Free Republic

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will meet this week with high-dollar Republicans to try to cement their support for the newest political action committee supporting his presidential bid, his campaign manager, James Uthmeier, wrote in a memo on Monday morning. Back Down, the super PAC which has bankrolled much of DeSantis' sprawling ground work in early voting states like Iowa and has hosted the governor for dozens of events there. In a fraught moment earlier this month that was first reported by NBC News, two board members from Never Back Down nearly got into a physical fight during a private meeting...

Republicans on the Committee on House Administration are probing a prominent left-wing fundraising platform over its “lenient” donor verification practices that allegedly allow unlawful monies to fund Democrat political causes. Authored by Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., the letter sent to ActBlue Chief Executive Officer Regina Wallace-Jones requests information regarding the platform’s “lenient donor verification standards,” which Steil says have allegedly permitted “malicious actors” to “funnel unlawful funds to political committees” in key elections throughout the country. As noted by Fox News, ActBlue “amasses small-dollar donations … and then funnels them to various Democrat candidates and causes.” Months before the 2020...

Earlier on Thursday, a DeSantis spokesperson said the governor’s office had contracted cargo planes to send drones, body armor and helmets to Israel and worked to “get weapons and ammunition to Israel through private parties.” In an interview with Reuters, however, Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the Israeli consul general in Miami, said his office did not work with the governor to send any weapons or ammunition to Israel through private parties, though he had once been in contact with the governor’s office about a plane that was carrying rifle parts. “I am not aware and would find it very, very bizarre to...

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced that he is sending weapons, ammunition and drones to Israel, just a few days before the GOP presidential hopeful is set to speak at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, which includes major donors. The Republican candidate also announced two cargo planes with 85 pallets of donated supplies, as well as sanctions on Iran and "companies boycotting Israel," such as financial services firm Morningstar. DeSantis is scheduled to speak at the RJC gathering in Las Vegas on Saturday. The moves from the Florida governor come after he was previously accused by...

Top officials with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign made the case to a gathering of top donors opposed to Donald Trump on Friday that rival GOP candidate Nikki Haley could not defeat the former president in a head-to-head matchup. If they wanted to stop Trump, they argued, the Florida governor remained their best bet. In another presentation made to the same group, Haley’s team argued the opposite. DeSantis’ campaign had flatlined, they insisted, pointing to data that showed that the former UN ambassador was ascendent and, therefore, the logical choice for the anti-Trump crowd. Haley’s team, according to a person familiar...

The Energy Department is announcing a $325 million investment in new battery types that can help turn solar and wind energy into 24-hour power it said Friday morning. The funds will be distributed among 15 projects in 17 states and the Red Lake Nation, a Native American tribe based in Minnesota. Here is some of what is being funded, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021: A project led by Xcel Energy in partnership with long-term battery manufacturer Form Energy will deploy two 100-megawatt battery systems at the site of coal plants that are closing in Becker, Minnesota and Pueblo,...

Apparently the plebeians supporting the candidates of their choice with small dollar donations represent a major problem for American society. At least, that’s what a condescending New York Times columnist argued. Thomas Edsall, who has an apparent obsession with telling the world how much he despises former President Donald Trump, also revealed a particular distaste for the grassroots Americans who helped propel his ascendance to the White House. “Small Donors Are a Big Problem,” read Edsall’s grossly elitist Aug. 30 headline. “Increasing the share of campaign pledges from modest donors has long been a goal of campaign-finance reformers, but it...

Bedminster, NJ — President Donald J. Trump will grant the right to use his “Seal of Approval” to an exclusive group of candidates and committees that the President endorses or otherwise supports. The purpose of the Seal is to help President Trump’s donors distinguish between authorized uses of his name and likeness, and unauthorized uses including oftentimes outright scams. It is intended to protect the President’s donors and supporters from illegitimate organizations falsely claiming some affiliation with President Trump and his campaign. President Trump’s endorsement power is the most powerful force in American politics. His influence is election defining. When...

Former National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg claimed Thursday that small donors in the Republican primary were a problem “for democracy” and “just venting their spleen” rather than acting strategically. “Small donors in Iowa are more important as an indicator of grassroots support than anything else. But I also think we’re dealing with a time where there’s a lot of people, there’s a lot of cheering and self-congratulations about the rise of small donors a decade ago,” Goldberg told “Inside Politics” host Dana Bash. “Now small donors are one of the biggest problems for democracy, for the GOP. Because small donor...

The estate of a donor to Middlebury College can sue to stop the de-naming of a chapel funded with his bequest, a Vermont judge ruled recently. Judge Robert Mello greenlighted the lawsuit on behalf of Governor John Mead’s estate. The estate, represented by former Vermont Governor James Douglas (pictured, left), argued that the school has a contractual obligation to keep “Mead” on the name of its memorial chapel, in the face of cancellation calls over Gov. Mead’s (pictured, right) alleged support for eugenics. The school removed Mead’s name in 2021. Judge Mello ruled that there was enough evidence to suggest...

Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis has fired a number of his staff due to his struggling presidential campaign failing to meet fundraising goals, as well as burning through inordinate amounts of large, corporate donor cash less than two months after he announced that he was running for the Republican presidential nomination.The news came just days after National Pulse Editor-in-Chief predicted the “shake up” on The Campaign Trail podcast as well as on Twitter:[cut] Another major revelation is that just 15 percent of the DeSantis campaign’s donations came from “small-dollar donors,” compared to former president Donald Trump, who is heavily reliant...

I don't think Col Macgregor takes a blow torch to Graham but he does call him out for being part of the problem...

Property Insurance experts are weighing in on one state senator’s call for another special session to address the skyrocketing cost of property insurance for millions of Floridians. Gov. DeSantis is also urging patience, and quote “knocking on wood that we won’t have a big storm this summer.” “So knock on wood (that) we won’t have a big storm this summer,” he also said. “Then I think you’re going to start to see companies see an advantage.” “We have seen some projections that other companies may decide to take similar actions and withdraw from the state,” Friedlander said. “But we have...

President Biden’s reelection campaign raised more than $72 million in the second quarter of fundraising, the campaign announced Friday. The team also reported that the campaign has $77 million in cash on hand, which is “the highest total amassed by a Democrat at any comparable point in history.” *** Biden more than doubled former President Trump’s second quarter fundraising. “The Biden-Harris team dramatically outraised the announced totals from every GOP candidate running for president, including Donald Trump by more than 2:1 and Ron DeSantis by more than 3:1,” the Biden campaign said in a statement. Trump, the Republican front-runner, hauled...

Ken Griffin, founder of Miami-based hedge fund Citadel, is frustrated with DeSantis' lack of progress in the GOP primary race, and has 'hit the pause button' on his support, ABC News reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with Griffin's thinking. However, Griffin's spokesperson dismissed the claim, telling DailyMail.com: 'Ken is not pausing anything. He continues to assess the field.' According to sources cited in the recent ABC News report, Griffin has grown impatient as he waits for DeSantis to show progress as a presidential candidate. The outlet reported that other GOP donors have privately begun to question DeSantis' viability...

Florida man Ron DeSantis is at an all-time low in GOP delegate number predictions, dropping more than 400 since declaring his candidacy, according to ‘Race to the WH,’ which tracks the latest GOP polling data. DeSantis was predicted to receive around 1,413 delegates as late as February 25 this year, leading former President Donald Trump by almost 400. Since then, support for DeSantis has dropped precipitously, with the Governor now forecasted to receive only 405 delegate votes, down from 834 on May 25 – the day after his “historic screw-up” presidential campaign launch on Twitter spaces. Former President Donald Trump,...

The benefactor behind The T.W. Lewis Foundation, Tom Lewis, set the record straight on Friday about his decision to pull funding from the ASU-Barrett Center for Personal Development. Lewis’ decision to pull the funding comes after the executive director of the Center said, in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal, that she was being fired and the Center was closing because she organized an event featuring Charlie Kirk, Robert Kiyosaki and Dennis Prager. Ann Atkinson noted that the February event “outraged” faculty members at ASU’s honors college, Barrett, which houses the center. Lewis’ statement appears to support...

Major benefactors to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – Morteza ‘Mori’ Hosseini and his wife Forough – have donated tens of thousands of dollars to a political action committee (PAC) funding the Democratic Party leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the lead impeachment manager against former President Donald J. Trump, Jamie Raskin.Hosseini’s donations to the Iranian American Political Action Committee – Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA) span from 2004 to 2011, under his name, as well as aliases “Morteza Hosseini Kargar”, and “Morteza Hosseini-Kargar“. During the same period, the PAAIA PAC funded various Democrat groups, including Friends...

Crypto giant FTX went bankrupt last year, the company losing billions of dollars overnight. FTX owner Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was the second biggest donor to Democrats in the 2022 midterms. In early January Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to all 8 counts related to the collapse of his crypto Ponzi scheme. SBF pleaded not guilty in New York federal court Tuesday to eight charges related to the collapse of his former crypto exchange FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research. SBF was indicted on eight counts, including charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, individual charges of securities...

Tesla got a carve-out. It’s a good day for auto dealers in the Sunshine State, and not so great for motorists who’d prefer a more direct route for buying a new coupe, sedan or SUV. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure (HB 637) banning most direct-to-consumer vehicle sales, solidifying the future viability of car-selling operations across the Sunshine State. The measure, championed and authored by lobbyists representing the Florida Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), prohibits automakers from selling vehicles directly to buyers.That restriction, which goes into effect July 1, was considered a direct threat to the business model of Tesla, an...