Bannon Rallies CPAC for ‘Crusade of Righteousness’ to Elect ‘Dissident’ Trump in ‘Greatest Political Comeback in American History’

Stephen K. Bannon at CPAC 2024

War Room host Steve Bannon rallied Republicans at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday to vote for former President Donald Trump in November to accomplish what the former member of the Trump administration predicted will be the “greatest political comeback in American history.”

In just under 10 minutes, Bannon argued Trump’s “fate and destiny” are “intertwined” with the United States, lambasted President Joe Biden as an “illegitimate regime head” in the process of being cast out, and urged Americans to join a “crusade of righteousness” by voting for Trump on November 5.

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State Rep. Jason Zachary Challenges Newsom to Debate After California Governor Targets Tennessee with Super PAC

California Gov. Gavin Newsom

State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) challenged California Governor Gavin Newsom to a debate after the Democrat targeted Tennessee for its pro-life legislation to protect unborn children using funds from a Super PAC that some speculate could lay the foundations of a campaign to oust President Joe Biden.

In a Sunday post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, the California governor falsely claimed Tennessee’s pro-life legislation offers no exceptions, including for rape or incest, and asserted that “Republicans in Tennessee are trying to punish young women” who travel to abort their children. 

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Maricopa County Judge Recuses Himself from Election-Related Case Due to Activist Brother’s Social Media Posts Denigrating Republican Election Lawsuits

Judge

Opposition is increasing to the judges assigned to handle election related lawsuits in Arizona, as their biases are being revealed. After Arizona Senate Majority leader Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) and House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) requested that Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Tim Ryan recuse himself from their lawsuit challenging the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM) because of his progressive activist older brother’s posts on X, Ryan voluntarily recused himself. 

The Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus issued an announcement praising the recusal. “His brother, Tom Ryan, is a liberal attorney who plagues social media with his contempt for the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature with an incessant number of juvenile posts,” the statement said. “There is no way anyone who has witnessed the antics of Judge Ryan’s brother, which included case-specific criticisms and commentary, can credibly believe that Judge Ryan could give the Legislature a fair trial.”

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Ranked-Choice Voting Proves to Be Lightning Rod Issue in Several States

Bills to ban ranked-choice voting are causing passionate debate over a method to cast ballots that some say is fairer and some say is confusing and could lower voter turnout.

Ranked-choice voting allows people to rank the candidates, with “one” being their favorite. The votes are tallied in rounds. After the first round, the candidate with the lowest votes is eliminated. The voter’s second preference is then added to the tally. The process continues until a winner is determined.

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Tennessee Senate Passes Bill Banning Politicians from Running in Multiple Elections at the Same Time

Richard Briggs

The Tennessee State Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would ban politicians in the state from seeking more than one elected office simultaneously.

SB 1968 passed the Tennessee Senate on Thursday with 17 votes in favor and 15 votes against. The bill, introduced by Senator Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville), would prohibit an individual from holding multiple elected offices in Tennessee, and would also ban any politician in the state from actively campaigning for more than one elected position.

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Lake Holds 33-Point Lead in Arizona GOP Senate Primary, Statistically Tied with Gallego Among All Voters If Race Includes Sinema

Kari Lake Senate Candidate

Kari Lake holds a commanding, 33-point lead in the race to secure the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) nomination to run for U.S. Senate, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Pollsters additionally found Lake statistically tied with Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03), who is poised to secure the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, when Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) was included in the survey.

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VoterGA’s Garland Favorito Slams Georgia Secretary of State’s Request for Funds to Audit Ballots

Georgia Voting Machines

VoterGA, a nonprofit election integrity organization, spoke out against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s request for more taxpayer funds from the Georgia Legislature to implement an audit of Georgia’s QR-coded Dominion Democracy Suite 5.5 voting system.

On Monday, Raffensperger called on the Georgia State Senate to “agree to funding for new technology approved by the House that would give election officials the ability to audit the text of every choice on every ballot, in every contest – without the use of QR codes.”

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Tennessee State Senator Bill Powers Passes on Bid for TN-07 U.S. House Seat

Bill Powers

Tennessee State Senator Bill Powers (R-Clarksville) has announced he has “no plans” to run for Congress in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District amid the announcement of incumbent U.S. Representative Mark Green’s (R-TN-07) retirement.

“For me, family is more important than any congressional title in Washington DC. I’m honored to be your state senator and have no plans to run for congress,” Powers wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.

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Trump Maintains Lead over Biden in Georgia Poll Conducted as DA Fani Willis Testified

Donald Trump Joe Biden Georgia Poll

Former President Donald Trump maintains an 8-point lead over President Joe Biden in a new poll of Georgia voters that was conducted as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testified in a hearing to determine whether she should be disqualified from her prosecution of the former president.

The Emerson College pollsters found 48 percent of Georgia voters support Trump, and 42 percent support Biden, giving the former president an 8-point lead of the incumbent. Biden was declared the winner in Georgia during the 2020 elections with a margin of less than 12,000 votes.

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Trump Campaign Has Outraised Biden Campaign in Pennsylvania

Donald Trump Joe Biden Pennsylvania Fundraising

Donald Trump (R) has raised the most money from Pennsylvania state of all presidential candidates, with $2.14 million raised since the start of the campaign cycle. Trump raised $502,595 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Joe Biden (D) has raised the next most from Pennsylvania, with $1.5 million since the start of the campaign and $943,704 in the fourth quarter.

Twenty-three notable presidential candidates, including those who have dropped out of the race, raised a total of $6 million from Pennsylvania donors between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2023. Thirty-five notable candidates raised $47.6 million in Pennsylvania during the 2020 election cycle, while 25 raised $25 million during the 2016 election cycle.

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Republican Businessman Challenges Vulnerable Democrat Senator in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Senate Race

Republican businessman Eric Hovde launched his highly anticipated campaign against Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin on Tuesday.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) recruited Hovde, who had been weighing a campaign for months, after other prominent Republicans like Reps. Mike Gallagher and Tom Tiffany declined to jump into the race. Hovde announced his campaign in a social media video posted on X, and called for the country to unite to “find common sense solutions to restore America.”

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Trump Dominates Nikki Haley in South Carolina Poll Just Days Ahead of Primary

Haley Trump South Carolina

Former President Donald Trump holds a commanding 28-point lead over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley just days ahead of her home state’s primary, according to a Tuesday poll.

Trump is beating Haley 63% to 35% among those who are “very likely” to vote in Saturday’s Republican primary, a Suffolk University/USA Today survey found. The poll also indicated the former president held double-digit leads over Haley among each age group, both men and women, those with a college degree, high school graduates and voters in military families.

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Almost 200 Voter Registrations in Pima County Canceled for Lacking U.S. Citizenship, New Data Shows

Vote Sign

A new summary by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) found that 186 voter registrants have been “involuntarily purged” for citizenship issues in Pima County, Arizona, since 2021.

The PILF summary, citing records released by Pima County election officials, found that seven individuals within the group of 186 canceled voter registrations had a history of casting ballots across two federal and local elections.

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Arizona Senate Advances Bill to Void Low Turnout Elections, Reschedule Votes to Coincide with Statewide or Federal Races

An Arizona bill that would void the results of low turnout elections and reschedule them to coincide with statewide or federal races advanced past the Senate Committee on Elections and will now go to a full vote in the Arizona Senate, so long as the legislation is deemed constitutional by the Rules Committee.

The bill, SB 1131, would nullify the results of a local election that does not coincide with a statewide or federal election if less than 25 percent of possible voters turn out to vote.

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Fani Willis Took Over $8,500 from First Campaign as ‘Repayment’ for Loans Missing Paperwork, Submitted Without Date and Signature

Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis claimed during her Thursday testimony at the hearing to disqualify her from the Georgia election case against former President Donald Trump that she took a significant amount of cash from her first election and used it to replenish her physical cash reserves. Willis claimed to use the physical cash to repay her former lover, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, for luxurious vacations.

Willis made the claim about keeping “some of the cash” from her first campaign when asked about the origin of her cash savings. The district attorney claimed she has been saving physical cash “all my life,” and gave as an example, “When I took out a large amount of money on my first campaign, I kept some of the cash of that.”

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Commentary: Non-Citizens Have Been Voting Since 2008

Why would a president running for reelection refuse to meet with the Speaker of the House to discuss a national crisis that most voters blame on the president himself? This would be regarded as bizarre behavior under any circumstances, but it’s particularly perverse considering that the crisis in question is illegal immigration — the signature issue of Biden’s probable challenger in November. Moreover, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, 63 percent of the voters disapprove of the way he has handled immigration. Yet Biden refuses to discuss the problem. It’s almost as if he thinks it somehow works to his advantage.

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Abe Hamadeh Files Response to Arizona Election Officials’ Motions to Dismiss His Quo Warranto Action to Remove Kris Mayes from Office

Abe Hamadeh

Abe Hamadeh continues his election litigation challenging his 280-vote loss to Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, including filing a Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto to remove Mayes from office. This past week, he filed a response to the Arizona officials’ Motions to Dismiss that lawsuit.

Represented by Ryan Heath of Heath Law, Hamadeh laid out the status of the case in the opening of his 43-page Response. “Respondent Kris Mays, Defendant Fontes, and the Maricopa County Defendants seek to deny Petitioner and many other voters their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Arizona Constitution for the sake of expediency,” he said. “The Maricopa County Defendants also seek to avoid accountability for their failures, which plausibly resulted in thousands (and likely hundreds of thousands) of illegal votes affecting the results of the 2022 General Election for the office of Attorney General (the ‘Contested Race’). Due to Maricopa County officials’ lack of candor, the circumstances permitting Petitioner to bring this action were not known — and could not have been known — until more than half a year after the official canvass was taken for the Contested Race.’

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Commentary: The Democrats’ Coming ‘September Switcheroo’ to Bench Biden and Nominate Michelle

Michelle Obama

President Biden’s poll numbers seem set in quicksand. Now the special counsel’s justification for not recommending charges against Biden for having “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” is damning: Biden’s memory has such “significant limitations” that the special counsel believed he could not convince a jury that Biden has a “mental state of willfulness” that a serious felony (or, presumably, serving as president) requires. Cue the campaign commercials.

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Retiring Rep. Debbie Lesko Now Seeks Election to Maricopa County Board of Supervisors

Debbi Lesko

Representative Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08), who recently announced she will retire from the U.S. Congress at the end of her term, is now reportedly seeking election to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

Multiple reports reveal Lesko announced her candidacy for the District 4 seat on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors within hours of the Thursday announcement when Supervisor Clint Hickman confirmed he will not seek another term in office.

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Arizona Free Enterprise Club Files Lawsuit Against Adrian Fontes over ‘Illegal’ and ‘Most Radical’ Elections Procedures Manual in Arizona’s History

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) filed a lawsuit last week against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, accusing him of making illegal changes to the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM). Represented by the America First Policy Institute, Davillier Law Group, and Grand Canyon Legal Center, AFEC said the revisions improperly place protected political speech at risk of criminal prosecution and have an unconstitutional chilling effect on protected political speech.

“Secretary Fontes has produced one of the most radical elections procedures manuals in our state’s history,” said Scot Mussi, AFEC’s president. “If the illegal provisions of this manual are allowed to stand, the integrity and transparency of state elections would continue to dissipate at the hands of leftwing ideologues. We hope the court agrees with our arguments and forces the Secretary to adhere to state law.”

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Tennessee GOP Chairman Scott Golden Explains Delegate Process

People Voting

With early voting underway for the March 5 Presidential Preference Primary and County Primary Elections, Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden explained how voters elect delegates in the Volunteer State.

In addition to the presidential and county candidates, two types of delegates are elected by Republican voters on the primary ballot – at-large delegates, which represent the entire state and appear on the ballot in every county, and delegates that represent each congressional district.

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Four Possible Candidates Tell Tennessee Star They May Seek GOP Nomination for TN-7 U.S. House Seat Following Retirement of Rep. Mark Green

TN-7 Possible GOP Candidates

Four possible Republican candidates expressed an interest in representing Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District to The Tennessee Star when asked on Thursday after Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced his intention to retire from Congress at the end of his term.

The Star asked Dr. Omar Hamada, Robby Starbuck, Jeff Beierlein, Dr. Manny Sethi, and State Senators Bill Powers (R-Clarksville) and Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) about their interest in running for office.

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Katie Hobbs Used State Resources for Censorship ‘Volunteers’ Who Monitored Twitter for ‘Misinformation’ in 2022 Arizona Elections: Email

Gov. Katie Hobbs

An email surfaced by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) on Tuesday revealed Governor Katie Hobbs used government resources to facilitate a volunteer force that flagged “misinformation” ahead of the 2022 election, including on Election Day.

The legal organization explained that it revealed the email through an Arizona Public Records Law request to the Arizona Secretary of State which requested communications between Hobbs’ office and social media platforms Twitter, Facebook and Instagram between January 7, 2019 and January 1, 2023.

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VoterGA’s Garland Favorito Recaps Case Claiming Georgia Election Equipment ‘Constitutionally Deficient’ After Trial Concludes

Garland Favorito

Garland Favorito of Georgia election integrity group, Voter GA, held a press conference last week to urge Ninth District Court Judge Amy Totenberg to side with the plaintiffs in Curling v. Raffensperger and declare the ballot imaging devices (BMDs) used in Georgia “constitutionally deficient.”

“The last month or so has been very intense; it’s been 24/7 days for most of the attorneys and staff,” Favorito began before turning to a discussion over the closing arguments made by plaintiff Ricardo Davis in the six-year-old lawsuit.

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We the People AZ Alliance Introduces AVII Ballot Hand Count Method to Senate Elections Committee, Already Adopted by Maricopa County Republicans

Shelby Busch

The Senate Elections Committee heard a presentation from We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) co-founder Shelby Busch on Monday regarding its plan for restoring trust in elections by including hand counts of ballots.

Both the Arizona Republican Party, the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC), and Arkansas Republicans have already implemented the AVII method, which is known as the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative, in its party elections. Republicans in Arkansas want to make the AVII method law by putting the question to voters as a constitutional amendment.

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Tennessee U.S. Rep. Mark Green Announces Retirement from Congress

Mark Green Retiring

U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced his retirement from Congress on Wednesday, just one day after leading the House in a historic vote to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Green, who served as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he is “ready to return home” after delivering on his promise to “pass legislation to secure our borders and to hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable” by leading the passage of H.R. 2 and two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.

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Gina Godbehere Jumps into Maricopa County Attorney Primary Race Against Incumbent Rachel Mitchell

Gina Godbehere

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell will face the same challenger in the Republican primary this year as she did in the 2022 special election Gina Godbehere.

Godbehere announced her campaign last week. The Maricopa County Supervisors chose Mitchell in early 2022 to replace the previous county attorney, Alistar Adel, who resigned from office due to health issues. Adel passed away in 2022. Mitchell has accumulated considerable criticism from Republicans for actions such as representing the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) twice, asking for sanctions against Kari Lake’s election attorneys.

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CJ Pearson Will Seek Impeachment of Fani Willis Due to ‘Clear Impropriety’ with Nathan Wade if Elected to Georgia State House

C.J. Pearson, who is on the ballot Tuesday for the special election in 125th District to fill a recently-vacated seat in Georgia’s State House, told The Georgia Star News about his “incredible journey” that began as a preteen political commentator nearly a decade ago and may have landed him within days of officially entering politics as an elected official.

Pearson, who has faced intense criticism from parties connected to Governor Brian Kemp that he previously characterized as “rogue,” answered his critics, told Star News what his priorities will be if elected, and promised to leverage his potential status as the youngest black politician to help Georgia Republicans achieve new heights if elected.

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America First Legal Lawsuit Against Maricopa County Over Election Illegalities Raises Issues Other Judges Previously Found Had Merit in 2020 Election Cases

America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Maricopa County, alleging numerous violations of election law since 2020. Some of the issues raised in the complaint were brought up in similar lawsuits brought around the country challenging irregularities in the 2020 election, where judges found they had merit.

The AFL listed eight issues in its complaint, and mainly asked for declaratory judgment to stop the county from repeating the wrongdoing and comply with law. The first was lack of chain of custody for tens of thousands of ballots, a class 2 misdemeanor. The second was failure to conduct reconciliation as required by law, which refers to comparing the number of votes cast at polling centers to the number of voters who checked in. The third was the failure of the voting center printers, disenfranchising voters. The fourth was the racially discriminatory location of vote centers, disadvantaging Native Americans and whites who lived farther from the locations than others. 

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Trump Leads Haley by Wide Margin in South Carolina, Mace Draws No-Show Primary Challenger

As the February 24 Republican primary elections approach in South Carolina, former President Donald J. Trump has a commanding lead in the polls against his only challenger, former South Carolina Governor Nimrata “Nikki” Haley.

According to the poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight, Trump is dominating Haley on her own home turf by a margin of about 65 percent to Haley’s 32 percent. 

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Roger Simon Analyzes RFK Jr.’s Campaign amid DNC’s FEC Complaint

RFK JR

Roger Simon, co-founder of PJMedia and current columnist for The Epoch Times, joined Friday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy where he discussed the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) latest attack on Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. ‘s presidential campaign and the super PAC supporting him.

On Friday, the DNC filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against RFK Jr.’s campaign and the American Values Super PAC on allegations the two are colluding to get the candidate ballot access.

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Trump Tied with Biden in Battleground Wisconsin: Poll

Trump Biden Wisconsin

Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are locked in a tight race to claim Wisconsin, should both become their respective parties’ nominees in the 2024 White House race.

The pair earned 49% each in a recent Marquette Law School Poll of registered voters, when undecided respondents were asked to choose. Trump held a narrow edge of 50% to 49% among likely voters. Among independent registered voters, Biden led Trump 49% to 42%.

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