Free Republic

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced legislation today to repeal Donald Trump’s global tariffs, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The binding measure will be treated as a privileged resolution that must receive a vote on the Senate floor. The measure would terminate the emergency that Trump declared in order to slap tariffs of up to 40% on products Americans buy from other countries. In the wake of Trump’s tariff declaration, costs have...

The decision could touch off a scramble by Republicans to redraw majority-minority congressional districts, especially in the South, that could cost many Black Democrats their seats.The Supreme Court on Wednesday sharply weakened a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act, a ruling that limits the consideration of race in drawing voting maps and could usher in Republican gains in the House.The decision is expected to touch off a scramble by Republicans to redraw majority-minority districts, especially in the South. New districts could shift the balance of power in Congress by imperiling the reelection prospects of some Black Democrats, possibly...

WASHINGTON — Democrats faced tough questioning before the Virginia Supreme Court on Monday during oral arguments on a redistricting referendum that narrowly passed last week, though most of the justices were oddly quiet. Republicans have challenged the referendum, which paved the way for the Dems to pick up as many as four local congressional seats — potentially leaving them with a 10-to-one margin over GOPers — arguing that the Democrat-led General Assembly flouted procedural rules to get it on the ballot. A constitutional amendment was needed to put it to voters — and state lawmakers have to approve a resolution...

A Virginia transgender substitute teacher was arrested for allegedly plotting a chilling “murder spree” at a local school — and bragging online about having a disturbing hit list. Hadyn Dollery, 19, was busted on school grounds Monday after posting threatening messages on Discord targeting John Champe High School in Stone Ridge, about 40 miles west of Washington, DC, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and multiple outlets. Police said a tip on the department’s Safe2Talk app exposed the suspect’s sinister online posts. The accused would-be attacker allegedly unleashed threats against family and friends on the messaging app, including disturbing...

For years, Democratic politicians and their allies in the legacy media have spread the damnable Charlottesville Hoax: the propaganda myth that President Trump praised bigots who rioted in 2017 in the Virginia town. Of course, the opposite is true, as Trump actually said: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.”Now, we learn that the entire hoax of Trump and Charlottesville is, itself, built upon another grand lie. The media and people like Joe Biden have continually pushed the narrative that some big, organic gathering of hateful Americans descended upon Charlottesville and represented...

Virginia’s redistricting referendum, which could net Democrats a 10-1 House seat advantage, is spurring Republican legislation that would expand the borders of Washington, D.C., and cost the state Democratic voters. Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick said Thursday he introduced the Make DC Square Again Act, a bill that would undo the 19th century return of the southwestern part of the district to the state of Virginia, known as retrocession. “The Make DC Square Again Act restores the original ten-mile-square District and ends the artificial advantage Virginia Democrats have recently gained from all the federal bureaucrats moving into Virginia,” McCormick said...

The Rich Men north of Richmond may have won for a day, but they cashed out every ounce of public goodwill they had to do it.If they truly wanted non-partisan redistricting, they would have pushed the Virginia Model to the other 49 states. So spare me — not interested. Lucy can keep her football this time.

Republicans are cheering a circuit court victory in Virginia that showed Democrats' redistricting efforts in Virginia are not quite ...

Democrats cheered a redistricting measure that reportedly passed in Virginia on Tuesday. The passage gives the Democrat-controlled state legislature the ability to redraw the commonwealth's congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterms. Except there are already questions about whether this will stand, as we reported. On Wednesday afternoon, Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. ruled that Tuesday's referendum is unconstitutional and issued an injunction preventing the certification of the election maps. Judge Hurley has also denied any motion to stay his ruling pending appeal. That decision will likely be appealed. Democrats like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) were...

Democrats approved a new congressional map in Virginia on Tuesday, the latest skirmish in a redistricting arms race that will help determine which party wins control of Congress in the midterm elections. Leading up to the Virginia vote, Republicans had amassed a cushion of newly drawn Republican seats through gerrymanders in Texas, North Carolina, Missouri and Ohio. Democrats countered with a gerrymander of their own in California, and courts in Utah gave Democrats an unexpected new district in the deeply red Western state. That meant that going into Tuesday night, there were between eight and nine new Republican-leaning districts, and...

Voters are in the Virginia polls, choosing yes or no on a constitutional amendment that could sway four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives come November. New congressional redistricting maps were ignited by second-term Republican Donald Trump’s pressure onto Texas in 2025. Thus far, redraws have given hope for Republicans to gain three seats; Virginia could change that to a one seat deficit.The state has six Democrats and five Republicans in the House, and if the amendment passes would be forecast to reach a 10-1 edge. In the last statewide presidential vote of 2024, Democrat Kamala Harris edged Trump...

A Virginia circuit court judge on Wednesday struck down the state's voter-approved redistricting amendment in its entirety, ruling that the measure was unconstitutional from its inception and that every vote cast in Tuesday's special election — for or against — is legally void. Judge Jack Hurley, a Republican appointee, entered the sweeping final judgment on April 22, granting relief to the plaintiffs on all counts. He declared the proposed constitutional amendment "void ab initio" — Latin for void from the start — and permanently enjoined state officials from certifying the election results or taking any steps to implement new congressional...

In 2020 Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to lose Virginia twice since William Howard Taft. Then in 2024 Trump lost once more, this time to Kamala Harris. Now he has in effect lost it a fourth time as Virginia voters approved on Tuesday a fiercely contested referendum redrawing congressional districts to favor Democratic congressional candidates in the 2026 midterm elections. “This is really a country election. The whole country is watching,” Trump said. If so, it watched Trump suffer a major blow – one that will prompt renewed questions about his political acuity and judgment. It was...

A former CIA officer was indicted Tuesday on charges that he planned to give confidential U.S. government documents to the Chinese government, according to U.S. Department of Justice. Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, of Hong Kong, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia. He is charged with one count of conspiracy to cater or deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government and two counts of unlawfully retaining documents related to the national defense. Mr. Lee, who is naturalized U.S. citizen, was found to be in possession of two notebooks containing the true...

Democrats scored a major victory on Tuesday as a congressional redistricting referendum that could give Democrats a significant boost in the battle for the U.S. House of Representatives majority in this year's midterm elections was passed by Virginia voters, the Associated Press reported at 8:49 p.m. ET. The ballot measure gives the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature — rather than the state's current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia's congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge. That would give the Democrats four additional left-leaning U.S. House...

Virginia prop losing in initial reports

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Monday announced the death of his 36-year-old daughter, who had suffered from juvenile diabetes. “We are heartbroken beyond words by the passing of our beloved daughter, Madison, 36, after a decades-long battle with juvenile diabetes and other health issues. She filled our lives with love and laughter, and her absence leaves an immeasurable void,” Warner and his wife, Lisa Collins, posted in a statement on X. “We are grateful for the loving support of friends and family during this difficult time and ask for privacy as we navigate this profound loss,” he added. Madison is...

My wife and I were tardy, but we did vote on Saturday against the Virginia Democrats’ outrageously unfair redistricting proposal which would eliminate four pro-life Republican Congressional Representative and replace them with four pro-abortion Democrats. Currently, the divide is six Democrats and five Republicans. The new divide would 10-1. There were hordes of “yes” signs ostensibly to “restore fairness,” but does 10 Democrats and 1 Republican “restore fairness”? In 60 years of voting, I’ve never read anything so deliberately and maliciously deceptive. To be crystal clear, if on April 21, the constitutional amendment passes, Virginia will have one—ONE—pro-life Republican and...

Virginians will head to the polls Tuesday to approve or reject a closely watched constitutional amendment that could reshape the state’s congressional map ahead of the 2026 elections. The standalone spring referendum will cap months of legal battles, political messaging and unusually high early voting interest. The vote follows a fast-moving and contentious push by Democratic lawmakers to authorize mid-decade redistricting, a move framed as a response to similar efforts in other states but sharply criticized by Republicans and some reform advocates. The proposal has drawn national attention and prompted multiple court challenges, including disputes over whether the measure should...

The early vote in Virginia’s special election on redistricting has turned out more GOP voters than the 2025 gubernatorial election did, as Democrats look to redraw the state’s map with a 10-to-1 blue district margin. Virginia is just one day out from its referendum on whether or not to allow the blue state legislature to redraw the state’s congressional map in favor of Democrats, and election forecasters are zeroing in on the state’s early voting numbers. The final early vote tally in Virginia is about 3% more red than the early vote turnout in 2025, according to election forecaster State...