Free Republic

President Donald Trump's political muscle in Republican nomination races was on full display Tuesday as a candidate he endorsed last week won a crowded and competitive GOP special election primary for a vacant congressional seat in Tennessee. Trump-backed Matt Van Epps, a former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services, came out on top in a field of 11 Republican candidates vying to fill the seat in the state's solidly red 7th Congressional District, according to the Associated Press. Van Epps will now be the favorite in the Dec. 2 general election in the race to succeed former Republican...

MOUNT OLIVET, Ky. — Rand Paul might run for president in 2028. It depends on whether the Republican Party still has space for his fellow Kentuckian who now shares the title of Donald Trump’s biggest conservative troublemaker. “First, we’ve got to see if Thomas Massie will keep his job and get reelected,” Paul said after offering a “maybe” to the 2028 question. For Paul, a libertarian-leaning senator willing to break with the president when most fellow Republicans fall in line, Massie’s ability to withstand a Trump-backed primary foe speaks to his own future. “We represent the same thing. If people...

A Kentucky congressman and senator are touring northern Kentucky together as the election season begins. “Is it the Republicans fault or the Democrats fault? And I just say ‘yeah,’” Sen. Rand Paul said humorously as he began remarks to a packed room at the Robertson County Community Center. It was one of four community forums held on Wednesday, co-headlined by Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie. Later in the day, both appeared at a coffee meet & greet and a “Massie for Congress” rally that staff said were campaign events. Both Republicans have taken national heat for their own independence from...

No freebies for Kathy. Gov. Kathy Hochul seemingly got little-to-nothing in exchange for her bombshell endorsement Sunday of socialist mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani — except to appease the far-left in a desperate attempt to stave off a real primary challenge next year, insiders said. Hochul likely will have Mamdani’s endorsement in the Democratic primary, where she faces a challenge from her estranged Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, sources said. One Democratic operative called Hochul’s endorsement — which failed to sway some prominent Dem holdouts and took some business leaders by surprise — “inevitable” given the political calculus. “It’s a calculated political...

Nate Morris is a textbook "McConnell protégé." And this is not an attack on him for that - if you were an aspiring Republican in Kentucky that's where you went...and the only place to go for awhile - McConnell got the reversal of the Dem stranglehold in motion. Being a Republican was to be lost in the wilderness. McConnell and Nate Morris have been on first name terms over two decades now. His ties to McConnell are why he became a political force in Kentucky and his connections and networking may have helped him in his private sector career as...

U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said during an interview today with CBS News that people should “stay tuned” for tomorrow’s announcement from President Trump regarding Russia, with him adding, “The game, regarding Putin's invasion of Russia, is about to change. I expect, in the coming days, you will see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend themselves. I expect, in the coming days, that there will be tariffs and sanctions available to President Trump he has never had before. I expect, in the coming days, more support from Europe regarding the efforts to help Ukraine. Putin made...

Democrats are in “absolute panic” over Zohran Mamdani’s stunning New York City Democratic mayoral primary win — fearing he could be “toxic” for the party but worried about possible primary challenges if they don’t endorse him, sources told The Post. Congressional Dems are “afraid” of Mamdani supporters setting up opponents to incumbents, including Reps. Dan Goldman, Jerry Nadler and even Grace Meng and Adriano Espaillat “could be a target,” a New York Democratic source said Monday. “It’s not hesitancy, it’s absolute panic and fear – and fear that not only are they saddled with (Gov.) Kathy Hochul’s very bad polling...

A political comeback bid by disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner and a grudge match pitting Republican rivals in southern Brooklyn highlight the 51 City Council races heading into the June 24 primary. The scandal-scarred Weiner is taking a stab at re-entering public life after being sentenced to 21 months in jail in 2017 for sexting with a minor, and he has his eyes set on replacing term-limited lefty Carlina Rivera in Manhattan’s District 2 that includes the East Village and the Lower East Side. The 60-year-old former congressman — who was a frontrunner in the 2013 mayoral race before ultimately finishing...

Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is surging, cutting ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s frontrunner status in the Democratic primary to just a single digit lead, according to a new poll released Wednesday. The latest PIX 11/ Emerson College poll has the Queens state Assemblyman holding his own with Cuomo for 10 rounds of ranked-choice voting before being eliminated with a nine-point spread, 54.4% to 45.6%. But with less than a month to the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary, only a small fraction of voters appear to be up for grabs, with 3.5% of voters still undecided, according to the survey conducted...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) seems to be vulnerable in his home state of South Carolina’s Republican primary, a Lynch for Senate poll commissioned with Pulse Opinion Research found. The top lines of the survey spell bad news for Graham, as 57 percent of Republican primary voters in his state “would not vote for Lindsey Graham if the election were held today,” according to the press release. The poll found that likely voters in South Carolina are “dissatisfied with Lindsey Graham and are just as likely to vote for a more conservative, America First candidate.”

On Sunday, Johnson made an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union and told Jake Tapper that there are enough Republicans in the Senate to “stop the process until the President gets serious about the spending reduction and reducing the deficit.” WATCH: How many other Republican Senators do you think share your concerns and are willing to work to make major changes to this bill? I think we have enough to stop the process until the President gets serious about the spending reduction and reducing the deficit.

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that there were “enough” Republican senators who would not vote for the so-called “big, beautiful” spending bill without significant changes. Host Jake Tapper said, “How determined are you to be that guy if it actually means telling President Trump you are going to vote against the bill and you’re going to try to get other Republican senators to join you, unless there are major, major changes?” Johnson said, “Well, in 2010, I sprang out of the Tea Party movement and as I did parades I would shout, this...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” ABC News Contributor and former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile said that Democrats didn’t hold an open primary to determine their nominee in 2024 after then-President Joe Biden dropped out of the race because there was an assumption that then-candidate Trump’s convictions would tarnish him enough to ensure he lost “And they thought that it was going to be an easier task and that it wouldn’t matter.” While discussing Biden’s recent interviews and the 2024 presidential race, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) stated, “I think, for the Democrats, if they had an open...

Grand Old Popey. Pope Leo XIV was an active voter who participated in several Republican primaries in recent years and voted in the most recent presidential election, according to a report. Then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, a Chicago native, pulled the lever in Republican primaries in 2012, 2014, and 2016, the Washington Free Beacon reported, citing election records. The Dolton, Illinois, born pontifex also voted in general elections in 2012, 2014, 2018, and 2024, the report stated.

A poll suggests that if Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) were to enter the race to be the next governor of New York, she would not only have a commanding lead in the Republican primary, but she would also close in on defeating Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY). The GrayHouse poll conducted between April 22-24, 2025, which surveyed 826 registered voters in New York, found that if the next Republican primary for governor of New York were held today, 44 percent of voters would support Stefanik, while seven percent would support Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman received five...

A former state employee who accused Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment clinched a $450,000 settlement — with taxpayers set to foot the massive bill as the former governor makes a comeback bid for New York City mayor. Charlotte Bennett, who served as an assistant to Cuomo when he was governor, officially ended a long-running lawsuit Friday against the Empire State. She is slated to receive $100,000 personally with another $350,000 earmarked for her lawyers and legal costs — all of which will be shelled out by the state. The settlement caps a bruising battle with Cuomo, including a separate federal...

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair David Hogg recently gave $100,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) shortly after his plans to shake up the Democratic Party with new leadership angered party insiders. The news, which was first reported by Politico and Axios, was confirmed by Hogg in an X post on Friday, where he asserted that he wasn't "playing nice" by handing the six-figure donation over to the DCCC. "This is not me playing nice. It is demonstrating my commitment to winning back the house and making Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker, which is an absolute imperative," Hogg wrote...

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair David Hogg’s group, Leaders We Deserve, launched a $20 million initiative on Monday aimed at launching primary challenges against House Democrats in safe seats in the hopes of electing a new generation of leaders. “We’re not only focused on targeting Democratic incumbents when necessary,” Hogg told The Hill in a Wednesday interview. “We are here to elect young people who are running in open seats. We’re here to elect young people that are running open, competitive seats as well, and support them when they align with our values.” Hogg noted that his group is...

Eric Adams will not seek the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor — instead pushing all his chips in on a longshot run as an independent candidate. Hizzoner dropped the bombshell news in a campaign video announcement Thursday — just the day after a federal judge killed his corruption case for good. “More than 25,000 New Yorkers signed my Democratic primary petition, but the dismissal of the bogus case against me dragged on too long, making it impossible to mount a primary campaign while these false accusations were held over me,” Adams said in the six-minute spiel. “But I’m...

It’s been almost four years since U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy cast the political dice and diverted from Republican group think. He dared to endorse the impeachment of then-recently replaced President Donald Trump for his incitement of the Jan. 6 insurrectionist attack on the Capitol. “Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person. I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty,” Cassidy said at the time. Now Louisiana’s senior senator finds himself an unfavored incumbent, although a well-funded one, among hardcore GOP types ahead of his 2026 reelection bid. Despite an otherwise consistent track record...