Free Republic

Article II of the Constitution gives states broad authority to decide how their electoral votes are selected and divided among the candidates. In 48 states, the candidate who gets the most votes wins all of the state’s electoral votes. But the Constitution doesn’t require that rule. Maine and Nebraska have implemented district- by-district voting. One electoral vote goes to the winner in each congressional district, and the remaining two electoral votes are awarded to the winner of the statewide popular vote. Assume, however, that a state enacts a law giving all its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins...

Edward Fish For Senate I have recently decided to run for one of New Mexico’s seats in the US Congress. Why should I be interested in supporting you? My platform is very simple, consisting of only two or three* points: Constitutionalism: The Constitution for the United States should be treated as the supreme law of the land. Justice: Having a Just government is imperative not only to the peace and stability of the country, but to the legitimacy of the government itself. Anti-Corruption: It seems to me that a great many of our laws are optimized to foster and facilitate...

Hillary Clinton is one state away from losing the presidential election, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver said Sunday. While the Democratic presidential nominee has a 65.7 percent chance of winning the presidency on Tuesday, she is not "in a terribly safe position," the pollster said on ABC's "This Week." "The electoral map is actually less solid for Clinton than it was for Obama four years ago," Silver said. Silver came to notoriety by correctly predicting President Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012. Clinton is weaker among Midwestern voters, while Obama had leads in states like Ohio....

Without spurring riots or taking even a single jab at Gov. Susana Martinez, Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump jetted into New Mexico on Sunday night to rally his base and demonstrate he could speak to the issues of a state pollsters say Hillary Clinton appears likely to win. Trump roused a diverse crowd that packed an airplane hangar at the Albuquerque International Sunport. He reiterated many of the same talking points he has used around the country in recent days, but also railed about health insurance companies leaving New Mexico or raising their rates to levels he called unaffordable...

This weekend, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold his second campaign event in New Mexico. Sources not connected to the Trump campaign confirmed to KOB Friday afternoon that the Republican presidential nominee will attend an event on Sunday. Additional details on his campaign visit were not immediately available, but the Associated Press reports the event will happen Sunday evening. Trump does not currently list any official campaign stops for New Mexico on its website, but as of Friday afternoon, the Republican’s campaign website does not show any dates beyond Sunday morning. Trump will hold campaign events Saturday in Golden,...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has sunken to third place among independent voters, a new poll reveals. Clinton pulled just 22 per cent of the independent vote in the latest Fox News poll, finishing behind Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. Trump led among independents, pulling 32 per cent of the vote, while Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico, got 23 per cent. 'This is very bad news for Hillary Clinton,' Republican strategist Susan Del Percio told the New York Post. 'She needs independents to win in November.' Clinton did, however, show a three-point...

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez may be planning to meet with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump just days after insisting she wouldn't be bullied into voicing her support for him. Reps for Martinez recently revealed she hopes to soon chat with Trump, presumably in hopes of determining if the two might be able to work together for the benefit for the party. "Governor Martinez is encouraged by Mr. Trump's commitment to protect New Mexico's labs and bases, which are not only important to our state but also our national defense," Martinez's press secretary Mike Lonergan said in an email....

Via the Free Beacon, this is the guy I’m stuck with this fall, huh? *ffffaaaarrrrtttt* Second look at NRO Contributor 2016? A few months ago I would have laughed at Johnson for pandering to a left-wing movement that’s purportedly all about economics by emphasizing his common ground with them on everything but economics. After reading this, I’m not so sure. There’s a convincing case out there that a good chunk of Berniemania is twentysomethings and independent white men who disdain the Democratic label, relish the spirit of Sanders’s movement, but … aren’t terribly invested in the ultra-left platform he’s running...

Now that we know former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is going to be the Libertarian Party nominee after this weekend’s convention, much of the talk has centered around how Johnson could be a spoiler for Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton. Conventional wisdom would say that Libertarians and Republicans have a closer ideology than Libertarians and Democrats, and therefore, conservatives dissatisfied with Trump will vote for Johnson. The problem with this conventional wisdom is that 2016 isn’t conventional, and the candidates representing their parties don’t hold the usual ideologies of their parties. At this point, it appears there are more...

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Hispanic voters in Florida, New Mexico and California have waved Mexican flags and bashed Donald Trump piñatas - clashing with police, at times - to protest the Republican presidential contender's hard line approach to immigration. Yet far from the protests, an increasingly vocal Hispanic minority is speaking out in favor of the brash billionaire. They are backing Trump even in the face of resentment and suspicion from friends and family, who are among the overwhelming majority of non-white voters opposed to the New York businessman's candidacy...

During a 65-minute speech in Albuquerque on Tuesday night, Donald Trump laced into New Mexico Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. He blamed her for the state’s economic problems, for the growing number of food stamp recipients and for not doing more to reject Syrian refugees. The billionaire even mused about moving to the state to run for governor himself. “She’s got to do a better job,” Trump told thousands of supporters, per The Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson. “She’s not doing the job. We’ve got to get her moving. Come on: Let’s go, governor.” Martinez’s press secretary, Mike Lonergan, responded with a...

Gary Johnson, the likely Libertarian candidate for president, is blasting Donald Trump's policy on immigration as "insanity," and positioned himself as a helping hand to those who came here illegally. Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, is expected to emerge this weekend as the Libertarian standard-bearer. "Is my door going to be knocked down because I'm going to get checked for papers?" Johnson said while praising undocumented immigrants who are leaders in their communities. "We're going to now come in and knock down doors and they're going to be deported? It'd be like putting them on the...

Harvey Yates Jr. defeated incumbent Pat Rogers for a state post on the Republican National Committee on Saturday, elevating an outspoken critic of Gov. Susana Martinez’s governing style to a prestigious – if largely symbolic – GOP position. At the New Mexico Republican convention at the Sandia Resort and Casino, Yates received 278 of the 473 votes cast by Republican delegates – or 58.8 percent – to oust Rogers. A former state Republican Party chairman, Yates has been critical of Martinez and her political adviser, Jay McCleskey, in recent years, while Rogers has been closely linked to both the Martinez...

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is endorsing Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, according to the Florida senator's campaign. "Marco Rubio is a compelling leader who can unite the country around conservative principles that will improve the lives of all Americans," Martinez said in a statement early Thursday.

SALT LAKE CITY — Donald Trump continues to be the front-runner in the GOP presidential nomination race, but he's languishing in fourth place in a new poll of Utah voters. The new UtahPolicy.com poll by Dan Jones & Associates comes as former Utah governor and 2012 presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. is suggesting Trump has a shot at winning the White House. "People really are hungry for change. They were last time, but it hadn't reached the 212-degree boiling point. This time it has," Huntsman told USA Today's weekly "Capital Download" video series. Huntsman said that's why he thinks Trump,...

* Trump said Sunday that 'black people 'are worse now than just about ever' * Claims Obama has done nothing for low employment rates * Weekend poll showed Trump has his greatest support yet nationally He has a 24.9 percent vote among Republicans, according to poll Days after assuring that he has the support of Hispanic voters, Donald Trump has now claimed that African-American people are also on his side - and that Obama has let them down. In yet another round of bashing the President, the billionaire said Obama has done 'absolutely nothing' for the black community. He gave...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Donald Trump “is appealing to a segment I’ll just label racist,” says Gary Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico and the 2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate. “It exists and it’s out there." "I don’t want to have anything to do with it,” says Johnson. “It embarrasses me. The electorate will paint the entire Republican Party with a broad brush as a result of Trump and it won’t be positive.” Johnson started the 2012 campaign as a Republican before switching to the LP and pulling 1.2 million votes and 1 percent of ballots cast in the general...

In a new poll of likely Republican primary voters nationwide by Zogby Analytics, 2012 GOP nominee Romney leads the pack with 14%, followed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (12%), Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (10%), New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (8%), former Arkansas Governor and now Fox News Host Mike Huckabee (7%), Florida Senator Marco Rubio (7%), Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (5%), Rep. and former Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan (4%), Texas Governor Rick Perry (4%), Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (3%), Texas Senator Ted Cruz (3%), South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (2%), former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (1%), and both...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

The political strategist for the re-election campaign of New Mexico’s Gov. Susana Martinez (R) reportedly confronted on Saturday a group of pro-life demonstrators in Albuquerque by lashing out, “You are all pieces of [expletive]!” Several members of the pro-life organization Protest ABQ identified the individual rebuking them with vulgar language as Jay McCleskey, chief political strategist for Martinez, who is seeking a second term as New Mexico’s governor. Writing at Operation Rescue, pro-life activist Tara Shaver, who is pregnant herself, wrote, “The pro-life community has been asking Gov. Martinez what she is willing to do to stop pre-born child killing...