Marsha Blackburn and Bill Lee Win Big on Election Night in Tennessee

FRANKLIN, Tennessee–Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) and Bill Lee were big winners in their respective statewide races in Tennessee Tuesday night. Blackburn, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), easily defeated the Democratic nominee, former Gov. Phil Bredesen by a double digit margin. With 81 percent of precincts reporting, Blackburn had 55.6 percent of the vote to 43.1 percent for Bredesen. The 12.5 percent margin of victory was higher than all but one poll of the race–The New York Times Upshot/Siena College Poll last month that gave her a 14 point lead. Blackburn’s margin of victory was well over 200,000 votes. She had 1,060,468 votes to Bredesen’s 822,435 with 19 percent of precincts still left to report. In the race for governor, Williamson County businessman Bill Lee’s margin over former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean was larger. With 63 percent of precincts reporting, Lee had 60.6 percent of the vote, compared to Dean’s 37.9 percent. In terms of raw vote margin, Lee had well over 350,000 more votes than Dean–1,006,690 to 629,484. Both Bredesen and Dean did well in the urban areas of Davidson County and Shelby County, but their margins there were…

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LIVE Election Night Coverage by Citizens of the American Republic

The group Citizens of the American Republic announced it will live stream Election Night Coverage of the 2018 midterms. Dubbed ‘the most important election of our lifetimes’ by both the Left and the Right, voters from across the country will decide whether to keep Republicans the majority in the House and the Senate, or instead opt for a divided government by handing control of one or both chambers of the national legislature to the Democrats. Viewers can watch all the coveral live, starting at 8pm eastern time:          

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Mueller Expected to Renew Pursuit of Trump Associates After Midterms

by Chuck Ross   Whether intentional or not, Robert Mueller has honored an unofficial Justice Department policy that limits major actions in political investigations 60 days before an election. But as Mueller and his team of prosecutors have worked behind the scenes on investigations of Trump associates, numerous clues about the probe have emerged through witnesses and attorneys who have shared insight from the investigation with reporters. The smoke signals have generated speculation that, if Mueller plans to issue indictments in his investigation, they will be handed down within days or weeks. There have also been reports that Mueller will submit a report on the investigation to the Justice Department by the end of the year. If Mueller makes a major move in the near future, it will likely revolve around these areas of interest. Roger Stone Mueller is focused on what longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone knew about Wikileaks’ plans to release Democrats’ emails before the election, according to numerous witnesses involved in the special counsel’s probe. Mueller has interviewed or subpoenaed at least 11 Stone associates. Some have appeared before a grand jury that Mueller is using for the investigation. Stone suggested at various points in the campaign that he was…

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GOP Shows Off ‘Happy Democrat’ Bredesen’s True Senate Campaign Resume One Final Time

It is time for one final review of Phil Bredesen’s Senate campaign resume, the Tennessee Republican Party says in a new video available here. “Now in his final ad of the campaign, Phony Phil Bredesen shows he’s not Tennessee’s guy,” the Tennessee GOP said of the Democratic former governor. Bredesen is running against U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) for the Senate. For those keeping track at home, here are Bredesen’s own words: •Bredesen believes he has a foot planted in a “more sophisticated” world than most Tennesseans •Bredesen has been a “happy Democrat” since college •Bredesen supported Barack Obama then, and he supports him now •Bredesen called Obama a “transformational” figure •Bredesen believed Hillary Clinton had “everything going for her” •Bredesen predicted Hillary Clinton would be president, giving $33,400 to her campaign to back it up •Bredesen said “the great thing about being governor is taking taxes away from people” •Bredesen admitted that being a senator was “not [his] future” and he “wouldn’t like being there” anyway And that’s not even mentioning Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, socialized medicine, or the army of illegal criminal migrants. Bredesen told MSNBC it is “beyond belief” that anyone would see the migrant caravan as…

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Tennessee Star Report Exclusive – Marsha Blackburn Says Phil Bredesen’s ‘Very First Vote Would Be for Chuck Schumer’

On Monday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – the team chatted with Tennessee’s own, Congresswoman, Marsha Blackburn about her current campaign, her values as a public servant, and what it’s like to be beside President Trump at these large enthusiastic rallys. Gill: Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn who is running for the US Senate until the final day.  And we were down in, she’s everywhere, we were down in Franklin on Saturday you know, just kind of tooling around their with our granddaughter Remy, and low and behold there’s Marsha Blackburn working the crowd there. Marsha it’s good to have you with us! Blackburn:  It is good to be with you!  And yes it was so wonderful to be in Franklin on Saturday.  It was the Franklin family fun day.  And I’ll tell you what, my grandsons’ had a great time and I know your little granddaughter had a good time also. Gill: It was a big day down there but an even bigger day in Chattanooga.  Now you’ve been to these Trump rally’s two years ago in 2016, you’ve…

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Commentary: Trump Fights the Left and Its ‘Appalling Contempt’ for the American People

by D. Hawthorne   On February 2017, during the second month of his presidency, I argued Donald Trump was best understood through the lens of a turnaround executive. Through that lens are three focal points: Blowing up political correctness, because an American turnaround cannot happen if we are unable recover the meaning of words and talk forthrightly about what is really going on. Delegitimizing the false narratives of the mainstream media, because a turnaround cannot be sustained if basic communication channels remain corrupted. Taking down the administrative state, because a turnaround will fail if unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats continue to override the sovereignty of the American people by controlling our society. Turnarounds Begin Only When Enough People Accept Something Is Wrong Like many turnaround efforts, the past months confirmed a deep cultural and political crisis, with numerous irreconcilable differences. First, as John Zmirak points out, while the Left and Right in America have had their differences, they also mostly agreed in 1996 on the broad outlines of sovereign borders, constitutional gun rights, fidelity to the Constitution, men and women being equal but different, abortion as rare, marriage between one man and one woman, that religious freedom and rights of conscience are…

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Commentary: Six Understated House Races To Watch Tuesday

  While the establishment news media does everything it can to depress conservative and Republican turnout, here are six close U.S. House of Representatives races where conservative turnout can make all the difference for President Trump’s conservative agenda. Rep. Dave Brat – Virginia 7 Principled limited government constitutional conservative Congressman Dave Brat (VA-7) is locked in a tight race with liberal Democrat Abigail Spanberger. Spanberger is a former CIA employee who once taught at a Saudi-funded school in Northern Virginia that later had to defend itself after a former valedictorian was charged with joining al-Qaida. To view a powerful independent expenditure ad supporting Dave Brat click the link or cut and paste into an email:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xW-wkhz3cxt3XBOuw_t9UrEisl_uQ4r9/view?ts=5bdb692f. Counterintuitively, Spanberger has been pounding Brat over his vote in favor of the GOP tax-cut bill. Spanberger has raised twice as much money as Brat and her open borders campaign has benefited from millions in out of state liberal PAC money aimed at unseating one of the Freedom Caucus’s most high-profile members. Turnout will be key, with Spanberger counting on liberal federal and state government employees in the I-95 corridor and Richmond suburbs. Rep. Rod Blum – Iowa 1 Self-described “Tea Party Republican” Rep.…

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Car Thefts Rise in Brentwood Due to People Leaving Keys Inside

Too many people in Brentwood leave their keys in their automobiles unattended and car thieves notice, said that city’s Police Chief Jeff Hughes. As of the middle of October of this year, Brentwood Police tallied 21 vehicles stolen in 2018 compared to 18 stolen all last year, Hughes said. “Hot wiring a car is almost impossible nowadays. This is happening because people are leaving their vehicles with their keys in their cars,” Hughes told The Tennessee Star. “I think people sometimes have a false sense of security in an area that is consistently ranked by certain sources to be one of the safest cities in America, if not Tennessee. They will become complacent and leave valuables in their cars, leave their vehicles unlocked and, if not their primary set of keys, they may leave a spare set of keys in the car.” The thieves are usually juveniles coming in from Davidson County, some as young as 13 and 14-years old, Hughes said. That’s why these crimes are more likely to happen in the northern parts of Brentwood, nearest to Davidson County, Hughes said. This was among many topics Hughes and other area law enforcement officers addressed at a recent roundtable…

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Georgia Gubernatorial Race Heats Up Amid ‘Cyber Crimes’ Allegations Against Democratic Party

Georgia’s online voter database morphed into a last-minute curveball in one of the nation’s hottest governor’s races, with Republican nominee Brian Kemp making a hacking allegation against Democrats just as reports emerged of a gaping vulnerability in a system that Kemp controls as secretary of state. Kemp’s office did not detail any Democratic acts, offering no evidence for Sunday’s unusual action that effectively means the state’s chief elections officer began a probe of his partisan opposition days before an election. Polls suggest Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams are locked in a tight race that even before Sunday had evolved into a bitter back-and-forth over voting rights and ballot security. The state Democratic Party called Kemp’s accusation “a reckless and unethical ploy” and said he was using the FBI to support false accusations. According to interviews conducted by The Associated Press and records released by the Georgia Democratic Party, the dispute built steam quickly in the days before Kemp’s statement. An attorney who represents election-security advocates already suing Kemp over his job performance said a private citizen alerted him Friday to a suspected major flaw in the voter database that is used to check in voters in Tuesday’s midterm. The lawyer,…

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Letter to the Editor: A Grateful Veteran’s ‘Thank You’ to Lipscomb’s ASCE Chapter

Dear Tennessee Star, Lipscomb University, how proud Nashville should be of this fine academic institution. Here is my story. On Sunday, the 28th of October, a group of wondrous young students came to my home and proceeded to clean my yard, cut my grass, pressure clean my house and seal my deck. They asked for absolutely nothing in return, and in the process, brought tears to my eyes, joy into my heart, and a profound renewal of my faith in young people of our country. This was a result of contacting a good friend, Ken Nelson, Jr., and requesting his help in finding someone to seal my deck which was getting weather-worn. Previous attempts to find people were fruitless and discouraging. As a wheelchair-bound 100% disabled veteran, I simply must rely upon others for these things. Upon Ken’s recommendation, I contacted David Callahan, a Lipscomb student, and he came out. A fellow Marine veteran, he looked over my deck and he explained that he attended Lipscomb University, a Civil Engineering major, and there was a program of volunteer outreach that the ASCE Chapter supports. After discussing it with his fellow students, they expressed enthusiasm for volunteering to seal my deck.…

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Fed Likely to Keep Rates on Hold and Sketch A Bright Outlook

With the economy strong, wages rising and unemployment at a near-five-decade low, the Federal Reserve remains on track to keep raising interest rates – just not this week. After the Fed’s latest policy meeting, it’s expected to signal a healthy outlook for the economy but to hold off on any further credit tightening, most likely until December. A rate hike in December would mark the fourth this year. Further rate increases are expected in 2019, though just how many is a subject of speculation. On the eve of Congress’ midterm elections, the U.S. economy remains vigorous even in its 10th year of expansion – the second-longest such stretch on record. In deciding how fast or slowly to keep raising rates, the Fed will be monitoring the pace of growth, the job market’s strength and gauges of inflation for clues to how the economy may evolve in the coming months. The brisk pace of economic growth – a 3.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, after a 4.2 percent rate in the previous quarter – has raised the risk that inflation could begin accelerating. In its most recent forecast, the Fed projected that it would raise rates three additional times…

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Dems Worry As ‘Poll Surge’ Echoes 2016’s Support for Hillary Clinton Heading Into Election

United States Capitol

by Chris White   Democratic candidates are entering a last-minute surge in the polls in the last few hours before Election Day, but a number of Democrats are seeing a lot of comparisons to the 2016 presidential election. Democrats and Republicans are essentially tied in the roughly 30 House districts rated as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report, which relied on 10,000 interviews for its conclusion. Data, which was released Monday, shows Democrats are on the cusp of taking the House despite the narrow margins. But many liberal activists and Democratic strategists remain unconvinced. “We’re kind of just in the bed-wetting phase now,” Democratic pollster John Anzalone told reporters Sunday. He campaigned hard for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before then-presidential candidate Donald Trump pulled the rug out from underneath her campaign. Other activists shared similar concerns, with one even recalling having nightmares about poll numbers. “I’m old enough to remember when The New York Times gave Hillary Clinton an 85 percent chance of winning on election night and to have been traumatized by the New York Times election needle,” Ezra Levin, who co-founded the Resistance organization Indivisible, told Politico. He added that Democrats are unlikely to be reassured until Tuesday…

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Newt Gingrich Says the Booming Economy and Personal Safety Will Keep GOP in Hunt for the House

Newt Gingrich

by Nick Givas   Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the booming economy and a strong desire for personal safety will keep the House in play for Republicans come Tuesday. “Well look, I think the number one thing that’s relevant to the vote tomorrow is the economy,” Gingrich said on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom Monday. “And I think in a lot of districts, that’s propping up Republicans who might be in trouble on other issues.” Gingrich said the American people are taking notice of higher wages and more jobs, but said it will still be difficult for Republicans to retain control of both houses. [RELATED: Newt Gingrich Doubles Down On Red Wave Prediction] “The people look at it and they go, ‘there really are more jobs. Wages really are going up. The future really looks dramatically better.’ And so there’s a bias that’s, I think, actually held the Republicans up in both House and Senate races where they might have been in much more trouble,” he continued. “Off years are hard … We got to be a majority for the first time in 40 years in Bill Clinton’s first off-year election. So I understand how tough it is to be the…

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Phil Bredesen: If I Lose, It Will Be Because the ‘National Democratic Brand Is a Problem’

Phil Bredesen wants you to know that if he loses the Senate race, it will be the “National Democratic brand’s fault, not his. Former Tennessee Gov. Bredesen made the remark in an interview that aired Sunday with MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt, adding that the national party has hurt the brand. The Washington Free Beacon reported on the interview Monday. The video is available to watch here. Bredesen said, “we’ve drifted away from that” in response to Democrats’ handling of the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, meaning the Senate’s job is to consider a nominee’s competence and ability. “Not that long ago, Ginsberg could get 95-plus votes, and Scalia could get 95-plus votes. That, to me, is very much the way we ought to be acting.” Hunt did not ask Bredesen about his last-minute wishy-washy endorsement of Kavanaugh when his nomination was guaranteed. Nor did she ask about Project Veritas Action’s undercover video showing Bredesen’s campaign staff admitting he lied about supporting Kavanaugh to gain votes. “It’s a political move,” Bredesen campaign field organizer Maria Amall said in the video to an undercover reporter. Nor did Hunt ask Bredesen about Mark Brown lying to the media about those…

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