Free Republic

Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s just-announced presidential campaign was in large measure base on three pillars; his compelling immigrant family story, his claim on conservative support as one of the 2010 Tea Party wave election’s brightest stars and his commitment of righting the foreign policy failures and world chaos wrought by President Obama and his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Yet, in his first post announcement test – the vote on the dangerous Iran nuclear weapons treaty bill put forward by Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker – Rubio voted for that dangerous bill and failed to take...

A 2018 Asian American Voter Survey, published Oct. 9, found that Democrats are at an advantage with the Asian-American electorate this midterm election. Democrats also held an advantage in voter identification, with 38 percent of those surveyed identifying as Democrats compared to 22 percent as Asian-American Republicans. Thirty-eight percent said they did not identify with either party. When asked about Trump's job in office, a majority said they disapproved of his performance (58 percent), while 36 percent approved. This sentiment was not uniform among all ethnic groups: A majority of surveyed Vietnamese Americans approved of Trump (64 percent), the only...

The midterm elections did not give Democrats a singular leader to rally behind, nor did it settle ideological divides in the party. But the results can tell us a lot about the mood among Democratic voters, and what they might be looking for in a 2020 presidential nominee. First, much hay has been made about the choice between progressives on one hand and moderates or “centrists” on the other. You could read the midterms results as vindication for the latter; outspoken progressives like Kara Eastman in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District and Leslie Cockburn in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District fell short,...

Mike Espy who is seeking to unseat appointed U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., and serve the last two years of the six-year term vacated when Republican Thad Cochran retired for health reasons ... A Democratic Senate hopeful in Mississippi cashed in $750,000 after lobbying on behalf of an African despot currently on trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. Mike Espy, a former lobbyist and U.S. agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton, is running against Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who was appointed as a temporary successor to longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran after his retirement in April....

Looking to bolster its Senate majority, the GOP wheeled out its biggest gun Monday in Mississippi as President Trump rallied to bolster Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith ahead of Tuesday’s run-off election. In Tupelo, Mr. Trump said he needs Ms. Hyde-Smith in Washington and urged voters to keep her there. “I’m here to ask the people of Mississippi to send Cindy Hyde-Smith back so we can make America great again,” Mr. Trump said, after some praise for Tupelo’s most famous son, Elvis Presley. “Don’t empower the radical Democrats to return us to the failure of the past.” As expected, Mr. Trump basked...

A Miami-based political committee has proposed a constitutional amendment that would ban possession of “assault” weapons in Florida if approved by voters.The proposal, backed by the committee Ban Assault Weapons Now, was posted on the state Division of Elections website this month. The committee had raised nearly $410,000 since March, while spending almost $284,000, according to finance information. The expenditures included $75,000 last month to a California-based company for what was described in the finance information as “petitions.”

SACRAMENTO -- The California Democratic Party is investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against chairman Eric Bauman. A party vice chairman, Daraka Larimore-Hall, brought the charges against Bauman last week on behalf of anonymous accusers and called for Bauman's resignation. Larimore-Hall alleged that Bauman sexually harassed and assaulted people during party functions. Bauman narrowly won the party chairmanship last year against Kimberly Ellis after a contentious battle between establishment Democrats and progressive activists. During that fight, Bauman said he was falsely targeted by rumors he engaged in inappropriate behavior with teenage boys. Bauman is the party's first openly gay chairman. Bauman...

The media keeps screaming that Republicans have a "problem" with women. But it's women who have a problem with Democrats. This is the latest example of a national trend in politics and media. The California Democratic Party has launched an investigation into unspecified allegations of sexual misconduct against Chairman Eric Bauman involving party staff members. In a statement released Saturday evening, Bauman confirmed an investigation was underway but did not address the allegations against him. He said that independent counsel has been hired to investigate the matter. “I look forward to putting these allegations behind us and moving forward as...

It should tell us something about her home country that a mother is willing to travel 2,000 miles with her 4-month old son to come here. Should tell us something about our country that we only respond to this desperate need once she is at our border. So far, in this administration, that response has included taking kids from their parents, locking them up in cages, and now tear gassing them at the border. People are leaving violent countries where they fear for their lives. Without money, they are subsisting on hope for their kids, for themselves, that they can...

Meanwhile, pictures from Univision (Spanish only) do expose who the caravan organizers are. The camera shots show that the organizers themselves are far-left activists, quite possibly what remain of the gang-like Chavista shock troops of Latin America who destroyed Venezuela. Smug, smarmy and robotic, they speak a disciplined Marxist party line devoid of individualism. They're obviously experienced community organizers, which gives you an approximate look at how Chavez destroyed Venezuela. It was guys like these who produced that. And given the caravan thugcraft already seen, look at them how at odds it all is with their peaceable and humanitarian claims....

To hear the news report it, the migrant caravan is just a spontaneous uprising of women and children fleeing Honduran gangs, and the issue is one of Mexico and the U.S. diplomacy finding a way to accommodate them. What's lost is just how hard, hard, left the organizers of what has become this humanitarian disaster are. Even the leftist liberation-theology-oriented rifles-and-cassocks crowd are is getting concerned. Their agenda is hard-left, pro-Chavista, and drawing the fringiest leftwing groups. It's not a humanitarian mission in the slightest to them, it's a by-any-means-necessary political mission. A look at the caravan organizers and their...

Just when you thought New Jersey couldn't get any bluer ... Democratic leaders of the state Legislature in Trenton have quietly resurrected a controversial proposal to ask voters next November to approve a constitutional amendment overhauling how the state draws its legislative districts. Sponsors say the goal is to make the process of choosing state lawmakers more fair, rendering an electoral map more reflective of the voters in the Garden State. But critics warn Democrats are trying to rig the system in New Jersey -- home to 900,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans -- to tighten their grip on the...

The Justice Department is about to indict Julian Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks. That’s according to various reports. The Democrats are cheering because surely Assange will reveal some deep secrets about Russians and the last presidential election. In the first place, the media of the world should be coming to Assange’s defense. He was, after all, breaking news just like the press does.

The political climate in the United States has been perpetually explosive for what feels like generations. This sentiment was evident as voters went to the polls for the 2018 midterm election. As a result of this, the 2018 midterm had the highest voter turnout since 1914. Despite the passion exhibited by both parties this election, in the shadow looms a serious issue that can affect the very foundation of our democracy. That issue is the growing distrust in our election results.According to recent surveys, 31% of American voters have “not very much” or “no confidence at all” in our election...

This past week, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned European politicians that “the lack of tough-sounding rhetoric regarding immigrants and refugees has paved the way for right-wing populists like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, the Alternative for Germany Party, and Donald Trump to gain traction with voters. Preying on voters’ fears that allowing masses of semi-civilized immigrants into their countries endangers their cultural history, these political outsiders have threatened the long-term progressive governing coalition in several countries.” Clinton advised that “we need to take a more nuanced message to the voters who currently matter in order to keep the doors...

According to a press release sent out by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, nine individuals have been charged "with a dozen felony counts for allegedly offering money and cigarettes to homeless people on Skid Row in exchange for false and forged signatures on ballot petitions and voter registration forms." "The defendants are accused of engaging in the solicitation of hundreds of false and/or forged signatures on state ballot petitions and voter registration forms by allegedly offering homeless people $1 and/or cigarettes for their participation, prosecutors said. The alleged offenses occurred during the 2016 and 2018 election cycles," the release...

Moreover, as we also know, the gentrification of the cities has actually made these places more liberal and more Democratic. Yes, in a complete inversion from the past pattern, the Democrats are now the party of the rich. That’s why, in 2016, nine of the ten richest states voted for Hillary Clinton, while nine of the ten poorest states voted for Donald Trump. The enrichment of the Democrats was even more pronounced in the voting this year: In First Things, Williams College political scientist Darel E. Paul points out that of the 66 richest Congressional districts in the country, the...

After regaining a majority in the House of Representatives and the committee powers to investigate and subpoena witnesses that comes with it, Democrats will look to battle President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Bringing illegal immigrants into the country, and by extension, their votes, might be the only way Democrats could possibly hope to regain the power they crave in the Senate and in the White House. We saw that desire to count illegal votes this past month from Florida Democrats, who argued that a non-citizen should be allowed to cast a ballot. Some would argue this is the single...

Donald Trump saved us from Hillary Clinton and the Leftist cabal in 2016. But they have a lot in store for us still. Like so many past victories won by the GOP and its supporters, a won battle is believed to be a won war. It’s not. I saw the same thing happen in 1980 when Ronald Reagan wiped out the Democrats and again in 1984. It was an electoral landslide like no other. Let’s also remember that Reagan was Governor of California and California voted for him in 1980 and 1984. Look at California today. If it’s one thing...

Had John C. Fremont not run as a Republican in 1856, there would probably would have been no Lincoln in 1860. The Republican Party formed in the 1850s with the collapse of the Whig Party. The central unifying issue Republicans shared was abolition of slavery. It unified people across political parties, bringing them together into something new. In the early 1990s, fueled by a single billionaire's calls for reform, the Reform Party sprang up under H. Ross Perot. He won 18.9 percent of the popular vote. The Reform Party, unlike the Republicans in the 1800s, was one man's party,...