Free Republic

The 2023 election cycle wasn’t pretty for Virginia Republicans. Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s attempt to control both chambers of the state legislature in Richmond went up in smoke when Democrats retained control of the state Senate and retook control of the House of Delegates. Was it an "earthquake?" No, Democrats have a slim majority in a lower chamber. Overall, Virginia returned to its 2021 political landscape. Or did it? Republicans likely gain one senate seat and lose a few house seats in Virginia, a state Biden won by 10 points, and Twitter is treating it like a political earthquake. https://t.co/x7OjtJWqFO— John...

Dear Senator … I strongly urge you and your State Senate colleagues to vociferously condemn and refuse to participate in the California Senate’s plan to “honor” the bigoted anti-Catholic minstrel performers known as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. These so called performers hearken back to the dark days of the Jim Crow Era minstrel shows that routinely demeaned and caricatured Black Americans, all in the name of performance art. If anything, a strong case could be made that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a de facto hate group, and should be reported to Governor Gavin Newsom’s recently launched website...

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A Republican state senator who once led Oregon’s GOP party, and who railed against pandemic safety measures, Democratic senators and even members of his own party, has abruptly resigned as a lawmaker. And so ends, at least for now, the stormy political career of Sen. Dallas Heard, a lawmaker from rural southwest Oregon who said Thursday that his resignation is effective on Jan. 1, in the middle of his four-year term.... ...Oregon state Rep. David Brock Smith, a Republican from southwest Oregon, said Friday that he wants to succeed Heard....

LAREDO, Tex. (KGNS) – The $1.8 billion bill was passed by the Texas Senate yesterday. The bill will allow Governor Abbott to build more than 700 miles of border wall. The bill, H.B. 9, was passed by a 23-8 vote after numerous changes were made from the House version. It is now headed to the governor’s desk for signing. A majority of the $1.8 billion will go towards border wall and fencing and the Texas National Guard will carry out the project. Several Democrats from border districts voted for the bill.

Republican Ryan Fazio beat Democrat Alexis Gevanter by nearly 3 points to secure a seat in the Connecticut Senate, flipping state Senate district 36 from blue to red. “Today the voters of Greenwich, Stamford, and New Canaan sent a message loud and clear to the state Capitol in Connecticut that a change is going to come,” Fazio told supporters on Tuesday night, according to the Greenwich Time. SNIP During the 2020 presidential election, then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the district by roughly 25% against then-President Donald Trump. The GOP hailed the victory as a prelude to the 2022 midterm elections.

Republicans flipped a state legislature seat in Connecticut on Tuesday night, in a huge victory in a district President Joe Biden won by over 25 percent in the 2020 election. Republican Ryan Fazio decisively defeated Democrat Alex Gevanter in the state’s 36th Senate District and ended the state Senate’s Democratic supermajority.Congratulations to Republican @ryanfazio for winning Connecticut Senate District 36!Biden won this district by 25 points in 2020 and tonight, we flipped it RED!The RNC was proud to work with the @CTGOP to get out the vote.— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) August 18, 2021!! HUGE GOP win! Flipping a state senate...

Arizona legislators have ordered a recount of 2.1 million ballots for the 2020 presidential election, this time to be done by hand.The Arizona Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, released a statement confirming their intent to do another audit of the ballots from Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county.The Arizona State Senate statement released on Thursday says that they will conduct a “broad and detailed” audit, adding that they will test voting machines, scan ballots, look for IT breaches, and perform a hand count.“As thousands of our voters continue to call for a thorough audit of the 2020 election...

Qasim Rashid, an Ahmadi Muslim who is running as a Democrat for the Virginia State Senate, is enraged at the dirty tricks of his opponent, Richard Stuart. “My Republican opponent,” fumed Rashid in a video last week, “is launching anti-Muslim, Islamophobic attacks against me questioning my loyalty to the United States and questioning my ties with terrorism, I mean just the most ridiculous, meritless claims that are imaginable.” What did Stuart do to warrant these charges? Why, the racist, bigoted Islamophobe had the temerity to quote Rashid’s own words. Rashid, according to WMAL, “posted a screenshot on Twitter of one...

California state senator Tony Mendoza resigned Thursday from the Legislature after an independent investigation found that he "more likely than not" harassed several women he worked with during his tenure at the state Capitol. Mendoza, who represents the Artesia area, was suspended last fall when the harassment charges came to light. He denies the charges and his resignation letter called into question the integrity of the investigation. The resignation came after Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León introduced Senate Resolution 85 on Wednesday, which cites the house's zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy and the results of the investigation as grounds...

“Who cares about a state election in Wisconsin?” you ask. Ah, well, Scott Walker does. He’s running for a third term as governor this year and the current he’s rowing against is getting stronger. A lot of data nerds, eyeing the trend in last night’s results in special elections in Wisconsin and elsewhere, care. And if something doesn’t happen to stop the Democrats’ momentum, we’re all going to care in November.Romney lost Wisconsin in 2012 but took Wisconsin’s 10th Senate District from Obama. Trump won the state narrowly in 2016 but crushed Hillary in the 10th. The last Republican...

Pennsylvania’s governor said Sunday a state senator should resign over published allegations he behaved inappropriately toward women. Gov. Tom Wolf’s call for Sen. Daylin Leach to quit followed a story quoting former campaign and legislative staffers and advisers who accused Leach, 56, of behavior ranging from highly sexualized jokes and comments to touching they considered inappropriate. Wolf called Leach “a leader on important policy issues”, but said, “this conduct cannot be excused.” Leach, a legislator since 2003, is seeking the Democratic nomination next year for Congress in the Philadelphia suburbs. In a statement, Leach blamed the accusations on an unnamed...

Democratic Kentucky state Sen. Julian Carroll was officially removed from his position as minority whip Sunday following a local news report that alleged the lawmaker groped a male staffer in 2005. The Senate Democratic caucus formally voted to remove Carroll and called for him to resign his office, according to a Spectrum News report. “In light of recent media reports, the Senate Democratic Caucus has voted to remove Senator Carroll from his leadership position as minority whip,” Senate Democrats said in a statement. “The Senate Democratic Caucus calls on Senator Carroll to resign his Kentucky State Senate seat, immediately.” The...

Most of the attention in politics has focused on the 2016 elections, but a few contests on this Election Day 2015 are worth noting, too. Republicans have had a long history of frustration in gubernatorial races in otherwise friendly Kentucky, and they may well add another chapter of failure today — unless a last-minute infusion of cash can bridge the gap for Matt Bevin: Republicans are pouring money into a last-minute effort in Tuesday’s Kentucky gubernatorial race, aiming to rescue Matt Bevin’s struggling campaign and keep the GOP from again being shut out of the conservative state’s governorship.Bevin, who...

Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s prospects of retaking control of the Virginia Senate dimmed Tuesday night as Republicans won a Richmond district that Democrats called key to their plan for flipping the upper chamber. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Glen Sturtevant, a Richmond school board member, defeated Democrat Dan Gecker, a Chesterfield County supervisor in the race to replace Sen. John C. Watkins (Powhatan), who is retiring. “Well it’s a shame. We did the best we could,” Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) said. Tuesday’s election results will ultimately determine McAuliffe (D) has any legislative leverage or political momentum heading...

Madison — A conservative businessman who lost a GOP primary bid for Congress in July will run for the state Senate seat of the man who beat him. Duey Stroebel Jr., a real estate owner and state Assemblyman from Saukville, lent his campaign $792,000 but still came in third in the July Republican primary to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Tom Petri. Stroebel finished behind state Sens. Glenn Grothman of Campellsport and Joe Leibham of Sheboygan. Grothman went on to win the general election race against Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris. Stroebel, who lives in Grothman's 20th Senate district, announced Monday...

The former Georgetown University law student who gained national attention for being denied a chance to testify in Congress for health plan contraception coverage—and then was subjected to degrading comments by radio host Rush Limbaugh—is hoping to make public policy of her own. Sandra Fluke is running as a first-time candidate for a seat in California’s state Senate to represent some of the most affluent communities of Los Angeles County, a district that stretches from the Hollywood Hills to the Palos Verdes peninsula. In a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1, Fluke is campaigning on an agenda that includes subsidized...

Some Illinois lawmakers are calling for a federal constitutional convention to amend the Constitution in order to allow laws that limit the influence of money in politics. “When the Supreme Court of the United States rules that money is a protected speech and that ordinary people cannot pass common-sense laws because they might dilute the influence of the super-rich, it’s time to change the game,” Illinois State Senator Jacqueline Collins of the 16th District says. …

Republican State Senatorial candidate Scott Wagner, running a write-in campaign, beat candidates backed by both the Democratic and the GOP establishments in a Pennsylvania special election last week. Wagner’s victory over the establishment standard-bearers for the State’s 28th Senate district represents the first time a write-in candidate has ever won a seat in the Pennsylvania Senate. Wagner, a businessman from York County, won an astonishing 48 percent of the vote with his write-in campaign. His GOP-endorsed opponent, State Representative Ron Miller, took 27 percent of the vote and Linda Small, the Democratic establishment pick, received 26 percent. Local news reports...

In what appears to be an unexpected victory for a conservative businessman who had made s point of bucking his own party, Republican Scott Wagner is presumed to have won a write-in campaign to defeat party nominee Ron Miller for an open seat in the state Senate. The closely watched, hotly contested face-off ended in disappointment for the Republican mainstay and a first major victory for the tea party in York County. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting Tuesday night, write-in votes totaled 10,595 or 47.7 percent, to Miller's 5,920 or 26.6 percent. Democrat Linda Small of New Freeedom...

A bill that would give the Legislature power to write and approve Wisconsin's academic standards is unlikely to pass in its current form, the leader of the state Senate said Thursday as hundreds of teachers, school administrators and business leaders -- including Madison superintendent Jennifer Cheatham -- converged on the Capitol to oppose it. And the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, which held a hearing on the measure, told The Associated Press that at least five Republican senators told him they opposed the measure that would likely lead to the undoing of the Common Core standards adopted in 2010....