Free Republic

Not again! After being for a travel ban, then changing her position to say such restrictions would not work, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) is back on board with a travel ban. “I am calling on the Administration to temporarily ban the travel of non-U.S. citizens from the affected countries in West Africa,” Hagan, who is running for reelection,

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - A new poll shows Tom Corbett is closing in on Democratic challenger Tom Wolf in the final weeks before the November election, but the Republican governor still faces a seven-point gap. The Magellan Strategies BR survey commissioned by Keystone Report shows Wolf leads Corbett 49-42 percent

During his first term in office, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker gained a nationwide reputation for his often polarizing yet unapologetically conservative agenda. He feuded with public employees over their collective bargaining rights and was subject to a recall vote because of it. He enacted income tax reductions and oversaw property tax reductions. He signed a controversial law requiring women to get an ultrasound before getting an abortion, and he enacted a controversial voter ID law now tied up in court. Now, Wisconsin voters must decide whether they're up for four more years of the Walker agenda. If they are, political...

Just weeks ago, Democrats in Kansas were salivating over the possibility that Paul Davis would be the next governor in the state and independent Greg Orman would be a new U.S. senator. Not any longer. In fact, rather suddenly, Republicans are thinking they are going to have an enjoyable Nov. 4 night of watching election returns. ThatÂ’s because they now have growing reasons to think Gov. Sam Brownback is going to defeat Davis and win re-election. That would be unfortunate, given just how badly BrownbackÂ’s economic policies have hurt the state. And they are giddy over the reversal in the...

As if Democrats needed anything else to worry about, there is the New Hampshire situation. Former naked Senate person Scott Brown enjoyed being a senator. What’s not to like? You get to work in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body and deliberate until the cows come home. Then he lost a reelection bid to Elizabeth Warren in 2012 and couldn’t be a senator anymore. So he moved to New Hampshire and said, sure, this is good enough, I’ll be a senator from here. New Hampshire is a blue state — redder than some other New England states, sure — and his...

Seventy-six percent (76%) of Kentucky voters say they have already made up their minds how they are going to vote, and McConnell leads 55% to 45% among these voters. Among the 24% who still could change their minds, the candidates are tied at 41% apiece, with 17% opting for a third-party candidate or undecided. Among the 84% of Kentucky voters who say they will definitely vote in this contest, McConnell leads 53% to 44%. Grimes has the support of 73% of Kentucky Democrats and 16% of the state’s Republicans. McConnell earns 83% backing from his fellow Republicans and 24% of...

A pair of new polls contains dire news for Democrats as they seek to hold on to their Senate majority and prevent Republican gains in the House in next month's elections. According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released on Wednesday, 46% of voters would prefer a Republican-controlled Congress compared to 44% who want to see Democrats in charge. The pollsters, who came from both sides of the aisle, attributed the preference for a GOP-led Congress to a record low 31% approval rating for President Barack Obama's handling on foreign policy.

Senate Democrats are pleading with donors to give to Rep. Bruce Braley’s campaign as they struggle to pull off a victory in Iowa and save their endangered majority. But there’s one key player holding onto his campaign cash: Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin. Despite direct appeals from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other top Democrats, Harkin has refused to transfer money from his $2.4 million campaign account to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The retiring Iowa senator has informed party leaders that he plans to use the campaign funds for a charitable contribution to an entity that bears...

To understand why Florida gubernatorial candidate Democrat Charlie Crist insisted on having a fan blowing on him during the yesterday’s debate with Republican Rick Scott, which almost stopped the whole show in its tracks, thus earning the hashtag #fangate, you need to know something about Crist and sweat. One of the stranger moments of my reporting career arrived at 6 a.m. on a day in late 2012 in St. Petersburg, Fla. I was doing a lengthy profile of Florida governor Charlie Crist.... ....Charlie Crist, burdened with an almost pathological disdain for humanity’s untidiness, hates to sweat. This trait runs deep,...

North Carolina Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis is launching a new television ad Friday suggesting his opponent personally profited from the 2009 stimulus law. The 30-second spot notes that Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan’s husband co-owns a company that received nearly $390,000 in federal grants for energy projects and tax credits created by the stimulus. “She’s 96 percent for [Barack] Obama, 100 percent for herself,” says a narrator. The ad will air statewide and comes as the National Republican Senatorial Committee is investing $6.5 million more in the Tar Heel State. “Days after Kay Hagan took office, she pushed Obama’s stimulus...

Here's an absolutely fascinating, and actually, quite possible scenario, that could well play out on Election Day. Let's assume that the GOP flips FIVE Democrat seats, while holding onto Kentucky and Kansas (as seems more likely in recent days). Nobody hits 50% in Georgia and Louisiana, so we head to run-offs there, with control of the Senate at stake..Republicans needing to win one of them....EXCEPT that....

Key House Republicans say congressional action on immigration is much more likely if Republicans take control of the Senate. The effort, two Republicans say, would likely involve individual measures rather than a broad, comprehensive bill favored by Democrats. "I actually think it's more likely, if we take the Senate, that we will have immigration reform," said Rep. Raul Labrador. "We will be able to do it on a step-by-step approach like most Republicans have been asking to do and I think the American people want." Labrador, who was a member of the bipartisan House group working on the issue before...

<p>ATLANTA (AP) — Midterm elections are less than three weeks away, yet more than 904,000 Americans already have cast their ballots, with almost 60 percent of those early votes in Florida, according to data compiled by The Associated Press from election officials in 11 states.</p>

In what might be the strangest attempted 'opposition research' dump of the election cycle, the sports blog Deadspin published an item Wednesday evening accusing Colorado Republican Senate nominee of lying about having played high school football. The report, which was quickly exposed as absolutely false, didn't even attempt to conceal its authors' political agenda (content warning):

Question: How does a grassroots Republican rancher fight an establishment Leftist incumbent swimming in limousine liberal money? Answer: With a grassroots campaign and by leveraging new mobile app technology. Jeff Byrd, a Republican running for New Mexico's 3rd congressional district (U.S. House) against one of the most liberal Democratic incumbents in the House, Rep. Ben Ray Luján, got a bit of help from a small tech firm located in Albuquerque.The Albuquerque-based tech firm microIT Infrastructure, LLC, released of a free mobile app for the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and iTouch platforms in support of Jeff. The app can be download in...

When a Democratic Senate candidate, a darling of Hollywood liberals, starts attacking Republicans over supporting amnesty, you know something is going on, even if it is in a red state. Allison Grimes, who says she supports a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens, was “caught” running an ad in Kentucky attacking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for voting to give “amnesty” to 3 million “illegal aliens” – in 1986. The ad was unlisted on her YouTube account, and since garnering attention on the left has caused a major brouhaha on the left. In New Hampshire, former-Sen. Scott Brown...

The race for U.S. Senate in Virginia has not been a particularly competitive one. In a year in which Democratic incumbents across the country are finding themselves in hot water, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) seems to have escaped the voters’ wrath. The revelation that Warner has been caught up in a federal investigation following the admission that he had engaged in quid pro quo discussions with a state senator in order to persuade him to not quit the Senate and surrender that institution’s control to Republicans has, however, upended the conventional wisdom surrounding the race for Senate in Old Dominion.

The 2014 Michigan gubernatorial election should be a referendum on the major changes to Michigan made by Governor Rick Snyder’s administration. Unfortunately, the debate is saturated instead with false claims of education cuts. Snyder’s opponent, former congressman Mark Schauer, centered his campaign around the allegation that Snyder “cut $1 billion from the schools.” Most school revenue in Michigan is channeled through the state. So the annual budget is closely followed. Overall spending on education is up over Snyder’s term. From the fiscal year 2011 budget — the last budget passed prior to the Snyder administration — to the fiscal 2015...

The top GOP strategist tasked with winning Senate control said unequivocally that his party will accomplish that goal next month. "We are going to win the Senate. I feel very good about that," National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Rob Collins told reporters in a Thursday meeting. "These races have been tough, they've been a grind, but we're seeing movement in our right direction. I feel really good about where we are," Collins continued. "I think we're going to take the Senate. I think we're going to take it on election night." Collins joked that if the GOP doesn't win,...

Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell touched on myriad issues while adding a few campaign talking points Thursday during a luncheon of the Young Professionals Association of Louisville. McConnell, who is seeking a sixth term against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, joked about the location of his desk during his first term as a U.S. senator and lamented that he first thought, “None of these people are going to die, retire or be defeated.” “But alas, I have a pretty good seat now,” he said. McConnell explained how his possible ascension to Senate majority leader would impact President Barack Obama’s initiatives on...