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A Friday piece in Politico Magazine warns that a Hillary Clinton “fumble on trade” could give Donald Trump wins in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan in a general election contest. In a piece entitled, “How Hillary Loses,” David S. Bernstein writes that the new polls showing Trump ahead of Clinton represent a “terrifying moment for Democrats.” While Bernstein says one should not read too much into the early polls, he argues that the polling numbers reveal that “there is now a clear path for her to lose” the election. In particular, Bernstein explains that trade could win Trump Ohio, Wisconsin, and...

When Donald Trump collected a few unbound delegates last week, surpassing the 1,237 needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president, expectations that the national convention could be the most dramatic in modern times evaporated. “Now, it will be the most entertaining,” said Randy Evans, a party-wise man from Georgia, with a nod to the reality TV star’s promise to “put some show biz” into the July convention in Cleveland. But there remains an important, unscripted drama yet to unfold in the tempestuous relationship between Trump and his chief rival, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Although Trump will arrive...

The Amish don’t read Donald Trump’s tweets and can’t watch his television appearances, and voting is practically against their religion. But that’s not stopping a group of Trump allies with ties to Ben Carson and Newt Gingrich from mounting a campaign to turn them out anyway. Amish PAC was started by an alum of a pro-Carson super PAC, an ex-Amish donor to that super PAC and an employee of Gingrich Productions. The group is planning to mount an old-fashioned, billboards-and-newspaper-ads effort this summer, designed to encourage Amish people in Pennsylvania and Ohio to turn out for Trump in November....

Donald Trump announced this weekend he puts 15 states potentially into play in the general election this year. The states include: — Ohio — Florida — Virginia — Minnesota — Michigan — Pennsylvania — Wisconsin — New York — Maine — California ** Plus Donald Trump is beating Hillary Clinton in the latest Oregon poll and is essentially tied with Hillary in New Hampshire -two more traditional blue states. And Hillary Clinton hasn’t even been indicted yet!

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Many Cleveland police officers will not be wearing body cameras if protests turn violent during the Republican National Convention, officials said. Police officials have told officers that a host of logistical issues, including an inability to attach the cameras to police riot gear, means officers will not be able to wear the devices. The department says officers will use other methods to record police interactions with protesters and the public during the convention. But the head of a police union and the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio expressed concern that the officers...

A North Carolina police department backed out of sending 50 police officers to the Republican presidential convention in Cleveland in June over concerns about whether the city is prepared to host an event that is expected to bring at least 50,000 visitors to northeast Ohio. Greensboro police made the decision earlier this week to pull its officers from the event, saying the city isn’t providing workers’ compensation for coverage for out-of-town officers and is requiring them to get physical exams they’d have to pay for themselves. Deputy Police Chief Brian James wrote in a memo to the city’s police chief...

<p>CRUZ said it is his "hope" that the Republicans nominate a conservative, SIGNALING THAT THE NOMINEE HAS NOT BEEN DECIDED. "What I hope is that we have a Republican nominee that will actually defend conservative principles," Cruz said.</p> <p>Cruz ... is still working to elect delegates, "even though Donald has the delegates to get the nomination." "One of the reasons that we are continuing to work to elect conservatives to be delegates, ... we intend to do everything we can to fight for conservative principles to prevent Washington forces from watering down the platform."....</p>

Donald Trump's campaign is considering booking one of Cleveland's big sports venues for his acceptance speech in July, two GOP sources familiar with the planning of the upcoming GOP convention say. The sources said First Energy Stadium, home of the Cleveland Browns, and Progressive Field, home of the city's Indians baseball team, are the two sites under consideration for Trump's acceptance speech on the final night of the convention. One of the sources said the campaign is closing in on signing a contract for use of one of the two venues, with the football stadium currently the favorite for Trump's...

Ohio is the latest state to lose its nonprofit co-op health insurer created under an Affordable Care Act after a Franklin County judge on Thursday appointed the Ohio Department of Insurance as receiver of InHealth Mutual to take control and liquidate the company. Policies are still in effect as of now for its 21,800 members, mostly with individual coverage, but the state said they likely have 60 days to choose another plan on the federal Health Insurance Marketplace or risk losing federal subsidies.

Sen. Marco Rubio is not only going to go to the Republican convention that will nominate Donald Trump as the presidential nominee, he would be willing to speak for his former rival and release his delegates to him. “My sense is I’m going to go to the convention,” Rubio said in an interview with Jake Tapper aired on Thursday. Rubio admitted that he would he “honored” to speak for the Republican nominee if Trump asked him to speak at the convention. ... Rubio said that if his campaign hadn’t released his delegates to Trump for the convention, he would be...

A medical marijuana legalization bill has been sent to Ohio Gov. John Kasich in an effort by state lawmakers to offset support for a proposed fall ballot measure. The measure cleared the Ohio Senate by just three votes, and the House followed by OKing Senate changes 67-28. The proposal, which Kasich has not committed to signing, would bar patients from smoking marijuana or growing it at home, but it would allow its use in vapor form for certain chronic health conditions. It garnered both support and opposition among Republicans and Democrats. Supporters recalled emotional testimony from chronic pain sufferers and...

A federal court ruling Tuesday declaring Ohio GOP lawmakers' voting restrictions unconstitutional could easily wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court — and generate a 4-4 split decision, a voting-rights expert says. [ ] Judge Michael H. Watson of U.S. District Court in Columbus said the Republican-dominated Ohio legislature violated the federal constitution and Voting Rights Act in 2014 when it reduced the state's early voting period from 35 to 28 days. The move also eliminated the so-called Golden Week in which eligible residents could register to vote and cast an absentee ballot at the same time. [ ] The...

The conventional wisdom is that Hillary Clinton will crush Donald Trump in the November election. As I detailed previously, a generic Democratic candidate begins the general election with a huge Electoral College advantage based on how states have voted in the last six presidential elections. The count in September 2015 stood at 257 electoral votes for the Democrat and 206 electoral votes for the Republican, with five battleground states worth 75 electoral votes. Where is the race today as we near the end of the primary process? Based on current polling and primary results, Clinton likely would win the presidency...

Add Harry Reid to the list of troubles dogging Hillary Clinton as she stumbles toward the Democratic nomination for president. The powerful Senate minority leader delivered an unusual warning to Clinton on selecting a running mate, vowing to "do whatever I can" to stop her from choosing a Democratic senator from a state led by a Republican governor. “If we have a Republican governor in any of those states, the answer is not only no, but hell no and I would do whatever I can, and I think most of my Democratic colleagues here would say the same thing," Reid,...

Despite China signaling moves to cut its excess steel production capacity, industry chiefs say the country has declared a metals "war" that has had a "devastating" impact for the rest of the world's industry.

It was two weeks before Election Day when Mitt Romney's political director signed a memo that all but ridiculed the notion that the Republican presidential nominee, with his better ground game could lose the key state of Ohio or the election. The race is “unmistakably moving in Mitt Romney's direction, the memo said. But the claims proved wildly off the mark, a fact embarrassingly underscored when the high-tech voter turnout system that Romney himself called “state of the art” crashed at the worst moment, on Election Day. To this day, Romney’s aides wonder how it all went so wrong...

Donald Trump may be the last Republican standing in the 2016 race, but that doesn't mean everyone in his party is happy about it. At the Washington state Republican convention this weekend, 40 of the state's 41 elected GOP delegates went not to Trump but to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's primary challenger in the race. The Seattle Times reports that even Trump's state campaign chairman in Washington, state Sen. Don Benton, didn't snag a delegate slot in the anti-Trump crowd. Cruz's state campaign manager, Saul Gamoran, said many Washington state Republicans are "taking a wait-and-see attitude" to Trump's candidacy....

PASCO — Donald Trump has all but sewn up the GOP presidential nomination. But as thousands of Washington Republicans converged on a rodeo arena for their state convention over the weekend, the gathering didn’t look like a political party yet united behind a Trump-led ticket. Red Ted Cruz T-shirts outnumbered Trump ball caps on the convention floor at the TRAC Center, and supporters of the Texas senator won 40 of the 41 elected delegate slots for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer — even though Cruz has dropped out of the race. ...snip... Amid talk of Republican unity,...

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., was labeled by Charles Krauthammer on Friday as the pundit’s leading pick to be the running mate of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, said Corker will be meeting Monday with Trump at Trump Tower in New York City Krauthammer used a hypothetical pot of $100 in casino chips to make his point, putting $25 on Corker, $20 on former Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., $20 on Ohio Gov. John Kasich, $10 on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and $5 on Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint. The rest went to “the field,”...

Nowadays, the “smoke-filled room” is mostly just a metaphor—but there was a real room that started it all. Well, sort of. The compelling image of the smoke-filled room, a “place of political intrigue and chicanery, where candidates were selected by party bosses in cigar-chewing session,” per William Safire, arose during the 1920 Republican convention. That year, Sen. Warren G. Harding of Ohio was the come-from-behind nominee for president, selected after ten ballots. According to historian David Pietrusza, author of 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, the room in question is often credited with the phrase “because the people who...