Free Republic

As Republicans seek to highlight Democrat James Talarico’s record on transgender issues, immigration, and other progressive causes ahead of November’s U.S. Senate election, the lawmaker’s campaign is embracing one of the nicknames those positions have earned him. The Talarico campaign recently began selling merchandise bearing the phrase “I’m a Talafreako,” a reference to a nickname used by Republican nominee Ken Paxton during his runoff victory speech. “He goes by a few names that you may all have heard of,” Paxton told supporters. “Some people know him as Tofu Talarico, some people call him Six Gender Jimmy. I’ve even heard some...

Maine Democrats were warned. They had every reason to look more closely at Graham Platner before handing him their Senate nomination. They didn't. Now the drip, drip, drip of scandal has turned into a flood, and the question isn't whether Platner survives; it’s whether he makes it to Election Day without the whole thing collapsing. I’m not sure that he will. As far as I’m concerned, the Nazi tattoo alone should have ended his campaign last year. Yet, Maine Democrats shrugged. Then came the Reddit posts. It was a barrage of embarrassing, disqualifying stuff for most candidates. Maine Democrats shrugged...

"Anyone who checked out [This Book Is Gay] from this church should have their hard drive checked immediately," critic says. Talarico's church defends its "banned books" but doesn't name or describe them in detail. The more Texans hear that their Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, James Talarico, is aiming to reclaim Christianity for the progressive left, the more they're likely to learn what his home church believes and practices. The Daily Wire reviewed the books accessible to children in the library at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, where Talarico's sermons as a seminary student included calls for "abortion...

Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh 🚨 JUST IN: MAGA is on track to FLIP the Michigan US Senate seat RED, according to a new polling average 🔴 Trump-endorsed Mike Rogers: 43.9% (+3.2) 🔵 Abdul El-Sayed: 40.6% Good, KEEP PUSHING! Winning Michigan would be HUGE. Democrats are about to nominate "Abdul" and Rogers must defeat him! @Pollsmax average 0:00 / 0:39

Politico continues its dogged faux “reporting” to create a narrative that Democrats are a lock to control the U.S. Senate in 2026. Which gives me a great opening to make one of my periodic updates on some of the crucial Senate races. The Republicans have a 53 to 47-seat majority in the Senate. There are 35 seats up for grabs in 2026. The Democrats need a net pick up of four seats to win control.The central problem for the Democrats is that only two Republican seats – Maine and North Carolina – are in competitive states. The other 20 GOP...

After cruising to the Democrat nomination for U.S. Senate in March, James Talarico now appears focused on a different challenge: convincing Texas general election voters he is more moderate than the progressive activist Republicans have spent years watching online. Republicans are already framing the effort as a “moderate media makeover” ahead of what is expected to become the most expensive Senate race in U.S. history. During an interview with CBS News the day after Paxton won the Republican Senate runoff, officially setting the general-election matchup, Talarico was asked about his assertion that there are six sexes and a 2021 statement...

I recently heard from a friend that Talarico's leftist church - the St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas -- told its parishners to throw away their Bibles and purchase the "Inclusive Bible" by the Priests for Equality, which was quite an odd translation of the Bible. I first confirmed Talarico preached there: https://pres-outlook.org/2026/03/austin-seminary-student-james-talarico-wins-democratic-u-s-senate-primary/ I then confirmed it uses the Inclusive Bible: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/St--Andrew-s-News-for-July-26-to-August-1--2024.html?soid=1112060411088&aid=MNn8GrAF534 I then looked up that "bible" and whoa, is it weird: I flipped through it just briefly: Adam is an "it" the "first creature" until Eve is created, the first human. Marriage is not between a "man...

Paxton has trailed Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in fundraising, and some Republicans say the party will have to spend millions to win the Senate race.President Donald Trump may be celebrating that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won Tuesday’s Senate primary, but some Republicans now worry that they have a Texas-sized problem on their hands. Paxton, with Trump’s endorsement, handily defeated four-term Sen. John Cornyn in the runoff. Democrats largely viewed Paxton as the weaker candidate because of his many controversies. But his fundraising struggles are also raising alarm bells among Republicans. “Economically, it’s a disaster. Texas is extremely expensive,”...

The following are transcribed highlights of a sermon given by Texas US Senate candidate James Talarico at the St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX on 10/22/2023:There is a cancer on our religion. Until we confess the sin that is Christian Nationalism and exercise it from our churches, our religion can do a lot more damage than a six-pack of Lone Star. There is nothing Christian about Christian Nationalism. It is the worship of power, social power, economic power, political power in the name of Christ, economic power, political power in the name of Christ.They've turned this humble rabbi [Jesus]...

WASHINGTON—President Trump and Democrats rarely find themselves in alignment. Yet both sides wanted the same outcome in Tuesday’s Texas Senate primary runoff election. Ken Paxton’s trouncing of incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican runoff represents Trump’s latest triumph in maintaining his grip on his MAGA base after he similarly ousted rivals in Indiana, Louisiana and Kentucky. But to the delight of Democrats, the president’s decision to make an 11th-hour endorsement of Paxton could put the Senate seat in play for James Talarico after decades of Democratic futility in the Lone Star State.

Donald Trump loves the words sleazebag and scumball, so much so that he’s surrounded himself with the very definition of those two offensive terms. And it’s hard to be more offensive than Texas GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton, unless you’re Donald Trump, of course. Last night, Paxton, impeached, indicted, accused of bribery, and credibly alleged to have used the Texas Attorney General’s office to benefit a donor who was simultaneously employing the woman he was having an affair with, won the Republican Senate primary in Texas by a landslide.

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner is leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in the race for her seat by 7 points, according to a new poll. In the Pan Atlantic Research poll, 48 percent of likely voters said they back Platner in a hypothetical matchup, while 41 percent said they support Collins. Eleven percent were undecided. When broken down by gender, 53 percent of women respondents backed Platner and 34 percent supported Collins. Men surveyed, meanwhile, said they support Collins over Platner, with 47 percent backing the incumbent and 44 percent supporting her potential challenger. The Democratic Party establishment was...

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Sunday criticized Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), whom President Trump endorsed over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Senate GOP runoff in the Lone Star State. “He is a failure. He doesn’t deserve to be in the U.S. Senate,” Tillis told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Trump on Tuesday endorsed Paxton, a firebrand conservative who filed litigation in support of the president’s push to overturn the 2020 election. In endorsing the Texas attorney general over a four-term senator, Trump said Paxton “is a true MAGA warrior” and Cornyn, while...

*** Here’s the plan, which isn’t easy, but is doable. First, Thune has to go. Never before in the history of the Senate has a majority leader of the president’s own party kept the Senate in session to prevent recess appointments, and he has refused even to bring the SAVE America Act up for debate. ... *** According to Rule 3 of the Senate Republican Conference, it takes only five senators to force a meeting to call for Thune’s replacement. ... In the privacy of a secret ballot, the “palace coup” needs just 27 votes to finalize the deed. ......

Screaming, yelling and accusations of self-dealing. That’s how Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday described a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that’s drawn bipartisan opposition. On his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” the Texas senator described the meeting as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.” “Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said. “My guess is there’re probably 45 senators in the room, at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were pissed.”...

The Senate is heading home until June without finishing a reconciliation bill, after Republican tensions over the package coincided with President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman posted on X: “BREAKING NEWS: THE SENATE will go home until June, leaving the reconciliation bill unfinished. THUNE just told senators in the room. All because of the DOJ weaponization fund. House is expected to follow suit soon.” Brendan Pedersen, a senior reporter with Punchbowl News, posted on X: “Thune asked if Senate Rs are responding to politics...

Democrats won an unexpected victory Tuesday when legislation to halt the Iran war cleared an initial hurdle in the Senate — a vote that strengthens their hand in the increasingly fractious debate over the conflict. Critics of the military operation took advantage of a shorthanded Republican conference — three GOP senators missed the vote — resulting in a 50-47 decision to force debate on a rebuke of President Donald Trump. War opponents gained another GOP defector in Sen. Bill Cassidy. The Louisiana Republican, who voted to convict President Donald Trump in the wake of his second impeachment over the Jan....

Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman's chief of staff resigned Wednesday and will have her final official day in the coming weeks, Axios reported. Cabelle St. John, who has served in the post since 2025, has worked on Fetterman's team since he first came to Washington approximately three-and-a-half years ago. Fetterman has not confirmed St. John's exit but did not deny it in a text to Axios. The news comes as Fetterman's office sees high turnover because former aides are frustrated with his continual support for Israel in its war with Iran and friendlier approach toward President Donald Trump. Fetterman is...

On May 13, shots were heard in the Senate of the Philippines. At the heart of the drama was fugitive Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa. Wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on an arrest warrant that was unveiled on May 11, dela Rosa surfaced the same day for a crucial vote. After the melee on May 13, he again disappeared. This is the latest twist in a struggle between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his erstwhile allies, the Duterte family. In the days before the firefight, the Philippine legislature had been consumed with an ongoing campaign to impeach Vice...

The Senate advanced a resolution to limit President Trump's war powers in Iran on Tuesday, marking a breakthrough for Democrats after seven failed attempts. Senators approved a motion to discharge the resolution from committee in a 50 to 47 vote. Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — joined the bulk of Democrats in favor of advancing the resolution. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat to oppose. The vote marked the first time Cassidy supported advancing a war powers resolution. It came days...