Free Republic

Former GOP Rep. Mark Green’s resignation in July triggered a special election for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, a longtime Republican seat that President Donald Trump carried by 22 points in the 2024 election. Still, millions of dollars from both parties flowed into the district ahead of the special election. Republican Matt Van Epps, a former state official, and Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn won their parties’ special primaries in October, with Van Epps beating a broad GOP field with the help of a late Trump endorsement.

President Donald Trump has been back in office for almost a year -- roughly 315 days -- and has governed with the urgency of a turnaround CEO. He hit the ground running, signing executive orders immediately after inauguration and maintaining a pace unmatched in modern politics. But what becomes of all this action? Executive orders can be reversed the moment a new president arrives unless Congress codifies them into law. That’s the key difference between temporary executive action and lasting legislative reform. According to Ballotpedia, “As of November 25, 2025, President Donald Trump had signed 217 executive orders, 54 memoranda,...

Voters in the Coastal Plains of North Carolina are on track for new congressional maps in the 2026 midterms. The 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts are changed from the 2024 presidential cycle in the map redrawn this fall by the Legislature. On Wednesday, Justices Allison Jones Rushing, Richard Myers and Thomas Schroeder in a 57-page opinion concluded plaintiffs did not make a “clear showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of any of the claims advanced in their preliminary injunction motions” and denied the request for a preliminary injunction. Filing for the 2026 midterms begins Monday. Rushing...

Censures were historically rare rebukes against lawmakers. But members of the House are increasingly using them in ways their peers say are political.Republicans and Democrats in Congress spent much of last week voting to formally reprimand each other, and both sides are tired of the back-and-forth.Congress voted on as many censure measures last week as it did during all of the 118th Congress. On Monday, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Washington) lobbed a disapproval measure against retiring Democratic colleague Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García of Illinois. The next day, Rep. Ralph Norman, who is running for governor in the state of South...

Like a master chef promising a five-course meal in fifteen minutes, Washington’s latest promise on affordability might be biting off more than it can chew. The word “affordability” has become the political equivalent of a Swiss Army knife—everyone’s wielding it, but few seem to know which tool to pull out first. From New York City’s mayoral race to the halls of Congress, “affordability” has emerged as the buzzword du jour, a catch-all solution to Americans’ economic anxieties. President Trump has seized on this narrative with characteristic gusto, promising sweeping changes to make life cheaper for working families. His One Big...

A senior House Republican predicts that more "explosive early resignations are coming" after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Ga.) surprise announcement that she would leave Congress in January. Several GOP House members privately told Punchbowl News that they were also considering retiring before their terms end, after Greene's Nov. 21 announcement. It’s unknown which Republicans are currently pondering resignation, but a feeling that legislators' needs are being neglected by party leadership and an inability to pass legislation has led some to consider quitting, as they expect the GOP to lose its already slim majority in Congress. The anonymous GOP lawmaker said...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, a staunch pro-life advocate known for leading investigations into the Biden administration’s aggressive imprisonment of peaceful pro-life advocates, revealed Thursday that former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department secretly subpoenaed his phone records over a 28-month period. The subpoena, part of the Justice Department’s Arctic Frost investigation, targeted Jordan’s “call detail records” from Verizon, covering calls, text messages, voicemails and location data dating back to January 1, 2020. The federal grand jury request was issued on April 25, 2022, and was accompanied by a nondisclosure order signed by Magistrate Judge David A. Baker that barred...

The infomercial pitchman behind “ShamWow!” is officially running for Congress. Filings released Friday show that 61-year-old Vince Offer, who also goes by Offer Vince Shlomi, has registered to run in the Republican.

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14) is leaving Congress. The outspoken Republican, who has been at odds with her party and President Donald Trump in recent weeks, made the announcement on Friday night, expressing her frustration with the national debt and the recent government shutdown. "I ran for Congress in 2020 and have fought every single day believing that Make America Great Again meant America First," she wrote in a letter she made public Friday evening. "I have one of the most conservative voting records in Congress defending the 1st amendment, 2nd amendment, unborn babies because I believe God creates...

A cadre of democrats have produced a video in which they encourage members of the military to defy orders. But not directly. In a redux of the "51 former intelligence experts" letter, these democrats - Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) - Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) - Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) - Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.) - Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) - Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) have created something that, just like the laptop letter, doesn't come right out and say it, but very strongly implies it. BREAKING: Elected Democrats just released a video encouraging members of the military to commit treason...

A former congressional staffer has been charged for allegedly staging her own violent assault, for which she paid someone $500 to slice dozens of cuts into her body, according to prosecutors.

Texas cannot use its new congressional map for the 2026 election and will instead need to stick with the lines passed in 2021, a three-judge panel ruled Tuesday. The decision is a major blow for Republicans, in Texas and nationally, who pushed through this unusual mid-decade redistricting at the behest of President Donald Trump. They were hoping the new map would yield control of 30 of the state’s 38 congressional districts — up from the 25 they currently hold — and help protect the narrow GOP majority in the U.S. House. “The public perception of this case is that it’s...

President Donald Trump said House Republicans should vote to release files involving the Jeffrey Epstein case, a startling reversal after previously fighting the proposal. “We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on social media shortly after landing at Joint Base Andrews following a weekend in Florida. Trump's statement followed a fierce fight within the GOP over the files, including an increasingly nasty split with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had long been...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continually touts her fundraising as a grass-roots effort that relies on small donations from regular people — but her campaign coffers are stuffed with big contributions from celebrities, wealthy activists and executives, a Post review found. Even many of AOC’s small-dollar contributions are larger than meets the eye, under an accounting loophole that lets big donors masquerade as little ones. Among the bold-faced names whose identities are buried inside her lengthy Federal Election Commission reports are Jane Fonda, the actress and activist has given $8,300 to the socialist lawmaker and “Squad” member over the years, including $500...

The longest government shutdown in history is over, but appropriators still have a long way to go to get nine of the 12 necessary funding bills over the finish line by Jan. 31, 2026.The government reopened after 43 days, following the House’s passage, mostly along party lines, with six Democrats voting in favor and two Republicans voting against, of a legislative package that extended funding until the end of January and included three appropriations bills.However, with the new January deadline, appropriators are up against the clock, as both chambers must now agree on the nine remaining bills so they can...

VIDEOEven retiring Congressman Jerry Nadler proclaimed that Deranged Nepo Baby Jack Kennedy Schlossberg is a useless fool who hasn't done anything with his life and is therefore completely unqualified to run his seat. Shmuck Son Jack took that as a green light to go ahead and run for Nadler's seat in Congress as he has just announced. It was pretty obvious that Nepo Baby Jack was planning on running for that seat because for the past few weeks he struggled (probably with the help of a PR agency) to present himself as normal. However, you don't have to go very...

The United States isn't supposed to be a place for political dynasties. Oh, I know, we've had a few; Roosevelts, Kennedys, Bushes, and so forth. But it's supposed to be something we, as a nation, eschew. Especially when the possible dynasty carries the name "Pelosi." Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is, as we reported here at RedState, finally retiring. Finally! She does have all that money she made with her amazing acumen for buying and selling stocks, after all, time for her to go enjoy the boodle. Now the question becomes, who will replace her?...

ROLLINS, SEC. OF AGRIC., ET AL. V. RI COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, ET AL. The application for stay presented to Justice Jackson is referred to the Court. The administrative stay entered on November 7, 2025, is hereby extended until 11:59 p.m. (EST) on November 13, 2025. Justice Jackson would deny the request for extension of the administrative stay and would deny the application

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) would not commit Monday when CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed him on bringing a vote to the floor to address health care affordability before the ACA tax subsidies expire. The eight Senate Democrats who voted in favor of the continuing resolution Sunday night to help reopen the government did so with the belief that Republicans would begin healthcare talks. Under President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act, tax subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year and cause premiums to skyrocket. “The problem is when you’re subsidizing insurance companies, they just jack the...