Free Republic

Hugh Hewitt has been all over this idea lately.(TWEETS-AT-LINK) Bolton was a candidate for Secretary of State during the transition period, then a candidate to be a key undersecretary at the Department under Rex Tillerson, and then more recently … nada. His name hadn’t been mentioned in connection lately with any major staffing positions, which is odd given that Trump reportedly came to admire him from his appearances on Fox News. (Also a key qualification for KT McFarland in landing her job as deputy NSA, apparently.) Bolton had two big problems in landing a job at State. One: Rex Tillerson...

Won't Get Fooled Again The Who We'll be fighting in the streets With our children at our feet And the morals that they worship will be gone And the men who spurred us on Sit in judgment of all wrong They decide and the shotgun sings the song I'll tip my hat to the new constitution Take a bow for the new revolution Smile and grin at the change all around Pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday Then I'll get on my knees and pray We don't get fooled again The change, it had to come We...

America’s anti-fracking enviros had a strange benefactor. While allegations of the Donald Trump campaign colluding with Russians to alter the presidential election outcome remain unproven at best, a clear money trail and U.S. intelligence reports demonstrate Russia’s active campaign of funding U.S. environmental groups. On March 1, U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), released a report on “Russia’s Social Media Meddling in U.S. Energy Markets.” The report details Russia’s motives in interfering with U.S. energy markets, influencing domestic energy policy, and manipulation of Americans via social media propaganda. “This report reveals that Russian agents...

Giving an interview at the SXSW conference in Austin Texas over the weekend, the Democratic nominee opposing Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said American civilians should not be permitted to buy an AR-15 rifle. El Paso Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, is proud of his campaign’s claim that he shuns political action committee (PAC) money. He criticized Senator Cruz for taking $300,000 from the National Rifle Association and boasted that his campaign has taken $0 from the NRA. He told a story about a woman at a town hall who asked him if he could stand up to the NRA. O’Rourke explained...

Over the weekend, both the Senate and the House approved $225M in funding for the Iron Dome. The bill passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and by a 395 to 8 vote. Opposition to the funding of the Iron Dome demonstarted an unfortunate bi-partisan measure – four Democrats and four Republicans voted against it. The four Democrats were Keith Ellison (MN-05), Zoe Lofgren (CA-19), Jim Moran (VA-08), and Beto O’Rourke (TX-16); The four Republicans were Justin Amash (MI-03), Walter Jones (NC-03), Tom Massie (KY-04), and Mark Sanford (SC-01). Rep. Ellison explains vote on “Meet the Press”: “Because a ceasefire...

Although much of the mainstream media such as The New York Times and CNN has recently gone ga-ga over the candidacy of Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke (D) who currently is running for the U.S. Senate from that state, Vox wasn't quite so kind in analyzing how he did in Tuesday's Democrat primary. In fact they called him a "Loser (sort of)" since he underperformed despite running against nonentities in his primary. Vox's loser label for O'Rourke came in their politics reporter's, Andrew Prokop's, assessment of the Texas primary election:

The congressman who tried silencing federal law enforcement sources from exposing terrorist camps in Ciudad Juárez is contradicting the U.S. government’s assessment of the famously crime-infested Mexican city by proclaiming that it’s “far safer” than it was years ago. It appears to be a frantic effort on the part of Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat who represents El Paso Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives, to counter reports of Islamic terrorists operating in the area and joining forces with the sophisticated drug cartels that have long controlled the region. Judicial Watch broke that story last fall after receiving detailed...

NOT a photoshop. That is Beto on the left as part of the Punk Rock Band Foss. You can also see the pic in this Rolling Stone ARTICLE.

More than 1 million voted in Senate Democratic primary, providing a measure of party’s energy WASHINGTON—The 2018 fight for control of Congress began Tuesday, as Texas Democrats flooded the polls for the year’s first primary election and showed that the national wave of Democratic enthusiasm will buffet even traditionally Republican states. Statewide turnout in the Senate Democratic primary race provided a measure of the party’s energy: More than 1 million voted in the primary, almost double the number in 2014. But Democrats still lagged behind the 1.5 million who voted in the GOP Senate primary.

The midterm election season officially kicks off on Tuesday, when Texas voters head to the polls for the nation’s first primary of 2018. With early voting already suggesting a record turnout for Democrats, and widespread speculation about what effect an endorsement by President Trump will have on Republican candidates, the Texas primaries are being looked at as both a bellwether for the rest of the nation - and a sign the red state could be turning purple more quickly than expected. “What these primaries really boil down to is one issue: Trump versus anti-Trump,” Cal Jillson, a political science professor...

For all the talk of renewed Democratic energy heading into the 2018 midterms, Texas Republicans have set a new benchmark for turnout in a midterm election. More than 1.5 million people voted Tuesday in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, won by incumbent Ted Cruz. That beats the previous record of 1.48 million in 2010, during former President Barack Obama’s first term.

Democrats across the country were getting a collective thrill up their leg about the coming “blue wave” that was about to break over Texas. Some early-voting numbers had Dems all excited. And then the election happened. And it’s true that a political party set a Texas record yesterday for the number of voters going to the polls in a primary. Just one teensy little problem for Texas Dems: it was the Republican party. Democrats turned out in solid-but-not-record-breaking numbers. Overall, Republicans swamped Dem turnout by about half-a-million votes. Republican votes cast beat Dem votes by a ratio of 60/40. On...

After months of speculation, the 2018 midterm elections are officially underway with initial primaries in Texas. There’s more evidence of a Democratic surge previously seen in Virginia and in special elections around the country, but also the reality that some of the swarm of Democratic candidates aren’t even going to make it to the general election. While operatives on both sides of the aisle treat primaries like the plague, they can be a proving ground for candidates (particularly first-time ones) and an opportunity to ramp up their campaigns before moving on to more competitive general elections. Some of the Democrats’...

It's primary season for the 2018 midterm elections, and voters in Texas are the first in the nation to head to the ballot box. There's a surge of energy among Democrats that's enough to concern Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has his own primary race to deal with Tuesday. Cruz is fighting for reelection for the first time since entering the Senate in 2013.

No doubt about it now, folks. Just like the Academy Awards crashed and burned last Sunday evening, the Democrat Party, "Massive Early Voting" crashed and burned tonight in the Texas, 2018 primary election. Ah, the days of Wendy Davis certainly have returned. I ask you this, folks, where was Obama, where was Clinton, where was Chuck Schumer, and where was Nancy Pelosi? Time to move on, Democrats, this game is over...Trumpie has won big time!!! The blooming rose of Texas remains bright Trump "RED". MAGA..Trump!!!

AUSTIN, TEXAS The 2018 midterm election cycle kicked off with a surge in voter enthusiasm for both parties in Texas, although the gains were bigger for Democrats. It boosted a slew of women candidate and helped Republicans who had drawn direct support from President Donald Trump. The primary set up Democrats to make inroads in November although they are unlikely to overturn two decades of Republican dominance in Texas politics. Here are some things to know from the first state primary in the nation. Trump's first term produced a wave of voters Texas hasn't seen in years. Spurred by big...

Washington (CNN) A crowded Democratic House primary in the Houston area has become a stand-in for the broader battle within the party between progressives who backed Bernie Sanders and members of the establishment. The controversy erupted more than a week ago, when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party's political arm for House races, unleashed a scathing attack against journalist and activist Laura Moser, one of seven candidates in the Texas 7th District Democratic primary to take on Republican Rep. John Culberson this fall. Now, with two days left before the Texas primary on Tuesday, the infighting has opened wounds...

Drudge and establishment/leftwing news sites have been going crazy with the notion that incredibly high Democrat turnout in Texas means that Texas is going blue. But election results show that Republicans are absolutely SPANKING Democrats in turnout, getting 50% more votes than the Democrats. https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/texas/ And that's with the Democrats having fiesty, expensive primary contents while the Republicans are mostly merely coronating their incumbent governor, Greg Abbot, and senator, Ted Cruz (although both candidates had multiple opponents). Abbot received 1.4 million votes, compared to Lupe Valdez and Andrew White, who will be headed to a runoff after receiving about half...

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) received more votes in the 2018 Republican Primary election than the entire turnout of voters in the Democratic Primary. The results shed a new perspective on the media-hyped “blue wave” stories from the weeks leading up to election day. In the Republican Primary of 2018, Senator Cruz received 1,317,450 votes in a race with four challengers. His Democrat opponent, U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke only received 641,311 votes against two opponents. Figures from the Secretary of State’s office show that just over one million voters turned out in the Democratic Primary in general across Texas. Cruz...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, went on offense in the wake of Texas primary victory on Tuesday and released an ad targeting his Democratic challenger in a country jingle that warns, “If you’re going to run in Texas, you can’t be a liberal, man.” Cruz tweeted the clip, which played to the tune of Alabama’s “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas.” The tweet came shortly after Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, easily advanced to the November matchup. O’Rourke faces an uphill climb. Cruz received more votes than every Democratic candidate in their primary combined. FIRST LISTEN: our new 60-second statewide radio ad...