Free Republic

After Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia governor’s race going away in November, the consensus among the political chattering class was that it’s a foregone conclusion the Republicans will lose in next year’s midterms. The experts said this was a referendum on President Donald Trump, and an early sign that his America First movement is cracking. The same experts pointed to “key Democrat wins” in the New Jersey governor’s race and the New York City mayoral election as further indicators of a coming blue wave. To be so smug in their predictions, the experts had to ignore the fact that the...

Virginia Democrats have introduced a host of new tax proposals that would tax a range of services, including dog walking and gym memberships despite running on a campaign to increase affordability. More than 50 proposals and new rules were introduced for the new legislative session, including additional local sales tax in all Virginia counties and cities, 7News reported. The new proposed policies include: dog walking and grooming tax gun and ammunition tax new income tax brackets storage facility tax dry cleaning tax home repair tax new personal property tax on electric leaf blowers and electric landscaping equipment

After campaigning on “affordability,” Virginia state Democrats have introduced a measure to more than double their salaries, now that fellow Democrat Abigail Spanberger is in the Governor’s Mansion, giving them control of all three branches of their state’s government. “Virginia Democrats are now trying to give themselves a PAY RAISE after proposing thousands of dollars in new taxes hammering working families, the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus warned in a X.com post highlighting how the legislators’ pay raise would hurt taxpayers: “They ran on ‘affordability,’ but all they’ve done is introduce insane left-wing policies and take from your pocket to line...

🚨 BREAKING: Elon Musk just posted that the DOJ is suing Virginia for having a voter registration DUPLICATION rate of 33% in 2024...nearly TRIPLE the national rate! The fraud is un-freaking-believable. Wow.

Newly-minted Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger was compared to a 'Bond villain' after enacting far-left policies on her first day in office despite campaigning as a moderate Democrat. Spanberger, a former Congresswoman and CIA officer, stormed to a blowout victory over sitting Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears in a momentum boost for Democrats. However, many conservatives have been horrified by some of Spanberger's first week executive orders, which includes reducing cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Spanberger campaigned on the order.

The Pro-Crime Party has really held nothing back in the first week or so of the new legislative session ... While all eyes have been on Minneapolis, the newly empowered Virginia Democrats wasted no time organizing an absolute orgy of legislative stupidity. Why this should matter to you is that it’s a blueprint for national rule should any of this spill over. Let’s start with law enforcement, or lack thereof in vapid left-wing dreamland. Spanberger immediately rescinded Youngkin’s executive order requiring law enforcement to aid federal officials in deportations. On top of that, statehouse Dems introduced a litany of bills...

The newest governor of Virginia immediately rolled back anti-sanctuary policy which helped federal immigration authorities take custody of criminal illegal migrants. Within hours of being sworn into office Saturday, Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed Executive Order 10, a proclamation rescinding an executive order signed by her Republican predecessor requiring Virginia law enforcement officials to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Critics have framed the move as a “disaster” which will lead to an increase in crime. “This is a disaster for the public safety of the Commonwealth. Mark my words, there will be Virginians who will be robbed, raped...

Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a staunch advocate for unrestricted abortion, won New Jersey’s gubernatorial race Tuesday night, defeating Republican Jack Ciattarelli in a contest that pro-life leaders decried as a setback for vulnerable unborn children. With nearly all votes counted, Sherrill captured 53% of the vote to Ciattarelli’s 46%, according to projections. The victory extends Democratic control of the governor’s mansion for a third consecutive term — the first such streak for the party in New Jersey since 1961 — and positions Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, to succeed pro-abortion Gov. Phil Murphy in January. Sherrill’s...

We are tracking who is casting ballots ahead of Election Day for the mayor’s race in New York City and governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia. Here, we are comparing voters who have cast ballots so far with the makeup of the early and overall electorate in the 2024 presidential election. One of the most closely watched metrics in New York this year is age. Since the city’s mayoral elections are held in off years (without a presidential election on the ballot), the electorate tends to be much smaller. And it skews older than in presidential elections, since older...

She’s so bad, and could very likely be Virginia’s next governor, to the horror of any decent American. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who spent most of this gubernatorial cycle ducking the press for obvious reasons, has a bold new strategy regarding job creation: not working with the president of the United States, because orange man…bad. When PBS NewsHour asked whether a Spanberger administration in Richmond would work with Trump to create job opportunities, the Virginia liberal said no. There’s some word salad, though she was clear that she felt working with the president of the United States to improve the...

Virginia Republicans scored a monumental victory in 2021. After 12 years of sustained statewide losses, the party emerged from the wilderness and swept the three statewide races that year, led by outsider Glenn Youngkin, who became the commonwealth’s first Republican governor since Bob McDonnell left office in 2014.Virginia’s gubernatorial elections are unique in American politics in that no other state makes its governor a lame duck the moment he is sworn in, as term limits prohibit consecutive terms. No Virginia governor has ever run for reelection as an incumbent, although two governors have succeeded in winning nonconsecutive terms.The commonwealth’s proximity...

Virginia GOP gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears swiftly condemned those tied to a Young Republicans group chat scandal—and now she's calling on her opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, to do the same with regard to her own running mate, attorney general nominee Jay Jones. In a press release issued Wednesday, the Democratic Party of Virginia said Earle-Sears “must call on participants of a leaked Young Republicans chat that used racist language to step down from their roles joining Virginia Young Republican Thomas Turner”—something the lieutenant governor had no problem doing. “Easy,” she replied, “they absolutely must step down.”Earle-Sears then said it was...

After Virginia’s Republican candidate for governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, left her Democratic opponent, Abigail Spanberger, on the ropes in a debate last week, Sears came out with a devastating ad: A full minute-long clip from the debate of Spanberger staring ahead silently, unwilling to answer the moderator’s question about whether she endorses attorney general candidate Jay Jones despite his homicidal comments against Republicans. “We’re talking about murder … have you nothing to say about that?” Sears prodded. ... So even as Sears rolled out ad after ad that criticized Spanberger by showing her responses when asked about policy positions, the most...

Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger’s refusal to affirm life-saving care for babies born alive after failed abortions has drawn sharp condemnation from pro-life advocates, who accuse her of endorsing unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy and undermining parental rights in the process. During Thursday’s debate, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears pressed Spanberger on whether a baby born alive after an abortion should receive appropriate medical treatment. Spanberger remained silent, declining to answer the pointed question. The moment, captured on video, has fueled accusations that Spanberger backs a proposed constitutional amendment in Virginia that would enshrine unlimited abortions up to birth, block future protective...

Former member of the Virginia House of Delegates and current Democrat nominee for State Attorney General (AG) Jay Jones is facing widespread criticism for a 2022 text exchange with Delegate Carrie Coyner (R) in which he wrote "if I had two bullets and faced a choice between shooting then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert, Adolf Hitler, or Pol Pot, Gilbert gets two bullets to the head." Coyner called him back to express her dismay at his remarks, but was treated to Jones speculating that "if Gilbert's two little fascists were to die in their mother's arms perhaps that would be more effective....

As the owner of the largest police news outlet in the world - The 1776 Project, which owns Law Enforcement Today, Blue Lives Matter and other platforms... I've seen some royally stupid moves in the last decade. But this one takes the cake. Imagine passing your group off as a police organization... only to sell your soul, piss off your supporters and endorse the very person who hates cops. It's like the people running things woke up with a bad cheap wine hangover and mixed up a cocktail of TDS and liberal tears to try and get through their day....

There’s a reason why Democrats wanted to keep Abigail Spanberger gagged and locked in a basement until the tail end of this election: she’s a total disaster. The Virginia congresswoman, who is running for governor against Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, has been elite at tossing word salads. Her incoherent mess of an answer about men in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms showcases how liberals are gutless in standing up for what’s sane. It’s almost as if there’s an allergy to joining the popular end of public policy issues that are no longer debated: men shouldn’t be in women’s locker...

Debate moderators repeatedly cut off Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earl-Sears' time short and allowed Democrat Spanberger to run over time. "You have 30 seconds" (Winsome Earl-Sears gives answer). 15 seconds pass - bell dings - "Your time is up."

Abigail Spanberger’s campaign for governor of Virginia took a major hit Wednesday night when she refused—repeatedly—to answer a simple question during the Virginia gubernatorial debate: does she still endorse Jay Jones for attorney general after his violent text messages came to light? The exchange, moderated by Deanna Allbrittin of WRIC, was terrible for Spanberger as she twisted herself into rhetorical knots to avoid giving a clear answer. Her opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, wasted no time pointing out what everyone watching could see—Spanberger was dodging. It began when the moderator tried to clarify an earlier non-answer. “Thank you, Ms. Spanberger....

Please excuse this rant.