Free Republic

Deb Haaland is backing fellow far-leftist, Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, for lieutenant governor, ending days of jockeying among New Mexico Democrats after Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver abruptly suspended her campaign just weeks after winning the Democratic primary. The endorsement is a major boost for Garcia Richard, who had previously launched her own lieutenant governor campaign before withdrawing from the race earlier this year. Now, after Toulouse Oliver’s exit, Garcia Richard is back in the hunt — this time with Haaland’s blessing. In a statement dated June 26, Haaland told Democrat State Central Committee members that she had...

President Trump cheered late Tuesday, after Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) lost his House primary to former New York City comptroller Brad Lander (D). “Weak and pathetic Congressman Dan Goldman just lost, BIG!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I guess people didn’t like him illegally targeting President TRUMP.” He added, “In any event, this jerk is finally GONE!” Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, was the lead majority counsel in House Democrats’ first impeachment inquiry against the president in 2019. Lander, with support from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), attacked the incumbent from the left....

Eddy County Sheriff Matthew Hutchinson is blasting U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez after the Democrat congressman’s delayed response to National Police Week, accusing Vasquez of treating law enforcement like an afterthought while officers in southern New Mexico face the daily consequences of crime, fentanyl, and the border crisis. In a new opinion column titled “Our congressman won’t back the badge,” Hutchinson said Vasquez remained silent for the first two days of National Police Week, which ran May 10-16, before finally posting a message after being publicly called out by Republican congressional candidate Greg Cunningham. “For two full days, our congressman said...

U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury is doubling down on her gerrymandering fundraising pitch, again accusing Republicans of trying to “deny representation” while ignoring the political reality right here in New Mexico: Democrats used total control of Santa Fe to redraw the state’s congressional map and help wipe out Republican representation in the U.S. House delegation. In a new campaign email with the subject line “A lack of representation,” Stansbury claimed, “Republican gerrymandering is an attempt to deny representation for Americans.” The email asked supporters to “rush $10 right now” to help Stansbury support Democratic women, saying her campaign needed to raise...

Over the past decade, the Lehigh Valley has voted narrowly for Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and then Trump again. In that time, the district has elected both Republicans and Democrats to the House, also by thin margins. If any place represents the changeable character of American politics over the last 10 years, surely it’s Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District. This fall, Democrats are hoping to take back the seat, which encompasses the population centers of Allentown and Bethlehem. This district’s voters elected Democrat Susan Wild to three full terms in Congress, starting with her party’s wave election in 2018, but the...

At the start of the race, it was clear most Black voters would support Crockett and most White voters would support Talarico; the wildcard was where Latinos would go. In the end, Hispanic voters acted as a key factor in the Senate primary, helping James Talarico win the Democratic nomination... The Republican primary picture is less clear-cut. In majority Hispanic regions, Cornyn led Paxton with 52-55% of the two-way vote. In urban areas, though, voters in majority Hispanic precincts actually favored Paxton (51%) at greater levels than voters in other precincts (45%)... Some commentators see evidence of Republican realignment. Others...

More Perfect University (MPUniversity), founded by the liberal media group “More Perfect Union,” made its big launch...saying students in all 50 states joined MPUniversity in the six days leading up to it. The launch featured a livestream and interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose advisors founded More Perfect Union. “Mainstream media, politicians, and universities are bowing down to the 1%. We’re organizing on college campuses to fight corporate greed and build student power,” MPUniversity said in a post on X. The group will do on-campus events and debates while creating an online community through discord and email. It will...

The conventional liberal take on the Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais to limit the use of race in drawing congressional districts is that it is a defeat for minority political influence… But the fact that it will no longer be permitted doesn’t mean that Black voters will necessarily have less influence. They could even have more. The key to understanding why is the tried-and-true power of the swing voter… The alternative to race-based districts, after all, is those that are “geographically compact”—in which the shared concerns of neighbors about their communities are at issue. Those could include race-related...

In 2024, President Donald Trump won the White House buoyed by historic support among Hispanic voters, diversifying the GOP’s coalition and flipping Democratic strongholds like South Texas. Two years later, a crop of Hispanic Republican candidates in Texas will aim to solidify Trump’s gains in defiance of the midterm headwinds facing the GOP this fall. The balance of the U.S. House could turn on whether they succeed... As many as four of the five Democratic seats targeted by GOP redistricting could feature Hispanic GOP nominees, while two of Democrats’ top targets will be defended by Hispanic Republican candidates. In all...

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D, Massachusetts) and Josh Hawley (R, Missouri) introduced the Break Up Big Medicine Act, legislation aimed at prohibiting the joint ownership of health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), providers, and wholesalers to reduce health care costs and restore competition... The legislation comes amid growing concerns about consolidation in the health care industry. In the US, 3 PBMs currently manage 80% of prescription drug claims, 2 and 3 wholesalers control 98% of prescription drug distribution... These entities are often vertically integrated, meaning a single parent company can own every component of the health care supply chain, from the...

The numbers crunched by Derek Ryan, founder of Ryan Data and Research, show that nearly 55% of the ballots cast early and on the same day in the recent Democratic primary came from voters 50 and older. By contrast, voters 30 and under accounted for just 14% of the turnout in a primary that nominated 36-year-old James Talarico… But the age gap is even more yawning on the Republican side, according to Ryan's analysis, which uses data from the Texas Secretary of State's Office, the Texas Legislative Council and other sources. Voters 50 and older made up 78% of GOP...

As a career prosecutor, I have a deep understanding not only of how our criminal statutes work, but also of the personal toll crime takes on families. For years, I have witnessed the devastation caused when loved ones are lost to violent crime. That loss, and the pain left behind, is what drove me to run for office. Simply put, I know what needs to change in our laws to prevent more people from becoming victims. This year, however, it has become increasingly clear why New Mexico remains so dangerous. What follows may sound like “insider baseball,” but it is...

The Republican establishment is on the verge of extinction. Donald Trump’s first term wasn’t enough to kill it off: Trump came into office in 2017 with establishment figures such as Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan leading the party in Congress, and Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence, had been chosen for that role as a reassurance to the old guard... This time, though, things are very different. Though congressional Republicans have yet to become thoroughly MAGA, there’s no longer a sense that GOP leaders in the House or Senate represent a distinct political brand of their own, as McConnell and...

After a bruising presidential election loss in 2024, this year proved decisive for a Democratic Party looking to recover from its defeats and regain momentum. Heading into 2026, all 435 districts in the House of Representatives and 33 seats in the U.S. Senate are up for election in the midterms. Republicans currently have a three-seat majority in the Senate, while they hold 219 seats to Democrats’ 213 in the House. - Rep. Thomas Massie’s Primary Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican, has made an enemy of President Trump by leading the campaign for the release of the files relating to...

We’re joined by Joe Gruters from the RNC to talk about the political landscape heading into 2026 and the challenges the party believes the country is facing. Gruters highlights what he sees as progress on affordability issues, praising the administration’s focus on lowering prices for everyday Americans while emphasizing that the effects of past economic policies take time to reverse. He also points to what he calls “world-class” cabinet leadership and insists that upcoming policy implementations will show measurable results. The conversation shifts to midterm dynamics, with Gruters expressing confidence that Republican messaging—and what he describes as missteps by Democratic...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is privately telling confidants that JD Vance is the frontrunner for the 2028 Republican nomination and that he’d support the vice president if he chose to run, according to two people close to the administration. Rubio’s private comments are a vivid example of how some Republicans are already gaming out a post-Trump succession battle, less than one year into the president’s term. The question of succession is especially relevant following Tuesday’s election results in which the GOP underperformed, leading to widespread concern that without Trump himself on the ballot, Republicans are unable to generate enough...

"I will praise Nancy Pelosi. She had an incredible career for her party," Rep. Greene, 51, said of the 85-year-old, who served as Speaker of the House from 2019-2023, during a Thursday interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN. "I wish we could get things done for our party like Nancy Pelosi was able to deliver for her party," Rep. Greene continued. "So, I wish her well in her retirement, but I would like to see people exit Washington a lot sooner rather than wait until their eighties."

In an upset, Democrats ousted two Republican members of Georgia’s utility board on Tuesday, according to preliminary results from the secretary of state's office. The closely watched races for two of the five seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission had been viewed not only as a referendum on rising electric bills but also as a bellwether for next year’s contests for governor and U.S. Senate. Since 2007, no Democrat has served on the commission, whose members have six-year terms. But the two Democratic candidates tapped into anger over rising electric bills at a time when prices have risen sharply...

"When I talk about weak Republican men, I am pretty much talking oftentimes about the leadership in the House and Senate, and they are just not getting our agenda done," she said. In recent weeks, Greene has pushed for her own party to share an alternative plan to replace the current Affordable Care Act, specifically calling out House Speaker Mike Johnson. "Republicans never fixed it … And then the ACA tax credits were passed in 2021 … and Republicans never made a plan for that," Greene said. She criticized Johnson for keeping the House in recess, saying, "We should be...

It may be an off-year election, but Tuesday’s races across the country have been keeping Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Joe Gruters busy. The Sarasota Republican has traveled the country ahead of races in several states. He appeared on Fox News on Election Day to discuss close contests for Governor in New Jersey and Virginia. “Listen, we’ve been on the ground in both Virginia and New Jersey for the last seven months preparing for these last couple of days in terms of our get-out-the-vote efforts, in terms of election integrity, in terms of recruiting numerous attorneys on the ground, numerous...