black children who integrated Little Rock Central High School on Sept. 25, 1957 and helped ignite the Civil Rights era. "They defied prejudice," says Gregory Donaldson, an African-American Baptist minister from St. Louis visiting the display with his wife Nanette. "They defied bigotry."</p>

The Faulkner County Republican Party held a debate for the Arkansas 2nd Congressional District in Conway. The Candidates were State Representative Ann Clemmer, Colonel Conrad Reynolds, and Businessman French Hill. The last question in the debate was about immigration and was directed to French Hill. Hill was given 3 minutes for drawing the question, while the other 2 candidates were given a 1 minute response. The question regarding immigration and the responses of all 3 candidates is in this video.

More than a dozen same-sex marriage licenses were issued for the first time in a Bible Belt state Saturday after a state judge declared Arkansas' voter-approved ban on gay wedding to be unconstitutional. About 50 couples had lined up at the courthouse in Eureka Springs in Carroll County, Arkansas, Saturday morning seeking licenses, according to Reuters. But Carroll County Deputy Clerk Jane Osborn told The Associated Press that 15 licenses were issued Saturday. On Friday, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, saying it violated equal protection provisions of the U.S. Constitution. "This...

Gone is the sunny, compassionate candidate of 2008. In the run-up to 2016, the former Arkansas governor is downright angry. He’s learned his lesson from his last campaign, ex-aides say. In 2007, Mike Huckabee stood impassively on a Republican presidential debate stage while Mitt Romney tried to embarrass him. A program that Huckabee had instituted in Arkansas gave undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children the right to in-state tuition at Arkansas’s public universities. Huckabee sounded, Romney said, like a Massachusetts liberal. “Are we going to give taxpayer-funded benefits to kids that are here illegally and put them...

It’s something she says she will hold on to forever. A victim of the April 27 Arkansas tornado had the moment to send one final text to his mother before the deadly storm claimed his life. “First he said mama, I’m so scared,” Regina Wood, Jeffrey Hunter’s mom, told KFTA-TV. ”He knew how bad it was, these say it’s going to be a direct hit.” All she could do was comfort him and tell him everything would be okay. It wouldn’t.

This petition was started this weekend to stop Barack Obama from coming to visit the state after the recent tornadoes. Stop Obama from Coming to ArkansasWe the people of Arkansas do not want or need Barack Obama in our state. He has never been here or paid us any attention. Our tornado victims have already been through way more than anyone should have to endure.. they do not need another storm of media and secret service and everything else a visit from a President entails to upset their destroyed lives. We respectfully ask that he send the money that would...

The SPLC says they identified Star City teacher Philip Holthoff as posting racist comments on the site under a pseudonym, "David Lee Saxon." "I teach social studies in a public high school and I am racially conscious," wrote poster David Lee Saxon. The SPLC says they were able to identify Holthoff's connection to the website by a donation. "Mr. Holthoff gave money on April 20th to the site so we were taking a closer look at him and that's how he came up as a donor on Stormfront," said Heidi Beirich of the SPLC. Beirich says she reached out to...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who spoke Saturday at the Maine Republican Convention, was the big winner in the party’s straw poll. Paul took 26 percent of the vote, to 14 percent for the second-place finisher, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). With 690 ballots cast at the convention in Bangor, the order of finish was: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.): 176 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): 98 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: 70 Dr. Ben Carson: 62 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 60 Jeb Bush: 57 Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.): 37 Mike Huckabee: 28 Condoleezza Rice: 26

Well, that was fast. When your humble correspondent first read the New York Times/Kaiser Family Foundation poll this morning showing incumbent Mark Pryor suddenly surging into a ten point lead over challenger Tom Cotton in the Arkansas Senate race, my suspicious antenna immediately sensed something was wrong with the way the poll was conducted. However, I figured the Times wouldn't be so unsubtle as to make it easy to detect how erroneous the results were and that only polling experts would be able to dig through the reams of stats in order to point out the errors. I was wrong....

Republicans need to win six Senate seats to take control of the upper chamber, and most scenarios for victory include the Southern seats up for grabs. A poll out today from the New York Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation suggests that may be tougher than first thought. Mark Pryor, considered to be one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the midterms, has a ten-point lead over his Republican challenger, Rep. Tom Cotton: The survey underscores a favorable political environment over all for Republicans in Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas — states President Obama lost in 2012 and where...

While maybe not the political “gaffe of the year,” Sen. Mark Pryor’s (D-AR) remark that his Republican challenger's military service gives him a “sense of entitlement” is certainly up there. Hence why Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR) -- who is indeed running to unseat Sen. Pryor -- is now actively campaigning off his opponent’s verbal missteps. If for no other reason, this spot is effective because (as Matt Lewis also notes) it reminds voters that Pryor actually said that. And that’s important to emphasize. I’ve never served in the armed services, of course, but I’m fairly certain one does not return...

Well, if this isn't a burgeoning political headache for the party of “tolerance” and “inclusiveness,” I don't know what is. An Arkansas Democratic gubernatorial candidate has filed two complaints against state organizations affiliated with the Democratic Party. She claims Arkansas Democrats snubbed her at a dinner by refusing to let her speak, and on a separate occasion, referred to her primary opponent as “the next governor of Arkansas”…as she sat and listened. From ABC’s affiliate KATV: Arkansas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dr. Lynette Bryant has filed a complaint against the Democratic Party of Arkansas and the Saline County Democratic Party...