Free Republic

What does Nikki Haley’s loss in the Republican presidential primaries, a loss in which she gathered a substantial amount of votes but was able to win only in Vermont and Washington, D.C., tell us about the Republican Party? Among other things, it tells us, as if we needed another reminder, that the GOP cannot return to the days of leaders like George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Paul Ryan. Some loyal Republican voters have always been uneasy about the style of former President Donald Trump. They felt more comfortable in the GOP world of Bush, McCain, Romney, and...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell endorsed Donald Trump for president Wednesday, a remarkable turnaround from the onetime critic who blamed the former president for “disgraceful” acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack but now supports his bid to return to the White House. McConnell, who was the last top GOP leader in Congress to fall in line with Trump, declared his support in a short statement after Super Tuesday wins pushed the GOP front-runner closer to the party nomination. The two men had not spoken since 2020 when McConnell declared Democrat Joe Biden the winner of...

Republican senators from Super Tuesday states who are remaining neutral in the 2024 GOP primary declined to reveal who they voted for. Despite the fact that former President Donald Trump has secured the endorsements of more than half of the Senate Republican Conference, a number of members have maintained that they won’t weigh in before the general election. Of those representing states that vote on Super Tuesday, none of them were willing to reveal who they backed to the Washington Examiner. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), whose bipartisan border security deal was ripped to shreds by his party just last month,...

Three judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals were ousted by candidates endorsed by Attorney General Ken Paxton, who targeted the court after it ruled against him in a 2021 case. Former Dallas appeals court justice David Schenck, Waco attorney Gina Parker and Richardson attorney Lee Finley were projected to defeat incumbents for the Presiding Judge, Place 7 and Place 8 seats on the state's highest criminal court, according to the Associated Press. This year’s primary presented the first opportunity for Paxton to attempt to oust some of the eight judges who ruled in 2021 the attorney general cannot...

Nikki Haley is suspending her 2024 presidential campaign, according to ABC News. She is expected to make the announcement in her home state of South Carolina at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday. The news comes just hours after the polls close for Super Tuesday, where the former U.N. ambassador scored a surprise victory, upsetting Donald Trump to win Vermont

In a victory for Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, at least nine House Republicans appeared to have lost their primaries on Tuesday evening. Another eight members, at least, were also forced into runoffs this May 28 — including House Speaker Dade Phelan who was the No. 1 target of the far right.

A21-year-old college student is headed to November's general election after beating out a longtime state House representative in North Carolina's Republican primary on Tuesday. Wyatt Gable, who is earning his bachelor's degree at East Carolina University, defeated North Carolina State House Representative George Cleveland by just under 2 percentage points, garnering support from a shade under 51 percent of Republican voters. The newcomer will now face Democrat Carmen Spicer in November for North Carolina's District 14 seat in the state House of Representatives. "I just think it came down to people wanting a fresh set of ideas," Gable said after...

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy praised former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley on Super Tuesday, saying he’d like to see her have a role in a future Republican administration if she abandons her presidential bid. McCarthy addressed the chances that Haley would drop out of the race against former President Trump while discussing the likely outcomes of Tuesday’s races on Fox News. Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and American Samoa all held presidential contests on Tuesday.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of San Antonio failed to clinch his party’s nomination Tuesday and is headed for a primary runoff against gun rights advocate and social media influencer Brandon Herrera, according to the Associated Press. Gonzales' intraparty challenge came a year after the Republican Party of Texas censured the moderate congressman for breaking with the GOP in some votes.

A far-right candidate who has called public schools “indoctrination centers," urged people not to send their children to them and was at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack has defeated the incumbent Tuesday in the GOP primary to run the state’s public schools. Michele Morrow defeated incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt with 98.8% of precincts reporting. Morrow had 52.1% of the vote, compared to 47.9% for Truitt. The winner will likely face Democrat Maurice “Mo” Green, a former superintendent of Guilford County Schools, in November. Green had 66% of the votes, compared to 24.8% for...

In a whiplash-inducing reversal from only five weeks prior, Republican voters in North Texas’ House District 2 have chosen Brent Money over the recently elected incumbent, state Rep. Jill Dutton.Never The Associated Press declared Money the winner at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday. “Tonight’s victory goes to the conservative people in this district who are desperate for a conservative fighter in Austin,” Money said in a statement. “For months, the Austin establishment poured millions of dollars into this district to preserve the status quo, but the voters of HD02 sent their message loud and clear: we will not be bought.” Dutton...

Rep. Barry Moore has defeated Rep. Jerry Carl in a rare incumbent-vs.-incumbent Republican primary spurred by a Supreme Court decision forcing Alabama to adopt redrawn congressional districts, NBC News projects. Moore’s Super Tuesday victory is a win for the House Freedom Caucus — the band of far-right, anti-establishment rabble rousers that frequently clashes with GOP leadership and whose super PAC backed Moore. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a former Freedom Caucus member, campaigned alongside Moore over the weekend in Alabama.Never Carl, a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee and the Republican Study Committee, is more closely aligned with the business...

The shockwaves rippled up and down the ballot as incumbent state House members, judges and other state leaders were forced into runoffs or defeated outright. Texas voters on Tuesday handed more power to the insurgent wing of the Republican Party in an expensive and vengeful primary election, punishing GOP lawmakers, judges and a House speaker who defied hard-right state leaders and their supporters in recent years. The shockwaves rippled up and down the ballot. Most notably, Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, was forced into a runoff with a well-funded challenger, David Covey, after being targeted by ultra-conservative donors and activists, who...

Three incumbent judges on the state’s highest criminal court — all opposed by Attorney General Ken Paxton, who disagreed with their ruling on an election law case in 2021 — were behind in early returns in Tuesday’s Republican primary. In addition, a GOP incumbent on the Texas Supreme Court was ahead in early returns. Justice John Devine, leading challenger Brian Walker with 14% of precincts reporting, faced a series of ethical questions and allegations of absenteeism during the campaign. Walker is a justice on the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth.

Bye!

Moldova’s national intelligence agency warned Tuesday against "unprecedented" Russian interference as the country gears up for a referendum on joining the European Union and a presidential election. The Intelligence and Security Services, or SIS, released a report saying it has gathered data indicating Russia plans to launch vast hybrid attacks against Moldova through 2024-2025 to try to bring the former Soviet republic back under Moscow's influence. Head of the SIS, Alexandru Musteata, said in a press conference that Russia sought to undermine the democratic polling this year in the eastern European country. "There is information about an attempt to compromise...

Breaking … Nikki Haley has won Ukraine.

The U.K. has a new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Tech and the Digital Economy, Conservative MP Saqib Bhatti, and the politician seems very enthusiastic when talking about things like “cooperation” with Big Tech, particularly in terms of elections. That’s because, critics will say, those in power want to absolutely control the conversation, what can and can’t be said online, and thus directly influence the vote; whereas those in power say, it’s all just a perfectly benevolent effort to make sure misinformation plays no part in the campaign.

Donald Trump is facing 91 criminal charges after being indicted four times. Regardless of what his supporters think about those charges, the wheels of justice are turning and Donald Trump will likely be convicted on several felony charges. When those convictions come will be critical to the question of whether Trump will take the oath of office from prison and whether he will govern from behind bars. Since it is a generally accepted legal opinion that a president cannot be prosecuted while in office (although there would likely be challenges to that tradition), if Trump is sworn in without being...