Free Republic

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....

A North Carolina state Democratic House member switched parties Wednesday morning giving the GOP supermajority. While state Republicans had been holding out hope that Representative Tricia Cotham, who up until Wednesday morning was a registered Democrat, would switch parties that hope became a realistic idea last week. Now Republicans in the state legislation hold power despite opposition from NC Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. WHAT HAPPENED? State Representative Tricia Cotham, a previous Democrat from Charlotte, made the formal announcement she was switching parties Wednesday morning. This announcement gave Republicans, who were short of the majority by only one seat, the supermajority....

My wife works at the Minnesota state legislature, and the other day she was describing the scene as the Minnesota State Senate passed a bill that would grant illegal immigrants the right to get driver’s licenses.The concept itself has pros and cons–mainly having to do with ensuring that illegal immigrants be forced to carry insurance if and when they are on the road. I dislike the idea itself but understand how others might make a policy argument for it.What I cannot understand is the fact that illegal immigrants have been testifying before our legislature, threatening to vote legislators out of...

Gov. Josh Shapiro Thursday boldly called on legislators to abolish Pennsylvania’s costly, ineffective and immoral death penalty. In urging legislators to act, an unprecedented move, Mr. Shapiro showed some sorely needed leadership from the governor’s office. Unless Mr. Shapiro engages the legislature, the death-penalty statute will endure. He needs to take the lead in persuading the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate to approve bills that would repeal it. Former Gov. Tom Wolf refused to do that. In making his statement a month after his inauguration, Mr. Shapiro signaled that getting state government out of the business of killing people will...

From the hardscrabble hills of western Pennsylvania to the hardknock blocks of Northeast Philadelphia, children are getting inferior educations in underfunded school districts with low property values and incomes. Crowded classrooms in the state’s 100 most poorly funded districts deny children, who may enter kindergarten a year behind their more affluent peers, the attention they need. Those districts, including South Allegheny, East Allegheny, New Castle, Sharon and Philadelphia, educate one-third of the state’s 1.5 million students, two-thirds of its Black students, and nearly 60% of its poor students. Leaky roofs, obsolete and unsafe buildings, and broken laptops plague many of...

On November 8, 2022, in Utah’s State Representative race, 29th district, the Constitution Party nominee, Kirk Pearson, outpolled his Democratic opponent. The Republican nominee won with 10,832 votes, followed by Pearson with 2,254, and then the Democratic nominee with 2,131.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota convenes its most diverse Legislature to-date in January, with some of its newest members saying they plan to use their history-making elections to pass policies to protect the minority communities they represent. Solidifying transgender rights, banning “conversion therapy,” safeguarding abortion access and legalizing marijuana are among the goals shared by some of the newly elected lawmakers and seasoned legislators who have been working for years on issues important to underrepresented communities. Now, they feel there is momentum to push the issues forward. “It’s really going to change the dynamics of what people expect lawmakers...

Redrawing districts has played a part in the recent midterm elections, and questions as to how districts may be redrawn as well as other issues are about to begin to define the individual state’s rights when it comes to federal elections. Some districts across the country have grown and need to be realigned, but gerrymandering, or manipulating the boundaries of a constituency so as to favor one party, is a concern. Last week saw the debate in court, as North Carolina’s closely-watched election is underway before the U.S. Supreme Court. North Carolina legislative leaders are appealing a ruling from the...

For several weeks, President Pedro Castillo of Peru has been at war with the Legislature, and they finally had enough of the leftist's ways. So they took action today:>Peru's Congress voted to oust President Pedro Castillo in an impeachment trial on Wednesday, hours after he plunged the country into a constitutional crisis by attempting to dissolve the legislature by decree.Ignoring Castillo's attempt to shut down Congress, lawmakers moved ahead with the previously planned impeachment trial, with 101 votes in favor of removing him, six against and 10 abstentions. The result was announced with loud cheers and the legislature called Vice...