Free Republic

DURHAM, New Hampshire — First Donald Trump’s Republican critics banked on one of his opponents catching a spark in Iowa. Then they said New Hampshire was where they’d make their mark. Eventually, advisers to Trump’s rivals maintained, someone would emerge from the field of lower-polling candidates to get a clear shot at Trump. After the past week, that idea has never looked more out of reach. In Iowa, new polling shows Trump not only maintaining his enormous lead in the first caucus state, but expanding on it — stretching his support to 51 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers. And in...

Just a month after national Republicans appeared to give up on Arizona Republican Blake Masters, the Trump-backed Senate candidate has staged a comeback — and Arizona is in play. National and Arizona Democratic operatives are privately fretting that incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly is endangered, noting a shift by previously undecided voters toward the GOP, aided by a patchwork of new Republican spending to bolster Masters. Recent polling has shown Kelly’s lead shrinking to a few points, much tighter than surveys showed throughout August and September. “There’s a very narrow path to victory for Democrats in Arizona,” said Roy Herrera, a...

Less than a year ago, a GOP Senate victory in deep blue Washington state would have been unthinkable. But now, Democrats are spending millions on advertising in several once-reliable Democratic strongholds, including Washington, as Republicans build national momentum and push for new Senate pickups. There’s a similar panic in Colorado, where Tuesday’s GOP Senate primary has also drawn millions of dollars in Democratic-funded ads to boost a far-right candidate, a massive last-ditch campaign to keep a moderate Republican off the ballot this fall. Washington’s Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, meanwhile, has spent more than $1 million on television ads in recent...

Former Rep. Mark Walker says he is staying in North Carolina’s open Senate race, a decision that rattles the GOP primary in one of the nation’s most competitive contests. His decision to remain in the contest defies former President Donald Trump’s offer to endorse him for a House seat — an offer that was designed to clear the Republican field for Trump’s chosen candidate, Rep. Ted Budd. As Walker spoke to a crowd of hundreds of supporters in Greensboro on Thursday night, a crew dramatically lifted a tarp from his campaign bus, revealing a Walker for Senate logo. “What we’re...

No senator other than her former boss, Sen. Richard Shelby, has publicly endorsed Katie Britt yet. But she is quietly getting support from at least a half-dozen of Shelby’s Republican colleagues in her bid against Donald Trump’s pick in Alabama’s open Senate race. Five Republican senators — Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) — have donated to Britt’s campaign from their leadership PACs. None of them have done so yet for GOP Rep. Mo Brooks, who Trump endorsed in April to replace the retiring Shelby (R-Ala.). Sen. Tommy Tuberville...