Free Republic

Three years after a presidential election that came down to 77,000 votes in three Midwestern battlegrounds, Democrats and Republicans are eyeing a much larger battlefield ahead of the 2020 contests, one that stretches from the picturesque coastline of rural Maine to the high desert of Arizona. Both President Trump’s campaign and the Democrats vying to replace him are scrutinizing a political map in flux, one in which attitudes and alignments are shifting and new regions are coming into play.As many as a dozen states could be up for grabs next year as economic and international uncertainty pairs with a cauldron...

Doug Ogden doesn’t know what to do. The 75-year-old retired law enforcement officer is disgusted by President Donald Trump. But he can’t imagine voting for a Democrat in 2020, either. A self-described independent in South Carolina, Ogden doesn’t recognize the modern-day Democratic Party. “The state of the Democratic Party is wild against wilder,” says Ogden, standing with his arms crossed at a recent town hall meeting for Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg. “It scares me.” At the core of Ogden’s concern is a broader question about the direction of the Democratic Party and its values in the age of Trump....

With the Democratic National Committee (DNC) struggling to raise money, Chairman Tom Perez is planning to hold multiple fundraisers in Mexico City this September. The three fundraisers scheduled for the 28th, according to Bloomberg, will range from a student-centric event with a $25 minimum entry fee to a dinner at which tickets could go as high as $15,000. Under Perez’s leadership, the DNC has lagged far behind its Republican National Committee (RNC) counterpart in raising funds. Election 2020 Democratic National Committee Will Raise Funds in Mexico — and Seek Hillary’s Help, Too Chairman Tom Perez is organizing events in Mexico...

Holcomb was on his way back in April to Austin from Las Vegas after celebrating his birthday, but had a connecting flight in Phoenix. He says he had an allergic reaction to a support dog belonging to another passenger. American Airlines, in a statement, says it makes accommodations for dogs “American makes every effort to accommodate all passengers, including those traveling with and seated near service or support animals,” a statement read. Holcomb says the passenger offered to switch seats but after no one volunteered, a flight attendant and a pilot got involved. Holcomb says he questioned why he had...

Police Taze Man With Hands Up After Catching Him Stealing A Bike! Are They Wrong?

Work crews in Arizona and New Mexico forged ahead Friday with construction of taller border fencing funded through a national emergency declaration by President Trump. The work on his hallmark campaign promise involves mostly replacement fencing along a 46-mile stretch of desert west of Santa Teresa, New Mexico, and on 2 miles of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona (the first of the 63 miles contracted there with DoD money)... Workers broke ground between Columbus and Santa Teresa — small towns near ports of entry along the border between New Mexico and the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. In Arizona,...

Joe Arpaio announced Sunday night that he plans to run for sheriff of Maricopa County in 2020 after losing his most recent reelection bid. Arpaio served as the county’s sheriff for 1993 until 2016, with his 24 years in office making him the longest-serving sheriff in the county’s history. "The last four years have proven to be a time of lost opportunities to continue the kind of tough policing this county needs," Arpaio wrote in a statement posted on Twitter. "Once back in office, I will use my position to restore pride to our law enforcement ranks, not only here,...

Bulldozers just (Tuesday, 20 August) spotted SW of Yuma, AZ. This planned 6-mile wall (YUMA 1 on map).

WASHINGTON — Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) isn’t happy that some of his party’s presidential candidates are pushing for Medicare for All and decriminalizing border crossings, two hot-button issues in the Democratic primary. In a half-hour phone conversation with VICE News, Reid was blunt when asked if he thought supporting Medicare for All would be problematic in the 2020 general election.

A Republican strategist and former 2016 presidential campaign spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) laid out three things that the GOP must do to ensure President Donald Trump is reelected next year, including some surprises — such as, he believes California a sign of things to come for the GOP without a plan to address it. In an op-ed for The Hill, Ron Nehring writes that while “California has become a running joke” for his party, it’s really “the canary in the coal mine, not an outlier.” That is, the state is a massive warning sign for the Republican Party....

Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) trails her Democratic opponent for the first time, according to a new survey, as President Trump's approval rating falls in the key swing state. Retired astronaut Mark Kelly leads McSally, the retired fighter pilot-turned-politician, by a 46 percent to 41 percent margin, according to the poll conducted by OH Predictive Insights, a Phoenix-based pollster, and released first to The Hill.

Jury orders Planned Parenthood to pay $3M to former director who exposed lies, negligence PHOENIX, Arizona, August 19, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — An Arizona jury has unanimously awarded $3 million in damages to a former Planned Parenthood director who was fired after reporting an abortionist’s illegal conduct and high complication rates, falsification of affidavits and patient records, incomplete abortions, and failure to report statutory rape. Mayra Rodriguez, who ran three Planned Parenthood clinics in Arizona and worked for the organization for 17 years, sued the non-profit after being wrongfully terminated from her position in October 2017 after repeatedly making claims...

Yeah, yeah, I know: “They had two Democratic senators when McCain and Flake were there.” Har dee har. The dirty little secret about Maverick and Flake is that they almost always voted with Trump and McConnell. There was one enormous exception to that rule, when McCain voted no on ObamaCare repeal, but on most legislative matters and judicial confirmations they were on the team. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly won’t be. And if you believe this new poll from OH Predictive Insights, those are the two people who’ll be representing Arizona in the Senate in 2021. Retired astronaut Mark Kelly...

The Boston Herald on Friday penned an editorial blasting Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) for her repeated attacks on law enforcement. The editorial board recounted numerous instances Sen. Warren went after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and police officers for enforcing our rule of law. Specifically, the Herald cited an incident that took place in Boston: Last year it was ICE she targeted for expulsion, saying that it should be replaced with “something that reflects our morality.” She bellowed to a boisterous Boston City Hall Plaza crowd that, “This is about children held in cages. This is about babies scattered all across this country.”That...

Arizona and Nevada are facing the first-ever mandatory cuts in the amount of water they can take from the Colorado River next year. The two states are among seven that have agreed to drought contingency plans for the river system that serves about 40 million people and 6,300 square miles of farmland from Wyoming to Southern California. The cuts are triggered by water levels expected in Lake Mead, a giant reservoir on the river at the Arizona-Nevada border. On Jan. 1, Lake Mead's level is projected to be 1,089.4 feet, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said late last week. That's...

At least 10 Republican members of Congress are supporting Israel's decision to block Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from entering the country after Trump specifically requested it. On Thursday, Trump tweeted that it would be a sign of "great weakness" if Israel allowed the two congresswomen, who have been outspoken critics of Trump, to enter the country. Later that day, Israel officially blocked their entrance. "Israel’s denial of entry to Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar is a sign of weakness, and beneath the dignity of the great State of Israel," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. Most...

The Trump administration is forging ahead with plans to construct new border barriers in wildlife refuges in Southern Arizona, telling a court that one project will begin with the removal of older fencing on Monday (Aug 19)... "They will be replaced with new bollard wall that will be 30-feet tall and includes a linear ground detection system."... Tucson Sector Project 2 will begin on August 19 with the removal of two miles of existing pedestrian fence, (director of the Border Wall Program Management Office) Enriquez wrote. That section will be replaced by two miles of new border wall on August...

Show no mercy for you shall receive none and never, ever think that Democrats are your friends; they’re not. They’re the folks who will shank you at the earliest opportunity. The inherent rot of their character, the condescension, and aura of moral superiority they carry, despite being complete and total idiots, is absolutely nauseating. They hate America. They hate us. There is nothing that we share in common. Maybe a tax form ever April, but that’s about it. We do indeed have aliens in America. And these aliens, these disgusting progressive creatures, are not done with Supreme Court Justice Brett...

SAN LUIS — The first section of President Trump’s border wall in Arizona is rising near Yuma. After years of crowds shouting “build the wall” at political rallies and countless condemnations of the wall as xenophobic or a “vanity project” for Trump, the wall has taken the shape of square, metal poles jutting 30 feet up from the ground in San Luis, a border town south of Yuma. As early as this month, similar poles could rise along the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and across the San Pedro River. Despite the wall being the...

Less than a year after Judicial Watch reported on the terrorist ties of an African refugee living in Arizona, federal authorities in the Grand Canyon State have arrested two refugees from the same continent for conspiring to provide material support to ISIS. In both cases the terrorists entered the United States legally under an Obama era program that welcomed—and offered residency—to hundreds of thousands from Muslim countries notorious for terrorist activity. Also, in both instances the terrorists settled in Tucson, about 70 miles north of the Mexican border.