Free Republic

PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – After 14 incumbent South Dakota lawmakers lost their seats in the 2024 Republican primary, 16 lost on Tuesday, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office. The 2024 shakeup was described as “an earthquake” by Spearfish Rep. Scott Odenbach, a Republican incumbent who won his own primary that year and was elevated to majority leader of the House of Representatives with support from the newcomers. In the 2026 primary, those former newcomers made up the majority of the ousted incumbents. snip Several of the lawmakers who lost their seats in the 2024...

Rep. Dusty Johnson unveiled legislation that would authorize the repurchase of the Panama Canal, giving congressional teeth to President-elect Donald Trump’s wish to take back the strategic waterway. The Panama Canal Repurchase Act of 2025 would give Mr. Trump, in coordination with the secretary of state, the authority to enter into negotiations with the Panamanian government to buy the canal. Mr. Trump recently said the U.S. should regain control of the Panama Canal to bolster national security interests, largely over concerns about China’s influence over the operations... Panama became a part of China’s Belt and Road initiative in 2018...

The House of Representatives voted to kill a resolution to censure progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib, R-Mich., on Wednesday night. Nearly two dozen Republicans voted along with all House Democrats to table the resolution in a final vote of 222 to 186 in favor of killing the motion without debate. Democrats briefly broke out into applause when the resolution failed.

On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) reacted to claims by some Republicans in Congress that there are no wins for Democrats in the debt ceiling bill by stating that in “most of the briefings that I’ve been in, people talked about how much worse it could have been.” After playing clips of House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) saying that Democrats didn’t get any wins in the deal, co-host Poppy Harlow asked, “Do you agree with that assessment?”

For more than a week, Republicans from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Washington, D.C., have been shaken by the talk that Sen. John Thune might not seek reelection in 2022. The exit of three-termer Thune, No. 2 in the Senate Republican hierarchy behind Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, would make the odds better-than-even on Democrats winning his Senate seat.