Free Republic

Throughout the autumn, as Election Day approached, many of us found ourselves asking the question: But what happens if we win? Every political campaign – of either party, of any ideology – focuses on the full range of issues. Tax cuts vs. tax hikes. Overspending vs. responsibility. Hedonism vs. ethics. A strong defense vs. a projection of weakness. But after the election, we have to come down to earth, and acknowledge that no one person – no single individual – can make the entire government do a 180. When one side wins both the presidency and majorities in both houses...

Democrats have cause for concern that they’re fading at a bad time ahead of the midterm elections after a summer surge fostered optimism that the party could buck historical trends and retain control of Congress. A New York Times-Siena College poll released Monday found Republicans held a 49-45 lead over Democrats in the generic ballot roughly one month before November’s elections. That represents a shift from September, when the same poll found Democrats leading Republicans by 1 percentage point. That poll followed a trend among other surveys that as recently as late September showed Democrats leading Republicans on the generic...

Conservative pundit and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro blamed former President Donald Trump for Republicans losing momentum ahead of the midterms. …. In a Twitter thread on Tuesday, Shapiro blasted Republicans who put the focus on Trump despite his unpopularity with independents, who are a crucial electoral demographic. Shapiro said that the problem for Republicans is not just the Supreme Court overturning the landmark abortion decision Roe v. Wade. ….. [Little Ben] : “ This means that when Trump is attacked, Republicans immediately return to making him the centerpiece of the conversation – and this harms them electorally, as every...

For much of the midterm campaign, Democrats have grappled with how to define their message, weighing slogans like “Democrats deliver” and “Build back better,” and issuing warnings against “ultra-MAGA” Republicans. Now, a coalition of progressive organizations has settled on what its leaders hope will be a unified pitch from the left. This November, they plan to argue, Americans must vote to protect the fundamental freedoms that “Trump Republicans” are trying to take away. ... The move is the latest evidence that Democrats....are increasingly seeking to reclaim language about freedom and personal liberty from Republicans. It is a dynamic that grew...

After clearing California's primary election alongside Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Sen. Brian Dahle is now the latest Republican being sent to the figurative sacrificial alter — a statewide general election contest in deep-blue California against a Democratic incumbent. Unofficial primary results show that Newsom and Dahle earned more votes than any of the other 24 candidates for governor in Tuesday’s election, which means they’ll compete head-to-head in November. As of 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Newsom had 61% of the vote, while Dahle had 15%. Tuesday’s results mean Newsom is all-but-assured to win re-election in November. It's true that 2022 is...

Dinesh D'Souza's election fraud documentary "2000 Mules" is drawing rave reviews across the political spectrum from those who saw it, according to a Rasmussen Reports phone and web survey of 1,000 likely voters. Dinesh D'Souza's election fraud documentary "2000 Mules" is drawing rave reviews across the political spectrum from those who saw it, according to a Rasmussen Reports phone and web survey of 1,000 likely voters. While only 15% of survey participants have seen the film about the 2020 election, which claims hundreds of "mules" stuffed ballot boxes at odd hours of the day in critical swing states, Democrats (73%)...

Republicans have an eight-point lead in their bid to recapture control of Congress, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports poll. The latest telephone and online survey reveals that if the elections for Congress were held today, 48% of likely U.S. voters would vote for the Republican candidate, while 40% would vote for the Democrat. Just 4% would vote for some other candidate, and 8% are not sure. Republicans have gained two points in just one week, the poll shows. The average for various polls conducted last week, shown below, put the two parties closer, 45.8% to 43.7%, but still give...

Analysts from the Cook Political Report, who predict the probable outcome for U.S. House of Representatives races, released its newest round of predictions on Thursday, moving ten districts heavily in favor of the Republican incumbent or candidate versus the Democrat. This week, Cook shifted 12 race predictions in total — ten races in favor of Republicans and two races in favor of Democrats — while there are now 35 seats overall across the county that are considered to be “toss-up” or worse for the incumbent.

FANNETTSBURG, Pennsylvania -- The first time I accidentally stumbled onto the cracked Back Road street sign in this Franklin County unincorporated town years ago, while covering the 2012 presidential race between then-President Barack Obama and Sen. Mitt Romney, I knew I had to turn onto it even though I had no idea where it led. It was impulsive but proved helpful in taking my reporting in a different direction, to understand what voters were thinking. It helped me understand, with all of the potential of flipping this state red, why voters were using their energy and dissatisfaction with Obama to...

You gotta hand it to conservatives – we get abused and dumped and generally treated like dishrags, but we never stop falling for the latest politician who is going to sweep us off our feet and make sweet, sweet political love to us. Yet maybe, instead of acting on our infatuations, we should be players instead of getting played. Maybe we should banish the starry-eyed romanticism, stop scratching "Cons + Pol" surrounded by little hearts in our Pee-Chee folders and start, as noted political theorist Sir Mix-A-Lot observed in his renowned treatise "Baby Got Back," to "hit it and quit...

Kansas has paid a heavy price since losing the Governor’s Mansion in 2018. But, with conservative leadership that knows how to fight and win, we’ve begun to take back our state. I’m a lifelong Kansan, a wife, a proud mom of four kids, a conservative attorney, and a citizen legislator. Prior to 2018, I’d never run for office — but I decided to step up because our Kansas House representative was a liberal incumbent who claimed to be a “Republican,” and it needed to change. After I dropped my kids off at school, I knocked on every door in the...

It is amazing to watch Democrats in complete and utter denial that they are going to lose the House, and likely the Senate, in the upcoming midterm election. It appears that some have convinced themselves that they still have a chance to save their majority this fall if they just double down on Wokeness. It is amazing and fun to watch. One thing that Democrats, and Republicans for that matter, can’t avoid is history. The history of midterms dictates that the party in power loses seats in the first midterm election of a new president. The American Presidency Project compiled...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is signaling an election-year shift to the center, embracing a strategy he hopes will protect fragile Democratic majorities in Congress. But he’s risking a revolt from key voices across his party’s sprawling coalition. In his first State of the Union address Tuesday night, the Democratic president embraced Republican calls to strengthen the nation’s southern border and barely mentioned climate change. He glossed over concerns about voting rights and spent little time heralding his historic decision to nominate the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. On domestic issues, he was perhaps most...

It's primary day in Texas. Voters there will decide who to nominate for governor, attorney general and a host of other offices.

The term "gerrymander" derives from Elbridge Gerry, a Founding Father and vice president who, as governor of Massachusetts, approved an oddly drawn state senate district to benefit his Democratic-Republican Party over the Federalist Party. Both parties do it. Both parties complain when the other party does it to them. Consider recent GOP "gerrymandering" efforts. Former President Barack 0bama accused Republicans of "passing laws designed to prevent American citizens from exercising their right to vote. And drawing congressional maps that drown out the voice of ordinary people." 0bama added: "Rather than argue, based on ideas, they are trying to tilt the...

The weird thing about Utah is that while its patriotic, conservative citizens will elect winners like the ever-amusing Orrin Hatch, they are also suckers for prissy invertebrates like Mitt Romney. And now Evan McMullin, the slightly less-lumpy doppelgänger of Brian Stelter (who is a potato), has taken a break from dodging his creditors from his last Toobin Zoom call of a presidential campaign to enter the Utah Senate race against conservative stalwart Senator Mike Lee. McMuffin has got the full backing of the Lincoln Project types, though it might be a hassle campaigning when his biggest supporters can’t come within...

Former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus is “answering the call to service” running in Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District. The Trump-backed candidate announced her bid to represent Middle Tennessee, including parts of Nashville, during a recent appearance on Fox & Friends. Republicans see an opening to flip the seat after incumbent Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN) declared he won’t seek a sixth term. Under proposed redistricting plans, the seat reportedly becomes a R+15 district. "As a U.S. Navy Reserve Officer, I am answering the call to service, and I will never back down from fighting for my country and the good people...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court’s decision to halt efforts to create a second mostly Black congressional district in Alabama for the 2022 election sparked fresh warnings Tuesday that the court is becoming too politicized, eroding the Voting Rights Act and reviving the need for Congress to intervene. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority put on hold a lower court ruling that Alabama must draw new congressional districts to increase Black voting power. Civil rights groups had argued that the state, with its “sordid record” of racial discrimination, drew new maps by “packing” Black voters into one single district and “cracking”...

Former Nevada Attorney Adam Laxalt is vying to be the 51st Republican Senator should he flip the U.S. Senate seat this November. If Laxalt clinches the Republican nomination, he’ll face incumbent Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), a vulnerable Democrat, in the general election. As of this writing, Cook Political Report rates the Nevada Senate race as a “Toss-Up.” The odds are greatly in his favor given the endorsements he’s raked in and his campaign’s sizable war chest. He has secured endorsements from former President Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), Senator Tom...

This just ANNOYS the heck out of me. Every time I see that the Democrats take power, we see the “Dense Pack” attack happen 2 minutes after all the oaths (not that they seem to mean much lately) are “promised” and the chamber is called into session. Dense Pack can be translated as “we’ve lined up ALL our Agenda items, have written the Bills, and are going to launch them via MALS (the new technology magnetic propelled aircraft launcher on the USS Ford instead of the old steam catapults) in a hurry. It’s happened time after time and REALLY accelerated...