Longshot GOP Candidate Doug Burgum Suspends Presidential Campaign

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum announced Monday that he is suspending his 2024 presidential campaign.

Burgum jumped in the growing GOP primary field in early June and has spent his campaign largely focused on the economy, energy and national security. The governor criticized the Republican National Committee’s (RNC’s) upped debate requirements, which left Burgum off the last debate stage, during his announcement, accusing them of “nationalizing the primary system,” according to a press release.

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Eventbrite Cancels De-Transitioner Chloe Cole Event for Violating Policy Against ‘Hateful, Violent, and Dangerous Events’

Eventbrite has canceled an event speaking out against the treatments and surgeries being done to transitioning minors, citing that it violates a policy on “hateful, violent, and dangerous events.”

The event will be hosted by the Palmetto Family Council in South Carolina and will feature de-transitioner Chloe Cole. It’s set to take place on Nov. 7.

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Burgum Campaign Announces ‘Cutting-Edge’ Voter Contact Effort as the GOP Presidential Long-Shot Looks to Miss Second Debate

The campaign for North Dakota Governor and Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum said it’s rolling out a “cutting-edge voter contact surge” that will target more “persuadable” voters.

Will it be enough to move the needle for a long-shot candidate on the outside looking in to next week’s second GOP presidential debate?

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GOP Presidential Hopeful Tim Scott Unveils Economic Plan Ahead of Campaign Trip to Hawkeye State

U.S. Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Tim Scott is unveiling his “Build, Don’t Borrow” economic plan as he prepares for another campaign trip to Iowa.

Scott says his proposal targets runaway government spending, while cutting taxes, expanding jobs and “unleashing American manufacturing and energy production” with his Made in America agenda.

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RFK Jr. Praises New Hampshire’s Fight for Primary, Calls DNC’s Changes ‘Undemocratic Attempt to Rig the Primary Process’

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is praising New Hampshire Democrats for defying the Democratic National Committee and keeping the Granite State primary the first in the nation.

As Fox News reported, last Friday marked the deadline for New Hampshire to meet the DNC’s demand that it follow the national party’s new presidential nominating calendar.

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South Carolina Supreme Court Upholds State’s Pro-Life Heartbeat Bill

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday the state’s pro-life law that prohibits most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected is constitutional and may be enforced.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling marks a historic moment in our state’s history and is the culmination of years of hard work and determination by so many in our state to ensure that the sanctity of life is protected,” said Governor Henry McMaster (R) in a statement. “With this victory, we protect the lives of countless unborn children and reaffirm South Carolina’s place as one of the most pro-life states in America.”

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Commentary: There is a Good Reason Why Democrats are so Frightened of ‘Moms for Liberty’

For most Americans, “Mom” evokes images of kindness, courage, sympathy and love. Likewise, “liberty” calls up concepts like individual rights, freedom of expression, equality and justice. Yet, the perversity of the current political environment is such that a parental rights group whose name combines these two words has been demonized by Democrats, the corporate media and the reactionary left. Just recently, a New Hampshire Democrat denounced the group as “Assholes with casseroles,” the Hill ran a story titled, “Six reasons why Moms for Liberty is an extremist organization,” and the Southern Poverty Law Center added them to its Hate Map.

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Tim Scott Announces Nearly 150 Endorsements from His Home State

South Carolina senator and 2024 candidate Tim Scott racked up nearly 150 endorsements from current and former elected officials in his home state Monday.

Scott entered the Republican primary in late May, and already gained the backing of South Dakota’s GOP Senate Majority Whip John Thune and Sen. Mike Rounds. The South Carolina senator received 148 endorsements, including several members of the state legislature’s leadership, the mayor of South Carolina’s capital, Columbia, and a former U.S. congressman, the Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed.

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Florida and Iowa Among the Handful of States Enacting New, Sweeping School Choice Legislation

So far in 2023, six states signed school choice legislation into law, giving millions of families and their children education options, including access to taxpayer-funded vouchers.

Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Utah, South Carolina and Oklahoma all signed legislation into law that makes at least some, if not all students within the states, eligible for taxpayer funded vouchers or a tax credit that can be used on education expenses such as private school tuition, textbooks and transportation. Under the legislation enacted in 2023, millions of students across the country are now able to attend schools outside their designated zip code or apply to receive funding in order to seek a private or a homeschool education.

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South Carolina Becomes 23rd State to Protect Babies with Heartbeat

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act Thursday morning, legislation that protects babies in the state from abortion from the time a heartbeat is detected.

McMaster’s signature on the bill now makes South Carolina the 23rd state to protect babies with a heartbeat, and marks that half of the United States is now protecting babies from abortion at or before 12 weeks.

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South Carolina Lawmakers Send Heartbeat Bill to Governor’s Desk

The South Carolina Legislature gave final approval to its heartbeat bill Tuesday, one that would ban abortions from the time a fetal heartbeat is detected and a move that will continue the trend in the southern states to restrict abortion.

The state senate passed the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act (S. 474) Tuesday by a vote of 27-19 and sent the measure to the desk of Governor Henry McMaster (R), who said he “look[s] forward to signing this bill into law as soon as possible.”

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U.S. Senator Tim Scott Launches Presidential Campaign as Living Example of the Land of Opportunity

U.S. Senator Tim Scott made it official Monday, launching his campaign for president in the North Charleston, SC, hometown that informed his core belief: That the United States of America is “the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.” 

Joined on stage by the single mother who raised him and the wife of the mentor who entered his adolescent life at a critical time, the Republican spoke of the opportunities that made him the man — and the presidential candidate — he is today.

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South Carolina House Passes Six-Week Abortion Ban

The South Carolina House of Representatives has passed a bill to restrict abortion after approximately six weeks of pregnancy, per a vote held in the House late on Wednesday.

The House passed Senate Bill 474, known as the “Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act,” with amendments, by a vote of 82 to 32, with all Republicans and two Democrats voting in favor. The bill would prohibit abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually after six weeks of pregnancy.

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Millennial GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Proposes Amendment to Raise Voting Age at Iowa Campaign Rally

Making the case for America-first principles, Ohio entrepreneur and anti-woke crusader Vivek Ramaswamy told a campaign rally in suburban Des Moines Thursday evening that, as president, he would seek a constitutional amendment raising the voting age to 25. 

Ramaswamy, the first millennial Republican candidate to seek the White House, has been known to shake things up on the campaign trail.

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South Carolina Mom Asks School Board ‘Why Are Adult Teachers Allowed to Sponsor a Group Regarding Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity with Minors?’

A South Carolina parent challenged the school board of Richland School District Two in Columbia where Blythewood High School (BHS) hosted the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) “No Place for Hate” program that invites children to “explore identity,” and “apply this understanding to recognize the relationship between identity, bias and power.”

ADL’s No Place for Hate program also seeks to “build the capacity to recognize and confront bias within oneself, others and institutions. Examine the relationship between individual biases and systemic oppression, including the impact of intersecting oppressions.”

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Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Foils Democrats’ ‘Diverse’ Primary Plans

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has set the Peach State’s 2024 party primary elections for March 12, foiling the Democratic National Committee’s plans to move Georgia’s vote toward the front of the presidential nominating line.

Raffensperger says the DNC acted “unilaterally” in its bid to make their nominating process more “diverse” by bumping predominantly white states like Iowa and New Hampshire back and pushing more “racially inclusive” states like Georgia and Michigan to the front of the primary line. 

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Red State Gov Signs School Choice Program into Law, Gives Private School Students Taxpayer Funds

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed school choice legislation into law Thursday that provides private and religious school students with taxpayer funds.

Under S 39, every student enrolled in a private or religious school will be eligible to receive $6,000 to spend on education related costs. The bill, signed into law by McMasters on Thursday, passed the state Senate in February and the state House approved the bill in April, 79-35.

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DeSantis Coming to Wisconsin as Trump Pounds the GOP’s No. 2 Presidential Contender

As he moves closer to a presidential campaign announcement, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has scheduled a trip to the Badger State next month. 

DeSantis, who is expected to officially launch his run for the White House after the Florida legislative session ends in early May, will speak at the Republican Party of Marathon County Lincoln Day Dinner on May 6.

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17 State Attorneys General Declare Support for Florida Trans Guidance

by Eric Lendrum   On April 7th, an amicus brief was filed in favor of Florida’s current ban on using state funds to support “transgender” treatments, with 17 state attorneys general voicing their support for the law. According to the Daily Caller, the brief’s filing was part of an ongoing legal battle in the state of Florida, where far-left, pro-transgender activists have teamed up with several pseudo-medical organizations to file a lawsuit against the law. The groups involved include the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The law in question states that Medicaid funds cannot be used to cover any transgender operations, including sex change surgery, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers. The 17 states that have filed in support of Florida are: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. In their filing, the AGs argue that the organizations involved in the lawsuit have “prioritized politics over science.” “The amici States submit this brief in support of Florida’s right to regulate medicine and determine appropriate treatments for Medicaid coverage,” the brief states. “Moreover, there is particular reason to…

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Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP’s Youngest Presidential Candidate, Showing His Energy on Latest Swing Through Iowa

While Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy may be lagging in the polls, in his first month on the campaign trail no one has outworked the Ohio businessman to connect with voters. 

In the words of Geoff Mack and Johnny Cash, Ramaswamy has been everywhere, man — from Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina and Maryland. He’s made the media rounds, too, from the smallest small town newspapers to the network talking heads. 

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States Push for Harsher Fentanyl Penalties amid Uptick in Overdose Deaths

Several states are advocating for harsher fentanyl penalties as overdose deaths surge in the U.S.

Nevada, Oregon, Alabama, Texas, West Virginia and South Carolina have all pushed to increase the length of sentences for fentanyl dealers, according to the Associated Press. Fentanyl is largely responsible for the more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths that occurred in 2021 up from 93,331 drug overdose deaths in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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Nikki Haley, Stumping in Iowa, Suggests Trump’s the Past and She’s the Future

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley brought her freshly minted campaign for president to Iowa Monday evening, telling a town hall crowd in suburban Des Moines that she’s the candidate who’s got the experience and the energy — and the competency — to lead. 

The Republican and former ambassador to the United Nations under President Donald Trump didn’t spare her old boss in her headline-grabbing call for a competency test for elected officeholders over the age of 75. 

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South Carolina Supreme Court Axes State’s Abortion Ban

South Carolina’s Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the state law restricting abortions at around six weeks, finding that it violated the state constitution.

Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill into law in February 2021 barring abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen at around six weeks into a pregnancy. The state can limit a woman’s privacy rights with regard to abortion decisions, but only after she’s been given “reasonable” time to pursue an abortion legally, the court found.

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Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia Among 18 States Banning Social Media App TikTok from State Devices

Following South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem’s lead, nearly half of U.S. states have put restrictions on or banned the use of Chinese-based social media app TikTok.

At least 19 states have banned TikTok on government-issued devices – Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utha, Virginia and West Virginia.

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Cross-Dressing Book for Pre-K Students Crossed the Line in Kansas

A school district that gave preschoolers a book on cross-dressing has changed its procedures for giving out books after news of the incident surfaced last week.

As first reported exclusively by The Lion and The Heartlander news sites, a 4-year-old preschooler in the Turner School District in Kansas City, Kansas, took home the book Jacob’s New Dress. It’s a picture book in which a little boy wears girls’ clothes and even competes with his friend Emily to be a princess.

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DNC Committee Approves Making South Carolina First State in Its Primary Calendar

A panel of the Democratic National Committee on Friday backed a proposal that would make South Carolina the first state to hold a primary contest in the party’s primary nominating process.

Under the Rules and Bylaws Committee proposal, Nevada, New Hampshire, Georgia, and Michigan, would follow soon after South Carolina and precede Super Tuesday, according to CNN. The changes still require confirmation at a full DNC meeting, set to take place next year.

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Analyst: ‘Code Red’ Diesel Supply Shortage in Southeastern States ‘Could Become More of a Challenge’

A fuel supply and logistics company is warning about diesel shortages across the Southeast United States, issuing an alert on Friday about “rapidly devolving” conditions in North Carolina and six other states.

Mansfield moved to “Alert Level 4” to address market volatility, and “Code Red” in the Southeast, which means the company is now requesting 72 hour notice for deliveries when possible “to ensure fuel and freight can be secured at economical levels.”

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Republican Treasurers Pull $1 Billion from BlackRock over Alleged Anti-Fossil Fuel Policies

exterior of BlackRock

Republican state treasurers are withdrawing $1 billion in assets from BlackRock’s control due to the asset manager’s alleged boycott of the fossil fuel industry, according to the Financial Times.

Republican South Carolina State Treasurer Curtis Loftus is pulling $200 million from BlackRock by the end of 2022, and Louisiana treasurer John Schroder said on Oct. 5 that he is divesting $794 million from the company, according to the FT. Utah treasurer Marlo Oaks said he removed $100 million in funds from BlackRock’s control, and Arkansas treasurer Dennis Milligan pulled $125 million from the company in March.

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Tennessee’s Skrmetti Among the GOP Attorneys General Pressing NAAG to Return $280 Million

A dozen Republican state attorneys general are fed up with what they view as the leftward drift and self-dealing of their nonpartisan national association and are asking the organization to change its ways and return roughly $280 million in assets to the states.

The National Association of Attorneys General was created in 1907 as a bipartisan forum for all state and territory attorneys general. Over the last year, several of the group’s Republican members have asserted that NAAG has become a partisan litigation machine that improperly benefits from the many tort settlements it helps to engineer.

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South Carolina Supreme Court Temporarily Halts Heartbeat Law

The South Carolina Supreme Court has temporarily blocked continued enforcement of the state’s Heartbeat law, which bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

The court’s order Wednesday grants abortion providers an emergency motion that will halt enforcement of the law which has been in effect since June 27, several days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

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Georgia Among the 20 States Freed from Federal Transgender Sports, Bathroom Guidance

A federal judge in Tennessee ruled in favor of Tennessee, Georgia, and 18 other states in their effort to block federal guidelines on transgender athletes and school locker rooms.

The lawsuit, brought by Tennessee, challenged guidance from the United States Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that would allow athletes who were marked as males on their birth certificates to compete in girls and women’s sports. The federal guidance also would have prohibited student shower and locker room access from being determined by birth gender and provided guidance on required pronoun use.

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Tennessee Joins Arizona and 10 Other AGs in Lawsuit Aimed to Cleanse Federal Regulations Hampering Washing Machines, Dishwashers

Twelve attorneys general filed an opening brief Friday in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for changes made this year to energy and water efficiency standards for dishwashers and washing machines.

“These arbitrary washing machine regulations are unlawful, ineffective, and absolutely ridiculous,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, co-leader of a suit in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals against the DOE and Secretary Jennifer Granholm, said in a statement. “They should be hung out to dry as soon as possible.”

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Commentary: Three States Are Rethinking the Relationship Between Housing and Education Quality

Most of the nation’s 48.2 million public K-12 students are assigned to their schools based on geographic school districts or attendance zones, with few options for transferring to another public school district. This method of school assignment intertwines schooling with property wealth, limiting families’ education options according to where they can afford to live.

A 2019 Senate Joint Economic Committee report found that homes near highly rated schools were four times the cost of homes near poorly rated schools. This presents a real barrier for many families – and 56% of respondents in a 2019 Cato survey indicated that expensive housing costs prevented them from moving to better neighborhoods. The challenge has only deepened as housing prices skyrocketed during the pandemic, putting better housing and education options out of reach for many.

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South Carolina Passes Bill to Keep Males Out of Women’s Sports over Massive Dem Opposition

South Carolina’s Republican-dominated House passed legislation Tuesday banning males from women’s sports despite Democrats’ stall tactics.

Democrats attempted to delay the vote by proposing an estimated 1,000 amendments, according to the Associated Press. Debate on the amendments Tuesday lasted eight hours, with Democrats proposing measures such as renaming the bill the “Discrimination Capital of the United States Act,” allowing high schools to opt out of the requirements and only allowing school bands to perform at girls’ sporting events.

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21 States Join Lawsuit to End Federal Mask Mandate on Airplanes, Public Transportation

Twenty-one states have filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s continued mask mandate on public transportation, including on airplanes.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody are leading the effort. Moody filed the suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida along with 20 other attorneys general. DeSantis said the mask mandate was misguided and heavy-handed.

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Sixteen States File New Lawsuit Against Federal COVID Vaccination Mandate

Sixteen states again are challenging a federal COVID-19 vaccination mandate for health care workers who work at facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding.

Friday’s filing in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana comes after the issuance of final guidance on the mandate from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS), arguing the guidance is an action that is reviewable.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled by 5-4 vote Jan. 13 against the original Louisiana challenge to the mandate and a similar Missouri filing.

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