Free Republic

The conventional wisdom has long been that this year’s elections would be dominated by typical domestic issues, particularly the economy. But the atrocities carried out by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, the resulting war, and fear of escalation could alter the race. More Americans now say that foreign policy should be a top priority for the U.S. government this year, the Associated Press reports. And President Biden is facing high disapproval rates for his response to events in the Middle East. A Pew survey conducted in late November and early December found that a 41 percent plurality of U.S....

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Several transgender candidates for state office in Ohio are facing challenges and even outright disqualification for omitting their former names from petition paperwork under a little-known state elections law, confronting a unique dilemma as they vie for office in increasing numbers in the face of anti-LBGTQ legislation. Three of the four transgender candidates hoping to win Democratic seats in the Republican-dominated Ohio House and Senate have either been challenged or disqualified for not putting their former name — also called a deadname — on circulating petitions to get on the ballot. But state law mandates that candidates...

The sanctimonious losers at No Labels have 13 possible 2024 presidential candidates on deck, the Washington Examiner reported Friday. Ooooh, look out, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Andrew Yang and Larry Hogan might be breathing down your neck. No Labels is “expected to determine sometime after March 15 whether to put forward a unity ticket,” the Examiner said: If Trump appears to be the likely Republican nominee, No Labels is most inclined to announce its choice for a president and vice president alternative, according to the group. No Labels has found that a potential ticket with a Republican presidential nominee...

The Republican presidential primary calendar won’t officially kick off until the Jan. 15, 2024, Iowa caucuses, but former President Trump’s dominant position in the polls has already sparked chatter about who could join him on a general election ticket. Trump is leading his primary rivals by an average of 60 percent at the national level and more than 20 percent in state surveys, creating a sense that the nomination is his to lose. Some have started to look beyond the primary calendar and toward a rematch between Trump and President Biden, with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and others weighing...

ABC legal analyst Sunny Hostin told her co-hosts on ABC’s “The View” Wednesday that the Republican presidential candidates lacked a moral compass. Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said, “They only hope I have left is this, I know you guys don’t love Nikki Haley, she’s not perfect but she’s who I’m for right now is inching up on Trump in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. She’s second place in all those. She did get this big endorsement. I suspect she’s going to get more major endorsements coming. Anyone is better than Donald Trump. You guys, I think, could acknowledge even...

Like presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy and Hung Cao, running against Tim Kaine for the Senate in Virginia, Qiu marks the rise of a new kind of Republican—one who speaks the language of MAGA (railing against our “endless migrant crisis” and “open border”) but is younger, less angry, more ecumenical, and from a minority group that has historically voted with the Democratic Party. “We’re expanding the boundaries of the MAGA agenda,” Kenny Xu, who is running in the Republican primary in North Carolina’s Thirteenth Congressional District, said in a phone interview. Xu, the 26-year-old author of School of Woke: How Critical...

“What do you think of AOC’s Green New Deal? What do you think about that?” the reporter asked RFK Jr. RFK responded that he wanted market-based solutions like TAXATION. “I, you know, I agree new deal; I think the Green Deal is, all that stuff is important, it’s good. We ought to be something, but my approach is more market-based than kind of top-down dictates, you know? I believe that we should use market mechanisms like carbon taxes and, you know, and the elimination of subsidies, and I think that those things outward transition our economy.” We’re taxed enough, and...

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running as an independent would throw a wrench into the 2024 race, strategists tell The Post, predicting the descendant of one of America’s most famous families will take votes away from both major party nominees. RFK Jr., 69, is expected to confirm his third-party bid on Monday, ditching his previous affiliation with the Democratic Party, where some polls put him as high as 20% in a national primary against President Biden. Although an independent run would raise some complications for Kennedy — including having to get his name on the ballot in every...

Most Americans in a new poll said they would take candidates’ abortion policies into consideration before voting them into public office. The new CNN poll released on Tuesday found that 55 percent of U.S. adults would consider a candidate’s position on abortion as one of several important factors when voting, while 29 percent said they would only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion. Another 16 percent said they do not see abortion as a major issue that would affect how they cast their ballot, according to the poll. The survey also found that Americans hold largely...

Democrats are very worried that a third-party presidential candidate backed by the group No Labels could cost Joe Biden the 2024 presidential election — handing victory to the Republican candidate, possibly former President Donald Trump. Democrats are right to be worried … but Republicans should be worried too. Although third-party candidates are fairly common in U.S. presidential elections — as well as other federal and state elections — they seldom have much of an effect on the outcome. But in at least four presidential elections since 1900, a third-party candidate attracted enough votes to arguably change the outcome. Two of...

GOP presidential candidate former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that it was “inappropriate” Republican presidential candidates are promising to pardon former President Donald Trump. Partial transcript as follows: MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Well, I want to ask you about a number of things in terms of who else is in this race, you have already called on Donald Trump to drop out. You’ve been saying that for some time. Now, he’s not taking your advice. And now we have these new charges on classified documents. Do you think he should be pardoned for the good...

Former Ohio governor and 2016 Republican presidential candidate John Kasich on Tuesday said he’s “proud” of decisions he’s made to publicly disavow former President Trump in the past and called on 2024 GOP presidential candidates to have the courage to do the same. “When I took on Trump, from the beginning – refused to endorse him, refused to go to the convention, endorsed Joe Biden – I’m not calling myself out as a great leader. But what I’ll say is: So what? I did what I felt I had to do,” the former Ohio governor said in an interview on...

Going into the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines on Friday, the big story was whether Donald Trump’s contemptuous decision to skip the presumably obligatory cattle call for Republican presidential candidates before a large and influential crowd of conservative evangelicals would damage his candidacy. Trump aside, however, the big question was whether one of the dark horse candidates stalking the former president and Florida governor Ron DeSantis would have a breakout moment at the day-long event. Former vice president Mike Pence, whose intimate ties with the Christian Right go back decades, and Senator Tim Scott, who has been delivering a...

REPLAY: Glenn TV - One-on-One with Tucker Carlson | The Blaze | The Summit | 07-14-2023

Blaze TV announced Monday that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will be hosting the first Republican presidential forum of the 2024 primary season. The event will take place at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, later this month. “Blaze Media is teaming up with THE FAMiLY LEADER to bring you the first presidential forum of the 2024 Republican Primary season, hosted by Tucker Carlson,” Blaze TV tweeted. “We’ll be live streaming this event all day Friday, July 14th on BlazeTV and the BlazeTV YouTube channel,” the news outlet added. Blaze indicated that the GOP candidates who are...

Five Republican presidential candidates say they have met fundraising benchmarks to participate in the party’s first primary debate next month, as other campaigns hustle both to secure the necessary financial support and hit the required polling thresholds. Campaign reps for former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy each told The Post Monday that they had already been backed by 40,000 unique donors — including 200 unique donors in at least 20 states or territories — more than seven weeks before the first...

Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign team released a wild culture war ad on Friday taking aim at former President Trump as Pride Month ends, using clips from “American Psycho” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” to hammer home the Florida firebrand’s leadership on issues. “To wrap up ‘Pride Month,’ let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it…” the DeSantis War Room tweeted with a compilation of clips showing Trump’s ties to the LGBTQ and transgender community. The video begins with a 2016 clip of Trump telling the Republican National Convention, “I will do everything...

Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” argued that his fellow Republicans should not promise to pardon former President Donald Trump. Anchor Dana Bash said, “You just heard your fellow 2024 candidate Vivek Ramaswamy say he would pardon Donald Trump on his first day in office. What is your reaction?”

(May 8, 2023) — The 2024 presidential election cycle is now underway with a few candidates having already declared their candidacy. Presidential candidates now are required to file the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Financial Disclosure Form 278e with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) within 30 days of declaring their candidacy. From my experience and from the experience of others who have contacted me with questions about various candidates, several of the candidates are not being responsive to this author and others when sent questions regarding their full life narrative, background, and family history. Their tactic seems to be to...

Well before classified documents were found in President Biden’s Delaware home, its garage, and the Penn Biden Center, it’s fair to say a certain number of Democrats were uncomfortable with the idea of our octogenarian president seeking reelection. Now a narrative is building that if the classified documents found at these locations aren’t the leverage needed to convince him not to run — or even to resign at some point — his age and health very well could be a reason for him to do just that by the time campaigning begins in earnest next year. So, on the admittedly...