Free Republic

Now that all of the controversial elections, recounts and re-recounts are over, let us review some of our lessons learned. Florida is the Jaguar of vote-counting, and I'm not referring to the animal or the Jacksonville NFL franchise. I mean the car. For decades, part of the "charm" of having a Jaguar was how often it broke down. (That's no longer the case.) It was the kind of conspicuous consumption that economist Thorstein Veblen used to write about, with owners bragging about how much they paid for repairs. The spectacle of sweaty election officials poring over provisional ballots -- 18...

For more than two years, voters have heard Democrats accuse Republicans of trying to undermine confidence in the American democratic system. The charge was thrown about repeatedly in the 2016 presidential election, when Democrats said then-candidate Donald Trump's contention that the election might be "rigged" would undercut faith in the system. Democrats, and many in the media, pressed Trump to promise to accept the election results. (When Trump won, the question was turned around, and Democrats were the ones who had difficulty accepting the voters' decision.) This year, during campaigning for midterm elections, some Democrats again charged that Republicans were...

As reported by Matt Vespa, Georgia Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Stacey Abrams has bowed out of the governors' race, saying it is evident that Republican candidate Brian Kemp will win. But in stark contrast to her support for the integrity of US elections in 2016, Abrams has declared that simply because she acknowledges his victory does not mean she is conceding and in fact, it means that "democracy failed Georgia."According to CNN, Abrams told her supporters and the media that "this is not a speech of concession, because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper. As a woman...

BRUNSWICK, Ga. -- People always learn the wrong lessons from elections. Most people think the election results just prove what they already believed. The smarter people in politics learn something new from the races they win -- and they learn even more from the races they lose. President Trump could learn from 2018 that immigration isn't everything. Yes, he needs to maintain his base, but also he needs to expand his electorate. In short, he has to try to win back suburban men. Everybody is going to write about suburban women. Truthfully, the GOP can lose plenty of suburban...

Democrats had a decent haul on election night but since Election Day the Democrats have had a spectacular run. In the US Senate Democrats picked up two seats since Election Day. ** In Montana Senator Jon Tester — who was behind on election day — had a huge haul overnight and won by 5 points. ** In Arizona Taliban-supporting Marxist Kyrsten Sinema was declared the winner a week after votes were cast after being behind on election night ** In Florida Democrats have discovered a secret stash of 83,000 votes since election day! Senator Bill Nelson is now surprisingly only...

Brenda Snipes, the supervisor of elections in Florida’s Broward County, does not deserve to be within a thousand miles of any election office anywhere in these United States. She should be fired at the earliest possible opportunity. Snipes has held her position since 2003, in which year her predecessor, Miriam Oliphant, was suspended for “grave neglect, mismanagement and incompetence” and, quite literally, marched out of her office. Alas, Snipes has proven no better at fulfilling her duties than was Oliphant. On Friday, a court in Broward County found that Snipes was guilty of violating both Florida’s public-records laws and the...

When will Bill Nelson concede in Florida? The characters running Broward and Palm Beach voting will not be able to “find” enough votes, too much spotlight on them now!

Outsiders think of Arizona as one of the reddest states. From Barry Goldwater to anti-immigration hawks like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, our most famous politicians tend to be Republicans. But traditionally, Arizona is rather purple and regularly features tight statewide elections. In the past 45 years, Democrats have held the governorship as often as the Republicans. But in the last decade, the GOP consolidated their hold on power due to the unprecedented organization of the Tea Party and the Left’s hyperbolic anti-Arizona rhetoric in the wake of the illegal immigration debates. (“Vote for us, you dumb racists!” wasn’t the winning message...

Anyone have stats on the seats that have flipped since Tuesday night? Of the ones that have flipped, which were suspicious? According to the New York times website, the Democrats have now gained 32 seats in the House and 10 seats are still being counted. The Republicans have narrow leads ranging from .4 to 1.4%. What are the odds that some/all of these will go to the Democrats?

As expected, Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives. But the much-anticipated "blue wave" failed to appear. History shows that the first midterm election for the party in the White House usually results in a loss, often a big loss, in that party's House members. President Barack Obama, for example, lost 63 seats in the House and 6 seats in the Senate in the 2010 midterms. In the 21 midterm elections held from 1934 through 2014, the President's party has gained seats in both the Senate and the House only twice: during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's and George W....

3 of the biggest anti-American, far-left blowhards and darlings of the left that ran and was paid and supported by idiot celebritards ALL LOST. I will be happy with 2 of 3, but all 3 went down. Great day for America.

During the last weekend before the 2018 midterms, the media decided an ad by President Trump was "racist" and therefore refused to air it. CNN, NBC, Facebook and even Fox News took that position. The "star" of this commercial is Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican citizen who has repeatedly entered America illegally and who shot two California police deputies dead in 2014. In January, Fox News aired footage of Bracamontes boasting in court: "I don't (expletive) regret that (expletive). The only thing that I (expletive) regret is that I (expletive) killed two. I wish I (expletive) killed more of those...

UPDATE: Fox News provided Townhall the following statement:“FOX News does not condone any talent participating in campaign events. We have an extraordinary team of journalists helming our coverage tonight and we are extremely proud of their work. This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.”  UPDATE: Hannity defends his onstage appearance at the Trump rally. What I said in my tweet yesterday was 100% truthful. When the POTUS invited me on stage to give a few remarks last night, I was surprised, yet honored by the president’s request. This was NOT planned.— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 6, 2018 ORIGINAL...

This is my final column before the midterm election. So, this former Vegas oddsmaker turned national political commentator has a few predictions and common sense observations to make. Back in 2016 I predicted a Trump victory when no one else did. Every poll showed Trump would lose by a wide margin. Nate Silver of the NY Times predicted Hillary’s chances of winning at 92%. These pollsters make their living by polling actual human beings. I don’t. So how did I know? Simple. First, size matters. You could see it in the rallies. Trump would attract eight hour lines and...

Former President Barack Obama has been traveling across the country campaigning on behalf of Democratic candidates. During a campaign rally for Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) in Miami on Friday, Obama became unhinged over conservatives and what we say will happen if Democrats take power."In 2010, they said Bill and I were setting up death panels to kill your grandma. Remember that? In 2014 they said Ebola is going to kill all of us, shut the borders," Obama explained. "In 2016, it was Hillary’s emails. They were all wound up about that. Now, in 2018, they’re telling you the existential threat...

Three days before the election in 2016 every major pollster in the nation predicted Hillary Clinton would be the next President of the United States. Three days before the election in 2016 President Trump was at that time as risky a bet for conservatives & Republicans as he was for working class Democrats. They had all been let down by an establishment system that claimed to put them first but had seldom delivered in the previous number of years. Three days before the election in 2016 nearly every major media pundit believed the never-Trump split in the Republican Party would...

Under normal circumstances, Republicans would be poised to lose Tuesday’s midterm elections by a landslide. History says dozens of seats in the House of Representatives flip in the first midterm of a new presidential administration. But history is a guide, not a rule. And current the circumstances of the country are anything but normal. I’m not talking about President Donald Trump and his Twitter account, though that certainly is outside the usual. I’m talking about what it is the opposition party is offering and the idea that some people, perhaps enough to flip the House, might take it considering...

Democrats have had all of the opportunity in the world to win and win big in this year's midterm election cycle. The conservative populist coalition that placed Donald Trump in the White House two years ago hadn't wavered in their support for the president, but they weren't all exactly fans of Republicans in Congress, whom they saw as part of the Swamp. Trump, they believed, had their back and was just mean enough to be that guy who stood up to Washington for them. At the same time, enthusiasm is sky-high among Democrats, who look extra likely to get...

President Trump, who constantly reminds us of his zest for winning, is about to embark on a campaign blitz.  He will visit eight states and his campaign will spend millions on advertising.  This will begin on Wednesday and last until election day.The result of the Trump campaign blitz will be big wins for the Republicans on election day.  The GOP will maintain a majority in the House of Representatives and increase their majority in the Senate to 56 or 57, but perhaps as high as 60.There are a number of reasons why the Democrats will again perform poorly in...

In an effort to push back on the Democrats’ blue wave plans next month, we’re seeing plenty of Republicans running against the increasingly divisive and destructive trend of political correctness and thought police tactics of liberals. It’s a message that seems to be getting some traction in swing districts, particularly in California and Oregon where voters of all stripes are feeling the impact of feel-good, socialist theories being enshrined in their state’s laws. But one person I didn’t expect to be jumping on the bandwagon was New York Democratic Senator (and Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer. Yet during a panel...