Category Archives: Republican

None were, though, as each Republican lawmaker on stage grinned ear-to-ear after DeSantis made the comment, some visibly signaling they were not upset. Those who joined DeSantis included Senate President Wilton Simpson (R-Trilby) and incoming GOP Senate leader Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) as well as Speaker Chris Sprowls (R-Palm Harbor).

After DeSantis remarks, a handful gave their own comments replete with praise of DeSantis.

How about Ron DeSantis, Americas governor, said Simpson, echoing the nickname conservatives across the country have bestowed upon Floridas governor.

Simpson, an industrial egg farmer, is currently running for agriculture commissioner and has secured DeSantis endorsement.

DeSantis vetoed several high profile budget items sought by Simpson and top Senate Republicans from the spending plan, which was sent to the governor at $112 billion but will take effect next month at $109 billion. It still remains the biggest spending plan in state history despite the massive vetoes.

DeSantis vetoed $645 million secured by the Senate during final budget negotiations for the Department of Corrections to build a new prison; $350 million for Lake Okeechobee aquifer storage wells that were a Simpson priority; $50 million for a new 6th District Court of Appeals in Lakeland, the home of Senate budget chief Kelli Stargel (R-Lakeland); $50 million to widen a county road in Simpsons district; $20 million for two new state planes that the Senate requested; and $20 million that was a Simpson priority for Moffitt Cancer Center to secure front-end financing so it can begin development of a planned 775-acre life sciences park.

During the March conclusion of the Legislation session, Simpson called the Moffitt project, which is in his district, transformative.

The House was not spared in DeSantis veto carnage.

The governor cut a $1 billion fund proposed by the House to help the state grapple with the cost of inflation. Under the proposal, the $1 billion would have been set aside to help fund increases in material costs for state projects as inflation continues to remain high. As proposed by the House, it would have been called the Budgeting for Inflation that Drives Elevate Needs Fund, or BIDEN fund, a nod to spiking inflation under the Biden administration. Senators did not agree to that name, but did sign off on $1 billion in funding for the program.

Hammering Biden on inflation has been one of DeSantis favorite pastimes in recent months, including during Thursdays budget signing press conference, which he opened up by referring to Biden as Brandon.

You look at what he did in terms of fiscal and monetary policy, printing and printing trillions of dollars, DeSantis said. What did you get for that? Most sustained inflation this nation has seen in over 40 years.

Left unsaid was the more than $10 billion Florida has received from the Biden administration in Covid-19 relief funding over the past two years, including roughly $3.5 billion in the budget DeSantis just signed.

DeSantis also scrapped a House plan to take $200 million from school districts that defied the DeSantis administrations ban on mask mandates. Rep. Randy Fine (R-Palm Bay) wrote the plan, which would have blocked the money from being accessed by 12 counties that put in place school mask mandates against DeSantis order. But the governor blocked that idea freeing up the funding for all districts.

I direct the Department of Education to implement the Florida School Recognition Program consistent with this reading of the language, which is to reward eligible schools for their achievements, as districts actions have no bearing on a schools eligibility, DeSantis wrote in a letter accompanying his veto list.

I am somewhat befuddled by the letter, Fine told POLITICO in a text message. The language in the bill was explicit and clear.

Sprowls also took no issue with the vetoes, focusing his remarks on DeSantis decision to largely keep Floridas economy open during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has bolstered state coffers.

You guys have heard a lot of great news already about this budget, he said. This budget is as good as it is for the people of Florida for one reason and one reason only: and that is because our governor kept our state open.

The massive veto list does come as Florida is flush with cash. The newly signed budget includes more than $20 million in reserves, and just this month state economists revised revenue estimates up by more than $800 million compared with previous forecasts.

DeSantis also vetoed a request by Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is running for governor, for 83 positions to process and review concealed carry permits, which is a function overseen by her office. Fried blasted the decision, which comes on the heels of a wave of mass shootings across the country, as reckless and another signal the governor wants open carry, or allowing people to carry firearms without a permit.

Ron DeSantis just vetoed my concealed carry positions because he wants open carry, Fried tweeted. This is so dangerous and a warning to every Floridian, tourist, and business. Do NOT allow him another term.

Andrew Atterbury contributed to this report.

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'Just the way it goes': DeSantis axes $3B from Legislature's budget in front of Republican leaders - POLITICO

The death knell for minority rights in the postwar South wasnt democracy or majority rule or political equality but a counterrevolution of property and hierarchy, led by the remnants of the planter elite. It took decades of violence and fraud including assassinations, massacres and rigged elections for the reactionary opposition to Reconstruction to succeed.

The United States saw a burst of democratization at the start of the 20th century, particularly with the adoption of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women (meaning those who could exercise it) the right to vote. And the broad public gained even more influence through reforms like recall elections, initiatives and referendums. The immediate threat to minority rights, however, came from opponents of a more open and democratic society. And rather than protect those minorities, the much-vaunted countermajoritarian institutions of the American system either stymied efforts to protect them (as was the case with anti-lynching laws) or helped politicians to exclude them (as was the case with the Immigration Act of 1924).

It would not be until the next great burst of democratization in the 1950s and 1960s, with the civil rights movement, that the American system would move to extend any serious protection to the rights of minorities and other excluded or marginalized groups. And it took the expansion of political rights and the triumph of majority rule over our countermajoritarian institutions and the Senate, in particular to do so.

The enduring belief that majority rule and democratization threaten the rights of minorities runs headfirst into the simple reality that, in the United States at least, the fundamental liberties of all Americans grew stronger and more secure as political rights spread from a narrow minority to an outright majority and as our institutions have grown more responsive to that majority.

The typical Americans ability to exercise his or her rights is greater now than it was a century ago, and it was greater a century ago than it was a century before. Against the conventional wisdom, the United States has become more free as it has become more democratic. And on the flip side, the liberties of all Americans have been at their most vulnerable when democracy and majority rule were at their weakest.

With all of this said, there are minorities whose interests are harmed by democracy, majority rule and political equality. But they are not minorities as we tend to think of them; they are elites. The holders of wealth, the owners of capital and the servants of hierarchy are a minority of sorts. And their rights to dominate and to control are threatened whenever the majority can act on its preferences.

Many of the framers said as much during the making of the Constitution, and the fact that it took a catastrophically destructive war to end the legal protection of human property lends credence to the view that these are the minority rights at stake when majority rule is on the table.

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Opinion | The Expansion of Democracy Is What Republican Elites Fear Most - The New York Times

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) Multiple Democratic state legislative candidates are suing Ohios top election official to get their names on the ballot.

In the latest ripple effect of Ohios redistricting battle, the seven hopefuls six of whom are from central Ohio say Secretary of State Frank LaRose erroneously instructed boards of elections to reject their petitions, according to a complaint filed Tuesday with the Ohio Supreme Court.

The argument stems from when was the filing deadline for Ohios second primary election, set for Aug. 2. If the court rejects the plaintiffs arguments, Democrats may not have any official candidates in the Democratic-leaning Senate District 25 and House Districts 11 and 39.

Under Ohio law, aspiring officeholders must file a petition for candidacy 90 days before the date of a primary election.That means, for candidates running in the May 3 primary, the filing deadline was Feb. 2.

But if counting backward 90 days from Aug. 2, the filing deadline was May 4.

In a directive Saturday, LaRose ordered county election officials to recertify or reject by Friday any candidates who filed after Feb. 2 for the May 3 primary.

But given the Republican-dominated Ohio Redistricting Commissions months-long fight with the Ohio Supreme Court that led the state to hold two primary elections, plaintiffs contend that they werent required to file for office until May 4.

Despite the state court striking down the commissions third set of legislative maps that favored Republicans, a federal three-judge panel ordered LaRose to use the maps anyway, citing the need to be ready for Aug. 2.

LaRose, however, argued that the federal ruling did not change the Feb. 2 filing deadline.

All candidates in the suit met the deadlines that plaintiffs argue LaRose should follow, according to their individual declarations of candidacy.

Write-in candidates have 72 days before the start of a primary election to submit a petition for candidacy, according to Ohio Revised Code. Leronda Jackson and Elizabeth Thien are also part of the suit, saying they met their deadline by filing on May 16 and 23, respectively.

Also a plaintiff in the lawsuit is Rep. Adam Miller (D-Columbus), who currently represents District 17 in the Ohio House.

Miller filed suit against LaRose for ordering candidates in his directive to file their plans to move into their respective legislative district by March 10, about a month after the redistricting commission first approved the set of legislative maps that will be used in the August primary.

Miller, who is now running to represent Ohio House District 6, said he was unable to move to the new district, as he was on military duty as a U.S. army reserve member at the time.

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Republican secretary of state sued over rejecting Democrats ballot petitions - NBC4 WCMH-TV

The NRAs national convention began in Houston only days after a mass shooting at a Texas school, creating an uncomfortable juxtaposition that led some speakers to withdraw. Others, including former President Donald Trump, went ahead with their plans to speak.

McCrory blamed institutional breakdown from the federal to local level for not preventing horrific events such as the Tuesday shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and said gun violence was a cultural problem.

McCrory, who lost a GOP primary for one of North Carolinas Senate seats earlier this month to Rep. Ted Budd, said the culture of gun ownership and the symbolism of guns was a manifestation of Americans distrust with the criminal justice system and the sentiment that Im going to take this into my own hands.

I was the mayor [of Charlotte] for 14 years and I had reduced the murder rate by over 50 percent due to some tough law enforcement, and some mentoring, and other programs, he said. I lost the primary two weeks ago to a congressman who had a gun in his front trousers in a commercial.

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North Carolina Republican: NRA has been pushed to the right - POLITICO

Sure, it took a day for the race to be officially called. But Gov. Phil Murphy succeeded in being the first New Jersey Democratic governor since 1977 to win a second term with his victory over Republican Jack Ciattarelli last November.

Yes, New Jersey Democrats can boast about having more than 1 million registered people in their party compared to Republicans (2,508,001 Dems versus 1,488,424 GOPers), according to the June statistics from the states Division of Elections.

But Democrats may have some reason to be concerned ahead of the upcoming midterm elections that extend beyond President Joe Bidens lackluster approval rating and a long history of voters ousting the party in control of Congress two years after a presidential election.

As voters will head to the polls Tuesday to vote in the Democratic and Republican primaries, the latests stats show New Jersey Republicans added 25,025 people to their party compared to this time last year, while Democrats shed 44,982 registered voters. Republicans also added more voters than Democrats the previous year.

There are also 2,355,148 unaffiliated voters, which is 74,410 fewer compared to this time last year.

People who have not formally claimed any party affiliation had long been the largest number of New Jersey voters. But they ceded ground to Democrats about three years ago. There are also 81,129 voters who claimed affiliation to other political parties such as the Libertarian, Conservative and Green parties.

New Jersey had more than 6.5 million registered voters as of June, nearly 100,000 fewer compared to last year.

Here is a county-by-county breakdown of which political party rules in each of New Jerseys 21 counties and how much each party gained since this time last year.

Below that is an added bonus: How each congressional district breaks red and blue after redistricting.

Democrats: 71,413

Republicans: 56,272

Unaffiliated: 70,508

President Joe Biden won by nearly 7 points against former President Donald Trump and the county went for Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy by 10 points in 2017. But Atlantic supported Republican Gov. Chris Christie in 2009 and 2013.

Atlantic County swung back in support of the Republican Party in 2021. It backed Ciattarelli by 11 points.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Atlantic lost 2,233 voters in the Democratic Party and gained 1,060 Republicans. Unaffiliated voters dropped off by 4,175 people.

Democrats: 256,431

Republicans: 147,297

Unaffiliated: 256,454

Bergen is the most populous county in the state with more than 932,200 people, according to U.S. Census data. Biden carried it by 16 points and registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 114,631.

Murphy won by 6 points over Ciattarelli.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Bergen lost 6,028 voters in the Democratic Party and 666 Republicans. There are also 11,335 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 137,782

Republicans: 90,438

Unaffiliated: 119,175

Biden won Burlington by nearly 20 points and Murphy took it by nearly 15 points in 2017 and 7 points in 2021. But the county twice tipped in Christies favor.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Burlington lost 384 voters in the Democratic Party and added 1,978 Republicans. There are 1,156 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 185,224

Republicans: 64,057

Unaffiliated: 136,607

Murphy secured the county by 36 points during his first campaign and 25 points last year. Biden took it by 33.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Camden lost 2,901 voters in the Democratic Party and added 1,395 Republicans. There are 4,330 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 18,517

Republicans: 32,179

Unaffiliated: 23,790

Republicans continue to reign supreme. Trump carried the county by nearly 16 points and Murphy lost to former Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno in 2017 by 8 points. Ciattarelli carried it by 26 points.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Cape May added 123 voters in the Democratic Party and added 1,153 Republicans. There are 151 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 33,605

Republicans: 22,766

Unaffiliated: 37,920

Biden took it by 6 points and Murphy won it with double digits in 2017. But Ciattarelli took it by 12 points last year.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Cumberland lost 663 voters in the Democratic Party and added 1,153 Republicans. There are 555 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 293,909

Republicans: 57,871

Unaffiliated: 207,311

Essex County is home to the states largest city, Newark. It has the largest Democratic-Republican gap in the state and the largest Biden-Trump voting gap. Biden won it by 55 points and Murphy took it by 60 points in 2017 and 49 points in 2021. Its one of only two counties that went blue in the 2013 gubernatorial race, which Republican Christie won by about 22 points.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Essex lost 5,400 voters in the Democratic Party and has 124 fewer Republicans. There are 3,690 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 86,947

Republicans: 58,357

Unaffiliated: 80,087

Registered Republicans rank last against their Democratic and unaffiliated counterparts in Gloucester County. But the county lost nearly just as many Democrats as Republicans gained since June of last year. Biden won it by 2 points after Trump clinched the county by a slim margin against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Ciattarelli won it by 10 points.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Gloucester lost 2,293 voters in the Democratic Party and added 2,349 Republicans. It was at least the second year in a row Republicans gained more than 2,000 registered voters. There are 1,751 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 219,089

Republicans: 43,300

Unaffiliated: 129,002

Hudson County is the most densely populated county in New Jersey and is home to Jersey City, the states second-largest city. Its voters went against Christie in 2013 and supported Murphy four-to-one four years later. It has the largest Murphy-Guadagno voting gap in the state as Murphy won by nearly 63 points over her. He took it by 49 points last year.

Biden took it by 46 points.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Hudson lost 7,717 voters in the Democratic Party and added 664 Republicans. There are 8,747 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 29,077

Republicans: 41,596

Unaffiliated: 34,233

Its a Republican county where Democrats have made small gains over the years. Trumps double-digit win in 2016 was cut down to 4 points against Biden. Murphy lost by nearly 10,000 votes against Guadagno and Ciattarelli won it by 19 points.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Hunterdon added 345 voters in the Democratic Party and 674 Republicans. There are 1,702 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 118,269

Republicans: 40,544

Unaffiliated: 96,543

Home to the state capital, Trenton. The residents are mostly Democrats. Biden won here by 40 points and Murphy won last year by 31 points.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Mercer lost 1,870 voters in the Democratic Party and 111 fewer Republicans. There are 2,518 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 240,843

Republicans: 94,932

Unaffiliated: 218,676

Middlesex County looks a lot like its neighbor Mercer County when it comes to registered Democrats and Republicans. The only difference is the numbers are about doubled even if Democrats lost voters and Republicans made gains.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Middlesex lost 7,370 voters in the Democratic Party and Republicans added 1,285 people. There are 12,567 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 141,362

Republicans: 146,722

Unaffiliated: 195,312

Democrats had made gains in recent years in the county that has long been considered a Republican stronghold. But Republicans reign supreme after Trump won by a slim margin and Ciattarelli beat Murphy by 19 points. Murphy lost the county by more than 22,000 votes in 2017.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Monmouth lost 2,040 voters in the Democratic Party and Republicans added 5,621 voters. There are 6,305 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 116,075

Republicans: 133,951

Unaffiliated: 139,771

Registered Republicans outpace Democrats but Biden picked up the county by a small margin after Trump won it in 2016. Murphy lost it by 8 points in 2017 and 11 points in 2021.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Morris added 934 voters in the Democratic Party and 284 Republicans. There are also 3,280 fewer unaffiliated voters

Democrats: 99,629

Republicans: 171,144

Unaffiliated: 178,858

Ocean County is solid red and getting more red. Its the county with the most registered Republicans. There are about 71,500 more registered Republicans in Ocean than there are Democrats and it was the county where Ciattarelli took his largest win 36 points over Murphy last year.

Trump won by his largest margin in New Jersey in Ocean, defeating Clinton by 33 points in 2016 and by 28 points against Biden four years later.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Ocean lost 2,082 voters in the Democratic Party and added 6,915 Republicans. There are 3,793 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 130,419

Republicans: 68,843

Unaffiliated: 123,201

There are nearly twice as many registered Democrats living in Passaic County than Republicans, though Republicans made a modest gain and Murphy won it by only 3 points.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Passaic lost 3,139 voters in the Democratic Party and added 284 Republicans. There are 2,530 fewer unaffiliated voters.

Democrats: 14,666

Republicans: 14,307

Unaffiliated: 18,245

Salem County is the states least populated county, with only about 62,300 people. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by only 359 people and the GOP has again added more voters.

Trump won it by 15 points in 2016 and nearly 13 points against Biden. Ciattarelli won by 29 points.

How the county has changed since this time last year: Salem lost 222 voters in the Democratic Party and added 824 Republicans. There are 24 more unaffiliated voters.

Continued here:

Are you surrounded by Democrats or Republicans? How N.J. breaks red and blue in all 21 counties. - NJ.com

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Republican Senate Candidates Take Shots At Each Other Over Their Stances On Abortion - CBS Denver

In his campaign heyday, Donald Trump would declare it the greatest movement in the history of politics and promise: Were going to win so much, youre going to be so sick and tired of winning.

What never occurred to him was that the Make America Great Again movement or Maga might get sick and tired of him first.

The former US president suffered some humiliation on Tuesday when four candidates he handpicked in Georgia lost Republican primary elections in a landslide. It was a stinging rebuke in what has become ground zero for his big lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

But it was no rebuke of Maga and all it stands for.

The hard-right, nativist-populist strain of Republican politics predates Trump and will surely survive him. This years primary season winners in Georgia and elsewhere have been careful not to disavow the movement, or its patriarch, even when they lack his blessing.

Donald Trump has transformed the Republican party over the past five years and it is now a solid majority Trumpist party with everything that entails in policy and in tone, said Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington. On the other hand, Republicans, including very conservative ones, are clearly willing to entertain the possibility of Trumpism without Trump.

Trump is now 75 and could be living a quiet, golf-playing retirement like other past presidents. But against the counsel of some of his inner circle, he chose to make this years midterm elections about him and the primaries votes in states and districts to decide which Republicans will take on Democrats in November a referendum on his continued influence.

Trump endorsed candidates in nearly 200 races, from governor to county commissioner, often in contests that are not particularly competitive and help bolster his list of wins. But others have been reckless, vengeful bets aimed at dislodging incumbents who defied his claims of election fraud. So far, the results have been a mixed bag.

The month began well enough in Ohio, where venture capitalist and author JD Vance leaped from third to first place following Trumps late-stage endorsement in the Senate primary.

In North Carolina, Trump helped the 26-year-old former college football player Bo Hines win the nomination for a seat in the House of Representatives. In Pennsylvania, voters chose his preferred candidate for governor, Doug Mastriano, who said he would not have certified Joe Bidens 2020 win of the state.

But other governor races, which often turn on specific local issues, have proved more elusive. Trumps pick in Nebraskas primary, Charles Herbster, lost after allegations surfaced that he had groped women. In Idaho a week later, Governor Brad Little comfortably beat a Trump-backed challenger.

In North Carolina, meanwhile, voters rejected Trumps plea to give a scandal-plagued congressman Madison Cawthorn a second chance. And in Pennsylvania, a Senate primary featuring Trump-endorsed TV doctor Mehmet Oz remains too close to call.

This week Trump again notched some wins including Sarah Sanders, his former White House press secretary, in the primary for governor of Arkansas. But it was all overshadowed by Georgia, where he has pushed his personal vendetta hardest and so squandered political capital.

It was not just that former senator David Perdue, whom Trump had lobbied to run, lost to Governor Brian Kemp, who had refused to overturn the results of the 2020 election in his state. It was also the crushing margin: Kemp beat Perdue by a staggering 52 percentage points.

Rubbing salt into the wound, Georgias secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, who defied Trumps call to find the votes to change the outcome two years ago, also won his partys nomination. Attorney general Chris Carr and insurance commissioner John King, both opposed by Trump, prevailed in their primaries too.

Galston, a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, commented: The results in Georgia were really stunning. Few, if any Republicans, have aroused Donald Trumps ire so much as Governor Kemp and Brad Raffensperger and they both did substantially better than expected. Donald Trump went all out in Georgia and he ended up an egg on this face, which is significant.

It may be that the people who have been in the bulls eye of Trumps big lie campaign have started resenting it and took their resentment out. More generally, I think an increasing number of people are asking themselves a question that they werent asking previously: would we be better off with a Trumpist candidate whos not named Donald Trump?

Among those asking the question is Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, who campaigned for Kemp in Georgia and told the Politico website: Trump picked this fight. Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have also felt at liberty to campaign for midterm candidates denied Trumps imprimatur.

Then there is Mike Pence, the former vice-president, who defied his old boss by rallying with Kemp on Monday and telling the crowd: Elections are about the future. Pence, himself a former governor of Indiana, has made a habit of speaking with pride about the accomplishments of the Trump-Pence administration while distancing himself from the big lie.

Should he run for president in 2024, he may pay close attention to how Little, Kemp and others have studiously avoided criticising Trump while capturing swaths of his base by shifting right on abortion, gun rights and culture wars issues and signing legislation to prove it. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, is another likely student of the formula.

That means there is still little room for more old school Republicans such as Senator Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, who lost the presidential election in 2012. Few are making an impact in the primaries. A Republican who wants to pretend that 2016 through 2020 never happened and go back to the Romney-Ryan era is not going to do well in todays Republican party, said Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinktank in Washington.

But Trump does face a further challenge to his authority from the far right.

Some on this wing effectively accuse him of not being Trumpy enough, as demonstrated last year when he was booed for urging supporters to get vaccinated against the coronavirus (he now barely mentions vaccines in his speeches).

Kathy Barnette, a Senate candidate who mounted a late surge in Pennsylvania with ideas even more extreme than Oz, told the Reuters news agency: Maga doesnt belong to him. Trump coined the word. He does not own it.

Kandiss Taylor, a similarly far-right candidate for governor of Georgia, backs Trumps false claims of voter fraud but is unsure whether she would vote for him again in 2024. She said in an interview with the Guardian: Its not about him. The people of America chose him and hes the one that we elected. Will I vote for him in 2024? It all depends on what happens between now and then and who runs against him.

A further sign of fracturing came this week when Cawthorn, smarting from his defeat in North Carolina, swore revenge on cowardly and weak members of his own party and declared: Its time for the rise of the new right, its time for Dark Maga to truly take command.

The anti-democratic implication was that the end justifies the means in an existential struggle for America. Cawthorn named allies including the Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Trump himself, suggesting that the former president has already turned to the dark side.

Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman who belonged to the rightwing Tea Party movement, said: Magas dark enough on its own Trumpism has metastasised beyond Trump and itll go in a bunch of different dark, eerie places but its all the same thing. Trumpism now is the dominant strain in the party.

Magas identity crisis comes as Biden and other Democratic leaders seek to brand their opponents as Ultra-Maga Republicans in the hope that labelling the entire party as extremist will be more effective in the midterms than a singular focus on Trump (though he and his supporters have embraced Ultra-Maga in merchandise and fundraising emails).

Yet while Trumps status as a kingmaker has been diminished, and his Stop the steal obsession is wearing thin, it would be unwise to extrapolate too much from primaries where it was always going to be hard to oust popular, well-funded incumbents.

Trump continues to raise vast sums of money and command loyalty from most Republicans in Congress as well as from the Republican National Committee. Polls suggest that he is more popular with the Republican base now than when he won the nomination for president in 2016. His America first mantra is now in the partys DNA; even the candidates he does not endorse typically do endorse him.

Walsh, who challenged Trump in the 2020 presidential primary and now hosts a podcast, added: Nothing has changed. This is Trumps party and everything thats happened this primary season just continues to reflect that Wake me up when an anti-Trump Republican wins a primary. That would be news.

Read more:

Republican primaries offer look into future of Trumpism without Trump - The Guardian US

There are two Republican parties.

Thats a vast oversimplification, of course. Republican pollsters have been known to sort G.O.P. voters into seven categories or more, ranging from committed Christians to pro-business types to squishy never-Trumpers.

But when it comes to choosing sides in primaries, a split is widening. Theres the national party, led by Donald Trump in Florida and Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House, with Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, toggling between foe and ally as the occasion warrants.

And then theres the G.O.P. that is rooted in state power, run by a core group of pragmatic, often less hard-line governors who represent states as different as libertarian-leaning Arizona and deep-blue Massachusetts.

This week, the Republican Governors Association happened to be gathering in Nashville for its annual meeting. The guest of honor: Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, fresh off his 50-percentage-point drubbing of David Perdue, a former senator and businessman who had been dragooned into a primary by Trump. Kemp spoke at a dinner in Nashville on Wednesday night, thanking his donors and fellow governors for their support.

It was a celebratory moment for a tight-knit, fraternal group that was often in close contact during the crises of the coronavirus pandemic and the chaotic end of Trumps presidency. Trump has leaned particularly hard on two of the most influential governors of the bunch, Kemp and Doug Ducey of Arizona, to support his fictional stolen-election narrative.

Many G.O.P. governors emerged from the Trump years in strong political shape, despite intense criticism. All 10 of the most popular governors in the country are Republicans, according to polling by Morning Consult. And sitting Republican governors have kept their hands mostly clean of Jan. 6, a toxic subject among corporate donors in particular.

To an extraordinary degree, these G.O.P. governors have joined forces to fight off Trumps handpicked challengers as well as those currying his favor raising millions and intervening in primaries to support their colleagues like never before.

The president was on this campaign of vengeance, said Bill Palatucci, a Republican National Committee member from New Jersey who is close to former Gov. Chris Christie, describing the thinking of those gathered in Nashville this week.

But for lots of former and current Republican governors, its about doing the right thing for colleagues who have acquitted themselves well, Palatucci added. Christie, a previous R.G.A. chairman who now helps run one of the groups main fund-raising arms, remains actively involved in the organization.

Those running for office, like Kemp, have studiously avoided tangling with Trump. But others have been remarkably open about standing up to the man in Mar-a-Lago, unlike most of their colleagues in Washington.

Pete Ricketts, the governor of Nebraska and current co-chairman of the governors group along with Ducey, sided against Trumps pick in his states Republican primary, Charles Herbster, and flew to Georgia to help Kemp.

Larry Hogan, the governor of Maryland and an R.G.A. board member, has spoken of fighting Trump cancel culture and called for a course correction away from Trump; Christie seems to be quoted criticizing the former president daily, including in a recent article in The Washington Post detailing the governors plans to stop what he called Trumps vendetta tour.

Opposing Trump is costly, though.

Governors races dont tend to attract the same big money that Senate races do. Why not? Because more donors across the country care more about the next majority leader than, say, who runs Nebraska.

But the cash Republican governors have raised to support one another is significant.

They spent $4 million in Ohio to help Gov. Mike DeWine, $5 million to help Kemp in Georgia, $2 million to support Gov. Kay Ivey in Alabama and put more than $80,000 behind Gov. Brad Little in Idaho, who was fending off a bizarre challenge from his own lieutenant governor.

To complicate matters further, there are states where Trump and the R.G.A. are on the same side. In Texas, Trump and the governors supported Gov. Greg Abbott. In South Carolina, both sides are backing Gov. Henry McMaster. And Trump is also supporting Mike Dunleavy, the governor of Alaska.

It gets trickier when there is no incumbent governor.

The most interesting test is coming up in Arizona, where Trump has endorsed Kari Lake, a charismatic former television presenter who is an avid proponent of his baseless election-fraud claims. Lake is leading in polls of the primary, ahead of the favorite of the local Republican establishment and the business community, Karrin Taylor Robson, and Matt Salmon, a former member of the U.S. House who was the Republican nominee for governor in 2002, losing by a whisker to Janet Napolitano.

Ducey, who is term-limited, has said that he reserves the right to endorse a candidate in the primary, and Robson, a developer who founded her own land-use strategy firm, would be the logical choice. In 2017, he appointed her to the Arizona Board of Regents, which governs the states public universities. Robson was in Nashville this week, according to a local ABC affiliate in Phoenix.

The primary begins earlier than the Aug. 2 date on the calendar suggests. Arizonans vote heavily by mail, and early ballots go out to voters in July. That means the next few weeks are critical, and an endorsement could happen soon.

Will Ducey come off the sidelines? His confidants arent saying. If he did so, it would be in his personal capacity. But because he is co-chairman of the R.G.A., his imprimatur would send a signal to donors and other insiders that Robson is the one to back.

It would also set off another confrontation with Trump, who has blamed Ducey for failing to overturn Arizonas election results in 2020.

Back in the fall, when Ducey was contemplating a run for Senate, Trump blasted him as the weak RINO Governor from Arizona and said he would never have my endorsement or the support of MAGA Nation!

He said much the same about Kemp and lost.

Blake

Is there anything you think were missing? Anything you want to see more of? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.

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Republican Governors Lose Their Dread of Trump - The New York Times

To the Editor:

In DeSantis Is the New Republican Party (Opinion guest essay, Sunday Review, May 15), Rich Lowry states that Ron DeSantis points to the Republican future.

If so, its a future of publicly bullying children, punishing the press and whistle-blowers, ignoring medical science and trash-talking world-renowned scientists in epidemiology, big government intruding on womens health, big government intruding on corporate freedom, big government handcuffing teachers about what they can say in the classroom and what books they can use, and the 24/7 politics of anger, resentment, hate, cynicism and demagogy.

Whatever this dystopian political future may hold, it isnt conservative. Its radical right, and has more in common with the politics of totalitarian states than it does with democracies.

Stuart RojstaczerPalo Alto, Calif.

To the Editor:

Rich Lowry praises Gov. Ron DeSantis as a Republican hero for his response to Covid-19. By doing so, he perpetuates a dangerous myth that Governor DeSantiss approach to Covid was the right path. This is tragically untrue.

The data tells the story. New York and Florida offer a comparison: They have fairly similar population size and numbers of Covid deaths. Florida has had 346 deaths per 100,000 people and New York 350 deaths per 100,000, as of May 24.

The difference is that New York had almost half of its Covid deaths from March to July 2020, when we knew little and had few protections. Florida, by contrast, saw over two-thirds of its Covid deaths in 2021 and 2022, when many were preventable.

The facts are clear, and history will judge that Governor DeSantiss Covid-19 policy had tragic consequences no matter how he is mythologized.

Stephen LevinBrooklyn

To the Editor:

As a conservative (though not a Republican), I am not as pleased as Rich Lowry is with Gov. Ron DeSantiss rise in the Republican Party, for one reason: his use of political power to bludgeon private businesses into conformity with his cultural preferences.

He should stick with traditional Republican doctrine and dont try to tell me how to run my business. If I want to spout off about laws I dont like or require my employees and customers to wear masks, thats none of his business.

To the Editor:

Regarding the Opinion online interactive and the May 22 Sunday Review article showing final text messages of those who died of Covid:

More than any obituary, death notice or tribute to a deceased individual, those simple text exchanges conveyed the sadness and pain of losing a loved one to Covid. The poignant and quotidian expressions of concern and anxiety were searing and unforgettable.

Estelle B. WadeNew York

To the Editor:

Re We Must Prepare for Putins Worst Weapons, by Mitt Romney (Opinion guest essay, May 23):

With some surprise, this liberal agrees with Mr. Romney on Vladimir Putins possible use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Unlike past nuclear confrontations, if Mr. Putin used them in crazed desperation, it would be against people who he claims are really Russians, rather than against the United States or other NATO countries.

He would be detonating them above his own troops, and depending on wind patterns heavy fallout could end up on Russian territory. Mr. Putin must know that NATO could quickly sink the entire Russian Navy and decimate his army with conventional weapons if he crossed the nuclear Rubicon.

President Biden and NATO cannot repeat the peace for our time mistakes of Neville Chamberlain by surrendering parts of Ukraine to Mr. Putin in a vain attempt to pacify this fascist.

Carl MezoffStamford, Conn.

To the Editor:

Re The Great Erasure, by Charles M. Blow (column, May 22):

The erasure of street art created after the killing of George Floyd is symbolic of the waning support for the Black Lives Matter movement. It is saddening, but it is not discouraging.

As a young Black person in America, I still believe in change. I dont expect change to come quickly or easily, and I expect many more unjust killings before it arrives, but I believe that it is possible.

I have this faith not because I am fond of Americas past, present or even immediate future, but because I know that change is needed and I believe that there are enough people who wont give up on fighting for it until it happens.

Rebekah BoiteyFayetteville, N.C.The writer is a high school student.

To the Editor:

Re How Far Should You Go to Save a Life?, by Daniela J. Lamas (Opinion guest essay, Sunday Review, May 15):

This article discussed the question of how far doctors and patients should go in cases in which an experimental treatment is the only alternative to certain death. My years as a psychiatric consultant to the medical services at a major teaching hospital taught me the value of hope.

We know that emotions affect the immune system, which affects the growth of many cancers. Sometimes the mere awareness of the possibility that an experimental drug could provide a miracle cure helps to regulate a patients immune system sufficiently to slow the progression of metastatic cancer.

The compassionate use program should be greatly expanded to allow more patients to benefit from this.

Harvey M. BermanWhite Plains, N.Y.

The rest is here:

Opinion | Is Ron DeSantis the Future of the Republican Party? - The New York Times

Sign up for the Week in Patriarchy, a newsletter on feminism and sexism sent every Saturday

It can be hard to get your head around what rightwingers in the US actually believe. On the one hand, they claim to love babies; on the other hand, theyre against government funds going towards helping to feed babies. They claim to love freedom and hate government meddling, but then theyre frenetically trying to pass bills that would take away a womans freedom over her own body and allow the government to meddle in intimate reproductive choices. Like I said, theyre a complex bunch! Still, Ive mapped their moral compass as best I can, and compiled this handy cheatsheet to help understand where conservatives stand on various issues. Here you go.

Essential to life, liberty and the pursuit of freedom; should remain freely available and shouldnt be controlled:

Highly dangerous and must be banned or tightly controlled:

Yep, you read that last item right: it seems doors are the newest enemy of the Republican party. In the wake of the horrific elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas where 19 children and two teachers were killed by a teenager with military-grade weapons some Republicans are choosing to channel their energy towards the important question of door control.

You want to talk about how we could have prevented the horror that played out across the street? the Texas senator Ted Cruz said on Wednesday, while standing outside Robb elementary school. Having one door that goes in and out of the school, having armed police officers at that one door.

An ordinary person would have paused for a second after saying something so patently ridiculous and then, hit by the realization that they had just blamed the massacre of school children on the problem of too many doors and not enough guns, curled up into a little ball of shame. Not Cancn Cruz, though. Cruz has demonstrated time and time again that he is incapable of shame. No, instead of realizing hed said something inane, Cruz just doubled down on it; he was so pleased with the concept of door reform that he repeated the idea later that day on Fox News.

Cruz isnt the only Republican waging a war on doors: the issue has long been a favourite talking point among conservatives trying to deflect from the idea of gun reform. After a 2018 shooting at a high school in Houston, for example, the Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, blamed the massacre on doors. From what we know, [the shooter] walked in with a long coat and a shotgun under his coat, Patrick said during a news conference. Its 90 degrees. Had there been one single entrance possibly for every student, maybe he would have been stopped There are too many entrances and too many exits to our over 8,000 campuses in Texas.

It probably wont surprise you to hear that the National Rifle Association (NRA), who bankroll a long list of Republican politicians, including Cruz, are the ones responsible for coming up with the too-many-doors talking point. In 2013, in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, the NRA assembled a taskforce to come up with a school safety proposal that didnt involve meaningful gun control. The result was a dystopian 225-page report that included recommendations like: arm teachers; build bigger fences; get rid of trees; design windows, framing, and anchoring systems to minimize the effects of explosive blasts, gunfire and forced entry. These are recommendations, let me remind you, for schools. Not for maximum security prisons for schools. The report also contains pages and pages of recommendations about doors, including the idea that there should be a single, controlled entry point and that doors should have ballistic protective glass.

Many of the NRAs recommendations, it should be said, had been implemented by Robb elementary. In 2020, the Uvalde school district received $69,000 in state grants to enhance physical security in Texas public schools, which included installing exterior doors with push bars and door-locking systems. None of that stopped the shooter. It shouldnt need to be said, but doors are not responsible for school massacres. Guns are.

To be clear: Cruz and his buddies in the NRA may be morally bankrupt but they are not entirely stupid. They know very well that guns are dangerous. Thats why guns were banned from Donald Trumps speech at the NRA conference on Friday. It seems that they decided door control wouldnt quite cut it in that particular situation.

Perhaps you saw this headline and thought it probably referred to something that happened a very, very long time ago? Nope. The Chilean state has just apologized to a woman who was forcibly sterilized by doctors in 2002 because she was HIV positive. This wasnt a one-off: according to a 2004 study of the 23 women who were sterilized after learning they were HIV-positive, 50% did so under pressure or had been sterilized without their knowledge. Theres also, of course, a very long history of sterilization being forced on Indigenous women around the world. Rather than being a thing of the past, it still happens in places like Canada today.

For years Anthony Dixon was considered Britains most influential pelvic surgeon. Now a government inquiry has found that more than 200 women were harmed after he carried out unnecessary procedures on them.

I bloody hope so.

The bill makes it clear that silence or passivity dont equal consent.

Three hundred and twenty-nine years ago a woman called Elizabeth Johnson Jr was accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death. By some sort of witchery she managed to escape being hanged but was still branded as a witch. And shed still be considered a witch to this day if it werent for a bunch of meddling kids: in 2021 a group of middle-schoolers in Massachusetts took on her case and have finally cleared her name. Shes the last of the Salem witch trials convicted to be cleared.

After 19 years on air, Ellen DeGeneres has walked away from her famous talkshow. The last few years havent been great for DeGeneres: shes faced accusations of being one of the meanest people alive and presiding over a toxic workplace. Still, while shes very far from perfect, its important to remember that Ellen has done an enormous amount for the LGBTQ+ community. As a gay woman, Ill never forget the impact of her bravely coming out in 1997.

In a plot twist that everyone could have seen coming the romance novelist who wrote an essay titled How to Murder Your Husband has been found guilty of murdering her husband. You might be wondering if he was murdered with a door seeing as how deadly those things are? No, weirdly enough, it was a gun.

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After 21 people were killed, the Republican party's newest enemy is doors | Arwa Mahdawi - The Guardian