Free Republic

In a dramatic and unmistakably vindictive move, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham unleashed a political tantrum on Friday, vetoing a slate of bills—most notably Senate Bill 315, which would have designated the tortilla as New Mexico’s official state bread. The veto wasn’t about bread, though—it was about revenge. The governor’s veto message dripped with frustration as she lashed out at the Legislature, blaming Democratic leadership in both chambers for failing to move forward with her policy priorities. Instead of working collaboratively or responsibly, the governor torched legislation ranging from cultural designations to tax relief and public safety funding—effectively using her veto...

New Mexico lawmakers filed nearly 1,200 bills during the 60-day legislative session that ended Saturday at noon. A total of 194 of those bills ultimately passed both legislative chambers. Some have already been signed or vetoed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, but most will have their fates decided by the April 11 bill signing deadline. Here's a look at what bills passed — and which fell short — at the Roundhouse. Measures marked with an asterisk (*) are already signed into law. Crime/Public safety Passed — Allow judges to impose longer prison sentences for fentanyl trafficking.* Change how courts handle...

The Minnesota House seat that gummed up the Legislature’s start simply by sitting empty gets filled a week from Tuesday in a special election that carries high stakes for where the session goes from here. On the ballot are DFLer David Gottfried and Republican Paul Wikstrom. But voters in House District 40B, which includes parts of Roseville and Shoreview, will be deciding far more in balloting that closes on March 11. The result will determine whether Republicans hang on to control of the House and gain a 68th vote, which is the threshold to pass bills. Or it could leave...

New York -- When a suspicious video of ballots being ripped up in Pennsylvania gained attention on social media last October, federal agencies responded quickly and called it out as Russian disinformation. On Election Day in November, bomb threats to polling places in numerous states caused relatively few disruptions to voting. It’s one of the many scenarios covered by the nation’s cybersecurity agency in its outreach to state and local officials.The Trump administration’s downsizing and disbanding of federal agencies has hit efforts that improve election security and monitor foreign influence. That could create gaps for America’s enemies to exploit the...

Governor Gavin Newsom is heading to the White House on Wednesday to ask President Donald Trump for federal money to address California’s wildfires, after state legislators passed $50 million to fund anti-Trump measures. Newsom himself agreed to the $50 million deal in mid-January, with fires still burning in the Los Angeles area, after complaining that Trump wanted to “politicize” the fires by talking about the state’s failed water policies and forestry. The spending came out of a special legislative session called by Newsom himself. The State Assembly passed the anti-Trump funding right away, and while the State Senate balked at...

The Minnesota legislature just flipped to Republican control after a DFL party member, which is the state's Democratic Party, was found ineligible. A Ramsey County District Court judge ruled that Curtis Johnson held his primary residence in another legislative district and not in House District 40B. That gives Republicans a one-seat majority for the time being, taking power from Democrats for the first time since the 2017-2018 legislature. A Ramsey County District Court judge ruled Friday that DFL candidate Curtis Johnson did not meet residency requirements to run for Minnesota House District 40B, declaring him ineligible to take the oath...

Gov. Greg Abbott has now made it explicitly clear he wants the next House speaker to have been chosen by members of the Texas House Republican Caucus. Sydnie Henry reports the governor was forced yesterday to issue two statements related to the rump candidacy of Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock). Burrows has been seeking support from Democrats and a small faction of Republicans to secure the gavel in January after losing the House Republican caucus nomination vote last Saturday to State Rep. David Cook (R–Mansfield). Notably, of the Republicans who opposed Abbott’s school choice push in the 2023 regular and special sessions,...

Florida, which has grown increasingly red and seen plenty of red waves over recent years, already enjoys trifecta control in the state government. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis will have one more fellow Republican, though, with state Rep. Susan Valdes switching her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. Her district includes West Tampa, with such a party change being effective immediately. Early on in her statement, Valdes explained that it was "partly out of habit" that she was a Democrat. "I have done so as a Democrat partly out of habit -- I come from a family of Democrats -- and...

Republican state legislators in North Carolina are moving quickly to pass measures to restrict Democrat power over elections after likely losing its veto-proof majority in the state House. While Republicans will maintain control of both the House and Senate in North Carolina, if election results remain where they are, the party is one seat shy of its veto-proof majority in the House. Additionally, Gov.-elect Josh Stein looks poised to be able to exercise more authority than his Democrat predecessor, Gov. Roy Cooper. Both chambers passed a bill that would weaken the governor’s ability to oversee elections, in particular transferring the...

As Alabama's leaders lament the ongoing influx of migrants entering the state, one organization that facilitates resettling refugees in Alabama claims to currently partner with the state legislature and has former House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, now the Madison County Commission chairman, and Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle on its board. Much has been made in recent months, both in Alabama and nationwide, of the proliferation of immigrants flooding into smaller towns and communities. After several reports of specifically Haitian migrants arriving in towns like Athens and Sylacauga, Gov. Kay Ivey and lawmakers began speaking out against the influx, blaming the Biden...

The Republican Party in Guam flipped the legislature for the first time in nearly 16 years, according to exit polls and unofficial election results. In a post on Facebook, KUAM News posted an exit poll from the University of Guam in which “300 votes were collected from students.” The exit poll from the university found that out of 300 responses, the race to represent Guam’s At-Large Congressional District between Republican Del. James Moyan and Democratic candidate Ginger Cruz was essentially tied “right down the middle,” with a “difference” of three voters “between the two.”

While Congress stagnates, America’s state houses are drafting and passing policies affecting millions. Now, more than ever, those legislative bodies operate without input from an opposition party or dissenting governor.Illustration by The Epoch Times, ShutterstockAs of Oct. 21, there are 23 Republican trifectas, 17 Democratic trifectas, and 10 divided governments where neither party holds trifecta control, according to Ballotpedia. A trifecta means one party holds the state governorship and a majority in the state house and senate.Heading into November’s general election, legislative supermajorities exist in 57 of the 99 legislative chambers in the union, according to data compiled by state...

The House Appropriations Committee chairman was knocked out of his legislative seat Tuesday in a Republican runoff that saw more than $1 million in campaign contributions. Challenger Gene Shaw defeated five-time incumbent Kevin Wallace, winning 54% of the vote in the House District 32 election. Most of the $1 million raised for the runoff election in House District 32 went to Wallace, the House Appropriations and Budget Committee chairman from Wellston. The $780,000 Wallace raised came from other House Republicans plus three senators and the Senate Republicans PAC, as well as Attorney General Gentner Drummond, former Attorney General Mike Hunter...

The Wyoming Legislature will look distinctly different when it convenes for its 68th session in January. In Tuesday night’s Republican primary, longtime legislators went down left and right. Most notable was House Speaker Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, who lost his bid for Senate District 14 to Kemmerer resident Laura Taliaferro Pearson by 156 votes. Sommers had served in the Legislature since 2013. The main beneficiary of the upheaval: The Wyoming Freedom Caucus, a conservative movement that has positioned itself farther right of more mainstream conservatives, including many incumbents its members have deemed to be part of the “establishment.” All together, Cowboy...

The California legislature proposed a bill requiring gun owners to pay an annual tax and register each gun they own. The bill, SB 1160, was introduced by Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – Burbank) and would require the Department of Justice to register all firearms in the state annually.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Most of the newly ordered maps redrawing Wisconsin’s political boundaries for the state Legislature would keep Republicans in majority control, but their dominance would be reduced, according to an independent analysis of the plans. Seven sets of new state Senate and Assembly maps were submitted on Friday, the deadline given by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to propose new maps after it ruled three weeks ago that the current ones drawn by Republicans were unconstitutional. The ruling stands to shake up battleground Wisconsin’s political landscape in a presidential election year.

Gun control wasn’t the only issue that led to the Republican minority walking out and denying Democrats a quorum for six weeks, but it was one of the key sticking points for those lawmakers who deployed the last-ditch tactic this session. Now the walkout is over, an agreement between the GOP and Democratic leadership is in place, and most of the anti-gun measures that Democrats had prioritized are off the table. "In a major boon for Republicans, Democrats agreed to significant concessions, including key changes to controversial reproductive health care and gun control bills in order to convince the conservative...

In secret audio obtained by The Tennessee Star, radical leftists who plan to “protest” the upcoming August special session of the General Assembly say they have armed security at the ready. “Also, like there are groups in Nashville who do this – keep in mind – who like, if at any point you need armed security at a protest, there are people who we trust as a community to show up and do that,” said an organizer of the Saturday meeting. The Star obtained the audio from an inside source who attended the meeting, and will be releasing it in...

I’m not quite sure whether the bill is totally dead or not, because nothing is until the legislature adjourns. We do know that the GOP managed to get the language normalizing pedophilia stripped out of the bill in a vote yesterday.Whether the language comes back or not, it is clear is that the pressure is on and the Chief Author of the bill is feeling the heat and the Republicans in the Minnesota House, who apparently hadn’t noted the change to the definition of “sexual orientation” to remove the exclusion for pedophilia, have grown a backbone.First a reminder of what...

Tennessee Republicans have shown that fighting back against the left is not simply a matter of will. Sometimes, tough action matters less than savvy maneuvers. Last week, the Tennessee state House expelled two Democrats for disrupting a legislative session. The move was meant to quell protests that have turned the state capitol into a circus following the Covenant School shooting. But the expulsions had the opposite effect, encouraging more aggressive protests and turning the expelled representatives into international darlings. Republicans even failed to remove the white lawmaker who helped the protests, giving the Left a “southern racist” angle to spin....