Free Republic

***The fight for Senate control appears more clear-cut. With former Democrat, now-independent, Sen. Joe Manchin retiring from his West Virginia seat, Democrats have virtually ceded the seat to Republicans. That GOP pick-up would take Democrats’ current 51-49 majority down to an even 50-50 split.Democrats could retain control of the Senate by the narrowest of margins if they maintain control of the vice presidency. That brings with it potential complications for their congressional majorities if Joe Biden remains president and suffers (further) health issues, but put that aside for the time being.To ensure themselves a majority not contingent upon the outcome...

The ruling requires the administration to keep processing new applications to export LNG as the Texas-led lawsuit proceeds. Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained a temporary injunction in his lawsuit against the Biden administration over their decision to halt liquefied natural gas exports. Joined by 15 other state attorneys general, Paxton secured the win Monday after a federal district court judge in Western Louisiana ruled that the new administrative plan should be paused as the case proceeds. “This ruling means [President Joe] Biden’s illegal ban does not prevent Texas natural gas from reaching market while the lawsuit continues,” stated Paxton in...

Schumer-linked PAC latest instance of Democrats relying on dark money while claiming to oppose it.. A new dark money group that has been blanketing swing state airwaves with ads supporting vulnerable Democratic senators has taken steps to conceal its ties to Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s (D., N.Y.) super PAC, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of tax records. The 501(c)4 nonprofit group, Duty and Honor, has invested heavily in swing states this election cycle on ads casting vulnerable Democratic senators as bipartisan champions of border security. The group invested $2.4 million in Ohio in May on an ad...

S.A. McCarthy @pipesmoknpapist S.A. McCarthy is a news writer at The Washington Stand. A Montana judge is striking down a state law defining “sex” as either male or female, claiming that the law violates the Montana State Constitution. In an order issued on Tuesday, Montana District Court Judge Shane Vannatta, the first Montana judge to openly identify as homosexual, declared Senate Bill 458 to be facially unconstitutional according to Montana state law. The legislation, passed by the Legislature in 2023 and signed into law by Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, revised state law to declare: In human beings, there are...

Montana GOP Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy is getting some help in his effort to oust incumbent Sen. Jon Tester. Politico reports that More Jobs, Less Government, a super PAC aligned with Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), is launching a $4 million ad campaign this week that will run for about a month before incorporating a radio component July 10. Tester, who is seeking his third six-year term in the upper chamber, has a challenge ahead of him in a state former President Trump won handily in 2016 and 2020. The strategy behind the ad campaign: Nationalize the race, and tie Tester...

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is being mocked for owning a Prius as far-left electric vehicle policies become prominent issues in key Senate races. The Washington Post pointed out Tester’s ownership of a Toyota Prius in an article published Monday that highlighted that vulnerable Democrats are working to scramble away from President Joe Biden’s radical electric vehicle policies. “According to Tester’s memoir, published in 2020, he bought a used Prius to drive while in Washington, D.C.,” the Post notes.

Montana’s office of governor, lieutenant governor, and the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Senator Jon Tester are up for election in 2024. Montana is considered a Republican stronghold. The Republican primary for governor totaled 78,667 votes. The Democrat primary for governor totaled 54,402 votes. Democratic Party Senator Tester has become an anomaly among statewide elected positions in Montana.Republican Governor Greg Gianforte is popular. He is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment in his words and actions and is almost certainly going to win.Ryan Busse, the Democratic candidate for governor, was an executive at Kimber. He wrote a book...

There will be changes in the Montana Legislature’s Republican caucus next year, as six incumbent lawmakers lost in this week’s primary elections. In total, there were 59 legislative primaries with multiple candidates: 44 on the Republican side and 15 on the Democratic side. Five sitting representatives and one senator, all Republicans, lost their bids for another nomination. Several more House members were defeated while campaigning to move up to the Senate.

The Montana Libertarian Party announced on Tuesday that it has officially rejected Libertarian nominee Chase Oliver, urging other affiliates to do the same and calling for the national party leadership to suspend and replace him as the nominee. In a statement made over social media on Tuesday, the Montana Libertarian Party stated that it does not believe the Oliver campaign advances the party’s goals for the state, which it views as its main priority. The statement further called on other state affiliates to follow their lead in rejecting Oliver’s candidacy and urged the Libertarian National Committee to consider suspending and...

In the wake of rising property taxes, food inflation, and outrageous rents, Montana’s 4th largest county, Flathead County, could be facing a lawsuit in excess of $200 Million dollars because of an error by the Flathead County Clerk & Recorders Office, headed by Debbie Pierson. ... The property in question is a 500+ acre tract of land in Somers, MT and was once wholly owned by Thorco, Inc., who has been trying to re-acquire the property for over 10 years. After several protracted court battles, settlement hearings, and even a hearing in front of the Montana Banking Oversight Committee, Thorco...

A political action committee with a mix of national and state money has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on mailers intended to sway voters in a series of bitterly contested Republican legislative primary elections that reveal the fissures in Montana’s dominant political party. As of this week, the PAC, Conservatives4MT, has spent roughly $240,000 in more than two dozen contested GOP primary races for state House and Senate. The primary election is next Tuesday, June 4. The group is at least tangentially affiliated with the group of state lawmakers called the Solutions Caucus, a loose coalition of Republicans known...

Montana‘s Jon Tester is running for his fourth term in the U.S. Senate and he’s found himself an interesting political target: his own political record. On key issues from illegal immigration to hunting, Tester is openly campaigning against the political positions he took as a lawmaker. The longtime senator has attempted to distance himself from his own record as he likely faces his most difficult campaign yet. Tester has never been up for reelection with former President Donald Trump, who won Montana by double-digits in both 2016 and 2020, on the other side at the top of the ticket. Montana...

"That Montana meat cutter became I guess the number one recipient of lobbyists dollars in all of Washington." Donald Trump Jr. endorses Tim Sheehy for Montana senator, says Jon Tester godson claimed he 'sold out' to the Washington swamp. At a recent Republican rally in Missoula, Montana, Donald Trump Jr. revealed that Democratic Senator Jon Tester’s godson admitted to him that Tester sold out to the swamp and supports Republican nominee Tim Sheehy for the senate seat. Speaking before a crowd of over 300 attendees, Trump Jr. expressed support for Republican nominee Tim Sheehy in the Montana Senate race, painting...

A new poll this week shows Republican challenger Tim Sheehy leading incumbent Democratic senator Jon Tester in Montana’s Senate race. Sheehy is leading Tester 48 percent to 45 percent, with 7 percent of polled Montana voters still undecided, according to the poll released on Monday by J.L. Partners. Montana is poised to have one of the most closely watched Senate races this fall as Republicans and Democrats ramp up their fight for control of the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority. While the poll shows the Democratic incumbent enjoys greater popularity among women, younger voters, and independents, Sheehy,...

Left-wing activists in Montana have officially launched their signature collection effort to enshrine abortion into the state constitution. “On Tuesday, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights announced that it has officially launched its signature drive to get the required 60,000 signatures from Montanans by June 21 to qualify the measure on the ballot,” The Hill reported. The constitutional initiative, called CI-128, would “expressly provide a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion. It would prohibit the government from denying or burdening the right to abortion before fetal viability.”

The Senate Majority PAC and an affiliated nonprofit have injected themselves into Ohio and Montana Republican primaries this cycle... Groups aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have meddled in several Republican primaries this election cycle, a tactic that has been underway a number of years. The Senate Majority PAC (SMP), which works to elect and keep Democrats in Congress' upper chamber, has targeted Republican primaries in at least two states for the 2024 elections. SMP tends to maneuver using other groups to conceal its involvement until after the primaries. It mainly targets swing states by boosting candidates supported by...

Victor Davis Hanson interviews the former Navy SEAL and conservative congressman about his life, private business, and campaign to become Montana's next senator.

Republicans are gearing up for what could be an epic showdown for majority control of the Senate with several contentious elections around the country later this year. Democrats control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are looking at a favorable Senate map in 2024, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. Three of those seats are in red states former Donald Trump carried in 2020 - West Virginia, Montana and Ohio. Five other seats, one of which is held by an independent, are in key swing states narrowly carried by President Biden in...

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana abruptly dropped his reelection bid on Friday — the second time in the past month that the hardline conservative lawmaker has entered and then quickly dropped out of a congressional race. Rosendale cited defamatory rumors and a death threat against him that prompted the lawmaker to call law enforcement to check on his children as reasons for retiring at the end of his term in January 2025.

In the ongoing Gun Free School Zone Act (GFSZ) case in Billings, Montana, the trial date is currently set for March 25, 2024. The process is a long and difficult one for Gabriel Metcalf and his mother, Vivian. Because this is a criminal, not a civil, case. Gabriel’s freedom is at risk. The current judge, Federal District Judge Susan P. Watters, has ruled the GFSZ to be constitutional, and the Montana Establishment of Individual Licensure law is insufficient to be an exception to the GFSZ. Going through the process of a challenge to the constitutionality of a criminal charge is...