Free Republic

A few weeks ago, I gave the Republican Party some unsolicited advice about what they should do if they want to get back into the saddle and start winning elections again after this year’s string of off-season/special election losses. Essentially it boiled down to using power to fight the Democrats while giving your own client base the things that it wants. In other words, what people throughout history, in every era, in every type of political system from the most despotic to the most egalitarian, would recognise as basic political acumen. The Democrats, despite their complete disconnection from several basic...

A senior House Republican predicts that more "explosive early resignations are coming" after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Ga.) surprise announcement that she would leave Congress in January. Several GOP House members privately told Punchbowl News that they were also considering retiring before their terms end, after Greene's Nov. 21 announcement. It’s unknown which Republicans are currently pondering resignation, but a feeling that legislators' needs are being neglected by party leadership and an inability to pass legislation has led some to consider quitting, as they expect the GOP to lose its already slim majority in Congress. The anonymous GOP lawmaker said...

Megyn Kelly issued a dire warning to her fellow Republicans following the party's major losses on Election Day Tuesday. After Democrats scored big wins in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City, the former Fox News star fumed on her SiriusXM show that 'Republicans don't know how to win' without Donald Trump. 'The Republican party needs to get its s**t together ASAP,' Kelly said, chiding conservatives for pushing back against a recent Politico report surrounding a leaked Young Republicans' group chat that contained racist messages instead of focusing on the elections 'I'm really glad that the Republicans devoted so much...

Make no mistake about it, when the Democrats shutdown the government, they figured it would be an easy public relations victory for them. In all fairness, that’s usually how it goes, because they have the entire mainstream media pushing their talking points. But the latest numbers from CNN’s chief polling analyst, Harry Enten, tell a far different, and deeply unsettling, story for Democrats. Enten highlighted what most in the media are loath to admit: Americans simply aren’t blaming President Donald Trump the way they once did.Harry Enten opened his analysis by stating, “Turns out shutdowns are different the second time...

A group of 30 House Republicans is raising alarms about how the government shutdown is impacting gun owners across the U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., led his colleagues in a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Thursday urging its acting director to reclassify certain employees as essential workers, warning that current parameters are leaving many gun owners’ applications for certain items in limbo. “As a result of this Democrat-led shutdown, ATF, like most federal agencies, is operating at a reduced workforce. And while Democrats continue to fight for benefits for illegal aliens, the constitutional rights...

MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has gone scorched-earth on her own party, publicly lambasting what she called “weak Republican men” in Congress. The Georgia Republican suggested that men don’t have the guts to truly fight for the conservative agenda...

Many experts are forecasting the end of a key provision of election law — enabling Republicans to shore up their advantage in the House, according to a new report. Democratic voting rights groups are preparing for a nightmare scenario if the Supreme Court guts a key part of the landmark civil rights-era legislation, the Voting Rights Act — a very real possibility this term. Ahead of the court’s Oct. 15 rehearing of Louisiana v. Callais — a case that has major implications for the VRA — two voting rights groups are sounding the alarm, warning that eliminating Section 2, a...

Alaska's City of Fairbanks Mayor David Pruhs, a Republican, conceded to Mindy O'Neall, a Democrat, in the mayoral election on Tuesday night. According to unofficial election night results made available by the city of Fairbanks, O’Neall received 1,808 votes (54 percent) and Pruhs received 1,528 votes (45.7 percent). Newsweek has contacted Pruhs and O'Neall for comment via emails sent outside regular business hours. Why It Matters The ballot in mayoral elections in Fairbanks does not list party affiliations next to candidates’ names, but Republicans have held the role in Fairbanks for nearly a decade. Pruhs, a conservative backed by local...

Whenever journalists are tempted to use the P-word, they would be advised to consult a thesaurus to find an adjective for a term that has become a tired, deservedly mocked cliché. "Pouncing" as in "pouncing Republicans" which is used to describe supposedly opportunistic Republicans taking advantage of a political situation. Of course, the term "pouncing Democrats" is rarely used by the mainstream media.The latest "pouncing" example comes to us via Monday's USA Today in which correspondent Phillip Bailey invoked that tired cliché in "'Sick' texts from Democratic AG candidate could threaten Spanberger chances in Virginia."

In a drama reshaping Virginia’s high-stakes 2025 elections, Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones remains in the race despite widespread condemnation of a series of 2022 text messages in which he stated he would shoot a Republican politician in the head and fantasized about the children of another Republican being killed. The fallout has put pressure on Jones’ party to act, but so far, many prominent Democrats have stopped short of demanding his exit. The messages, first reported by the National Review on Friday and later picked up by multiple outlets, emerged from a 2022 exchange between Jones and Virginia...

AWisconsin RINO who appears to have a penchant for “sexually explicit” material — and a connection to a trans porn site — has dropped out of the Badger State governor’s race. Whitefish Bay businessman Bill Berrien, who also had a past dalliance with the disastrously kinky election method known as ranked-choice voting, quit Friday following reports linking the candidate to several “sexually explicit accounts” on social media. He apparently connected to said accounts through the platform Medium, where he followed Jiz Lee, a “trans” sex peddler, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported earlier this week.

Darren Bailey is set to announce shortly that he will run for Illinois governor once again. He was the Republican nominee for that position four years ago but lost in the general election to JB Pritzker. Bailey – and this is important to remember -- was Pritzker’s pick as the Republican who would be easiest to beat in the 2022 general election. So Pritzker pushed about $26 to $36 million into the Republican primary to help Bailey. The election meddling worked beautifully for Pritzker. Bailey won the Republican nomination and Pritzker went on to beat him handily in the general...

From a screenshot a friend just messaged me, minutes ago, on Sep 19, 2025. (05:45 AP Pacific time) "The media is biased and should be punished. That is the mainstream media."

Five House Republicans helped Democrats kill a motion to censure Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver (NJ) on Wednesday. GOP Congressman Clay Higgins forced a censure vote on LaMonica McIver after she was charged with assaulting federal agents at an ICE facility in May. Every Democrat, with the help of five insufferable Republicans, killed the motion. The five Republican lawmakers included: Don Bacon, Mike Flood, Dave Joyce, Mike Turner and David Valadao.

Less than 1 percent of Democrats say they are satisfied with the direction of the country, according to a new Gallup poll. Why It Matters This is the lowest level of satisfaction among Democrats in at least 25 years, according to Gallup's polling, and it comes at a time when Republican satisfaction is near record high levels. The polling shows that Democrats' satisfaction with the direction of the country quickly dropped after President Donald Trump, a Republican, returned to office in January, while GOP supporters' satisfaction spiked. According to Gallup, 31 percent of Americans currently say they are satisfied with...

Democrats are struggling to convince the public that they are outraged that there is gerrymandering afoot in Texas. It is no easy task, particularly after Texas Democrats selected Illinois as their sanctuary state, a state considered the most gerrymandered in the country. Trump received 45 percent of the vote in the state, but Republicans have only 14 percent of the congressional seats. Even the New York Times admitted that gerrymandering has favored Democrats across the nation. However, the winner of the Claude Rains award must be Marc Elias, who has expressed disgust over the notion of gerrymandering despite the fact...

The Texas House of Representatives passed a resolution Monday afternoon calling for the arrest of dozens of Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to prevent a congressional redistricting vote from going forward. At least 100 of the 150 members of the Texas House must be present for a quorum so business can be conducted.

As we were warned, Senator Thune is blocking President Trump from making recess appointments by conducting pro forma sessions. Is he really a Republican? We are seven months into Trump’s term, and he doesn’t have his judges and over a hundred of his key appointments. McConnell went home early, and the die was cast. What an absolute disgrace. Thune’s procedural games expose the swamp for what it is. They care about preserving their power and engaging in Senate gamesmanship while agencies are leaderless.

If there’s one thing that defines the U.S. Senate in recent years, it is its remarkable ability to do less with more time. This summer, the stakes for inaction are far too high. At last count, 144 of President Trump’s nominees – ranging from critical judicial appointments to senior national security and economic posts – remain bottled up in the Senate. That includes dozens of ambassadorial nominees, many of them to strategically vital nations. The reason? A relentless campaign of procedural obstruction by Senate Democrats, who are using every delay tactic in the book to slow-walk confirmations and frustrate the...

Can Republicans expand their House majority in the midterms by redistricting in red states? Donald Trump wants them to try. Republicans in Texas have already started a mid-cycle redistricting in the Lone Star state, hoping to create enough change to capture as many as five new House seats without directly challenging Democrat incumbents. Trump wants other red states to join the effort, and he's making progress:At Trump’s urging, Texas Republicans are looking to redraw congressional maps to favor GOP candidates during a 30-day special legislative session that started this week. Trump has said he wants to carve out five new...