Free Republic

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker announced Friday he is dropping his bid for re-election and endorsing Democrat Mark Begich against Republican Mike Dunleavy. Walker made the announcement Friday afternoon at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, three days after former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott stepped down from both his office and the re-election campaign over unspecified "inappropriate comments" he made to a woman.

Two Christian filmmakers appeared before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul Tuesday to challenge Minnesota state law which they say illegally forces them to produce and create films expressing messages that contradict their core beliefs. Telescope Media Group owners Carl and Angel Larsen have already been threatened with hefty fines and up to 90 days in jail if they choose to disregard the law. The Larsens want to enter the wedding industry. However, the state's Human Rights Act stipulates if the couple creates films celebrating their Christian beliefs about marriage – that marriage is between one man...

President Trump’s campaign has moved next week’s rally with Sen. Ted Cruz to a bigger venue in Texas after citing an “unprecedented” demand for tickets. Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted the venue change Thursday, saying the response for tickets to Monday’s rally in Houston has been "HUGE and unprecedented." The campaign rally will now be held at the Toyota Center, which can seat up to 19,000 people for concerts. The previous venue, NRG Arena, holds about 8,000 people. Trump announced last month he would hold a “major rally” with Cruz at “the biggest stadium in Texas we can...

Elle magazine slammed for lying about Kim Kardashian, Kanye West breakup to promote voter registration Elle magazine came under fire Thursday for sending a false tweet to its 6.8 million followers claiming Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are “splitting up” — but the attached link directed readers to register to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. “Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are splitting up,” Elle’s verified account tweeted with emojis of a broken heart and panicked face. Stunned readers who clicked on the link for more details were directed to a “Register To Vote” page.

... "This is the tightest market, labor market, I've ever seen, he said in an interview with "Squawk Box." "But concurrently, we have a very slow productivity increase." ...

Get ready for the undercard debates. Democrats are completely out of power in Washington D.C. - for now, at least - but that hasn’t stopped a record number of them from eyeing the White House. Up to 30 Democrats are considering a 2020 presidential campaign, a figure underlining the true level of ambition within the party amid a burning desire to defeat President Trump and one of the widest-open fields in recent memory. Sixteen Democrats were tested in a CNN poll this month, ranging from old-timers like former Vice President Joe Biden and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry to...

The Democratic operative arrested and charged with battery against the female campaign manager for Nevada gubernatorial nominee Adam Laxalt was employed at the George Soros-funded American Bridge for months, despite a reputation on Capitol Hill for what sources described as “hostile” tactics. Wilfred M. Stark III, who goes by Mike, was arrested Tuesday evening in Las Vegas, after Laxalt campaign manager Kristin Davison accused him of grabbing and yanking her arm and refusing to let go. Las Vegas City Marshals arrested Stark, who was later released. Stark, who was a reporter for American Bridge 21st Century, was fired Wednesday night...

Expressing sympathy for the alleged victim and frustration with how her case was handled, Gov. Phil Murphy ordered an investigation Monday into how his team responded to allegations a senior staffer raped a woman while he worked for the governor's campaign last year. An independent investigation will look into why former campaign staffer Albert J. Alvarez was hired to a top state job despite the sexual assault allegation, the governor said. "I wish we hadn't made the hire in transition, period," Murphy said during a 33-minute press conference in Newark. "I'm sick to my stomach once I heard what happened."...

Courtney’s Restaurant and Catering owner Tom Courtney said he’s experienced a strong social media backlash because he rented the event room at his Mt. Juliet business to U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Marsha Blackburn on Saturday. Courtney said he’s been called a Nazi, an abuser, had his life threatened and said his staff has been verbally attacked. Hundreds of posters on social media said they would boycott his restaurant because it was a local venue to Blackburn, who is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate against former Democratic Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. “People have posted they love our food,...

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2018 World Competitiveness Report ranks the United States No. 1 in global competitiveness, up from No. 3 in the past few years and its first top ranking in a decade. A high ranking matters. As the WEF reports: “Global competitiveness is determined by the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country … And productivity leads to growth ... and improved well-being. The U.S.’s top ranking therefore suggests a lot of growth and prosperity to come." According to the Davos elite (who are no fans of Donald Trump),...

We went with the name “Drive for 25” as an homage to a 2012 House Democratic slogan and to reflect the fact that while Democrats need to net 23 seats, they probably are going to lose at least a couple of seats they currently hold to Republicans. (snip)This year, Republicans appear to be guaranteed at least one pickup: PA-14, an open seat in southwestern Pennsylvania that is a more Republican-leaning version of the old PA-18, the seat now-Rep. Conor Lamb (D) won in a special election in March.(snip) Republicans also are targeting two open seats in Minnesota, MN-1 (covering southern...

I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S..... ....In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!..

In an interview with Politico, Pelosi detailed her plans...every Senate Democrat has signed onto Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) proposal that would abolish and end all immigration and border enforcement across the U.S.,...The Senate Democrat plan would also likely ban any and all federal arrests of illegal aliens...it allows illegal alien smugglers to freely traffic children into the U.S. without the fear of arrest.

Nearly 2.6 million Florida voters are receiving mail ballots for the November election It's still early, but there's no sign of a blue wave in the initial wave of mail ballot returns in Florida. Figures filed Wednesday with the state show that more Republicans than Democrats are returning their mail ballots, 20 days before Election Day. Nearly 2.6 million voters have been sent mail ballots — what used to be called absentee ballots — and 554,000 arrived through Tuesday. Republican mail ballot returns of 247,530 accounted for 45 percent of the total returns statewide, even though Republicans account for 35...

A pair of protesters confronted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in an airport over his vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, USA Today reported Wednesday. "You think that putting a sexual assaulter on the court is a victory for women?" one of the women can be heard asking Cruz in a video posted to Twitter. Cruz responds, stating that he believes in due process. The women then press Cruz about his support for Kavanaugh and ask the senator whether he believed the judge committed perjury during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee late last month regarding allegations...

Sen. Claire McCaskill's (D-Mo.) campaign is asking her Senate race opponent, Attorney General Josh Hawley (R), to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether a right-wing group violated state laws in secretly recording and publishing a video from inside the senator's campaign headquarters. KMBC News in Missouri reported that McCaskill intends to pursue legal action after the conservative group Project Veritas secretly recorded staffers talking about how they handle Planned Parenthood donations. McCaskill's campaign did not comment Wednesday night on the possibility of legal action, but pointed to a statement criticizing Hawley for his inaction after the video was released....

The following dialog took place on The View: JOY BEHAR: Hillary is in a quandary in my opinion, because she’s talking about violence against women and sexual harassment and all that stuff and her husband has a checkered past to put it mildly, so she is in a bind….. PAULA FARIS: There are accusations but there are three women that claim that he did things to them that they didn’t want. One of them is Paula Jones…. Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey. They say that he either exposed himself to them, raped them or groped them. These are three accusations…. BEHAR:...

A judge has granted a temporary protective injunction against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, after his wife filed paperwork accusing the Orlando congressman of shoving and injuring her during an incident this weekend. Lolita Grayson's petition for the injunction, dated Monday, says her husband pushed her against a door, causing her to fall to the ground, during a confrontation Saturday at their home on Oak Park Road, near Windermere. /snip After she refused, retrieved his mail and asked him to leave, Alan Grayson "then deliberately and with force pushed [Lolita Grayson] very hard against the front door, causing [her] to fall...

Letters spelling out “Trump Place” on the facades of an Upper West Side building will be pried off by workers Thursday, following a vote from the condo’s board, according to reports. Residents at 200 Riverside Blvd., a 46-story building between 69th and 70th streets, fought for the right to tear the Trump name from their building following the 2016 election, with many people wanting to distance themselves from politics, The New York Times reported. Eric Chung, a longtime resident whose family owns two units in the building, told The Times that removing the letters “makes a very powerful statement.”

(CNN)House forecast: Democrats will win 228 seats