Free Republic

Former Miss America Erika Harold lost her longshot bid on Tuesday to unseat first-term Rep. Rodney Davis as Illinois primary voters cast their ballots... Davis received 55 percent of the vote to Harold's 41 percent in the downstate district. Another candidate, Michael Firsching, a veterinarian who lost in a 2012 race, won 4 percent. Davis, 44, declared victory about 10:45 p.m. He won the 2012 race by slightly more than 1,000 votes... Harold, 33, who was Miss America 2003, is an attorney and a Harvard Law School graduate whose battle to unseat Davis was seen as uphill from the outset...

The Senate Conservatives Fund, founded by former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, has endorsed Bryan Smith in his campaign to upset eight-term incumbent Mike Simpson in May’s Republican primary. The fund adds to Smith’s list of endorsements, which so far includes the hard-right Club for Growth, The Madison Project, FreedomWorks, Citizens United, the National Association of Gun Rights and Young Americans for Liberty. Simpson’s endorsements include some heavyweights, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Rifle Association. Here’s the full release from the Senate Conservatives Fund: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Contact: Matt Hoskins (202)...

With the ballot now set, the first poll of the official Republican primary field for U.S. Senate finds a dead heat between Thom Tillis and Greg Brannon. Both took 14 percent in a March survey from Public Policy Polling, a Raleigh-based Democratic firm. It’s a downward shift for Tillis, who held a commanding 20 percent in the PPP poll a month ago, and puts him in the morass of an eight-candidate field despite pumping big money into a TV ad campaign. The plurality of the GOP primary electorate remains undecided, at 36 percent. Even with a minimal campaign, Heather Grant...

A good night for conservatives in the GOP primary. Cornyn fended off challengers, but at only 60% up against 7 dwarves, the establishment should be put on notice. Conservative Dan Patrick leads for Lt Gov. This defies polls but tells us Dan Patrick is in a good position to win. I supported Jerry Patterson, and that support will imho go mostly to Dan Patrick. For AG, its conservative Ken Paxton up against Straus-ally Dan Branch. Encouragingly, Ken Paxton has a strong lead. Smitherman at 20% is support that should/will go to Paxton. Comptroller, similarly the leading vote-getting is Glen Hagar,...

“We wish Senator Cornyn [the] best of luck in November and urge everyone to vote for, volunteer for and support the whole Texas GOP ticket,” Stockman tweeted just after The Associated Press called the race for Cornyn, with only about 2 percent of precincts reporting.

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is holding the nation's first primary election Tuesday with a political free-for-all in Republican races that could push the state further right, though Democrats are calling it the next big electoral battleground. Republican Gov. Rick Perry has decided this would be his last of a record 14 years in office, and his looming exit has set off a scramble resulting in the most open races in Texas in more than a decade. Republicans are favored to win them all come November — including Perry's seat, despite Democrat Wendy Davis building a national profile and an early...

I was hoping one of the Texas FReepers would start a thread, but didn't see one. The Texas primary is today..several interesting races, but the BIG ONE involves Cornyn. When you vote...let us know what you heard/saw? What's the weather like down there?

Republican Rob Astorino will announce the first week in March that he will run for governor of New York. The Westchester County executive is expected to make the announcement March 3 or 4 along with his agenda on "eight key issues," the New York Post is reporting. The decision to enter the race came after receiving promises of at least $15 million in campaign contributions and more to come, if he can tighten the race between himself and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is expected to have $40 million in the bank for his re-election bid. "There'll be a...

Nearly two years after Ted Cruz's come-from-behind primary victory, Tea Party challengers are fizzling in Texas. Defeating the former Senate and House GOP campaign committee heads would be a top trophy for conservative insurgents. But with just over two weeks until Election Day, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) are both heavy favorites against their primary opponents. Texas Republicans laugh that gadfly Rep. Steve Stockman's (R-Texas) challenge to Cornyn has been a comedy of errors. Tea Party leader Katrina Pierson (R) has failed to gain any real traction against Sessions as she’s struggled with fundraising and name...

Matt Bevin, who is challenging Sen. Mitch McConnell in a Republican primary, calls the 2008 federal bailout of banks and Wall Street giants “irresponsible” and says he would have opposed it as a senator. Yet back in 2008, as an investment fund president, Bevin backed the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, as well as the government takeover of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. McConnell supported TARP, and the Bevin campaign repeatedly reminds voters that the Senate minority leader calls that vote “one of the finest moments in the history of the Senate.”

West Virginia Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito will announce Monday morning that she is running in 2014 for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Jay Rockefeller. Capito has long considered a run for the Senate, and passed on the most recent opportunity following the death of long-time Senator Robert Byrd. She's expected to say, among other things, that the timing is now right for her run. The announcement sets up a potential race between two West Virginia political heavyweights.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee had a rotten track record in 2012. But now they’re looking to get more deeply involved in picking candidates at the state level, hoping to foreclose Tea Party primary challengers like Richard Mourdock (R-IN). “There’s always going to be fundamental dislike of the national party coming to a local or a state race and saying, ‘This is who we want to pick,” Keli Carender of Tea Party Patriots told The Hill. The NRSC pulled out of several races this cycle, dooming several candidates to less-than-full financial support...