Free Republic

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan has been projected to win reelection in New Hampshire, beating out Republican Don Bolduc in what was once seen as a strong pickup opportunity for the GOP. Hassan’s victory is key for Democrats in their quest to maintain control of the evenly divided Senate. Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general, was not the preferred choice of establishment Republicans to take on Hassan. Their first pick was GOP Gov. Chris Sununu, but he passed on running. GOP-allied groups spent millions on ads during the primary attacking Bolduc as a weak candidate and boosting state Senate President Chuck...

Listen to this article 0:00 / 3:11 1X BeyondWords Sen. John Cornyn’s, R-Texas, office on Wednesday denied that a bipartisan immigration bill is in the works after comments he made on the Senate floor that his staff say were a joke, but that sparked uproar from conservatives. Cornyn, who frequently attempts to find bipartisan paths for legislation on a range of issues that includes immigration, was on the Senate floor Tuesday evening as the chamber advanced bipartisan gun legislation that he had helped shepherd. HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic tweeted that Cornyn was smiling as he told California Sen. Alex Padilla:...

Carlos Beruff, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Florida, repeatedly referred to President Barack Obama as an “animal” at a county GOP meeting on Thursday. Addressing party faithful at a St. John’s County GOP gathering, Beruff accused Obama of destroying America and its military. “Unfortunately, for seven and a half years this animal we call president, because he’s an animal, OK — seven and a half years, has surgically and with thought and very smart, intelligent manner, destroyed this country and dismantled the military under not one, not two, but three secretary of defenses,” he said. “And they’ve...

Donald Trump comfortably defeated his Republican presidential rivals on Saturday in South Carolina's GOP primary. Trump's resounding victory isn't simply a boon to his prospects for winning the Republican presidential nomination, an outcome once thought impossible that is looking increasingly more plausible. It is also an embarrassing repudiation of conservative orthodoxy that has dominated Republican politics for decades. It suggests that the party's intellectual leaders, who organized the base around the National Review/Weekly Standard consensus -- small government, free trade, pro-Israel, deregulation, low taxes, social conservatism and an aggressive foreign policy -- have been generals of a phantom army. The...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) is calling on the Obama administration to impose a travel ban on three West African nations in response to a growing Ebola virus outbreak. The House Foreign Affairs Committee member wants the State Department to bar citizens of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from entering the United States, including any foreign travelers who have visited those countries in the previous 90 days. He also requested that the ban be expanded to any nation that reports an originating case of the virus, and that restrictions only be lifted 90 days after the last reported case.