Free Republic

Conservatives are calling for Republicans in Congress to fulfill their campaign promises by supporting President Donald Trump’s spending proposal and to not enact amnesty in a year-end deal with Democrats. A letter released Monday and signed by 44 conservative leaders explains that Virginia is “in ruins” after Republican losses at both the statewide and local level earlier this month. The leaders warn that the Republican majority in the House could be in jeopardy next. “Your consultants and managers are out of excuses—and your conservative grassroots are running out of both patience and time,” the letter states. “So stop panicking and...

If you wanted to predict the results of Tuesday's gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, you would have been wise to ignore the flurry of polls and campaign events. You would have paid no heed to the conventional wisdom that Republican Ed Gillespie had a solid chance to beat Ralph Northam in Virginia. In fact, Northam's 9-point victory margin in Virginia was not much different from Phil Murphy's 13-point margin over Republican Kim Guadagno in New Jersey. And both almost precisely mirrored the 2016 presidential results. Hillary Clinton carried New Jersey by a 55-41 percent margin last year; Murphy...

Republicans regained a bare majority in the House of Delegates on Wednesday, a day after losing a 32-seat advantage in a wave of Democratic victories that crashed from Northern Virginia through Richmond to Hampton Roads. But the GOP’s 51-49 margin is far from secure, as both parties prepare for weeks of vote recounts in at least four closely contested races that ultimately will decide the balance of power in the House.

The day after his "Silent Majority" speech on Nov. 3, 1969, calling on Americans to stand with him for peace with honor in Vietnam, Richard Nixon's GOP captured the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey. By December, Nixon had reached 68 percent approval in the Gallup Poll, though, a year earlier, he had won but 43 percent of the vote. Contrast Nixon's numbers with President Trump's. Where Trump won 46 percent of the vote against Hillary Clinton, his approval rating is now nearly 10 points below that. He has less support today than on the day he was elected, or...

President Trump has an approval rating of 38 percent. That’s not good. And when a president’s polls are not good, members of his party tend to suffer when elections roll around. That is what happened Tuesday night in Virginia, New Jersey and in the suburbs of New York City. Do not fall for efforts made by people on all sides obsessed with slicing and dicing raw voting data to complicate this whole 2017 elections business. You’ll be reading about how maybe it wasn’t all so bad or maybe it was far worse than it looks. Mostly, it’s exactly how it...

<p>President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon said Wednesday that Republican candidates cannot “fake” it and must double down on Trump’s agenda despite fresh GOP election losses.</p> <p>Bannon spoke at a Republican event in Michigan on the anniversary of Trump’s presidential victory and a day after Democrats scored big victories in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere. He downplayed the gubernatorial loss in Virginia, calling it a “blue state” and GOP candidate Ed Gillespie a “good man.”</p>

Prominent liberals combined to pour millions into Virginia to support Dem candidate Ralph Northam A group backed by former President Barack Obama and headed by former Attorney General Eric Holder poured $1 million into the Virginia gubernatorial race in support of Democrat Ralph Northam, who on Tuesday defeated Republican Ed Gillespie. Other prominent liberals, including progressive mega-donor Tom Steyer and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, also devoted large sums of money and resources into the effort to elect Northam. The National Democratic Redistricting Foundation—a foundation associated with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NRDC), a Washington, D.C.-based organization chaired...

The American suburbs appear to be in revolt against President Trump after a muscular coalition of college-educated voters and racial and ethnic minorities on Tuesday dealt the Republican Party a thumping rejection and propelled a diverse class of Democrats into office. From the tax-obsessed suburbs of New York City to high-tech neighborhoods outside Seattle to the sprawling, polyglot developments of Fairfax and Prince William County, Va., voters shunned Republicans up and down the ballot in off-year elections. Leaders in both parties said the elections amounted to an earsplitting alarm bell for Republicans ahead of the 2018 elections, when the party’s...

Steve Bannon offered to stump for Republican candidate for Virginia governor, Ed Gillespie, but Gillespie's campaign declined, according to multiple reports. The decision, which preceded Democratic opponent Lt. Governor Ralph Northam trouncing Gillespie at the polls on Tuesday, left Bannon's camp fuming, per the ABC. Bannon was also frustrated with Gillespie's refusal to appear on his Breitbart radio show or do any interviews with the conservative media outlet. “Ed Gillespie had no message, was inauthentic, spoke from both sides of his mouth, and at the end of the day, even the deplorables couldn’t save him,” Andrew Surabian, Bannon’s political adviser,...

Republican leaders seeking to overhaul the federal tax code faced new challenges Wednesday, including a new $74 billion hole in the House’s plan and a drubbing in Tuesday’s state and local elections that will be on members’ minds as they prepare for difficult tax votes. Democrats won gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday and also stood on the cusp of winning control of the Virginia House of Delegates — a setback that many are calling a wake-up call to the GOP. But top Republican tax writers split Wednesday over whether that would make it harder for them...

Anti-establishment firebrand Corey Stewart wasted little time Tuesday night before offering his synopsis of why Republicans lost big in Virginia's elections: They picked the wrong guy. After watching Republican Ed Gillespie go down in defeat in the governor's race, Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and the former chairman of President Donald Trump's Virginia campaign, blasted Gillespie in a statement, saying he "refused to stand with the grassroots of the party and refused to fight ultra left wing Democrats." "Tonight was a humiliating rejection of the failed Bush wing of the Republican Party," said Stewart,...

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), in partnership with the Virginia Council of Muslim Organizations (VCMO), today released the results of an exit poll indicating that Muslim voters in Virginia strongly supported now governor-elect Ralph Northam in Tuesday's election. The poll, conducted by an independent interactive voice response survey provider on behalf of CAIR and VCMO, indicated that 76 percent of registered Virginia Muslim voters turned out to the polls in the off-year election. CAIR said the more than 300 Muslim voters surveyed indicated the following preferences: Ralph Northam (D) 85% Ed Gillespie (R) 13% Cliff Hyra (L) 2%...

There will be a lot of speculation and recrimination around the results of yesterday’s elections. The DNC will (and already are) claiming it as a rejection of President Trump, whilst the GOP is remaining somewhat silence. But what is the real deal here? Who truly won and lost, and what are the wider ramifications? The DNC, and most specifically Tom Perez, have bought themselves a stay of execution. After losing every major election since (and including) the presidency, they were sorely in need of a big win. Virginia (already Democrat headed) and New Jersey Governorships are not huge, but they...

Backed by a coalition of gun control groups, Phil Murphy won his race in New Jersey while Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam came out ahead in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. Murphy, who will replace Republican Gov. Chris Christie in the Garden State and has pledged to get “tough on gun violence,” beat out his Republican rival, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. In Virginia, Northam, who had President Obama talk gun politics on his behalf, bested Republican Ed Gillespie in a narrow finish. “Make no mistake: Gun violence prevention was on the ballot today and, despite the NRA spending millions, voters in Virginia and...

After being relatively well-behaved, MSNBC eventually burst out gloating over the Democratic Party’s tidal wave victories in Virginia as pundits Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell celebrated and particularly over the “stunning” victory of transgender House of Delegates candidate Danica Roem that they deemed a night in which “history is being written by movie writers.” O’Donnell was later assisted in the triumphant debriefing by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who encouraged Democrats to put “some referendums on the ballot on guns, on reproductive health, on a lot of other issues, so, I think is a good omen for Democrats in...

Transgender woman beats 13-term incumbent who authored bathroom-ban bill and referred to her as 'him' much of the campaign (but she would rather talk about rush hour traffic) Democrat Danica Roem of Virginia, a former journalist, makes history as the first openly transgender person elected and seated in a state legislature She defeated 13-term incumbent Bob Marshall, who has been in the legislature since 1992 and authored the state's anti-trans bathroom-ban bill Roem focused on jobs, schools and, with particular fervor, northern Virginia's traffic congestion in her campaign She lives with her boyfriend, who she has not named, and his...

A first-time politician who lost his girlfriend to gun violence has defeated the National Rifle Association-backed incumbent in a state house race in Virginia.... Hurst’s girlfriend, 24-year-old journalist Alison Parker, was shot dead on live television during a routine morning broadcast in 2015, along with WDBJ7 cameraman Adam Ward. Parker had been quietly dating Hurst, another reporter at the station.... ....On Tuesday, Hurst won with 54% of the vote to defeat Joseph Yost, an incumbent with an A-rating from the NRA.

People asked a few months ago during debates “Can Ed Gillespie win in Virginia?” It struck me how this is a totally meaningless and absurd question. Of course Ed Gillespie could win. Of course Ed Gillespie could lose. Months ago, I rejected the dominant thinking that Candidate A (automatically) wins while Candidate B (automatically) loses. It’s how a candidate campaigns for office that counts. Yet all of our thinking and talking suggests that Candidate A wins merely and exclusively because she is “A” while Candidate B loses merely and exclusively because he is “B.” First, the Republican Party has to...

....“I don’t know how you get around that this wasn’t a referendum on the administration, I just don’t," Taylor told reporters at Gillespie's election night party. "Some of the very divisive rhetoric really prompted and helped usher in a really high Democratic turnout... "I’m telling you that from someone who is from Virginia, who watched these races, who watched people lose tonight against opponents who are completely no name.” ....Taylor admitted that Trump could threaten the GOP's House majority. When asked whether Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would retain his speakership if Trump doesn't moderate, Taylor said it was an "interesting...

During Tuesday’s election in Virginia, Williams had originally planned to go and vote right at 6 a.m., but her ride was delayed a few hours. Williams, a former felon, lost her right to vote decades ago because she was convicted of a felony and Virginia bars felons from voting unless that right is restored by the governor. Williams, who is now back in school working to earn a degree that will help her become an auto-mechanic, said she was last in prison in 2014, but only recently had her voting rights restored by Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D). And so on...