Free Republic

It was inevitable that the field of primary challengers to Lindsey Graham would grow, but the sheer number of ambitious Republicans seeking to oust the South Carolina senator may end up being the undoing of them all. With a new opponent entering the race over the weekend and another poised to join soon, the question is whether enough variables could fall into place to cause a different result this time. It’s possible, according to several South Carolina GOP operatives who spoke with CQ Roll Call in recent days. But it would take an extraordinarily large amount of money, extensive support...

Does Mitch McConnell’s primary challenger have a chance? Watch and decide. (VIDEO)

Interesting developments: Matt Bevin is challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Kentucky GOP primary. Checking his biography, I’m glad to see that Bevin is a graduate of Washington & Lee University, a U.S. Army veteran, and a small business owner — exactly the kind of outsider “not a politician” profile anyone would want in a Tea Party candidate. If grassroots conservatives in Kentucky rally behind Bevin, I think we can start chilling the champagne for Mitch McConnell’s retirement party. However, defeating the party’s Senate leader in a primary would be completely unprecedented. If this is Star Wars, Luke...

Downers Grove business owner and West Point graduate Doug Truax (True-axe) will announce Monday morning he is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for Illinois’ senate seat currently held by Dick Durbin. “Dick Durbin and his crew have been in charge in Illinois and the United States for years. Their policies are not working, yet they continue to pursue them again and again as we sink deeper into economic stagnation,” Truax says in an announcement video posted to Youtube.

It’s only just begun, but the reelection battle of Mitch McConnell – the top Republican in the Senate – is already shaping up to be the marquee race of the 2014 midterms. Start with the primary challenge Senator McConnell faces from Matt Bevin, a wealthy, tea-party-backed businessman, reportedly willing to spend his own money. If McConnell makes it past Mr. Bevin, he’s poised to face likely Democratic nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s secretary of state and member of a well-connected political family, in the general election. Add to the mix McConnelll’s mediocre job approval ratings in the state – only...

FANCY FARM — For the first time, Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell shared the stage with challengers who want his job and stuck around long enough at Saturday’s Fancy Farm picnic to hear one of them speak. Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes — and later Democrat Ed Marksberry and McConnell’s Republican primary challenger Matt Bevin — slammed McConnell for being in Washington too long and not doing enough to help Kentuckians, fix what ails Washington or both. McConnell, for his part, ignored Bevin completely, both in the senator’s speech and by leaving before Bevin addressed the crowd, which organizers estimated...

The contenders looking to primary the controversial South Carolina senator in 2014 are starting to come forward. Watch out, Lindsey Graham: the Tea Party says that you are next. Tea Party members demonstrate outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 19. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty) According to sources in South Carolina and within the Tea Party, at least two serious challenges to Graham are expected to emerge in the next few weeks. Dustin Stockton, a leading conservative activist and head of Western PAC, told The Daily Beast that he is headed to South Carolina next month to help build a ground...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will have a challenger from the right in Matt Bevin, a local businessman and Tea Party candidate who plans to announce his run for Senate this week. Bevin, who has been exploring the race since February, is reportedly already buying airtime and has met with multiple conservative groups about his run. He'll launch a 3-day, 8-stop tour of the state after he formally announces his intentions on Wednesday. Bevin is a partner at a Kentucky investment firm and the owner of Bevin Brothers Manufacturing, a Connecticut bell-making company founded 160 years ago. He previously...

You can get agreement from almost all points on the political spectrum that the worst aspect of our political system is the presidential nomination process. It is perhaps no coincidence that it is the one part of the system not treated in the Constitution. That’s because the Founding Fathers abhorred political parties and hoped that presidents would be selected by something like an elite consensus. But we have political parties, the oldest and third oldest in the world, and they are not going away.Surely a better system is possible. The current system of primaries, caucuses and national conventions is the...

In the latest poll out regarding the Wyoming GOP primary for senate, incumbent Senator Mike Enzi holds a strong lead over challenger Liz Cheney. After announcing she would run for the Republican nomination in the 2014 Wyoming senate race, many Republicans had opinions of the choice. But in the latest poll out of Wyoming, Mike Enzi leads the former VP’s daughter by over 30 points. If the race were held today 55 percent said they would support Senator Enzi, whereas only 21 percent support Cheney’s efforts. Just over three-quarters of the state’s voters view Enzi favorably, compared with just 6...

Michael Steele on Wednesday said Liz Cheney’s decision to challenge fellow Republican Sen. Mike Enzi for his Wyoming Senate seat will be disastrous and split the party. The former Republican National Committee chairman told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner that he thinks former Sen. Alan Simpson was right to call the situation a “disaster.” “I think he’s right, I think it’s going to open a lot of fissures in the party. I think this is an insurgent move by Cheney,” Steele said Wednesday on “Now with Alex Wagner.” Steele criticized Cheney’s comments that Enzi has compromised too much and “gone along to...

It is time for the GREAT state of SC to set an example for the rest of the nation on how to deal with their mistake. Let Nikki Haley find another great replacement (in the Tim Scott tradition)until the next election. (video)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Liz Cheney, daughter of Dick Cheney, says she will challenge Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., next year.

“I’m a Ronald Reagan conservative,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters before speaking to a few hundred people at the Columbia Rotary Club on Monday. “You get 80 percent of what you want, that’s a good day.”It’s the other 20 percent that could get Graham in trouble with S.C. GOP primary voters next year, when the Seneca Republican’s Senate seat is expected to be the main event in a primary season that will see voters deciding 11 statewide races.In February, Graham’s approval rating among S.C. Republicans was 71 percent, according to a Winthrop University poll. By April – about the...

Abbott, fresh out of law school, was jogging through Houston's River Oaks neighborhood on July 14, 1984, when a 75-foot oak tree suddenly splintered at its base, striking him in the back and partially paralyzing him. Abbott sued the homeowner and a tree company that had worked in the area and collected millions. He has since become a proponent of limiting civil litigation in Texas and capping the amount of damages that can be awarded. Opponents have called him a hypocrite, but Abbott has largely shrugged off such criticisms. He rarely speaks about his accident, but chose to Sunday. "Piecing...

Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) will run for retiring Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) seat, she announced Wednesday afternoon. "As a mother, soldier, and a conservative, the values I hold dear, and have fought more than 20 years to protect, are being threatened by the failed policies of this president," she said in a statement on her new campaign website. "Washington has failed us. We need and deserve better leadership. And that's why I am running for U.S. Senate." Ernst, a lieutenant colonel in Iowa's national guard and first-term state lawmaker, has received encouragement from Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R)...

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) would back Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) if he faces a primary challenge from Liz Cheney, a committee spokesman told The Hill. “The NRSC's main responsibility is to ensure the reelection of Republican senators on the way to the majority. We would obviously support Sen. Enzi if a challenge arises,” NRSC Communications Director Brad Dayspring said Tuesday. Cheney, a Fox News commentator, former State Department official and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is said to be seriously considering a Senate bid against Enzi. The New York Times reported last weekend that Cheney...

Colorado state Sen. Randy Baumgardner may have his Wild West mustache to thank for his rising visibility around the state — his facial hair even has its own Twitter handle — but the Republican hasn’t given much thought to how it will be received in Washington if gets elected to the U.S. Senate. “I don’t care how it plays in Washington,” Baumgardner said from Washington, where he is visiting supporters in preparation for his bid to unseat Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall. “I’m not representing Washington, I’m representing Colorado.” But first Baumgardner must face off against state Sen. Owen Hill...

Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi is a loyal Republican, a decent guy, and generally a good senator. He also needs to retire from the Senate because he is not good enough, and I don’t care if that makes him sad. The New York Times probably thought it was helping him recently when it ran an article about how Dick Cheney’s daughter Liz is planning to challenge him in the 2014 Republican primary. The Times hailed him as “a studious, low-key legislator who worked well with Senator Edward M. Kennedy,” and Enzi probably thinks that’s a compliment. For that reason alone he...

Sherwood, May lose; Gilbert remains By Alex Bridges Political newcomers defeated two of the region's veteran Republican Party delegates in primaries Tuesday, according to unofficial results. Mark J. Berg defeated Del. Beverly J. Sherwood for the 29th District. Dave LaRock defeated Senior Republican Joe May for the 33rd District, according to unofficial results from the Virginia State Board of Elections. Both May and Sherwood lost their bids to run for their 11th terms. The outcomes mean Berg and LaRock will represent the party on the ballot along with Del. C. Todd Gilbert in the regular election Nov. 5. Gilbert fended...