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One of the top Florida Republicans running for Marco Rubio's Senate seat announced Friday he's dropping out of the race, fueling speculation that Rubio himself is preparing to reverse course and seek re-election to the seat. Rep. David Jolly, who indicated earlier this week he was getting ready to bow out, confirmed Friday he will seek re-election to the House. "It's clear the opportunity to change Washington, to do right by my community, is to simply ask for the opportunity to keep doing my job," he said in a statement. The move comes as party elders increase pressure on Rubio...

I don't post much anymore, but I wanted to wish my FReeper brethren a happy Star Wars Day (google it if you don't know ;) and publicly give my full support to Donald Trump. I was a Cruz supporter, proudly so, but that is done and Trump will now be the nominee and I urge everyone to pull together to defeat Hillary in the fall. Best to you all, BigB

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/11/01/former-us-sen-fred-thompson-dies-73/74752142/

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announced Friday he will retire at the end of his term, closing a long and controversial career in Congress that spanned four decades. The five-term Nevada Democratic senator announced the decision in a YouTube video message.

A new poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP) finds the Michigan GOP Senate candidate, Terri Land, taking the lead over Democrat Rep. Gary Peters in the race to replace retiring Sen. Carl Levin. Land trailed Peters by 7 points in October, at the height of the government shutdown. She now leads Peters by two, 42-40, a nine point swing in less than two months. "The declining popularity of President Obama and the Affordable Care Act seems to be making life harder for Democrats here, as we're finding in other key Senate races," the Democrat polling firm writes in a memo....

Per the Texas Tribune twitter feed: Republican Party of Texas confirms that @SteveWorks4You will run against @JohnCornyn in the GOP U.S. Senate primary. Story to come. #tx2014

<p>The Supreme Court has turned away a Christian university's attempt to overturn a key part of the Obama administration's health care law.</p> <p>The justices did not comment Monday in leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling dismissing Liberty University's lawsuit.</p>

A 33-year-old former Miss America says she plans to challenge first-term U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis in the 2014 Republican primary. Erika Harold announced her campaign Tuesday at Urbana High School. She grew up the Illinois city and recently moved back there from Chicago.

Louisiana state Sen. Elbert Guillory has joined the Republican Party, becoming the first black Republican senator in Louisiana since Reconstruction, according to a report in The Advertiser. This is the second time Guillory, of Opelousas, has switched parties; the lawmaker was a Republican before running for the state House in 2007.

DEVELOPING: Five people were reportedly killed in a shooting in Manchester, Ill., Wednesday morning prompting the closure of three area schools, Fox2Now.com reports.

This letter has taken me a few days to compose because of the conflicting emotions that I've experienced since the day of the Roast and it's subsequent airing. The environment of the Roast is a comedic (hopefully), tasteless (mostly always), affair that encourages everyone to out-filth each other. Not normally what I'm known for, right? But, when I was invited, I jumped at the chance to play outside of my perceived "norm" and have fun. The Jeff joke was written for me and at the end of the day I take full responsibility for saying it. It wasn't meant as...

Source: Rep Todd Akin to hold a prayer vigil, decide his Senate race future tonight.

Last week my opponent put out a tv ad depicting me beating women. That ad is disgraceful and despicable. As a husband and father of two daughters, I found Congressman Todd Akin’s comments about rape to be in the same vein. These comments are simply unacceptable. There is no place in politics for these type of comments and attitudes toward women.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will endorse former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney Wednesday night, a source close to the Republican’s presidential campaign confirmed to the Fix. Rice will throw her formal endorsement behind Romney in California, where he is attending fundraisers in the San Francisco area. Since leaving government, Rice has been teaching political science at Stanford University.

Former Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) might run for Congress in 2014 — possibly as a Republican. BuzzFeed reports that the conservative Democrat is looking at challenging Rep. Gerry Connolly (D) in 2014. The Fix reached out to Davis via email and the man who sought the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor in the Yellow Hammer State was very careful to leave the door open to another bid — possibly from the other side of the partisan aisle. “I do receive encouragement from friends to join the Republican Party and to get into politics in the [northern Virginia] area, but I...

Maxim's Hot 100 list was revealed on Tuesday, and among the list of the country's sexiest gals are a few surprises! A cartoon character comes in at #85. Lois Griffin from 'Family Guy" beat out 15 flesh and blood ladies. Pippa Middleton was the only royal on the list, but couldn't crack the Top 80. Miley Cyrus (#68) beat Sophia Vergara (#71) by three slots. (Really?) Stephen Colbert crashed the all-female party, landing at #69. (Thank you, write-in vote.) #38 Kelly Kelly has the same first and last names. (Just sayin'.) Jennifer Love Hewitt made the Top 20 again, but...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hulk, smash. That's what Captain America tells the Incredible Hulk to do in "The Avengers," and that's what the Marvel Comics superhero mash-up did at the box office, smashing the domestic revenue record with a $200.3 million debut. It's by far the biggest opening ever, shooting past the previous record of $169.2 million for the debut of last year's "Harry Potter" finale. "The Avengers" added $151.5 million overseas over the weekend to bring its total to $441.5 million since it began opening internationally a week earlier. That raised the film's worldwide haul to $641.8 million in...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The superhero saga "The Avengers" lived up to its blockbuster buzz with $178.4 million in overseas ticket sales days before it opens in U.S. theaters. Domestic audiences generally passed on a bunch of new flicks as fans seem to be in anticipation mode for Disney's "The Avengers," which debuts Friday in the United States after launching in 39 other countries a week earlier. The huge overseas launch will help fan the frenzy already in place for "The Avengers," the superhero mash-up of Marvel Comics idols whose cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris...

Republican Mitt Romney holds a slim edge over President Obama in a head-to-head matchup, a Fox News poll released Thursday shows. In addition, the poll finds the president’s job rating has dropped to its lowest point of the year. In a presidential matchup, Romney tops Obama by 46-44 percent if the election were today. As with every Romney-Obama matchup in the past six months, the race is so tight that it is within the poll’s margin of sampling error. This, however, is only the second time the Fox News poll shows Romney on top. The first time was November 2011,...