Free Republic

As the Democratic Party convulses over questions about President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, a pair of well-connected Democrats is offering an optimistic plan that would involve the president stepping down as the nominee and the party announcing a “blitz primary” process ahead of the August convention. The proposal is the work of Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University law professor who served in the Obama and Clinton administrations and as a volunteer policy adviser to the Biden campaign in 2020, and Ted Dintersmith, a venture capitalist and education philanthropist who has donated to various Democratic campaigns. They want Biden to flip...

Representative James Clyburn (D-SC) said Wednesday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that he would support a “mini primary” at the Democratic National Convention because the frontrunner to replace Joe Biden, Kamala Harris needed a “strong running mate.” Clyburn said, “There will definitely be other the candidates. My understanding is they’re 700 and uncommitted delegates and of course their delegates who declared. It would seem to me that any one of these people who aspire to be president who would like to see a contest take place, look at those 700 delegates who are now uncommitted and get into the acton. I do...

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said he did not vote for President Trump in the Georgia presidential primary in late May. Kemp in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday said he didn’t vote for anyone in the state’s primary because the GOP’s presidential race had already been decided. “I voted, but I didn’t vote for anybody. I mean, the race was already over when the primary got here,” Kemp told Collins. “Well, it would be, for me, personally, politically, I mean it would be interesting if [I’d] voted for him, it would be interesting if I didn’t, it...

After Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)’s primary defeat in New York, a second Squad member could be in trouble, according to a new poll that shows Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO)’s opponent, Wesley Bell, pulling ahead. The poll, conducted by Democrat pollster Mark Mellman’s group and published by Politico, showed that Bell has overcome a double-digit deficit to pull ahead of Bush. Bell, St. Louis County’s prosecuting attorney, is only one percentage point ahead of Bush, but analysis by the group said Bell’s image is improving, while Bush’s is moving in a negative direction, “leaving him with an underlying image advantage.”

PROVO, Utah (AP) — A pair of moderate Utah Republicans won primary elections Tuesday for U.S. Senate and governor over far-right candidates who are loyalists to former President Donald Trump, the latest example of how Utah is a rare Republican state that doesn’t fully embrace Trump’s stranglehold on the GOP. U.S. Rep. John Curtis, who won the GOP primary for Mitt Romney’s open U.S. Senate seat, and Gov. Spencer Cox still support Trump and many of his policies but have shown a willingness to stake out different positions on issues where they disagree. Curtis and Cox both defeated candidates who...

Three high-profile primaries in U.S. House districts will be held tomorrow in South Carolina. In solidly Republican CD-3), seven candidates are vying to replace 7-term conservative Jeff Duncan, who is retiring rather than face a campaign that would feature nasty (and unproven) allegations from his vindictive soon-to-be ex-wife. In solidly Republican CD-4 Trump-supported incumbent William Timmons is facing conservative state legislator Adam Morgan, who is being boosted by outspoken conservative congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida. Timmons had no Democrat opposition in 2022 but he achieved only 52.7% in a four-way primary that year, and this one could be close too....

Democrat voters in New Jersey elected deceased Representative Donald Payne Jr. in Tuesday’s primary. As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Representative Donald M. Payne Jr. (D-NJ) died on April 24th at 65. Before his death, Payne spent the last two weeks in a coma due to having a heart attack and complications with diabetes. Despite being dead, Payne won New Jersey’s 10th District Democratic primary with 99.9% of the vote.

A number of states held primaries for races up and down the ballot Tuesday, with President Biden and Donald Trump inching ever closer to their respective nominations and a couple notable Senate matchups solidifying. Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and Washington, D.C., held some of the last presidential primaries of the cycle. Guam and the Virgin Islands will officially cap off the presidential primary on Saturday, when they both hold their Democratic contests. But Tuesday night also featured other prominent primaries, such as in Montana, where Sen. Jon Tester (D) officially got an opponent in Tim Sheehy. Meanwhile,...

Montana State Auditor Troy Downing won the contested Republican primary to replace the retiring Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), who announced earlier this year he would not run for reelection in the solidly Republican seat. Downing won the race for Montana’s 2nd Congressional District with 37.9% of the vote with 4% of ballots tallied. The Associated Press called the race in Downing’s favor at 9:27 p.m. local time.

Voters in New Jersey will see newly designed ballots in the upcoming June 4 primary elections with different layouts depending on a voter's party affiliation. The change comes after Democratic Rep. Andy Kim and others filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the state's so-called county line system of primary ballot design. A judge ruled in Kim's favor, saying the county line system favors Democrat party-backed candidates. Republican candidates -- as their ballots were not part of this lawsuit -- will still use the county line system. The county line system -- a one-of-a-kind ballot design unique to New Jersey --...

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) is warning of possible retribution against some of his GOP colleagues in the House who are actively campaigning against the Texas Republican’s reelection bid. As Gonzales seeks a third term to his seat on Tuesday representing Texas’s 23rd Congressional District, the incumbent is facing a challenge from his right over his voting record to protect same-sex marriage and to implement stricter gun safety measures. Those votes attracted a crowded field of candidates looking to oust the incumbent during the March primary, forcing Gonzales into a runoff with challenger Brandon Herrera after neither candidate secured more than...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — In one of the most closely watched congressional races this year, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska is looking to defeat a fellow Republican in Tuesday's primary election in his quest for reelection. He'll have to do it without the support of the state Republican Party, which has endorsed his primary challenger. Bacon, whose district includes the state's largest city of Omaha, isn't the only one being snubbed. The Nebraska GOP, which was taken over by those loyal to former President Donald Trump during a contentious state convention in 2022, has refused to endorse any of...

Donald Trump has secured the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination. Joe Biden has secured the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.

HARRISBURG — Location, reputation, demographics, and pure luck may have mattered more than policy differences in Pennsylvania’s row office primary elections this week. Tuesday saw a major upset in the Democratic race for state treasurer and a decisive win in a crowded Democratic attorney general field by a candidate who brought statewide name recognition — but not much cash — to the race. With the fields settled for November’s marquee presidential and U.S. Senate races, turnout for the Democratic and Republican primaries was low, according to election administrators. The voters who did show up often said they felt unprepared and...

Far-left “Squad” member Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is down double digits in his primary race, according to a poll first obtained by the New York Post. Bowman, who has the backing of fellow “Squad” members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), is facing off against primary challenger Westchester County Executive George Latimer. Latimer is backed by State Sen. Shelley Mayer as well as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Jewish Democratic Council of America, and Democratic Majority for Israel PAC. The latest poll of the race between the two found the incumbent...

Donald Trump suffered a blow in a number of primary votes on Tuesday, after thousands of Republicans refused to vote for him.

CNN’s Manu Raju reported over the weekend from Appomattox, Virginia on the effort inside the House GOP to oust one of its own, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), who is the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Raju both aired his report on CNN’s Inside Politics Sunday and published an article on CNN.com detailing the various House Republicans openly campaigning in support of Good’s GOP primary opponent, state Sen. John McGuire. Raju noted that campaigning openly against a House colleague is “a tactic long viewed as a serious breach of protocol but one that underscores the bad blood within the House...

After almost two weeks of uncertainty, Burke edged out Clayton Harris III for the nomination, with mail ballots tallied Friday sealing the most hotly contested race of the primary a full 10 days after the polls closed. The Associated Press called the race over — and the two candidates agreed.

(New York Jewish Week) — The Jewish Democratic Council of America, the leading Jewish organization affiliated with the Democratic Party, endorsed George Latimer in his bid to unseat New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the upcoming primary. It also endorsed Wesley Bell in his campaign to unseat Rep. Cori Bush in Missouri, marking the first time that the Jewish Democrats have endorsed primary challengers to Democratic incumbents. Both incumbents have been vocal critics of Israel. In New York’s 16th district, which covers southern Westchester County and a sliver of the northern Bronx and is home to a sizable Jewish community,...

As previously reported, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an Independent presidential candidate, faces a setback in Nevada despite collecting over 15,000 signatures, thus surpassing the required amount for ballot access. The issue arises from the failure to list a running mate on the petition, as mandated by law and indicated in Nevada's guidelines for presidential candidates. This oversight necessitates restarting the signature-gathering process after Kennedy announces his pick for vice president, scheduled to be revealed on Tuesday. On Monday, the Kennedy campaign fired back alleging the Nevada Secretary of State was conspiring with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to prevent his...