Free Republic

State Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly was abruptly and surprisingly replaced by first-term Sen. Stephen Harding as caucus leader on Friday, culminating tensions that has been brewing since before the start of the legislative session earlier this month. Kelly, a lawyer, was in his fourth year leading the minority caucus as a moderate trying to keep together the dozen-member group, including more-conservative lawmakers. His role was to help the caucus reach consensus on legislation often pushed by the 24-12 Democratic majority, and summing up floor debates prior to the final word from Senate President Pro Tempore Martin New of New...

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is running in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, said Republicans should “back off” of “accusations” of the “weaponization of the Justice Department.” Hutchinson told ABC on Sunday that while he disagrees with some of the DOJ’s decisions, he believes Republicans are incorrect to label the department’s indictment of former president Donald Trump as “weaponization.”

Chief Washington Examiner political correspondent Byron York charted a hypothetical path to the Republican nomination for newly announced 2024 presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). "This is the kind of candidacy that's not just going to burst on the polls and all of a sudden he’ll be in second place next week," York said Monday on Fox News. "It’s the kind of candidacy that you visit Iowa a lot, and good news, good word starts spreading around you. "They say good things about you and, after a while, you just start rising in the most important first contest," he continued.

DENVER — County clerks across Colorado say they’re bracing for a surge of highly motivated election deniers working as poll watchers or election judges in the November midterms — part of a nationwide attempt to manufacture evidence of election fraud. Local, state and federal officials, alongside political experts, have repeatedly debunked claims of election fraud but clerks in Chaffee, Eagle, El Paso, Fremont, Garfield, Summit and Weld counties told the Denver Post they’re still seeing an increasing number of bad-faith poll watchers and election judges around the state. Encouraged, even recommended, by party officials or far-right voices with national reach,...

WASHINGTON — More than six months after Jan. 6 — and after all of the reporting on that day — Donald Trump’s hold over the Republican Party hasn’t gotten weaker. It’s only grown stronger. In Oklahoma, the state GOP chair is backing a primary challenge to the reliably conservative sitting Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. Lankford’s sin: refusing to reject the Electoral College count on Jan. 6. In Alaska, the state party has endorsed challenger Kelly Tshibaka over Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. Murkowski voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial. In Ohio, the candidates vying to fill the open Senate...

RINOs continue to think that we somehow NEED them in order to win elections and they refuse to accept the fact that it’s because of them that we continue to lose elections. After all it was McCain in 2008 and Willard in 2012 who lost for no other reason than BECAUSE they were both RINOs. And it was Donald Trump who won in 2016 (and again in 2020) who won because he is not. And in 2020 it was the RINOs who allowed the 2020 elections to be fraudulently conducted and stolen, otherwise Republicans would, today, control the House, the...

Stories continue to trickle out about coming Republican betrayals. Once primaries are over, Republicans are going to push amnesty. Once primaries are over, Republicans are going to give up efforts to repeal Obamacare. They’ll tinker instead. The only way to change the direction of the country is to change the direction of the GOP. The only way to change the direction of the GOP is to unleash hell in Republican primaries. Whether it is beating Ralph Hall in his Texas runoff, or electing good outsiders like Barry Loudermilk in Georgia, Bryan Smith in Idaho, Art Halvorson in Pennsylvania, and others,...

In light of a new poll out from Landmark Communications and Rosetta Stone Communications, no one is talking about Lindsey Graham’s re-election as inevitable – or anything close. In fact, given Graham’s long time incumbency, and his constant media attention, the numbers are embarrassing. Graham received support from only 42 percent of respondents, while late entry state Senator Lee Bright was second with 13 percent – ahead of two other challengers who had earlier starts. The survey of 500 likely South Carolina Republican voters was conducted on Sunday, August 25th and has a margin of error of 4.5 percent. “The...