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Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) said Thursday that “you’ve got to respect” San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to sit down during the national anthem as a sign of protest of America’s treatment of minorities, adding he would do it differently if it were him. At Thursday night’s game against the San Diego Chargers, which will feature a Salute to the Military event, Kaepernick is expected to sit again during the national anthem. Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos asked Kaine about it during the latter’s run of media appearances Thursday morning. “You’re the father of...

Donald Trump's campaign is planning its biggest ad buy to date — upward of $10 million on commercials airing over the next week or so. The campaign is expects the ads to air as soon as Monday in nine swing states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, where the campaign has already been on the air, along with New Hampshire, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada. 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney lost eight of those nine states. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has so far been badly outspent by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and groups supporting her....

"A message from Devan Cierra Ebert, who other attendees confirmed to be the mother at the Ashburn rally, was shared on Facebook. In her statement, she said, “Mr. Trump NEVER kicked me or my child out of the Briar Woods High School, Trump rally.” “The media has severely blown this out of proportion and made it out to be something that it wasn’t and is clearly using this as political gain for the Democratic Party. I hope this message sheds light to what really happened,” she said. No one from the press spoke with the mother before running their stories,...

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s newly-announced running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, has a history of embracing Islamists. He appointed a Hamas supporter to a state immigration commission; spoke at a dinner honoring a Muslim Brotherhood terror suspect; and received donations from well-known Islamist groups. Appointing a Muslim Brotherhood Front Leader Who Supports Hamas In 2007, Kaine was the Governor of Virginia and, of all people, chose Muslim American Society (MAS) President Esam Omeish to the state’s Immigration Commission. A Muslim organization against Islamism criticized the appointment and reckless lack of vetting. Federal prosecutors said in a 2008 court filing...

Support for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ticked up across battleground states following the Republican National Convention last week, according to the new CBS News Battleground Tracker Poll. Trump now has 42 percent support across the 11 battleground states surveyed — up from the 40 percent he had last week before the convention. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has 41 percent support, unchanged from last week's poll. According to the poll, 55 percent of Republicans said Trump's message at the convention made them feel hopeful, and about 40 percent said it made them feel enthusiastic. Among independents, 32 percent...

We finally know who the major-party vice-presidential nominees are – Sen. Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia and Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana. Not surprisingly, much “veepstakes” speculation leading up to these announcements centered on the usual factors considered to be electorally advantageous: geography and demography. But much of what you’ve been told about the importance of those usual factors is wrong. Based upon the available empirical evidence, it’s not at all clear that these candidate characteristics will have a significant effect on voters. It’s true that voters may like a running mate more because he or she comes from the...

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal’s Laura Meckler and Colleen McCain Nelson broke the news that Hillary Clinton is vetting Elizabeth Warren for the vice presidency — but not vetting Bernie Sanders. In the process, they provided a shortlist of candidates that Clinton is considering: Beyond the Massachusetts senator, other prospective candidates include Labor Secretary Tom Perez; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro; Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Cory Booker of New Jersey; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and Reps. Xavier Becerra of California and Tim Ryan of Ohio, several Democrats said. Now, this...

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have yet to shore up their bases. Mrs. Clinton is looking to heal the primary wounds of rival Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders‘ and his progressive supporters, who have threatened to stay home in November. Donald Trump has had a tough time attracting the support of establishment conservatives who worry he’s too centrist. And each needs their bases to coalesce in order to win the presidency. An analysis completed by The Wall Street Journal suggested since 1992, every candidate who ended up winning the White House had a favorable rating of at least 80 points among...

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is coming to the Richmond Coliseum Friday. Local Democratic party leaders are looking to get out ahead of the planned protests. The message is simple: No one needs to go to jail. "He has a right to come here," said Richmond Democratic Committee Chair James "JJ" Minor. "But he isn't welcome here." Protesters shouting "Black Lives Matter" were physically removed during Trump's last Rally at the Richmond International Raceway. "We don't want Donald Trump as our president," said Minor who has a message for protesters. "Keep it peaceful. He's a...

Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and Donald Trump's Virginia campaign chairman, doubled down on the billionaire Republican presidential candidate's confrontational stance on undocumented immigrants in a Facebook posting that addressed the egging of a Trump supporter at a rally last week in San Jose, Calif. "Time to put our foot down," Stewart wrote in a posting to his Facebook page at 6:41 a.m. Friday that was accompanied by a picture of a woman who had been hit by an egg in a confrontation outside a Trump rally at the San Jose Convention Center. "These...

Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would consider making Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) his running mate. “I respect Ted,” he told host Bill O’Reilly on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor." "He was a very strong competitor. He really competed hard and tough." “He’s certainly a capable guy,” the presumptive GOP presidential nominee added. "It’s something we can think about.” Trump defeated Cruz in Tuesday’s Indiana GOP presidential primary, making him the presumptive nominee. Cruz suspended his Oval Office bid shortly afterward, saying that his results in the Hoosier State “foreclose” his path to the Republican presidential nomination. Trump on...

Virginia's 10th Congressional District Republicans today nominated their three delegates and three alternates to the Republican National Convention in July, and all three main delegates are backers of Sen. Ted Cruz (R). State Sen. Dick Black, Mick Staton (Black's son-in-law) and Beau Correll were elected as delegates, while two supporters of front-runner Donald Trump – former Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio and past 10th District chairman Howie Lind – were elected as alternates. Blaine Dunn, a Cruz supporter, was selected as the third alternate. Trump narrowly won March's GOP Primary in the commonwealth -- although Sen. Marco Rubio comfortably took...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Donald Trump dominated Virginia's coal country in the March GOP primary, but Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's strength with party insiders may win him the support of the area's delegates to the Republican National Convention. Trump's campaign is set to face a crucial first test of its organizational strength in Virginia when state Republicans begin electing delegates Saturday. Those delegates could ultimately help decide who becomes the Republican presidential nominee at a contested national convention. A few hundred Republicans are set to gather in Wytheville, a town of 8,000 in the state's southwest corner....

Yes, you read that correctly. Democrat candidate for President Jim Webb has endorsed Donald Trump for President, not Hillary. [snip]

An Open Letter to Virginia Republicans: Trump Victory Catastrophic for our Republican Party Never before have I grabbed a word like catastrophic to make a political point. It's like pulling a fire alarm; if you do it, there had better be a fire. There is a fire and it's raging within our Republican party. I am convinced that if Donald Trump becomes our nominee, the harm done to our party would be nothing short of catastrophic. I reject Trump as our nominee based on his judgment, temperament and character, all of which point to a reckless, embarrassing and ultimately dangerous...

A Donald Trump rally in Virginia was repeatedly disrupted on Monday by protesters, including some from the Black Lives Matter movement, in a stark display of the divisions the Republican front-runner's presidential campaign has long been accused of sowing. A Time magazine photographer trying to document the exit of dozens of black protesters from the rally in southwestern Radford, Virginia, was grabbed by the neck and shoved to the ground by a U.S. Secret Service agent. Hecklers disrupted the rally on a day when the New York billionaire fended off criticism that he had not clearly condemned white supremacist support...

E.W. Jackson, the Republican Party of Virginia's 2013 nominee for lieutenant governor, has endorsed Ted Cruz for president. Jackson joins Ken Cuccinelli, the 2013 GOP nominee for governor, in backing the Texas senator. Cuccinelli, Virginia's former attorney general, endorsed Cruz during the Texas senator's Dec. 18 rally in Hanover County. "Senator Cruz knows that 'central planning' by Washington elites will never match the ingenuity and effectiveness of free-market capitalism working hand-in-hand with people of faith to restore cultural values and bring prosperity to the most needy people in our country," Jackson said in a statement....

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins and dozens of other prominent conservatives are expected to endorse Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for president, a move that aims to coalesce conservative support around one candidate, a National Review article claimed Tuesday. The article states that a coalition of as many as 50 influential conservative activists gathered on Dec. 7 at the Sheraton Hotel in Tysons Corner, Virginia for a meeting that was spearheaded by Perkins for the purpose of hashing out which candidate the conservative activists will unite their support behind. After a long day of discussion and debate, it took five...

With questionable claims, ranging from the invented (Muslims celebrated 9/11 in New Jersey) to the downright bizarre (pyramid grain storage, anyone?) seeming to hint at an end to the extended fifteen minutes of fame of GOP luminaries Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson, conservatives seem to be eying Ted Cruz for his turn. And while Cruz seems to be eager to get behind the wheel of his party’s primary clown car, it’s worth noting that he is by no means a less worrying choice. He may be less prone to Carson’s public habit of wild stories, or Trump’s abrasive style,...

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump will hold a rally in Manassas Wednesday night. The real-estate-mogul-turned-politician will bring his “Make America Great Again” fervor to the Prince William County Fairgrounds. Trump is scheduled to speak at 7:30 p.m., but organizers are urging attendees to arrive early to “ensure access.” Gates will open at 5 p.m. Trump continues to poll ahead his fellow Republican contenders even as his remarks on the campaign trail grow increasingly controversial....