Free Republic

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday took aim at former President Donald Trump and other potential GOP presidential candidates as he laid out his vision for 2024 to Republican donors. Pence, in remarks at the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) spring donor retreat in Nashville, Tenn., argued that the party could not afford to remain fixated on the past or follow a cult of personality at the expense of policy — a clear swipe at Trump as the former vice president weighs whether to challenge his old boss for the 2024 nomination. “We need leaders with the courage to speak...

Ron DeSantis may be missing his moment. A number of the Florida governor’s donors and allies are worried his recent stumbles suggest he may not be ready for a brutal fight against Donald Trump. Some feel DeSantis needs to accelerate his timeline to run for the GOP presidential nomination and begin directly confronting Trump if he's to have any chance of thwarting the former president’s momentum. Others believe DeSantis should sidestep Trump altogether and wait until 2028 to run. “They liked him — many of them might even support him,” the person who was at the event said of DeSantis....

Fresh off his huddling with donors last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is teeing up a jammed-pack week as he seemingly lays down the groundwork for a 2024 bid. DeSantis will deliver his hotly anticipated State of the State address to the Florida legislature, which is set to convene Tuesday, and start his mad dash to wrangle through a bevy of big-ticket items. Then, DeSantis will close off the week with a trip to the early primary state of Iowa to promote his new book. "Gov. DeSantis has said he is going to have the most productive and successful legislative...

EXCLUSIVE – Former Vice President Mike Pence, a likely 2024 Republican White House contender, is returning next week to South Carolina, the state that holds the third contest in the GOP presidential nominating calendar. Pence heads to Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday, March 2 to headline a law enforcement roundtable, Fox News has learned. Pence’s ninth trip to the Palmetto State since he left office over two years ago comes amid renewed efforts by Congress to pass police reform legislation after five police officers in Memphis, Tennessee were accused of killing 29-year-old Black man Tyre Nichols last month. The former...

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan met with Jewish community leaders at a Miami-area deli on Tuesday during a swing through Florida to raise money ahead of a possible 2024 presidential run, reports Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch. Earlier in the day Hogan had breakfast with former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). Aventura adventure: “Our allies, including Israel, need a strong and united America leading the world,” Hogan, a Republican, tweeted after the event, which took place at Mo’s Bagels & Deli in heavily Jewish Aventura, just north of Miami. Attendees at the event included Aventura Mayor Howard Weinberg and other local officials...

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that “boring” President Joe Biden only won the 2020 election because former President Donald Trump lost. Anchor Jon Karl said, “You know, Governor, it’s hard to say stay the course when the answer for are you better off now for so many Americans is no.” Christie said, “If you listened to Secretary Buttigieg, you would have thought we were in the Eisenhower economy, for God’s sake. Here’s the problem. Politicians when they run for office, you don’t always win. Sometimes the other guy loses. Joe Biden’s president because Donald...

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel won her bid Friday to lead the GOP for two more years, prevailing in an election that highlighted fierce internal divisions that threaten to plague the party into the next presidential season. McDaniel, whom Donald Trump tapped as RNC chair in 2016, won the the secret ballot vote 111 to 51. The high-profile election played out inside a luxury resort on the Southern California coast as the RNC’s 168 voting members – activists and elected officials from all 50 states – gathered for the committee’s annual winter meeting. With the victory, McDaniel becomes the...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said former President Trump’s political power is “diminished” following his endorsed candidates’ lackluster performance in the midterm elections and vowed to find “quality” candidates for Senate races in 2024. “Here’s what I think has changed: I think the former president’s political clout has diminished,” McConnell said in a interview with NBC News released on Friday. Despite predictions of a “red wave” in this November’s midterm elections, Republicans lost ground in the Senate and only managed to secure a slim majority in the House. Many in the GOP have since placed the blame on Trump...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took aim at former President Donald Trump when asked about his reaction to the House Jan. 6 panel’s criminal referral of the former president to the Justice Department on Monday. “The entire nation knows who is responsible for that day. Beyond that, I don’t have any immediate observations,” McConnell told reporters when asked about the House select committee’s findings. The committee, led by Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), recommended to the DOJ that Trump, 76, be charged with inciting or assisting an insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to make...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican weighing a 2024 White House bid, said Monday he believes former President Donald Trump is “at his lowest point ever,” as the House Jan. 6 committee wrapped up its investigation into what Hogan described as “one of the darkest days in American history.”In an interview with The Associated Press shortly before the committee released its recommendations, Hogan said he believes the former president should be held accountable, after he “inflamed kind of a riotous mob to go attack the seat of our democracy.” However, the outgoing, term-limited governor was not specific...

The administration is aiding and abetting an invasion of the Southern border. Our rights are being stripped away. We are at war and the enemy is within. In response to this existential threat, we’re told that we need to entrust a congressman previously recognized as the “tech industry’s best friend” as our leader. That’s boneheaded. Kevin McCarthy is not the right leader for the moment. Fortunately, enough Republicans recognize that and mean to stop him from being the next Speaker of the House. Five House Republicans, including myself, have announced that we will not vote for McCarthy during the January...

The midterm elections have elucidated much. One of the revelations is the real definition of one of the Democrats’ main campaign themes this election cycle; for example, voters must vote Democrat to “save our democracy.” What has been revealed is that the real intention was to save our kleptocracy and that the junior partners of the Uniparty—the GOP establishment—were complicit.Let us explore the premise.Past Wave ElectionsThe first midterm elections of Democrat presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama provide a benchmark for what should logically have transpired in 2022.In 1994, Republicans took control of the U.S. Congress for the first time...

Conservative lawmakers and members of the Republican National Committee have labeled the new leader of House Democrats an "election denier" because the new leader claimed the 2016 presidential election was fake. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who was elected to replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the leader of House Democrats on Wednesday, has denied the legitimacy of the 2016 election at least eight times, according to a researcher from the RNC. The 2016 contest resulted in the election of Donald Trump over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

House Republicans’ speaker nominee Kevin McCarthy does not yet have enough votes to win a floor election in January, but he told reporters Tuesday he will not drop out of the running and plans to take the fight to the floor if necessary. “We’ll have 218,” the California Republican said, referring to the number of votes necessary to win a majority of the House in the floor election. “I'll get there.” Before the Thanksgiving recess, the House Republican Conference nominated McCarthy for speaker. He earned 188 votes in the secret-ballot conference nomination. His opponent, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, earned 31...

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Several possible presidential hopefuls took shots at former President Donald Trump on Friday evening and Saturday morning at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership convention. Foremost among these was former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who likened Trump supporters to the John Birch Society and blamed Republican losses for high inflation and crime as he urged the party to dump Trump.

Republican aides and strategists privately expect Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue an indictment of former President Trump within 60 to 90 days after Election Day, predicting the window for prosecuting Trump will close once the 2024 presidential campaign gains momentum. Republican aides on Capitol Hill and veteran party strategists emphasize they don’t have any inside information on what Garland might do, but they say the attorney general is under heavy pressure from Democrats to act and the deadline for pursuing an indictment is fast approaching. GOP aides also warn that an indictment of Trump by the Biden administration would...

RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told FBN's Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday morning that the Republican Party is "seriously looking at how we can sue Google" for suppressing their get-out-the-vote emails by labeling them as "spam." MARIA BARTIROMO: You also say that Google is suppressing millions of election-related e-mails, just in the last month the [Republican National] Committee is accusing the company of marking 22 million e-mails as spam, including get-out-the-vote messages. You're exploring legal options. What are you going to do? RONNA MCDANIEL: We spent the day on the phone with attorneys yesterday. We're very seriously looking at how we can...

Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that “society” has to “strap up and decide we’re going to push back against” the dangerous Republican Party. Guest anchor Katie Phang said, “Election workers are increasing security around polling places before the midterms. Is this the new reality in America now where we have to have armed guards for people to exercise their right to vote?”

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expanding his network with plans to campaign for his fellow Republicans in this year’s midterm elections. Kristin Davison, senior adviser for Youngkin’s political activity, confirmed to The Hill on Thursday that the governor launched two organizations to support his work in politics that can accept contributions. There is no maximum donation size.

As the Alaska Republican Party holds its state convention this month, attention will naturally focus on the 2022 elections, most notably the selection of our next U.S. Senator. I’ve been running against incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski for over a year, and it’s clear that voters agree that it’s time for a change. Because of a new election law, approved narrowly through a referendum crafted and promoted by Murkowski’s political allies, we no longer hold party primaries in Alaska. All candidates from all parties will run in a “jungle” primary on August 16 with the top four advancing to the general...