Free Republic

Democrats are growing worried that the strong economy, and President Trump’s messaging about his economic stewardship, will help Republicans in this year’s midterm elections and have an even greater impact in 2020. Even as signs point to Democrats winning back the House, the party is concerned that their hopes of a blue wave could turn into something smaller if Trump and the GOP are effective on their economic messaging ahead of November. Interviews with more than a dozen Democrats suggest a number of people in the party are worried that Democrats aren’t doing enough to provide a counterargument. “It’s a...

President Trump hasn't just rewritten the political rule book; he has also redrawn the political map. While plenty like to complain about how the polls got the 2016 election wrong, they got it wrong in only one region of the country: along the Rust Belt and into the Upper Midwest. And that's where Trump pulled out his narrow victory. We and plenty of others have been somewhat consumed with how that shift came about and whether it represents a fundamental realignment in American politics. But I still don't think people realize how big a shift it was or where exactly...

If black support for Trump gets into double figures, the Democratic Party will have to look for different themes than Russia, Stormy Daniels, and other such nonsense. The latest YouGov/Economist poll (May 6-8), one of a few that comprehensively breaks down support by ethnicity, has some frightening news for the Democratic Party. While President Trump’s approval holds steady among registered voters at 41 percent, his support among blacks in this poll is striking. If it holds for 2020, it could be devastating for Democrats. Among African-Americans, 16 percent approve of Trump, 10 percent are not sure, and 75 percent disapprove....

A statewide mailer was delivered to residents of Idaho urging voters to look at Lt. Governor candidate Steve Yate’s record. They accused him of having a failing business and included a copy of a private email sent from Steve Yate’s wife to her friend Sheila Olsen, a beloved active member of the Republican Party.

Well, this is certainly interesting. A group of Democrats, led by Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker have filed legislation designed to essentially gut the ability of individual states to pass right-to-work laws and hand back iron-fisted control of the workplace environment to labor unions. The fact that Democrats oppose right-to-work laws is nothing new, nor is the reality that labor unions fund a large part of their election efforts. But do you notice anything that those names I listed have in common? Every one of them has been repeatedly mentioned as a possible 2020 presidential candidate....

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey prevailed in Tuesday’s West Virginia Senate Republican primary election and he’ll face Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in one of 2018’s most closely watched races. Patrick Morrisey is a rock-solid, independent-minded conservative who would be a valuable addition to the right flank of the Republican caucus.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released copies of Facebook ads created by a Russian company with ties to the Kremlin Thursday, providing the most comprehensive picture to date of the Russian campaign to use hot-button social and political issues to target Americans during the 2016 presidential election. Lawmakers released roughly 3,000 ads from Facebook and Instagram in an effort to follow through on a commitment made by committee leaders last fall when lawmakers held hearings about the Russian social influence campaign. At the time, the panel released a small sampling of the ads produced by the Internet Research Agency,...

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - President Trump tweeted an endorsement for Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine, and said his opponent Richard Cordray was a "big failure." (TWEET-AT-LINK) Attorney General DeWine beat Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor to win the Republican nomination in Tuesday's primary election by nearly 20 percent. "Each child deserves that opportunity, to live their version of the American dream. That is what this election is all about," said DeWine Tuesday night. On the other side of the aisle, Cordray won the Democratic nod. He formerly served as the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He easily defeated...

Jeb Bush took a cheap shot at president Donald Trump’s family by saying that after he (Jeb) lost the 2016 South Carolina GOP primary, he returned home to children who “actually love me, ” reports the Yale Daily News. This is yet another example of the Bush Dynasty not exactly covering itself in glory since Trump blew out Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. Ironically, after attacking Trump’s family, the Yale Daily News notes that Jeb “called for more polite political discourse, citing William Buckley Jr.’s ’50 style of rhetoric. Bush recalled watching Buckley’s famous television program, Firing...

A Gallup poll released on Monday has President Donald Trump's approval rating at 42%. He has not had an approval rating above 40% in Gallup's poll since it hit 41% in late May 2017, which was immediately after he fired James Comey as FBI director. CNN's recent polling has the President's job approval at 41%, no different than CNN's previous polling in March. However, his approval on specific issues like the economy, foreign trade and immigration have all increased since March by several points. While the President's approval ratings have remained stagnant in Gallup polling and the uptick could be...

The Democratic Party establishment still can’t seem to get over the fact that Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 Presidential election. But rather than admitting that they put up a bad candidate or that she ran a pathetic campaign, they’ve decided to triple down on their claims that she did nothing wrong. Mike Papantonio is joined by Ed Schultz to discuss this. Transcript: Mike Papantonio: Ever since the 2016 presidential election officially called Donald Trump the winner, the democratic party’s been going through a list of different excuses as to why Hillary Clinton lost. They blamed everyone and everything including Bernie...

President Donald Trump's approval rating is holding steady in a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, but his numbers on handling several key issues are climbing, as almost 6 in 10 say things in the country are going well. Overall, 41% approve of the President's work, and 53% disapprove. Those numbers are about the same as at the end of March. On the issues, however, Trump's numbers are climbing. Approval is up 4 points on the economy to 52%, the first time it's topped 50% since March 2017; up 5 points on foreign trade to 43% approval; and his numbers...

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are trying to run on issues, but nobody can hear them. Stormy Daniels has dominated the domestic political news environment over the past week, with high-profile media appearances by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Daniels’s attorney Michael Avenatti making headlines and leading the Sunday shows. Among dedicated Trump haters, that’s made Daniels and Avenatti stars. Jacob Weisberg at Slate hails the attorney as a “brilliant egomaniac who could bring Trump down” while TPM’s Josh Marshall hails his ability to keep Trump off balance and force him into mistakes. At the same time, the president’s approval...

<p>ELKHART, Ind. (AP) — President Donald Trump will be going to a larger venue than first planned for his northern Indiana campaign rally just two days after voters decide the state's bitterly fought Republican U.S. Senate primary.</p> <p>Trump's campaign announced Sunday that the rally set for Thursday evening will be held at Elkhart's North Side Middle School gymnasium. The rally had initially been planned for a hangar at South Bend International Airport.</p>

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he regrets choosing former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) to be his running mate during the 2008 presidential campaign. The New York Times reported on Saturday that McCain, while still defending Palin’s performance, said in his upcoming book “The Restless Wave” that he wishes he had instead selected former Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) His advisers reportedly had warned against choosing Lieberman, who was once a Democrat, stating that Lieberman’s support of abortion rights could divide Republicans. “It was sound advice that I could reason for myself,” he writes. “But my gut told me to ignore...

The family of Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) does not plan to invite President Donald Trump to the senator’s funeral when the time comes, according to a New York Times report. McCain and Trump have long had a contentious relationship, including Trump slamming McCain and insisting he was not a war hero during his 2016 campaign. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said back then, referring to the former prisoner of war. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” The relationship did not get better after Trump was elected, particularly after Trump mocked McCain...

Nearly two years after the election of President Donald Trump, a comforting, yet dangerous, fantasy pervades liberal thought about the 2016 race: That Hillary Clinton not only could’ve won, had she made modestly different choices and that, by all rights, nearly any other Democrat could’ve beaten Trump. As New York Times reporter Amy Chozick (echoing numerous other pundits) describes it in her new book about the campaign, it should have been a cakewalk — the “most winnable” race ever This is a comforting thought for Democrats in the Trump era, because it means that, if they merely run a different...

The political future of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party over the next two years really comes down to one question: Do traditional measures of popularity mean anything when it comes to Trump? If they do, the Republican Party and Trump could be in major trouble. Usually, we wouldn't even think to ask whether a president with around a 40% approval rating would end up hurting his political party. Yet Trump did something that was seemingly impossible in 2016: He won the presidency, despite being the most unpopular candidate since at least 1952 and with Americans seeming to like...

Dr. Lisa Shin officially announced her bid for Representative of House District 43 on January 11, 2018. Shin, a Korean-American optometrist, has served the people of District 43 for 20 years. She is running for New Mexico House Rep to fight for the American Dream and a beautiful future for our kids. Shin’s opponents include local Democrats Pete Sheehey and Chris Chandler, who are currently councilors on the Los Alamos County Council. The Democrats will have a primary June 5. An exciting race of 2018 New Mexico State House District 43! Visit Power Voter for more candidate info, e.g. Asian...

Democratic Party members in Lubbock, Texas, have been getting blasted on Facebook for cropping First Lady Melania Trump out of a now-viral picture from Barbara Bush’s funeral. The original photo features former presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — posing alongside Melania and first ladies Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama. Someone at Lubbock Democratic Party Headquarters posted the edited version on Sunday and later claimed they did it by accident. But Facebook users weren’t buying it. ---snip--- While party officials told KCBD that they never intended to edit Melania out of the...