Free Republic

The chairman of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) is refusing to campaign for the GOP's nominee for New York governor. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is heading the GOP's gubernatorial efforts across the nation, was campaigning in Connecticut when reporters asked him whether he would campaign on behalf of Rob Astorino in his race against sitting New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. According to Christie, the answer is a nearly-unqualified no.

President Barack Obama's LGBT workplace discrimination order has revealed a rift among Democrats over whether religious freedom trumps gay rights. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives could exploit that rift by bringing the Senate-passed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has a religious exemption, to the floor for a vote. ENDA, which would ban workplace discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity, was passed by the Senate in November with the support of 54 Democrats and 10 Republicans. The bill likely would not have passed if it had not contained a religious exemption. The exemption was a major point of contention during...

Voters strongly believe the United States is a more divided nation these days, and they think both sides are to blame. Most are also ready to do something about it at the ballot box in November.

Businessman David Perdue stunned Georgia’s Republican political establishment Tuesday by capturing the party’s U.S. Senate nomination in his first run for office. The former CEO of Reebok and Dollar General toppled 11-term Rep. Jack Kingston by a narrow margin, setting up a battle of political newcomers with famous kin in the fall. Perdue’s cousin, Sonny, was a two-term governor and Nunn’s father, Sam, was a four-term U.S. Senator....

Overall Georgia Senate Primary Runoff Results

The existence of gay Republicans is hardly a new phenomenon. The Log Cabin Republicans, an organization for gay men and women within the party, was founded back in 1977 in California. But every so often, the existence of gay conservatives gets media attention, particularly during election cycles. In more recent years, gay conservatives have been getting more attention as the Republican Party struggles with its identity. American opinion has shifted significantly to support top issues among gays and lesbians, particularly in support of marriage recognition. Support for gay marriage among evangelical Christians has doubled over the past decade, according to...

On Monday, DREAMers stormed the halls of Congress to stage a "GOP funeral" in front of the offices of Republican senators, some of whom have expressed concerns that President Barack Obama's unilateral grants of temporary amnesty have caused the current border crisis. Pro-amnesty activists from United We Dream dressed in black and marched around with a mock casket that had these words emblazoned on it: "RIP GOP." They held flowers and started chanting and singing, "We shall overcome." Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has said Obama should not award temporary amnesty to DREAMers in the future because the Deferred Action for...

Republicans entered this election cycle with high hopes. President Obama’s approval ratings had sunk into the low 40s, and the rollout of the Affordable Care Act had been an unmitigated disaster. In an off-year election, Democrats weren’t expected to fully mobilize the young and diverse coalition that has given them an advantage in presidential elections. Off-years are also when a president’s party typically suffers significant losses. This year seemed poised to turn into another so-called wave election, like in 2006 or 2010, when a rising tide of dissatisfaction with the incumbent party swept the opposition into power. Given a favorable...

The Republican National Committee should censure the committeeman from Mississippi, Henry Barbour, and perhaps request (although not demand) his resignation from the RNC. Barbour’s apparent involvement with nakedly race-baiting ads and robocalls during the GOP senatorial primary runoff in his state, and his prevarications afterwards both in public and in e-mails to other committee members, merit an official public shaming. To be clear about exactly what in Barbour’s conduct does and doesn’t deserve a rebuke, and to take care of some housekeeping with regard to journalistic ethics, please forgive a bit of personal backstory.

Ronald Reagan won two presidential elections by fighting for the "Forgotten Man," and Sarah Palin said Republicans will only win presidential elections in the future if the party sticks up for the "little guy" and the "Forgotten Man" of all races and backgrounds. Building upon the themes she has always fought for and distilled in a landmark speech in Indianola, Iowa in 2011 in which she denounced the bipartisan permanent political class and their brand of crony capitalism that extracts wealth from American workers, Palin told attendees at the Western Conservative Summit in Colorado on Saturday to think about what...

Author and broadcaster Tavis Smiley during the Kansas Conference on Poverty on Friday spoke out about Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget and called for a 2016 presidential debate that would focus solely on poverty and income equality. “Budgets are moral documents,” Smiley told a crowd gathered in the Sunflower Ballroom of the Capitol Plaza Hotel, 1717 S.W. Topeka Blvd. He said Brownback gave tax breaks to the “rich and lucky” and “cut K-12 education.” “The tax cuts are a good sound-bite politics but unsound policy,” Smiley said. He also said what Brownback has done to the state is “shameful.” Education is...

Hillary Clinton thanked the Republican establishment and its big business allies for taking on the Tea Party and defeating conservative candidates like Chris McDaniel in Mississippi's June runoff.

Will Mitt Romney run again for president? The question seems absurd. Aside from a single commanding debate performance against President Barack Obama, he was not a very good candidate in 2012. After failing in his first attempt at gaining the Republican nomination four years earlier, Romney struggled across the finish line against weak, underfunded primary opponents whose best days were mostly behind them. He then promptly lost to Obama in November. In fact, Romney has only won one general election in twenty years of running for office. He will be fourteen years removed from that lone victory in November 2016....

One of the things I admire most about Senator Chris McDaniel is that he is keeping the fire burning. His updates not only help us keep our spirits high they restore confidence in our elected officials. He is still a state senator and he could have chosen the path of less resistance but he is fighting for the integrity of the process. ItÂ’s not as easy as he has made it look. There has been a lot of pressure for him to not pursue this but he remains focused but he is staying close to supporters who are following this...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)NEW YORK -- Following the noxious scenes in Murrieta, California earlier this month in which women and children from Central American were greeted by flag-waving mobs shouting, "go home" and "you’re not welcome", the ugly face of American populism was given another airing on Tuesday as protesters descended on the small town of Oracle, Arizona, to rally against the transfer of 40 immigrant children to a local academy for troubled youths. Yet unlike in Murrieta, those demonstrating against the arrival of the destitute and vulnerable were met by a counter protest organised by pro-immigrant supporters, with heated exchanges between the...

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." —Barry Goldwater The 50th anniversary of Barry Goldwater's clarion call for liberty acceptance speech for the Republican nomination passed this week. In a modern world where politicians talk, but their words are hollow, listening to Goldwater's message a half a century later is like a drink of fresh water. But the words were no less scary to politicians less than a year from President Kennedy's assassination. The establishment Republicans, then known as Rockefeller Republicans, played...

The Republicans don’t want Obama's presidency remembered for anything good. They have hoped he was only going to be a one term president but Obama completely surprised them when he won a landslide victory against their best candidate, Mitt Romney. I thought the Republicans should have learnt their lessons in 6 out of 8 years of Obama and keep off messing around with the President. I thought they should have begun to understand where they went wrong and then start to make corrections. Their situation is analogous “to those who the Gods will destroy”. What usually happens to them is...

I’m wondering where the American spirit is these days, because I’m encountering conversations and commentary pushing the notion that Sarah Palin, a prominent conservative politician and noted tea party champion of We the People, should concede and hush her mouths for the sake of Republicanism. Specifically, I’m speaking of the former governor’s choice to proudly display some American spirit and tell Congress to impeach Barack Obama. Yes, I am on the Palin bandwagon in this issue. Our country is at stake. Sarah Palin is calling for Obama’s impeachment, citing the immigration crisis as “the last straw that makes the battered...

Well before Mr. Smith went to Washington D.C., politicians and civil servants have set out to change the Washington culture and bring about serious change, only to be ensnared in it themselves. Between the Georgetown dinner parties, the media obsession with the city that borders on self-parody, and the allure of power and prestige, the DC experience has proven itself to be an intoxicating one for even the most civic minded bureaucrat. While there have been calls to change the culture of the city for nearly as long as it has existed, few real solutions have been put forward to...

Conservatives are stuck in a perpetual outrage loop. The reappearance of Todd Akin, the horror-movie villain immortality of Sarah Palin, the unseemly celebration of the Hobby Lobby decision – these all speak to a chorus of "la-la-la-can't-hear-you" loud enough to drown out the voice of an entire generation. Late last week, the Reason Foundation released the results of a poll about that generation, the millennials; its signature finding was the confirmation of a mass abandonment of social conservatism and the GOP. This comes at a time when the conservative movement is increasingly synonymous with mean-spirited, prank-like and combative activism and...