Free Republic

The massive spending deal, negotiated by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and agreed to by the president, looks poised to kill off the Budget Control Act of 2011—the law that was meant to restrain federal spending. With that law on the way out, the question arises: Where can fiscal conservatives turn to exert real and lasting fiscal discipline? Thankfully, two members of Congress have introduced a bill to do just that. The Maximizing America’s Prosperity Act—or MAP Act—is a bill proposed by Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., that would limit federal spending...

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Mike Braun (R-IN) are still trying to address the fentanyl and heroin overdose crisis—soon to be joined by a methamphetamine and cocaine overdose crisis—by denying chronic pain patients access to pain relief. They have just introduced a bill they call The FDA Opioid Labeling Accuracy Act, which would “prohibit the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from allowing opioids to be labeled for intended use of ‘around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment’ until a study can be completed on the long-term use of opioids.” Set aside the fact that most pain specialists agree that, in some cases, long-term...

Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) introduced a bill Monday aiming to tackle the problem of teacher debt. The bill, the Consider Teachers Act of 2019, amends the TEACH grant program to resolve problems where some of those grants were inadvertently converted into loans that must be paid back with interest. "The TEACH grant is an important program to incentivize teachers to serve in neglected communities, but 12 years of poor government management has turned these grants into groans for thousands of teachers," Braun said in a statement."To show our appreciation for America's great teachers, let's get off...

The U.S. Senate confirmed Fort Wayne attorney Holly A. Brady as a federal judge for the Northern District of Indiana on Wednesday afternoon, a year to the day after she was nominated by President Donald Trump.The Senate voted 56-42 in favor of confirming Brady. Three Democratic senators – Doug Jones of Alabama, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona – joined majority Republicans to approve her appointment.Brady fills a vacancy left by the senior status of Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen and the pending transfer of Northern Indiana District Chief Judge Theresa Springmann from the U.S. District Court's...

The struggle between Trump and the woefully large number of pre-Trump Republicans in the Senate is not really about the true constitutional separation of powers. McConnell and crew are not standing up for the rightful power of the legislative branch as the Framers intended; they are shilling for the Iron Triangle. Freshmen senators seem to find out early how to win the good graces of the liberal media and the permanent bureaucracy. Barely four weeks into their tenure, every new GOP senator—Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Kevin Cramer (N.D.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Martha McSally (Ariz.), Rick Scott (Fla.), and...

Indiana Democrat Joe Donnelly lost his Senate seat on Tuesday in a hard-fought race against Republican businessman Mike Braun. Donnelly, who took the seat in 2012, lost the first Democratic Senate seat of the midterm election in a state President Trump won by 19 points in 2016. Braun cast himself as an outsider and a staunch supporter of Trump, while claiming Donnelly was out of line with Indiana values by supporting abortion rights and other issues.

In 2016, the only battleground state Senate Republican to falter in a re-election bid was New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte.  She fell by the slimmest of margins -- losing by roughly 1,000 votes (0.2 percentage points) statewide.  Conservative third party candidate Aaron Day ended up receiving more than 17,000 votes in the contest, tipping it to Democrat Maggie Hassan, who was also helped by a Libertarian candidate pulling in more than 12,000 ballots.  The little-known Day's candidacy benefited from anonymous mailers sent to Republican voters designed to attack Ayotte "from the right."  The liberal outfit behind the ads peddled their mischief...

Time are EST You could be in for a long wait to know the results of the midterm elections and which party ends up controlling the House and Senate. But polling places close earlier in some states than others — and they could provide a hint of things to come as the night progresses. 6 p.m. Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District: President Trump won this district near Lexington by 15 points. Democrats are fielding retired Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath against three-term incumbent Andy Barr. The race is rated as a toss-up. A Democratic victory could be an early sign of...

Republican candidate Mike Braun leads incumbent Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly heading into the November midterm election for the Indiana U.S. Senate seat, according to the latest polling. Braun is ahead of Donnelly by three points, at 46 percent to 43 percent, according to the CBS News Battleground Tracker. The polling was conducted by YouGov from October 23-26. Eight percent are still not sure. President Trump looms large in the race: 42 percent said they were voting in the Senate race in support of Trump, while 33 percent said they were voting in opposition to Trump. Twenty-five percent said it was...

INDIANAPOLIS (WFFT) - A new statewide poll shows Republican Mike Braun is the favorite for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat, but the race is still too close to call. The IndyPolitics.org - Mason Strategies poll released Tuesday shows Braun leading Senator Joe Donnelly 47 to 43 percent. Libertarian Lucy Brenton had three percent of the vote and seven percent were undecided. Experts say this race is still a virtual tie, especially with the number of voters who still haven't made up their mind. Monday, the Downs Center for Indiana Politics shows Donnelly with a slight lead.

Good news, but four points happen to be the margin of error of this poll. That means the race is effectively tied, which would be in line with other recent polls showing the incumbent, Donnelly, with a lead of 2-4 points or less.As for the Kavanaugh effect, eh. There *is* evidence in this particular case to support it but there’s a bunch of evidence cutting the other way right now nationally. The poll, conducted by Mason Strategies with a margin of 3.9 percent, showed Braun leading Donnelly 47-43, Libertarian Lucy Brenton had three percent of the vote and seven...

Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly leads Republican challenger Mike Braun by a single percentage point in polling results released Monday by the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Purdue University Fort Wayne. Donnelly is favored by 41 percent of likely voters, Braun by 40 percent and Libertarian Lucy Brenton by 8 percent, with 11 percent of respondents undecided. The poll of 816 likely voters was conducted Oct. 12 through 16 by SurveyUSA and has a 4.6 percent credibility interval, akin to margin of sampling error. "Whether Brenton is pulling more voters from one candidate than the other and who...

Hoosier businessman and Senate Republican candidate Mike Braun has surged in the Indiana Senate race only two weeks before the November election, according to a poll released on Monday. Sen. Joe Donnelly’s popularity has continued to plummet ever since he decided to vote against Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. Since the Senate confirmation vote, the incumbent Democrat’s favorability and his polling has bottomed out. According to a recent poll conducted by the Braun campaign from October 14-17, Braun leads Donnelly by 44 to 40 percent, with seven percent backing Lucy Brenton, and five percent of voters remain undecided....

If there is a silver lining in the tragic farce wrought on the nation by the Democratic Party in the Judge Brett Kavanaugh nomination hearings it is this: Regular Americans are recoiling at the shocking spectacle and Democrat support is plummeting. Every new poll coming out is uniformly showing middle Americans fleeing from the Democrats while a once-mildly apathetic Republican Party has been ginned up to energetic levels equal to the Democratic base. Further trouble for the much-hyped blue wave is that black voters are trending against Democrats, participating in the #walkaway movement and viewing the Kavanaugh moment very differently...

A new round of Fox News battleground polls shows a Republican trend in the fight for the U.S. Senate. The GOP candidates are helped by increased interest in the election among Republicans and pro-Donald Trump sentiment. Arizona Kyrsten Sinema: 47% Martha McSally: 45% Indiana Joe Donnelly: 43% Mike Braun: 41% Missouri Claire McCaskill: 43% Josh Hawley: 43% North Dakota Kevin Cramer: 53% Heidi Heitkamp: 41% Tennessee Marsha Blackburn: 48% Phil Bredesen: 43%

Hoosier businessman Mike Braun leads Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) in a poll released on Wednesday. A Fox News poll released on Wednesday found that Braun leads over Donnelly–45 to 43 percent—while Libertarian candidate Lucy Brenton has three percent support and eight percent of Indianans remain undecided. The margin of error for the survey is 3.5 percent, making the race a dead heat between Braun and the incumbent senator, especially considering that one-third of Hoosier voters are saying they could change their minds before the November midterm election. The Fox News survey found that 54 percent of Hoosiers approve of President...

President Trump on Thursday night heaped praise on newly minted Indiana GOP Senate nominee Mike Braun while escalating attacks on his opponent, incumbent Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.). During a campaign rally in Elkhart, Ind., Trump lauded Braun as an effective businessman and someone who will be a loyal backer of the president’s agenda while characterizing Donnelly as simply awaiting marching orders from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). “This November Indiana will face an important choice: you can send a really incredible swamp person back to the Senate like Joe Donnelly, or you can send us a Republican like Mike...

SNIP Tuesday night’s primary election results in Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia provided a major lift to the GOP’s likelihood of maintaining the Senate. In Indiana, Mike Braun, a pro-Trump businessman, capitalized on his grassroots support to defeat two sitting U.S congressmen in order to challenge Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) in the fall. Congressman James Renacci (R) won his primary in Ohio in decisive fashion in order to take on Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). And perhaps most importantly, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey pulled off a major upset in a three-way race, defeating the ever-controversial Don Blankenship, guaranteeing a...

Candidates in Indiana’s raucous Republican U.S. Senate primary are set to participate in their first debate. U.S. Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita, as well as former state Rep. Mike Braun, will be at the Tuesday evening event in downtown Indianapolis. The debate is being sponsored by the Indiana chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a national political operation funded by billionaire industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch. It will be moderated by conservative WIBC radio commentator Tony Katz.

An engineer at a nuclear power plant near Sacramento has been charged with sending threatening letters containing a powdery substance to the same Sierra foothills country club where President Bush will appear Tuesday for a Republican campaign event. Michael Lee Braun, 51, appeared Monday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on two federal charges of sending threats through the mail. The FBI said he also is a suspect in mailing dozens of similar threats since shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The charges relate to two letters prosecutors said Braun mailed on Thursday to the Serrano Country Club and Serrano...