Republican Senate candidate John James announced Friday that his campaign has donated more than $250,000 to charity over the last six months.
Read the full storyJohn James’ Senate Campaign Donates $250,000 to Charity
Tag: U.S. Senate
Candidate for U.S. Senate Dr. Manny Sethi Meets with East Tennessee Grassroots Conservatives
Candidate for U.S. Senate, Dr. Manny Sethi, met with grassroots conservatives in Knoxville, sharing his campaign message, interacting one-on-one and taking questions from attendees.
Read the full storyTennessee Star Poll: Haslam Faces Difficult Challenge If He Seeks GOP Nomination for U.S. Senate
A new Tennessee Star poll reveals that former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam could face a serious challenge if he seeks the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Senator Lamar Alexander. As noted previously in the Tennessee Star, Haslam’s approval lags far below the support level for President Donald Trump, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Governor Bill Lee. And now it appears that even in a potentially crowded primary field Haslam would start off within reach of a significant challenge by conservative Congressman Mark Green. In a prospective matchup against Green, former Economic Development Commissioner and current Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty, and west Tennessee businessman Jeff Webb, Haslam secures 28.7% support, Green 12.7%, Hagerty .9%, and Webb 1.3% with a huge number of voters (56.3%) undecided. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill points out that such a huge undecided number among likely Republican primary voters with Haslam having served the past 8 years as Governor should be big red flag that Haslam shouldn’t ignore. “The other 3 potential opponents are not as well known, and voters would clearly like to learn more about them before they decide to support Haslam.” The Triton Polling survey was conducted over…
Read the full storyMainstream Media Turns on Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown
Ohio Senator and potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sherrod Brown is in trouble. In these early moves before formally announcing his candidacy, Brown has been focusing on courting both sides of the political spectrum. On the right, he has attempted to present himself as a populist candidate whose blue-collar priorities would have wide appeal with the working class candidates that propelled President Trump to victory. On the left, he has focused on aggressive anti-Wall Street and anti-corporate rhetoric while emphasizing greater government regulation. While the strategy has shown potential, the first cracks are starting to form. The Ohio senator is now facing scrutiny from both sides aisle. On the right side, he has received significant criticism for his refusal to support Trump’s revised U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA), a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). One of the key issues in 2016 that galvanized many working-class voters to support Trump was opposition to NAFTA and a desire to see it replaced. While he claims that he still wishes to replace the agreement, it strikes many as hollow and having more to do with a blanket opposition to Trump. Should he prove unable to shake this perception, it is likely he…
Read the full storyGregory Watson Commentary: U.S. House of Representatives’ Quiet Procedural Snub of President Trump’s 2019 SOTU Address
When any American President formally speaks before a joint session of the two houses of the U.S. Congress, it is considered a matter of great importance to our nation — and certainly ought to be viewed as quite significant by members of Congress. The State-of-the-Union (SOTU) address — regardless of which President is delivering it, and irrespective of his or her party affiliation — is never trivial. When a President gives his or her remarks, both houses of Congress are officially in session at that point and — just as at any other such time — the words spoken to those persons present within the House chamber are to be reduced to writing and spread upon the Congressional Record. This, of course, is to preserve for posterity such historic comments and to make them more widely available to anyone desiring to reflect back upon them. Hence, it is with some surprise that the full and complete verbatim text of President Donald Trump’s February 5, 2019 speech — and, as it turns out, likewise his February 28, 2017 as well as his January 30, 2018 SOTU addresses – are all completely missing from the Congressional Record. So, I did some investigating.…
Read the full storySenators Give Up On Effort to Rename Senate Office Building in Honor of John McCain
by Molly Prince The effort to rename a Senate office building after the late Republican Sen. John McCain has seemingly gone to the wayside as months pass without any further action. Following McCain’s death in August, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged to introduce a resolution that would change the name of the Russell Senate Office Building as a tribute to the Arizona senator. “As you go through life, you meet few truly great people. John McCain was one of them,” Schumer tweeted the day of McCain’s passing. ‘His dedication to his country and the military were unsurpassed, and maybe most of all, he was a truth teller — never afraid to speak truth to power in an era where that has become all too rare.’ ‘The Senate, the United States, and the world are lesser places without John McCain,” he continued. “Nothing will overcome the loss of Senator McCain, but so that generations remember him I will be introducing a resolution to rename the Russell building after him.” Schumer, however, never introduced the aforementioned resolution and his office did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation when asked if he was still planning on doing so. The…
Read the full storyMartha McSally Will be Appointed to John McCain’s Seat
by Henry Rodgers Arizona Republican Rep. Martha McSally will be appointed to John McCain’s former Senate seat after Republican Sen. Jon Kyl announced he is resigning from the U.S. Senate at the end of December. Gov. Doug Ducey, announced in a Tuesday statement that McSally will be taking the seat. This comes as McSally lost her Senate bid to Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in a tight Nov. 6 midterm race. “All her life, Martha has put service first — leading in the toughest of fights and at the toughest of times,” Ducey said in his statement. “With her experience and long record of service, Martha is uniquely qualified to step up and fight for Arizona’s interests in the U.S. Senate. I thank her for taking on this significant responsibility and look forward to working with her and Senator-Elect Sinema to get positive things done.” Kyl, who replaced McCain after his death, told The Arizona Republic that he will leave office on Dec. 31, when the legislative calendar ends. He said he agreed to finish working until the 115th Congress concluded, he also thanked Ducey for his appointment. McCain’s wife, Cindy, tweeted out her support for McSally shortly after the news broke: “Arizonans will be pulling for…
Read the full storyCommentary: The U.S. Constitution Allows For The Appointment Of Temporarily ‘Acting’ Officials Without Senate Confirmation
In its Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, the United States Constitution provides that the President of the United States: …by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States whose Appointments are not otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law…” This means that, by a simple majority vote of the 100-member U.S. Senate, the President may nominate — and the Senate may confirm — various appointees within the Executive branch and within the Judicial branch of the federal government. In the aftermath of the November 6, 2018, general election — and the Republican Party enjoying a net gain of three seats in the U.S. Senate — President Donald Trump should experience less difficulty, during the upcoming 116th Congress (2019-2020), with how his nominees are received in the nation’s highest legislative body, than had been the case during the 115th Congress. But not every appointment requires action by the U.S. Senate — regardless of whether that body is officially in session or is in recess between sessions. The Constitution’s Article II, Section 2, Clause 3, reads…
Read the full storyCommentary: What The U.S. Constitution Really Says On The Subject Of Impeachment And Trial Removal Of The President
Before then-President-elect Donald Trump could even take the official oath of office on January 20, 2017, his critics were already chattering about the possibility of Trump’s tenure in the White House being truncated by means of involuntary removal. Throughout 2017 and 2018, there has been, and continues to be, spirited discussion by the President’s detractors of the possibility of expelling him from office by means of the impeachment-and-trial process that is found in separate parts of the U.S. Constitution. One of the most ardent advocates of ousting President Trump has been U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (D-California). Another has been her colleague, U.S. Representative Al Green (D-Texas) who actually went so far as to offer articles of impeachment against the President only to be soundly rebuffed, as recently as January 19, 2018, by a procedural motion-to-table Green’s House Resolution No. 705 with 355 yeas, 66 nays, 3 “present”, and 6 “not voting”. Prior to the recent November 6, 2018, general election, some members of the U.S. House of Representatives vowed that, if the partisan composition of that body would flip from majority Republican to majority Democrat — which it certainly did on November 6th — efforts to impeach the President would…
Read the full storyCommentary: The U.S. Constitution Narrowly Prevailed Over Mob Rule And Character-Assassination
On October 6, 2018, now-Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh was formally confirmed by the U.S. Senate — in a rare Saturday session — with a slender vote of 50 yeas and 48 nays in the 100-member body. Both of Tennessee’s Senators, Republicans Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, cast their votes in favor of Kavanaugh joining the highest court in the land. The last time that someone gained membership onto the High Court by such a close margin was on May 12, 1881, when Thomas Stanley Matthews (nominated by President James Garfield) squeaked by with 24 yeas and 23 nays in the Senate. Matthews went on to distinguish himself on the Court as a foe of racial discrimination when he wrote the Opinion in the 1886 case of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, striking down the City of San Francisco’s then-policies of restricting the ability of Chinese immigrants in that city — and placing extraneous procedural obstacles in their path — to establish businesses there, thus infringing upon the federal Constitution’s 14th Amendment. A short time after this past Saturday’s 50-48 vote, Chief Justice John Roberts administered the official oath to Kavanaugh as the 114th Justice of the Supreme Court, thereby…
Read the full storyTennessee State Lawmakers Gave Up a Section of the State Constitution When They Quickly Ratified The U.S. Constitution’s 26th Amendment
Back in 1971, the Tennessee General Assembly quickly ratified the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which lowered the voting age in all elections–federal, state and local– to 18 in every state. By doing so, they voluntarily give up a section of the Tennessee State Constitution. Here’s that story: During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Vietnam War — with which the United States was heavily involved — continued to rage overseas. With so many American soldiers — several of them younger than 20 years of age — dying on the battlefields of a foreign land in this War, public opinion within the United States began to shift in terms of by what age a person should become eligible to vote. At the time, an individual had to be at least 21 years of age in order to register to vote. But with the evolution in social sentiment occasioned at least in part by the Vietnam War, Congress began to take steps to lower that age from 21 down to 18. A popular slogan of the day was “if you are old enough to fight for your country, then you are old enough to cast a…
Read the full storyGrassroots Conservative Roy Moore Crushes Establishment Candidate in Alabama GOP Senate Runoff Win
Grassroots conservative champion Judge Roy Moore crushed establishment candidate Senator Luther Strange (R-AL) in Tuesday’s Alabama U.S. Senate runoff election by a whopping 54 percent to 45 percent margin, with 95 percent of all precincts reporting. The 9 point victory came for Moore despite being outspent by his opponent and his opponent’s allies by at least 6 to 1, as well as President Trump’s inexplicable endorsement of Strange and his trip to Huntsville, Alabama on Friday to host a well-attended and boisterous rally with Strange in which he doubled-down in his support for the former Alabama Attorney General. Tellingly, Strange only won four counties in the state–two in the Birmingham area (Shelby and Jefferson), one that comprised the metropolitan Huntsville area (Madison), and Sumter County on the border with Mississippi. President Trump promised at the rally that he would support Moore if he won and campaign for him vigorously to secure a victory for Republicans in the December 12 general election against Democratic nominee Doug Jones. True to his word, Trump congratulated Moore on his victory Tuesday evening: Congratulations to Roy Moore on his Republican Primary win in Alabama. Luther Strange started way back & ran a good race. Roy,…
Read the full storyCommentary: Corker Retirement Sends Shockwaves Through Tennessee Political Landscape
U.S. Senator Bob Corker’s announcement Tuesday that he will not seek a third term next year has sent shockwaves through the political landscape of Tennessee. With an open Governor’s race, at least two open U.S. House seats, and the likelihood of two dozen State House and Senate seats being open, spending in next year’s GOP Primary election season was already expected to approach $70 million. Now, that number may approach $80 million! The impact of the Corker announcement has already fueled speculation about who might run for his seat, and what impact that the decisions of potential Senate candidates could have on other races. Here is a quick rundown of some names already in the mix of discussion. 1. Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R- TN-07). Marsha might not clear the field, but with over $3 million in her federal congressional account and strong con-servative credentials and name recognition courtesy of her many appearances on cable news networks, she would certainly give others pause if she gets into the race quickly. (If she hesitates, does Diane Black jump from the Governor’s race and with her personal funding advantage block Marsha from entering? That seems unlikely, unless Marsha hesitates for a while. Even…
Read the full storyAndy Ogles Announces Challenge to Bob Corker for U. S. Senate
Long time conservative activist Andy Ogles announced Thursday he is launching a campaign for the U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Senator Bob Corker (R-TN). “In less than a year the Republican primary will give us an opportunity to make choices that will impact future generations of Tennesseans,” Ogles said in a statement. “Conservative leadership means more than making promises, it means keeping them.” Andy Ogles is perhaps best known at the leader of the Tennessee chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a position he’s held since 2013. During his tenure as the state director, the grassroots army defeated Obamacare expansion twice, led the fight against Common Core and prevented multiple attempts to inflict so-called “Washington DC values” on Tennesseans. The volunteer organization worked to hold politicians accountable for bad votes, regardless of party affiliation. Unlike Senator Corker, who has repeatedly put himself at odds against President Trump and his policy goals, Ogles is aligning himself closely to the president’s ‘Drain the Swap’ message. “Over the past several months it has become increasingly clear that too many of our elected officials in Washington are failing our country, failing to fulfill their promises, and failing our future,” Ogles said. “Sadly, Republicans who promised to…
Read the full storyKid Rock Hits Back at the Biased Media
Ever since musician Kid Rock publicly announced his intent to run for office, he’s been a target of many in the press. The rocker seemed to have had enough of it at a Tuesday night concert at the Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit, Michigan — where reportedly more than 200 people showed up to protest. Rock denied a press pass to the…
Read the full storyREPORT: Senator Bob Corker Considering Retirement
Senator Bob Corker is considering retirement, according to a CNN report breaking this morning: Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the influential chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee who was once considered for a spot in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, is weighing whether to call it quits next year. Corker told CNN last week that he has not made a decision about his future, and appeared to confirm Trump’s tweet that he asked the President for political advice about whether to run for reelection. “As far as what am I going to do in the future, I’m still contemplating the future,” Corker said in an interview. “It’s a tremendous privilege to do what I do, and to weigh in on the big issues. … But I have not decided what I’m going to do in the future.” The junior Senator has been oddly quiet about any 2018 re-election run as possible candidates consider challenging him in the August primary, and investigations into some too-good-to-be-true stock trades develop. CNN continues: A source familiar with Corker’s thinking said the Republican is legitimately torn about whether to remain in the body another six years or to return to his roots in the business sector.…
Read the full storySenate Committee Launches New Clinton Corruption Investigation
Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has launched a new investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s effort to thwart a Bangladesh government corruption probe of Muhammad Yunus, a Clinton Foundation donor and close friend of the Clintons. The Iowa Republican’s effort is the first new official inquiry of Clinton since her unexpected…
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