Free Republic

The Democratic Party is sounding the alarm in New Jersey, and for good reason. What should have been a cakewalk in a deep-blue state has turned into a frantic scramble, with party leaders dumping millions into the governor’s race in a desperate bid to stave off electoral disaster. Democrats are terrified that their grip on New Jersey is slipping, and they’re willing to throw everything at the wall to keep it from shattering. New Jersey, a state that reliably votes blue in national elections, has long been considered a Democratic stronghold. But the political winds have shifted. The party that...

Not long ago, blue states typically outperformed red ones when it came to education. That is changing. Blue states like Oregon and Washington experienced significant drops in reading and math scores for both fourth- and eighth-graders between 2015 and 2024, worse than the national declines during the same period. Mississippi, meantime, gained five points in fourth-grade reading and math and held steady in eighth-grade performance. Louisiana also maintained its scores, defying the negative national trends. Whether you call it the “Mississippi Miracle” or the “Southern Surge,” Republican-led states are rapidly improving student outcomes relative to blue states, thanks to a...

Since the beginning of the Oregon legislative session in January, my wife and I have been having ongoing discussions about whether we should leave Oregon for another state, where the leftists are not in control, or whether we should stay and fight to stop the landslide of insanity that grips Oregon right now and will cross borders to contaminate other red states. We have many friends here, established doctors and dentists, and a great one-story house between the mountains to the East and the Pacific Ocean to the west. We attend a strong church that teaches out of the Bible....

Federal authorities announced Sunday that more than a hundred illegal immigrants were detained in a massive raid at an underground nightclub in Colorado Springs that officials say was "frequented by TdA and MS-13 terrorists." The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Rocky Mountain Division led a multi-agency operation early Sunday morning and arrested 114 illegal immigrants at the venue that contained more than 200 people inside. Authorities uncovered drugs, including pink cocaine, as well as evidence of prostitution and multiple firearms during the operation, according to the DEA. "@DHSgov has taken more than 100 illegal aliens into custody," DEA Rocky Mountain said...

Democrats should brace for a shock four weeks from now — the possibility not just of a victory for former President Donald Trump, but a win so big that Trump beats Vice President Kamala Harris in the popular vote. Trump doesn’t need to do that, of course: He can return to the White House just by winning enough battleground states. But if he does get more votes than Harris nationwide, it will prove he is more popular, and his message even more powerful, than when he overcame former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump’s path to this next...

Former President Donald Trump’s appeal in the “Blue Wall” states might be too strong for Vice President Kamala Harris to overcome, Democrats indicated this week in fear of losing the presidential election. Seven states — Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina — will decide the president, political experts believe. If Trump wins one or more of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Harris’s chances of obtaining 270 electoral votes become narrower. She’s done an amazing job not only uniting the base but exciting the base,

The media panned President Donald Trump’s speech to the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Thursday night because it was not, in their view, conciliatory enough in the wake of his attempted assassination. Trump devoted the first portion of his speech to recounting his miraculous experience of survival, and calling for national unity. He only used the word “Biden” once, and spoke in a muted tone throughout his remarks. But that was not enough for the media, who evidently expected that a speech accepting the presidential nomination at a national party convention should be devoid of any partisan...

NEW YORK — President Joe Biden has a new problem: a competitive race in deep blue New York. Elected officials, union leaders and political consultants are panicking over polls showing a steady erosion of Biden’s support in a state he won by 23 points four years ago. They’re so worried they’ve been trying to convince the Biden team to pour resources into New York to shore up his campaign and boost Democrats running in a half-dozen swing districts that could determine control of the House. Biden aides have not focused on New York, committing no significant resources to a state...

Migrants are relocating to Utah in their thousands amid hopes that the deeply religious state's Christian residents will welcome them. Carmen Selene and Cleodis Alvorado had crossed into the US over the Texas border after traveling from Venezuela alongside their two sons. After being put on a bus chartered by the state of Texas to take them to Denver, the couple expected that Alvorado would find a job and they could start their new life.

Like they tell us about relationships in Facebook, the U.S. economy is a bit complicated. Yes, the Biden administration is pushing the idea that happy days are here again. On the other hand, the growth is happening in some places and not in others. Some places are happier than others. It goes like this: Nearly every week, a fresh round of strong economic data elicits a celebratory statement from the Biden administration. Most of the best-performing states, however, voted in favor of former President Donald Trump, a new ABC News analysis found. An examination of key economic measures -- including...

As part of an overall effort to turn Texas from a Republican stronghold into a blue state, billionaire progressive financier George Soros is pouring oodles of cash into the state’s races to bolster support for far-leftist candidates.The idea is to transform Texas into a Democratic playground, and the strategy could work if the state Republican Party doesn’t find an answer to this political offensive.George Soros is pouring money into local Democratic parties in Texas in a ploy to help Democrats turn the state blue, according to the Texas Tribune.Soros, working with the Texas Majority PAC, donated six-figure sums to the...

We've written recently about New York and other blue states making life more and more inconvenient for American citizens living there, over the (at least in their way of thinking) more urgent needs of illegal aliens, who continue to stream daily across our southern border. A story that continues to linger in my mind is the one from a few days ago, about New York City making high school kids return to the remote learning model from COVID lockdowns--so that undocumented people who were being sheltered in tents could bunk down inside the school gym during bad weather. That didn't...

This week, there was an “insurrection” in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. A group of radical extremists invaded the State Assembly, interrupting the first day of the legislative session and forcing lawmakers to flee the chamber. They continued to occupy the legislature even after the lights were turned off. But eventually, they were allowed to leave peacefully, and there were no arrests at all. The reason: unlike the January 6 protesters in Washington, the California protesters are on the political left.

A new report from a conservative think tank reveals that the rate of homicides have consistently been higher in Democrat-run counties than Republican-run ones since 2002.According to Fox News, the report from the Heritage Foundation directly contradicts an unproven claim that has been repeated by many Democrats claiming that the opposite is true. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) recently said that “8 of the top 10 murder states are red,” while far-left billionaire George Soros similarly and falsely claimed that “murder rates have been rising fastest in some Republican states led by tough-on-crime politicians.”But in the new Heritage report, authored...

Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order Monday requiring every state government agency to transition to an entirely electric vehicle fleet by 2035. Lujan Grisham – who made the announcement during remarks at the New Mexico Department of Transportation's Symposium on the Future of Transportation – added that her government would pursue a plan to bolster electric vehicle (EV) tax credits in an effort to boost affordability. The executive order to force state agencies to adopt carbon-free vehicle fleets comes as Lujan Grisham continues pushing EV mandates statewide. "The fact of the matter is that consumers...

Blue state taxpayers were hit with the highest residential electricity rates in June, outpacing most Republican-controlled states, according to data recently published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Of the 20 states with the highest residential electricity rates in June, 16 of them have Democratic governors, according to the EIA data. The most expensive residential rates of the continental 48 states in June were Connecticut, California, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and Vermont, all of which President Joe Biden won in 2020, according to the EIA data. The least expensive states in the contiguous 48 were...

Video has emerged showing the recent hit-and-run death of a retired police chief in Las Vegas in what police are calling an intentional attack by the teenage driver. Andreas Probst, 64, was fatally struck on August 14 while cycling in northwest Las Vegas, where he had retired after stepping down as the police chief of Bell, California, in 2009. The 17-year-old driver, whose name was not released by police due to his age, was arrested soon after the crash and taken to the Juvenile Detention Center. Late last month, police said charges against the driver would be upgraded to include...

Investigators found that Bronx anti-gun violence activist Michael Rodriguez was hiding “in plain sight” when they seized illegal guns and drugs from his Yonkers apartment. Orange County New York law enforcement officials announced the arrests of 15 people for an alleged interstate drug trafficking conspiracy on Tuesday. Said to be the main supplier of the drug network was 48-year-old Michael Rodriguez — a Yonkers resident and the director of the nonprofit Good Shepherd Services’ program Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence, known as B.R.A.G. The Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said that Rodriguez could now face 12.5-25 years on conspiracy...

TEXAS has announced plans to charge vehicle owners a $200 annual fee, as well as a $400 one-time fee for new owners. The law, signed by Governor Greg Abbott, is set to take effect on September 1 of this year. Those who have an electric vehicle will be responsible for paying the new annual fee in order to recoup tax money. Electric vehicle owners do not have to pay taxes on gasoline, since they no longer need it. According to the Dallas Morning News, this law will not apply to anyone that owns electric motorcycles, mopeds, or autocycles. These taxes...

No one likes a “dirty water” dog and a knish more than I, but New York City — or “Moscow on the Hudson,” as I call it — isn’t safe to visit these days, for several reasons.If you think the overwhelming stench of jazz salad is annoying, wait until you drive your loafer into a steaming pile of human feces Eric Adams street kabob.I don’t perform comedy shows in New York City at this point. My lefty friends tell me I’m being pusillanimous — kidding, they aren’t smart enough for that word — for not wanting to risk a street...