Free Republic

After voting to convict President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial last week, the Republican Senate race has tightened. A new poll from Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy published in the Alabama Daily News on Wednesday shows former Attorney General Jeff Sessions narrowly leading current Democratic Sen. Doug Jones. The poll shows Sessions at 31 percent followed by former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville at 29 percent and Rep. Bradley Byrne at 17 percent on the Republican side. The poll also showed Jones trailing Sessions, Tuberville and Byrne in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups. In the hypothetical general election match-ups, Sessions beats...

With less than three weeks to go until the primary election on March 3, a new Alabama Daily News poll shows a tight race among Republican contenders for the U.S. Senate. According to the survey of likely Republican voters, if the election were held today, 31% would vote for former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, 29% would choose former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville and 17% would choose Congressman Bradley Byrne. Five percent said they would choose former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, and no other candidate registered more than 1%. Sixteen percent of voters said they were undecided.

GOP Congressmen Send Letter To CNN’s Jeff Zucker For Refusing To Air Trump Campaign Ads A group of Republican congressmen sent a letter to CNN President Jeff Zucker for refusing to air President Donald Trump’s campaign ads on the network.The letter, spearheaded by South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan, was also signed by the following Republicans: North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, Texas Rep. Randy Weber, Idaho Rep. Russ Fulcher, Alabama Rep. Bradley Byrne and Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube. They all believe CNN could be breaking the law...

It will be another four and a half months before Republican voters in Alabama select a GOP nominee to face incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) in the Nov. 3, 2020 general election. However, there could be a familiar face among the list of candidates on the ballot. In recent days, there has been rampant speculation that former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions could enter the contest for his old seat. Sessions held the seat currently occupied by Jones from 1997 through 2017. He gave up that seat to serve in the Trump administration until his unceremonious exit in late 2018....

Early jockeying has begun in the race for chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee — the largest caucus on Capitol Hill, and one that has seen its influence grow with Donald Trump in the White House. At least five House Republicans told The Hill they are weighing bids to replace the group's chairman, Rep. Mark Walker (N.C.). Known informally as the RSC, the caucus imposes a two-year term limit on its chairman, giving more members a chance to lead. So far, the possible contenders are: four-term Rep. Vicky Hartzler (Mo.); three-term Rep. Roger Williams (Texas); two-term Rep. Barry Loudermilk...

House conservatives on Wednesday revolted against a massive bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and bust spending caps, complaining that the GOP could no longer lay claim to being the party of fiscal responsibility. “I’m not only a ‘no.’ I’m a ‘hell no,’ ” quipped Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), one of many members of the Tea Party-aligned Freedom Caucus who left a closed-door meeting of Republicans saying they would vote against the deal. It’s a “Christmas tree on steroids,” lamented one of the Freedom Caucus leaders, Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.). “This spending proposal is disgusting and reckless — the...

To keep conservative rebels in check, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his allies have been doling out punishments at an aggressive clip in the 114th Congress. From kicking unruly members off the Rules Committee and GOP whip team to stripping a lawmaker of his subcommittee gavel, leadership has been growing more comfortable with taking retaliatory measures to try to enforce party discipline. But several Tea Party targets haven’t gone quietly. They’ve been fighting back with help from Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan’s conservative House Freedom Caucus, which successfully pressured leaders this week to return a subcommittee gavel to one of their...

The center of gravity in American politics moved left in Tuesday’s off-year elections. Republicans took a big step back from the tea party. An ebullient progressive was elected mayor of New York City. And a Democrat was elected governor of Virginia after campaigning unapologetically as a supporter of gun control and a liberal on social issues. The one bright spot for Republicans, Chris Christie’s landslide reelection in New Jersey, was won precisely because Christie ran briskly away from the party’s right wing and developed a civil relationship with President Obama. His victory speech spoke of the need for politicians to...

Alabama Republicans Bradley Byrne and Dean Young are running neck and neck ahead of next week’s special runoff primary election in Alabama’s First Congressional District, according to a new survey. The poll, conducted by the GOP consulting firm Cygnal, shows Young, a tea party-aligned real estate investor, with a 43.2 percent to 40.2 percent lead over Byrne, a former state senator and unsuccessful 2010 gubernatorial candidate. The results are within the survey’s 3.03 percent margin of error. The poll of 1,027 likely voters was conducted Wednesday. A Byrne loss would come as a shock to the business community and Washington...