Free Republic

One of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s loudest critics, Alderman Raymond Lopez, announced on Wednesday that he is running for mayor of the Windy City next year. The alderman, who has led the 15th Ward since 2015, has become the first official 2023 opponent to announce a bid to replace Lightfoot at City Hall.

Andrew Cuomo has New York Democrats biting their nails as he considers a disruptive entry into the state’s gubernatorial race, threatening to turn it into one of the nation’s most acrimonious midterm contests.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said he would decide soon whether to run for governor after his second term as mayor ends. De Blasio, who is in his final week as mayor and is barred from running for a third four-year stint, said he’s focused on fighting the coronavirus pandemic in his final days in office but could make a decision shortly after.

O’Rourke, who also ran for Senate in 2018 and president last year, made the announcement in a fundraising email to supporters, where he touted himself as a unity candidate and railed against “fringe policies and incompetence that we see in Texas today.” “I am running for governor to serve ALL of the people of Texas,” he said. “I believe that the only way we are going to achieve great things for this state is by looking out for each other and moving forward together.”

Howard Stern says he could launch a White House bid in 2024 against former President Trump, quipping he knows he'll "beat his ass." The SiriusXM host said Tuesday that running for president could be his "civic duty" if Trump, who has repeatedly floated but not confirmed a 2024 bid, was to seek a second term. “I would just sit there and play that f---ing clip of him trying to fix the election, over and over again,” Stern said, referring to Trump's phone call in January with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the then-president sought to persuade him...

President Biden’s job approval rating fell to a new low in a poll released Monday — but the news was even worse for Vice President Kamala Harris. The USA Today/Suffolk University survey showed just 37.8 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s performance in office. By contrast, 59 percent of Americans disapprove of the president, whose ratings have been plunging since August. Biden’s previous low job approval rating came in a Quinnipiac poll last month, which showed 38 percent of Americans approved of his performance, while 53 percent disapproved.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has officially filed his paperwork to run for a second term in 2022. The Republican governor’s statement of candidacy was filed on Friday, but didn’t become visible in the state’s public database until Monday. DeSantis said at a Monday morning press conference that a formal campaign kickoff will be forthcoming. “It’s more of a formality to open a campaign committee,” he said. “We won’t do any public announcements until after the Special Session but you have to prepare for these things.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) launched his reelection campaign for a second term as governor on Tuesday, arguing that voters in the state should give him another four years to continue the fight against the coronavirus and to improve the state's economy. "Peggy and I asked Minnesotans to come together and make a goal line stand to fight Covid and protect the economy. The fight's not over but we've got the ball back we're on offense and we're making progress, but the same people who blocked us are trying to take us backwards," Walz, a former high school football coach,...

Evan McMullin, who launched an ill-fated third-party bid for president in 2016, announced Tuesday he will wage an independent challenge to Sen. Mike Lee (R) in Utah’s Senate race next year. McMullin, a CIA veteran and self-proclaimed government reform advocate, is centering his campaign around ending the rife partisanship in Washington after spending years criticizing both Democrats and Republicans for a lack of compromise and cooperation. "Our politics are broken," McMullin said in a statement announcing his campaign. "And it's putting our country in danger. We need leaders who will unite rather than divide. Washington has left us so polarized...

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Thursday said he thinks former President Trump is going to run for another term in 2024. “I think he’s gonna run,” Jordan said at an event for the Dallas County Republican Party, according to the Des Moines Register. “I want him to run. He's proven he can take the heat. We're at a moment now where you've got to have someone who's willing to fight, willing to stand up to all the abuses,” he continued.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced some "big news" on Monday. He's running for re-election. "We’ve been through a lot," Pritzker wrote in a tweet, "and I’ve been so proud to see Illinoisans come together during the toughest of times." Pritzker said he's "excited to fight for the state I love" alongside Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, "and there’s no limit to what we can do going forward."

Former Kentucky state Rep. Charles Booker will launch a bid to unseat Sen. Rand Paul, he announced. The 37-year-old rose to national prominence last year when he narrowly lost the Democratic primary to take on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to Amy McGrath, a former Marine combat pilot who ran as a moderate and was defeated. At the same time that Booker was campaigning, 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, a black woman, in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot and killed in a botched police raid that sparked outrage and racial justice protests nationwide.

Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) announced Wednesday he will run for U.S. Senate in North Carolina to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). Budd, a gun store owner from Davie County, released a video of the announcement that detailed his positions on issues and prominently featured him campaigning alongside former President Donald Trump.

Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) announced Wednesday he is running for the state’s U.S. Senate seat that Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) is vacating next year. McCrory, who served as governor from 2013–2017 before launching a radio show in Charlotte, made the announcement on his show Wednesday morning.

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks argued 2020 Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden had “one of the best weeks of the campaign” and Biden’s confrontation with a voter in Iowa “showed vigor, showed toughness,” and gave Biden control of the news cycle. Brooks stated, “I do think Joe Biden had a — one of the best weeks of the campaign. He had an ad mocking…President Trump…and then he went after that voter. Which I think showed vigor, showed toughness, showed he’s doing well, and I think also allowed him to control the news...

Call it the $350 million question. Over the next six weeks, the Pennsylvania Turnpike will try to decide whether to rehabilitate its five sets of tunnels one at a time over 10 to 15 years or enter into a public-private partnership with one firm that would do all of the work in five to six years and be responsible for maintenance for about 30 years. And the $350 million is key because a large part of that money would be the upfront cost if the agency decides to pursue a partnership, said Brad Heigel, the turnpike’s chief engineer. Mr. Heigel...

Sunday on MSNBC’s “Kasie DC,” Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) left the door open on another run for president. “[A]ll of my options are on the table,” Kasich said of a potential 2020 run. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I have no clue. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I current job.” Kasich ran in 2016 for the Republican nod but came up short in that bid to eventual President Donald Trump.

A Chinese automaker kicking the tires at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and its most profitable asset, Jeep, is raising alarms and could run into strong opposition from the U.S. government. China’s Great Wall Motor Company on Monday said it was interested in buying Jeep from Fiat Chrysler. It’s not yet clear whether Great Wall has already submitted a bid for Fiat Chrysler’s Jeep or whether one is being prepared. Fiat Chrysler said on Monday that it had “not been approached by Great Wall in connection with the Jeep brand or any other matter relating to its business.” Any attempt to sell...

CABOT, Pa. — Rick Santorum, the brusque and deeply conservative former senator who won nearly a dozen contests in the 2012 race for the Republican nomination, announced here Wednesday that he would seek to recapture that fleeting magic by entering a crowded primary likely to be far more difficult than the last.

Stuck in a standoff with teachers unions, the San Francisco and Oakland school districts have abandoned efforts to bring in up to $15 million each to develop high-quality math classes for upper-elementary and middle school students. The two districts spent months preparing a joint application for the next round of federal Race to the Top funding - which required districts to incorporate student test scores, among other criteria, in teacher evaluations. And because of that critical clause, union leaders refused to sign, as required by the federal application.