Free Republic

Alex's largest donation this cycle was for $2 million to the Senate Majority PAC (SMP), a committee launched by former staffers of retired Nevada senator Harry Reid that is dedicated to electing and keeping Democrats in the Senate. SMP reports nearly $80 million in contributions this cycle, and Alex's $2 million donation makes him one of the top donors to the PAC, its filings show. The group has already dished out more than $30 million in independent expenditures this cycle backing Democrats. Alex added $33,900 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's coffers. Another $101,700 was given to the committee's headquarters...

With less than two months to the crucial November election, a handful of battleground Senate races have captured an outsized share of campaign cash in the 2018 midterm cycle. As of mid-September, roughly 40 percent of the more than half a billion dollars in direct contributions raised by Senate candidates had flowed into just 10 races. They include contests for open seats in Arizona and Tennessee. The rest are for races in which incumbents are defending seats: in Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Texas and West Virginia. And some 70 percent of the $185 million in spending by...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is breaking with calls from party leadership to delay Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings in the wake of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea. Asked about calls on Wednesday from his Democratic colleagues, including Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), to delay Kavanaugh's hearings, Manchin interjected “that’s not right.” “We do our job. Let’s do our job. ... Delaying is not going to help anything,” he said. Manchin noted that Democratic leaders had not looped him in on the strategy that was announced earlier on Wednesday, a day after Cohen pleaded guilty to...

For years, the most popular politician in West Virginia, hands down, was Joe Manchin. Twice elected governor, the centrist Democrat is now running for re-election as the Mountain State’s senior senator. In 2016, however, Manchin’s mantle was passed to Donald Trump, who carried the state by 42 percentage points over Hillary Clinton. The president remains nearly as popular today as he was on the last Election Day, and as the West Virginia Senate race approaches the post-Labor Day home stretch, the question is whether the Trump mystique will be enough to send Manchin into early retirement. He delivered a clear...

Reminder. This joint holds about 16,200 people....so, lets turn out 20,000 plus folks. Come on, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania & surrounding state, etc., get those butts into gear and support our great, POTUS, Trump and "HIS" Republican Party and candidates in the upcoming Mid-Term elections. Be there, or be nowhere, Your POTUS, Your Country, Your Children, Your Families, Your loved ones, Your futures are at stake. If the Democrat Party succeeds in taking back the House, game over, for the USA!!! It is as simple as that. If you want the America of Democrats, Andrew Cuomo and, now Corey...

Patrick Morrisey is leaning on the president to turn around his campaign against the incumbent Democrat. BECKLEY, W.Va. — Republicans can't seem to figure out how to beat Joe Manchin. On paper, Manchin should be an easy mark in November: an incumbent Democrat in a state where President Donald Trump won two-thirds of the vote in 2016 and remains overwhelmingly popular. Yet Manchin holds a comfortable lead in public and private polling, and interviews with multiple Republican operatives involved in or closely following the race indicate it has slipped out of the top tier of Senate contests. Republicans are worried...

Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) office told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement on Wednesday that he supports funding $5 billion for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall in the fall spending bill. “Senator Manchin supports President Trump’s $5 billion border wall funding. Senator Manchin has already voted for over $40 billion in border security, to fund the wall and secure our borders,” Jonathan Kott, Sen. Manchin’s communications director, told Breitbart News. Sen. Manchin’s office told Breitbart News that the West Virginia Democrat also voted for the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) $1.6 billion appropriations bill, which would fund over 65...

Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) office told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement on Wednesday that he supports funding $5 billion for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall in the fall spending bill... Sen. Manchin has become the second red-state Democrat to support funding President Trump’s border wall in the September spending bill, following on Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN).

Don Blankenship, the former coal baron who spent time in federal prison and finished third in the West Virginia Republican primary in May, is wading back into the state's U.S. Senate race, this time attempting filing paperwork to run as a member of the Constitution Party. Blakenship tweeted photos of himself filing the paperwork on Tuesday, saying in part, "I am the only candidate who cannot be bought by out of state billionaires and I will work hard to drain the swamp."

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) had some choice words for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on his efforts to unify Democrats against President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Manchin told Politico on Friday that Schumer has no power over support for Kavanaugh’s nomination. “I’ll be 71-years-old in August; you’re going to whip me? Kiss my you know what,” Manchin, referring to Schumer’s efforts to whip up the votes against Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, told Politico in an interview. Shortly after Trump announced Kavanaugh as his pick for the Supreme Court, Schumer released a...

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W. Va.) had strong words for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (N.Y.) efforts to unify the party against President Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Manchin suggested to Politico that Schumer does not have any influence over whether or not he supports Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. “I’ll be 71 years old in August, you’re going to whip me? Kiss my you know what,” Manchin told Politico, referring to whipping votes among the party caucus. Schumer has spoken out harshly against Kavanaugh and vowed to oppose him “with everything I’ve got.” Democrats will need at least two GOP votes, in...

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin says Brett Kavanaugh has "all the right qualities" to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Manchin's comments regarding President Donald Trump's nominee to the high court came during an interview on West Virginia's MetroNews' "Talkline" radio show on Wednesday. An excerpt of the interview is posted on the MetroNews Twitter account. "He has all the right qualities," Manchin said. "He's well-educated and, with that, we have to just look at making sure that the rule of law and the Constitution is going to be followed and that's going to basically preempt anything else he does."

Judge Brett Kavanaugh is going to be a weeks-long torment for some on the Hill—and I’m talking about red state Democrats. Senate Republican moderates Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have been very receptive to Kavanaugh’s nomination, easing pressure from the right that they could sink this SCOTUS nominee if they defect. That could be the case, but for now, pressure has ramped up on Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), and maybe Bill Nelson (D-FL). Nelson needs help. Republican Gov. Rick Scott is outworking him on Hispanic outreach, and he’s beating Nelson...

WASHINGTON — Democratic senators running for re-election in red states where President Donald Trump remains popular face an agonizing choice over his coming Supreme Court nominee: Vote to confirm the pick and risk demoralizing Democratic voters ahead of the midterm elections, or stick with the party and possibly sacrifice their own seats — and any chance at a Democratic majority in 2019. The actions of a handful of Senate Democrats struggling to hold their seats in those states — notably Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — will have broad implications...

Don Blankenship, who was defeated in his maverick bid for the Republican nomination to run for Senate in West Virginia, said Monday he’ll run as a third party candidate in November, tossing the race in turmoil. Mr. Blankenship said he has accepted the nomination of the Constitution Party, saying it was a natural fit for his views — and suggested he was out for vengeance against President Trump’s political team. “This time, we won’t get surprised by the lying establishment,” he said. “We were assured by White House political staff that they would not interfere in the primary election. Obviously,...

Don Blankenship isn’t done being a thorn in the side of the GOP. The ex-con former coal baron announced Monday morning that he plans to run as the Constitution Party’s nominee for Senate, a move that could damage his former party’s chances at defeating Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) if he’s able to actually get on the ballot.

BREAKING: State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey wins Republican primary in U.S. Senate race in West Virginia. Convicted ex-coal CEO Don Blankenship loses.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Monday that he will vote for CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of State, making him the second Democrat to support Pompeo's nomination. "After meeting with Mike Pompeo, discussing his foreign policy perspectives, & considering his distinguished time as CIA Director & his exemplary career in public service, I will vote to confirm Mike Pompeo to be our next Secretary of State," Manchin said in a tweet. Pompeo likely already had the votes to be confirmed by the full Senate. With Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) expected to oppose him, Pompeo needed...

With less than three weeks until West Virginia’s primary election, national Republican leaders seem to finally recognize that ex-con Don Blankenship has a very real chance to win the Senate contest and represent the party this fall against incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin III — and they are unleashing a last-ditch effort to stop him. A recently formed PAC with ties to prominent Republican officials is spending about $700,000 on anti-Blankenship ads across the state ahead of the May 8 primary election. The former Massey Energy CEO, who spent a year in federal prison in connection with the 2010 Upper Big...

West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice says he has fired Secretary of Education and the Arts Gayle Manchin ahead of his decision on approved legislation to reorganize the agency. Justice announced the move in a news release Monday. Manchin is a former state school board president and is the wife of Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin.