Commentary: Lowering the Bar on the ‘New McCarthyism’

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” That seems to be Kevin McCarthy’s favorite mantra. Friday night, on the 15th vote for speaker of the House, he finally got his moist little palm around Nancy Pelosi’s still-warm gavel. Welcome to the new Republican-ish speaker of the House!

The contest was brutal, occasionally absurd, and the occasion of hilarity and consternation among the punditocracy on both the Right and the Left. The Left clucked their tongues about the “chaos” on view on the other side of the aisle. Some among the GOP agreed and wondered why “their side” could not govern as effectively as the Democrats. Would Nancy Pelosi have put up with this level of dissension among the Democratic rank and file? Others said, no, no, the 20 freedom caucus members (and others) holding up the inevitable were just giving the world a reality show, live-action look at how “democracy” (if not quite Our Democracy™) works and should work.

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Commentary: Make Elections Normal Again

Polling Place

Americans can’t seem to agree on much of anything anymore. We’re deeply divided on a wide range of issues: abortion, illegal immigration, gun rights, and so-called climate change, to name a few. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find a major political issue on which Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly agree.

Political polarization is nothing new: Many countries experience it at one point or another. In America, we once could put our differences aside and settle things at the ballot box. Our electoral system, when functioning as intended, transcends partisan politics. Things are different today, though. COVID-era voting policies need to be reversed in order to restore faith in our electoral process.

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Six Policies That Anti-Abortion Leaders Expect a Pro-Life House Majority to Prioritize

A letter signed by leaders of more than 40 pro-life organizations has been sent to every Republican member of Congress, urging action on eight related bills.

“We write to urge you to exercise Congress’s constitutional authority to legislate abortion policy at the federal level and pursue a robust pro-life agenda,” reads the letter to House and Senate Republicans authored by organizations ranging from March for Life and Live Action to The Heritage Foundation. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)

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Commentary: Republicans Struggle with Young Voters

Now that the 2022 midterm elections are in the book, the post-election blame game for Republicans is underway. And there are plenty of explanations being suggested.

First is the group who say they never expected a “red wave.” Clearly their prognostication button had been on mute until now. Another group is blaming Republican opposition to early and mail-in voting. This may have had some effect, but a moderate one in comparison to 2020. For this, Republicans have no one to blame but themselves.

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McCarthy Agrees to Key Rule Change in Effort to Solidify Support for Speakership Bid

With the election for Speaker of the House of Representatives taking place on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has agreed to a major rule change in an effort to secure conservative support for his shaky bid for leadership.

The Daily Caller reports that McCarthy agreed on Sunday to make it easier for a vote of no-confidence to be brought up against a sitting Speaker, changing the procedure so that any rank-and-file member of the House can call for such a vote. Previously, a vote of no-confidence, also known as a motion to vacate the chair, could only be brought by a member of party leadership.

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Commentary: Congress Should Investigate ‘Gain-of-Function’ Research

I fear that the investigations Republicans have promised in the House next year will be little more than another round of toxic partisan gamesmanship. But there is one investigation Congress should undertake, and that is into so-called “gain-of-function” research.

Before the pandemic, I suspect that most of you, like me, had never heard of gain-of-function research. What we learned during the pandemic is that scientists around the world routinely tinker with the genome of viruses to see how the induced changes will affect replication of the virus (contagiousness) and the effects it has on its host (lethality). Such research has apparently been going on for decades and is routinely funded by governments, including ours.

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Over 70 Candidates Competing for Arizona Republican Party Offices

Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) Chair Kelli Ward is not running for a third term, and six candidates have announced they are running to replace her. At least 63 more candidates are running for other positions in the AZGOP, which will be decided in an election at the annual statutory meeting on January 28, 2023. The candidates for chair are Sheila Muehling, Jeff DeWit, Steve Daniels, Dan Farley, Vera Gebran, and Lori Ann Martinez.

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Republicans Poised to Approve Massive FBI Funding Boost in Wake of Twitter Files Revelations

Republicans are set to approve a massive spending bill which includes billions of dollars in funding for the FBI despite recently leaked information which found the federal agency colluded with Twitter to censor users.

The bill designated $11.33 billion for the FBI “to investigate extremist violence and domestic terrorism,” according to a summary of the bill by the House Appropriations Committee. The total is reportedly $569.6 million more than the enacted levels for the 2022 fiscal year and $524 million more than the president requested.

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‘America First’ v. ‘Arizona First’ Candidates Face Off for Maricopa County Republican Committee Board

The Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) is holding its biannual election for the board in January, and two slates of candidates have declared their candidacies for the five slots. One slate has labeled itself “America First,” while another is calling itself “Arizona First.”

The America First slate, which is also going by #TeamTruth and emphasizing election integrity, consists of Craig Berland for chair, Shelby Busch for 1st vice chair, Jeff Greenspan for 2nd vice chair, Diana Jones for secretary, and Lawrence Hudson for treasurer. The slate promises, “We promise to put the GOP clearly on the side of True Reform of Arizona Election Laws: mail-ins limited to true absentees, and precinct hand counts. Empower PCs to make the party grassroots, not top down.”

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Democrats’ Top Election Lawyer Litigating Nearly 50 Cases Against Republicans

The Democratic Party’s top elections attorney and his firm are litigating nearly 50 different post-election cases in 19 states to affect their results, he announced on Sunday night.

Marc Elias, the founder of Elias Law Group, which bills itself as “committed to helping Democrats win, citizens vote, and progressives make change,” announced that it was representing clients in 19 states, for a total of 48 cases. The cases have involved either legal defenses to challenges brought by GOP candidates regarding election issues, or efforts to change election laws in favor of Democratic candidates.

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Republican, Independent Voters Are Fleeing to States That Align with Their Beliefs: Poll

Many Republican and independent voters are either moving or planning on moving to states that align with their beliefs, according to a new poll.

Of 1,084 respondents, 10.4% of Republicans and 9.6% of independents said that they plan on moving to an area that aligns with their beliefs in the next year, while only 2.1% of Democrats said they would move, according to a Trafalgar Group/ Convention of States Action poll. Furthermore, some respondents have already moved to new areas based on their beliefs, with 4.4% of Republican and 4.1% of independent respondents saying they had done so in the last three years.

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Voters Call for New GOP Leadership in Congress After Midterm Election: Poll

A majority of Republicans want new leadership in the GOP Congress following the 2022 midterm elections, according to a new poll.

Of 1084 polled respondents, 71.6% said that Republicans need new leadership in Congress, and only 9.3% said that Republicans do not, according to the Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll. The poll follows an “underwhelming” midterm election for Republicans, where candidates unexpectedly lost in swing districts, Senate races and gubernatorial races.

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Commentary: A New Age of American Politics

After sifting through the rubble from election night, and having done some soul searching on my basic knowledge of politics, I’ve come to a few conclusions: American politics has entered a new age. All that has gone before—polls, historical trends, message, issues, candidate quality, traditional get-out-the-vote efforts, candidate debates, voter persuasion—means almost nothing and is extremely insignificant. 

The thing—the only thing—that truly matters now is a “ballots out, ballots in” machine.

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Maricopa County Voting Centers Plagued with Tabulation Errors on Election Day Affected Areas Averaging Well Over 300 Percent More Republicans Than Democrats

Voters encountered problems casting their ballots at 70 of the 223 vote centers in Maricopa County on Election Day, November 8, 2022, resulting in long lines and concerns that ballots ended up not tabulated or “misread,” and commingled with ballots that had already been tabulated. Averaged together, the problems occurred in areas where Election Day voting was more than 300 percent Republican versus Democrat. Of those 70 precincts affected, 59 were in heavily Republican-voting areas, and two were Republican-leaning but not heavily, with only nine from Democrat-leaning or solidly Democrat areas.

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GOP Learning to Love Mail-In Ballots, Curing, Legal Harvesting as It Seeks to Level Playing Field

In a 180-degree turn, Republicans are adopting the Democratic strategy for winning elections in states where mail-in voting, ballot curing and ballot harvesting are legal.

Republicans have repeatedly sounded the alarm over universal mail-in voting, ballot curing, and ballot harvesting because of the heightened possibility for fraud, but as Democrats have used these methods to help their candidates win elections, the GOP is belatedly accepting that they must play the same game.

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Commentary: Republicans Need to Change Strategies After Disappointing Midterm Results

Who or what was responsible for the Republican nationwide collapse in the midterms? After all, pundits, politicos, and pollsters all predicted a “red tsunami.” 

Moreover, the average loss of any president in his first midterm is 25 House seats. And when his approval sinks to or below 43 percent—in the fashion of Joe Biden—the loss, on average, expands to over 40 seats. 

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Republicans Win Control of the House

Republicans gained control of the United State House of Representatives, edging out a narrow victory in the tightly-contested midterm elections.

The GOP currently holds 218 seats after mail-in ballots caused over a week of delays in results, The Associated Press reported, though that number may grow as the last few remaining races wrap up. The elections were far closer than pre-midterm projections, with most pollsters predicting Republicans would take between 225 and 255 seats.

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Commentary: Six Bold Ideas for Trump, Republicans to Rebound from 2022 Midterms

After an underwhelming midterm election, the Republican Party and its enigmatic leader Donald Trump find themselves in a political wilderness, much like Ronald Reagan did after losing the 1976 nomination.

The Biden Democrats with hiding Kathy Hochul and hobbled John Fetterman seemed as beatable as bumbling Gerald Ford, and yet somehow the Reagan and 2022 GOP teams lost the process even though polling data showed they had won the hearts of the faithful. And the despair of knowing a far left regime (Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden) might rule for another election cycle led many to throw hands up and point fingers.

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Commentary: The Hard Work Begins for the GOP House

OK. Yippee! The Democrats have been kicked out of their House majority, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can tend to Paul full time. We must condemn the assault and battery on him that was vicious and evil, and Nancy should be with him. If the definition of a “conservative” is “a liberal who has been mugged,” then perhaps, as with so many others of their ilk and bent, the Pelosis now will appreciate the GOP message on crime, on leniency to violent recidivist criminals, on defunding the police, on the right to bear arms, and on no-bail policies. Again, the attack on Paul was appalling, nothing to joke about. And he needs Nancy there — not only to help nurse him back to full health but also to keep an eye on him when he goes out for a night of social drinking or just to drive the ol’ electric car.

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Commentary: With Republicans Poised to Take Back the House, a Key Opportunity to Reverse Dems’ Insanity Emerges

Candidates who ran on an America First agenda fought a close fight in Tuesday’s congressional elections, with at least the House poised to fall into the GOP’s hands and possibly the Senate flipping out of the left’s control.

With America First candidates from states like in Michigan, California, New Jersey and Florida picking up seats, conservatives must not squander their goodwill from voters and instead immediately enact an economic agenda to reverse course away from the crushing policies that pushed record inflation on American families.

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Elon Musk Urges ‘Independent-Minded Voters’ to Vote Republican

Billionaire business magnate Elon Musk on Monday urged “independent-minded” Twitter followers to vote for Republicans in the midterm elections Tuesday, arguing that shared power between the two parties is better for the country.

“To independent-minded voters: Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic,” Twitter’s new CEO wrote.

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Arizona Conservatives Respond to Prominent Republicans Endorsing Democrats, Say They’re ‘Inconsequential Has-Beens’

Some Republicans in Arizona have publicly endorsed Democrats in this election, sparking conservative Republicans in the state to respond dismissively. A long list of “RINOs” predictably endorsed Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and now more have come out endorsing some of the other candidates running against the Trump-endorsed slate for higher offices.

State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who frequently receives the top rating from organizations as Arizona’s most conservative legislator, told The Arizona Sun Times, “Politics has always been an arena full of self-aggrandizing grifters. The cold reality, though, is that no one, especially not the conservative Republican electorate, cares what a tiny handful of inconsequential has-beens and establishment profiteers thinks.”

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Commentary: Democrats Face Historic Headwinds in Tuesday’s Midterm Elections

Regardless of all that wispy smoke Democrats and their allies in the news media are blowing, key polls suggest Republicans are still likely to win back control of the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s midterm elections and have a better than even chance to take over the Senate.

Historically, one of the strongest indicators – perhaps the strongest indicator – of how a party will do in midterm elections is the job approval rating of the incumbent president. Parties of presidents who are down in the polls usually lose congressional seats. Parties of presidents up in the polls generally gain seats in the midterms.

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Poll: Small Business Owners Trust Republicans to Help Them Amid Recession Fears

Small business owners believe they’ll benefit from Republican victories in the upcoming elections, according to a new poll.

Most small business employers believe the country is in a recession, and fear that economic conditions will put them out of business, with a majority believing a Republican victory will help them, according to the survey conducted by Rasmussen and the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF). The poll reflects a broader concern among voters about economic conditions and historic levels of inflation under the Biden administration.

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Commentary: Early Vote Data Suggests Trouble for Dems in Pennsylvania

Democrats are getting some warning signs in the mail. Voting data in the key states show that mail-in voting, which traditionally favors Democrats, is down. In-person voting, meanwhile, will likely continue to be dominated by Republicans.

Take, for example, my home state of Pennsylvania. In 2020, there were 1,564,483 ballots cast nine days out from Election Day. As of Sunday, nine days out from the midterm election, there were only 777,309 ballots cast. That’s a drop of more than half. And it is even steeper for traditionally Democratic voting groups like black voters. In 2020, approximately 147,539 black Pennsylvanians had voted at this point; now, it’s only 47,830. 

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Republicans Enter Final Stretch Acutely Aware They Must Deliver Big After Election Day

Buoyed by rising popularity in the polls, Republican candidates for Congress are acutely aware their easiest job right now may be winning the midterm elections and that the harder work will be delivering afterwards — with Democrat Joe Biden still in the White House — on voters’ high expectations for fixing inflation, crime, insecure borders, the fentanyl crisis and crippling budget deficits.

From longtime lawmakers to first-time candidates, Republicans sounded consistent themes during a frank conversation with Just the News about what voters expect if they put the GOP in control of one or both chambers of Congress.

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Commentary: Democrats Race to Save a Blue State Gone Purple

With Election Day less than a month away, Democrats and Republicans are duking it out to secure majorities in Congress. While both parties funnel record-breaking millions of dollars into several traditional battleground states like Pennsylvania and Nevada, Democrats could lose a state they’ve won since the late 1980s – Oregon.

Though the state is all but guaranteed to re-elect longtime Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, there’s a real possibility Oregonians might just elect their first Republican governor in nearly 35 years. Thanks to a well-funded independent spoiler candidate and an unpopular outgoing governor, Democrats are facing a tight race with serious implications as major issues like abortion are tossed to the states.

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Majority of House Seats Now Lean Republican, Election Forecaster Says

A majority of seats in the House of Representatives now lean Republican, according to a new election forecast from Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia.

Competitive races are breaking heavily in favor of Republicans, and analysts moved four House races in New York, Oregon, California and New Mexico from “toss up” to “leans Republican” from last week’s predictions. The GOP is now slated to win 218 House seats by Sabato’s forecast, taking control of the chamber.

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Migrant Caravans Are Preparing to Flood U.S. Border Ahead of Midterms, Senior Guatemalan Official Warns

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — Guatemala’s interior minister has intelligence that large caravans of migrants will try to get to the U.S. in anticipation of the midterm elections, he said in an exclusive sit-down interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Migrants, who believe the midterm elections could end with Republicans taking back control of Congress, are heading to the U.S. border in large caravans, Guatemalan Interior Minister Napoleon Barrientos told the DCNF. The migrants think that they have a short window to make the trek because it may not be as easy to immigrate to the U.S. after the midterm elections, with Republican lawmakers promising to beef up border security and tighten oversight.

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Commentary: Republicans Find Their Footing on Abortion

Earlier this week, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio stood his ground on a debate stage at the Lake Worth campus of Palm Beach College. His opponent is seasoned Democratic lawmaker Val Demings, a black congresswoman and former police chief, and the discussion had turned to abortion rights – terrain that Democrats believe favor them and give Demings and other Senate candidates a chance to alter the expected outcome of the 2022 midterms.

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Hillary Clinton Warns Republicans Are Planning to ‘Literally Steal the Next Presidential Election’

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is claiming that the Republican party is engaged in a conspiracy plot to rig the 2024 presidential race, claiming that the GOP is “literally” planning to steal that election from voters. 

The former secretary of state made the declaration last week in a video uploaded to social media. Addressing “Indivisibles,” or members of the far-left Indivisible political action movement, Clinton broached a topic she claimed was “keeping me up at night.”

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Republicans Win Major Election Integrity Ruling Against Michigan Secretary of State

The Republican Party has won an election integrity lawsuit against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson over restrictions she imposed on poll challengers.

Benson, per the Republican National Committee, had imposed restrictions on poll challengers, including a new credential form, an “artificial deadline” for appointing them, and limiting the poll workers with whom the challengers may communicate.

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