Free Republic

While President Trump claims that his relations with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have never been better and while Stephen K. Bannon continues his war against McConnell and a long list of Republican Senators, we will learn whether Bannon is fronting for Trump or acting against him. If Bannon does not end his attacks against incumbent GOP senators, we will know that he is colluding with the president, who is dividing Republicans — and all Americans — against each other and endangering GOP control of the Senate. In the 10th month of the Trump presidency, the Republican Congress still...

Collins, Corker, and McCain are three Republican pragmatists who regularly work across the aisle. Their exits – along with the potential loss of several endangered Democrats up for reelection in red states – would all but complete the hollowing out of the Senate’s political center. It’s a trend that’s been going on for more than a decade on both sides, says Jennifer Duffy of the independent Cook Political Report: “There’s virtually no middle left in the Senate.”

Bannon will back primary challenges against EVERY Republican running for Senate re-election next year except Cruz - as Trump's former strategist hatches plan to boot McConnell from majority leader job Ex-White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon is planning a political assault on six Republican Senate incumbents, running for re-election next year Previously, Bannon had looked to oust Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss Now he's expanded that list to take on every Republican running in 2018, except Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas With Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., retiring, Bannon is already looking at Tea Party favorite,...

After Alabama Sen. Luther Strange's defeat last week in a Republican primary runoff, the national spotlight turned west and onto incumbents in Nevada and Arizona already facing intra-party challenges next year. Yet just over the nearest border, a Mississippi state senator with something of a vendetta against the party’s establishment was feeling empowered to mount another insurrection. Chris McDaniel came close to defeating U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014, and is now weighing a bid against Republican Sen. Roger Wicker. McDaniel monitored the Alabama runoff up close, appearing there in support of eventual victor Roy Moore and getting face time...

The stunning defeat of President Trump’s chosen Senate candidate in Alabama on Tuesday amounted to a political lightning strike — setting the stage for a worsening Republican civil war that could have profound effects on next year’s midterm elections and undermine Trump’s clout with his core voters. It marked yet another humiliation for the Washington-based Republican establishment, particularly Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose allies pumped millions of dollars into the race to prop up Strange and reassure his colleagues that they could survive the Trump era. “If you’re an incumbent, you have to assume the wind is against...

Roy Moore's likely victory in Tuesday's Alabama Republican Senate primary is expected to embolden like-minded challengers to GOP incumbents next year, reopening a politically perilous intraparty fissure that will sandwich President Donald Trump between anxious party leaders and his boiling base. Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, has led in every public poll against Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill the seat of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in February by a scandal-plagued governor. Three new surveys all place Moore up by double digits, solidifying his position as the front-runner.

President Trump said Friday that Roy Moore, the challenger to Sen Luther Strange for the Republican Senate nomination in Alabama, would be more likely to lose the general election to the Democratic candidate. "I have to say this-Luther will definitely win. Roy has a very good chance of not winning-in the general election" Trump said during a rally in Huntsville, Ala on Friday in honor of Strange ahead of Tuesday's GOP primary runoff......

Steve Bannon is heading to Alabama Sunday night to rally for Judge Roy Moore on Monday night with Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty. Why it matters: This rally is three days after President Trump, Bannon's former boss, was in Alabama rallying for Moore's opponent — Mitch McConnell's favored candidate Luther Strange. For Bannon to make a rare public appearance in such close proximity to Trump shows how invested he is in this race specifically, and attacking McConnell more generally. Another former White House adviser, Sebastian Gorka, rallied with Sarah Palin for Moore on Thursday. From a source close to Bannon:...

President Trump gave an endorsement to the establishment-backed Sen. Luther Strange for the Alabama Senate primary Friday night but later admitted that if opponent Judge Roy Moore wins the runoff, he will campaign for Moore. Trump praised Strange as a “real fighter and a real good guy” in remarks to the audience in Huntsville, Alabama. He also responded to criticism that Strange is backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) by calling him a “tough cookie” who “doesn’t deal and kowtow to anyone.” However, while Trump gave effusive praise to Strange, he acknowledged that his chosen guy was behind...

Newsmax' John Gizzi pressed White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on whether President Trump will support conservative primary challengers to centrist or liberal Republicans. Trump has routinely denounced moderates and left-leaning Republicans, calling Arizona's Sen. Jeff Flake "Flake Jeff Flake" and nudging Nevada's Dean Heller during a White House meeting, asking whether the first-term senator wants to "remain a senator." Gizzi pointed to Flake and Heller, asking Sanders about their "spirited primary challenges." Flake faces tea party conservative Dr. Kelli Ward - who unsuccessfully primaried Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) last year - in 2018. He also asked about the most recent...

Alternate headline: “Orrin Hatch must retire.” And there’s a fair chance that he will! He’s 83 and said in March that he’d be more inclined to step down if he could get a “really outstanding person” to run for his seat. When asked if he had anyone in mind, he said “Mitt Romney would be perfect.” That lit the fuse on RomneyWatch 2018, leading to reports that Romney was thinking about it and had even spoken to Mitch McConnell about running. But then in May the speculation seemed to fizzle: Hatch himself claimed that Romney told him he wouldn’t...

Sources tell UtahPolicy.com that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is preparing to run for Senate in 2018 if Sen. Orrin Hatch decides to retire. Sources close to Romney say the two-time presidential candidate will jump into the 2018 Utah Senate scrum if Hatch opts not to. So far, Hatch has not made up his mind as to whether he'll run for an eighth term in 2018. He has previously said he was planning on running as long as his and his wife's health holds up. Dave Hansen, a longtime political advisor to Hatch, told UtahPolicy.com last month that he didn't...

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon warned this week that there will be a “civil war” in the Republican Party if GOP lawmakers cave on the repeal of an Obama-era program that gave amnesty to illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — would be repealed with a six-month window for Congress to act. The move served to fulfill one of Trump’s signature campaign promises, but both Trump and Republican leadership have indicated a desire to “legalize DACA” as part of a broader immigration...

Michigan resident Robert Ritchie—known to fans as that Cicero of shitty country-rap, Kid Rock—has fired back at watchdog groups suggesting that his near-constant comments about running for office might actually make him subject to the U.S.A.’s electioneering laws. Faced with accusations that selling signs with slogans like “Kid Rock For Senate ’18" makes him a candidate—and thus beholden to the Federal Election Campaign Act, which requires candidates to track and report donations and campaign contributions—Ritchie fired back with the same sort of measured response that the Michigan electorate can probably hope to see from him if they get blazed out...

Roy Moore and Sen. Luther Strange are locked in a neck-and-neck battle in their runoff race in Alabama, according to a poll released Tuesday that also shows President Trump is very popular among likely runoff voters. Mr. Moore, former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, holds a 47 percent to 45 percent edge over Mr. Strange in the survey from Harper Polling of 600 likely runoff voters that carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. The runoff race is slated for Sept. 26. Close to four in 10 poll respondents said they want a candidate...

Right, right, “it’s just one poll.” But it isn’t. A few weeks ago, PPP had Flake’s approval rating in Arizona a breezy 18/63 overall, including 22/57 among Republicans. JMC Analytics, the firm responsible for this new survey, has him at 22/67 among Republicans. So intense is anti-Flake sentiment among Arizona GOPers in the wake of his feud with Trump that Kelli Ward, a comparatively weak candidate, has more than doubled him up here.It’d be unusual for a youngish incumbent not to run for reelection in the belief that he can’t possibly win. U.S. senators are, by definition, good at...

The poll, provided to Breitbart News ahead of its public release by JMC Analytics’ John Couvillon, shows Flake in almost irreparable shape ahead of his reelection bid in 2018. That an incumbent U.S. Senator like Flake could be polling as low as 21 percent in his own primary, while a challenger like Ward has pulled 26 points ahead of him at 47 percent, is almost unthinkable with nearly a full year to go until the August 2018 primary. Three percent of the electorate said they would vote for Nicholas Tutora, another candidate, and 29 percent are undecided, when asked which...

Arizona politics might get a lot more interesting after former Sheriff Joe Arpaio mused to the Washington Examiner on Monday about challenging Senator Jeff Flake for his Senate seat. Washington Examiner reports: The former Maricopa County sheriff told the Washington Examiner he’s upset at negative reaction to the Friday pardon, and that he feels Republican politicians are insufficiently supportive of the president, who he calls a great man. “I could run for mayor, I could run for legislator, I could run for Senate,” Arpaio said Monday. One particular race, however, is likely to gain significant attention: the GOP primary next...

Is Duterte running for US Congress? He is, but it’s not that Duterte. Republican Filipino-American Edwin Duterte has joined the race for California’s 43rd Congressional District in next year’s US midterm election. While the Philippine president, who shares his last name with Edwin, is widely popular in the Philippines, it will be an uphill climb for the newbie Republican. He will be running against veteran Democrat politician Maxine Waters, who has served in the US House of Representatives since 1991. Waters won the 2016 election by 76.1 percent against her Republican rival. The district covers several cities in Los Angeles...

The old Bobby Kennedy saying, “Don’t get mad, get even,” needs to guide the grassroots. Congressional Republicans getting on board President Trump’s legislative agenda is imperative. Passing the President’s big ticket legislative items will cement a new majority. That gives the establishment the chills, a subset of whom are DC-owned Republicans. Those Republicans are the chief reason Trump’s legislative agenda is stalled. They need to be primaried into nonexistence. Like the sanctimonious and condescending Jeff Flake. That’s the grassroots’ goal in 2018: send as many GOP obstructionists packing as possible. Even in the teeth of formidable opposition, the president has...