Free Republic

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries publicly embraced a new crop of congressional nominees Saturday, including three Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates whose primary victories have fueled fresh debate over the Democratic Party’s leftward shift ahead of the 2026 midterms. The powerful New York lawmaker’s post highlights the challenge facing the top House Democrat as he works to unite his party ahead of the general election. If Democrats take back the House in November, Jeffries is expected to become the next speaker. That means he’ll likely be leading a Democratic caucus with more self-described Democratic Socialists than ever before. So far,...

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville and his podcast co-host Al Hunt lamented a recent primary winner in New York as part of a movement they say does not belong in the Democratic Party. Democratic socialist candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier was one of three candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani who won shocking primary victories in New York Tuesday. Hunt suggested on Thursday’s episode of “Politics War Room” that they may “complicate the politically existential question of winning in November.” Carville and Hunt agreed that Republicans are overplaying these three candidates as somehow representing the broader Democratic Party...

Delaware Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester avoided answering where socialism has been “beneficial” when giving her thoughts on the recent New York primary elections. **SNIP** Rather than comment on what impact this could have on the broader Democratic Party, Blunt Rochester celebrated the wins as a whole. “I think that, first of all, the fact that people are engaged at a level they’ve never been engaged before is a positive thing, especially in the 250th anniversary of this country,” Blunt Rochester said. “We want people to participate. What I can say, though, about Democrats, and as someone who is working to...

Today I was able to write, record, and produce seven 30-second commercials for True the Ballot. Here are the links: Commercial 1 https://youtu.be/AB9psWirDhU Commercial 2 https://youtu.be/l4diy2PXQrg Commercial 3 https://youtu.be/e4ThjCTU7fI Commercial 4 https://youtu.be/PR7R4RmHkBM Commercial 5 https://youtu.be/gYbj9G4xI2o Commercial 6 https://youtu.be/njNdkDhi6gQ Commercial 7 https://youtu.be/fT3fNfWJvX8 These are amateur productions, to be sure, but a good start. We are in the process of determining what budget is needed to conduct radio advertising in St. Joseph County, Indiana so that we can approach donors with a realistic goal. We also joined the League of Women Voters because they are diligent in documenting all public officials. It...

For months we have been working on a mechanism whereby American citizens can vote with confidence in any election. True the Ballot has just been launched out of our own pockets to vet candidates before they get on any ballot in the United States. Think about it. Why would anyone run for office or vote if they were unable to demonstrate fidelity to our founding principles? We looked at every single candidacy form of the State of Indiana. There are twenty. Not a single one of them asks a candidate about their fealty toward our nation and its principles. Using...

David Hogg has yet to bring home the bacon. Two months ago, the recently defenestrated Democratic National Committee vice chair ignited a firestorm among Democrats by vowing to deploy $20 million from his “grassroots” Leaders We Deserve PAC against incumbents in safe blue districts. But there’s just one small problem. Leaders We Deserve only has a measly $1.5 million cash on hand, far short of the promised $20 million it has committed to spend, according to Federal Election Commission records for the month of May. Worse yet, the PAC has never actually raised that kind of money in the two...

Self-styled moderate Democrats are pushing a future campaign message on the issue that defeated Kamala Harris: Don’t talk about migration. Instead, Democrats should wrap themselves in the flag and patriotic imagery, says a five-page strategy memo drafted by Third Way, a pseudo-moderate Democrat group that held a post-election “Comeback Retreat” in February 2025: Embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery (e.g., farms, main streets).The memo mentions immigration once — but only to slam the GOP’s messaging on the issue: “Democrats often let Republicans set the terms of cultural debates (e.g., crime, immigration) instead of clearly defining their own positions in...

If you were going to question a candidate for public office what would you ask? I ask because I am aiming toward creating a standardized test for anyone who aspires to public office. I am also exploring how to make that test mandatory for anyone who applies, and to make the results public. So have at it. ------- You have presented yourself and may as a result swear a legally binding oath that you are willing to uphold and defend the Constitution of The United States of America. You must now give answer to the people among whom you wish...

Vetting the Candidates Have you ever had Election Day creep up on you and feel flat footed when you don't know who is on the ballot (other than a name) and what they stand for in terms of public policy? Have you noticed there are people who have attained to high public office and use their voice to advocate for violence in the streets? (Maxine Waters and Hakim Jeffries come to mind of late.) Did you know that oaths of office are legally binding, and that to break the oath by advocating policies and actions diametrically opposed to the letter...

The latest polling from the Senate Opportunity Fund (SOF) is all bad news for Democrats. First off, former President Trump is leading in the swing states of Nevada and Wisconsin. Secondly, the U.S. Senate races in Nevada, Wisconsin, AND Ohio appear to be slipping away from Democrats. Currently, Democrats hold all three of those U.S. Senate seats, and a month ago no one really thought the Republican challengers had much of a chance. There was some hope in the increasingly red state of Ohio, but almost none in Wisconsin and Nevada. Thanks to almost certain turnovers in Montana and West...

Democrat Senate candidates in key swing states are pleading to Trump voters for support – a bad sign for their own campaigns and a flashing warning sign to Kamala Harris. In Michigan, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) is openly courting voters who support Trump. In Pennsylvania, Sen. Bob Casey’s (D-PA) campaign released an ad showing Donald Trump signing a bill in the Oval Office, with the narrator touting Casey sided with Trump on his historic trade deal ending NAFTA. And in Wisconsin, leftwing Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s (D-WI) campaign released an ad broadcasting her alignment with Trump on trade policies. Candidates on...

Where As: *Seeking political office is a high responsibility and demanding of a supreme level of trust between officeholders and citizens and *Ethical conduct and ESPECIALLY adherence to National and State Constitutions, as well as other existing laws is mandatory and *It is a crime to lie to a law enforcement officer during the course of their investigation and *It is unethical and in many cases a crime to lie within a contract and *It is a crime to lie under oath in a court of law and *It is a crime to fabricate false and misleading data on engineering...

At the November 2024 election, twenty-three individuals are on the ballot for President in at least one state. That is down from 2020, when there were thirty-six, a historic record. The reason there were so many in 2020 is that Vermont let anyone on by request, and Colorado allowed anyone on who paid $1,000. Neither of those states have those policies any longer.

Trump-backed Republican Senate candidates in key battleground states are closing in on their Democrat opponents, with most margins reflecting those of the presidential race in CNN/SSRS polls of likely voters. The trend among likely voters suggests that the switch from President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat presidential nominee will not be as beneficial to down-ballot Senate candidates as Democrats had hoped, as Harris’s honeymoon phase has ended with the election two months away. For instance, in Pennsylvania’s Senate race, Republican businessman Dave McCormick is tied with Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) at 46 percent. Another four...

A major liberal media outlet published a piece calling on journalists to ask Vice President Kamala Harris questions about her policies ahead of the election so that voters know who she really is. The New Yorker staff writer Jay Caspian King wrote about Harris’ campaign strategy on Thursday, saying it involves her staying away from the press and waiting for former President Trump to make a mistake. However, he argued that it is the media’s job not to let the Democratic candidate get away with hiding prior to potentially assuming the most powerful office in the world. He wrote that...

With just four months until the presidential election, Democrats scramble to decide if they should replace President Joe Biden with a different candidate on their ticket in November. After the 81-year-old stumbled, mumbled and blank-stared his way through his debate with Donald Trump in Atlanta last month, Democrats are concerned about his mental fitness and viability as a candidate. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois is August 19-22 and will conclude with the party choosing its nominee for 2024. It's now unclear if that will still be Biden. Some names being floated as his replacement are California Gov. Gavin...

Like everyone else, I’ve been reading about the abysmal prospects for our country after the presidential debate, and there’s one recurring theme: the problem is the candidates. This is simple and convenient, but I think it is wrong. One guy is clearly incompetent and the other guy is a jerk, but in any republic or democracy, the candidates reflect things about who we are as a nation. You have to ask yourself how, in a population of over 300 million people, these two guys are the best we can do. Of course, the easy conclusion is that we have been...

When former President Donald Trump welcomes potential running mates to Mar-a-Lago this weekend a dark horse could emerge as a favorite. One-time frontrunner, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, is all but out of contention following revelations she shot dead her 14-month-old dog Cricket. Other candidates - including U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Tim Scott and J.D. Vance; and congresswoman Elise Stefanik - are also set to attend. But whispers are circulating about a lesser-known Republican who 18 months ago was little heard of outside his remote home state. He is a billionaire businessman surrounded by a loving family and has the...

The conventional wisdom has long been that this year’s elections would be dominated by typical domestic issues, particularly the economy. But the atrocities carried out by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, the resulting war, and fear of escalation could alter the race. More Americans now say that foreign policy should be a top priority for the U.S. government this year, the Associated Press reports. And President Biden is facing high disapproval rates for his response to events in the Middle East. A Pew survey conducted in late November and early December found that a 41 percent plurality of U.S....

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Several transgender candidates for state office in Ohio are facing challenges and even outright disqualification for omitting their former names from petition paperwork under a little-known state elections law, confronting a unique dilemma as they vie for office in increasing numbers in the face of anti-LBGTQ legislation. Three of the four transgender candidates hoping to win Democratic seats in the Republican-dominated Ohio House and Senate have either been challenged or disqualified for not putting their former name — also called a deadname — on circulating petitions to get on the ballot. But state law mandates that candidates...