Category Archives: Republican

Having the RNC in Milwaukee is a disaster waiting to happen. Milwaukee and other cities in southeast Wisconsin have been rocked by tragedies and violence as of late. Our communities are hurting and grieving. Some of the most marginalized are finding ways to heal. We are anxious. We are on edge. Not even two weeks ago, a white supremacist murdered 10 people at a grocery store in a predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. The killer had been radicalized by racist misinformation online. In Wisconsin, weve seen attacks on the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and anti-Semitic fliers left in peoples yards.

What does all of this have to do with the RNC? There is only one party that helps push out misinformation that costs people their lives. There is one party that demands a rebuttal to the phrase Black Lives Matter. There is one party at uplifts and supports the NRA. Obviously, there are exceptions but we see a pretty consistent pattern in the Republican partys stands on these issues. The Republican party is a party of hate. Former Chair of the Milwaukee County Democratic Party Chris Walton, sums it up pretty easily.

In a city where the majority of residents are people of color, the Republicans have largely stayed away. It was only in 2020 that the Republican party opened an office in Milwaukee for the first time. Their delayed engagement feels like its sole intent is to extract and chip away votes, not actually work on our issues. After not engaging with Milwaukee for so long, why would the Republicans want to have their convention here? I cant help but think that the party wants to antagonize an already hurting and broken city. The racial tensions are high and bringing in a party that represents hate puts our city in danger. Given the tragedy in Buffalo, a newsurvey says that 75% of Black people are afraid of another racially motivated attack.

We just hit the two-year anniversary of George Floyds murder and our country is still ripped apart at the seams, unable to move forward and protect Black lives. The Republican party, both nationally and locally, has consistently blocked legislation and real policy that would protect Black lives. But they want to hold their largest convention in the city of Milwaukee? A city that is only referred to by Republicans through racist dog whistles. Proposing having the RNC in our city feels as if leaders are spitting in the face of our real pain. Pain from the Republican party. Pain from a party that props up Kyle Rittenhouse, who murdered two people in Kenosha as they demonstrated to defend Black lives. There is a very real possibility that in the city of Milwaukee, the RNC will feature people like Rittenhouse.

Ive sat on this and thought about this for quite some time. What would this mean for our city? Sure there is an economic impact, but I struggle to find more benefits. Hate should not be welcomed in our city and its absurd that at this moment, with everything we have seen lately, we are considering this. The economic impact is not worth the potential violence (both physical and emotional).

Voces de La Frontera and other community organizations were right when they wrote in an open letter to the common council that this is a different Republican party. This is a party that seeks to lock up more Black and brown people, a party that proposes legislation in Madison aimed solely at hurting Milwaukee and starving the city of funds. With all of these dynamics, I cant help but think that we run the risk of turning Milwaukee into another Charlottesville, which violent white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups made a symbol of racism. Conventions already push out our most vulnerable, and bring additional law enforcement into our communities. There is no reason the RNC wants to have its convention here outside of scaring and terrorizing communities that they have already left behind, and communities they often attack. We have had so many conversations about safety recently. Right now we have an opportunity to keep our community safe by not allowing hate into the city we love so much.

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Keep the Republican convention out of Milwaukee - Wisconsin Examiner

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Physician Dr. Pierre Kory explained how his anti-establishment views on COVID-19 affected his change in political parties Friday on "The Ingraham Angle."

DR. PIERRE KORY: Science should not be involved with politics, and I'm seeing these divisions breaking out in medicine that seem to be influenced by political allegiances. And I'm not for that. But when you look at some of the things that have been going on, we're literally talking about disinformation boards and people going after my medical license because my scientific opinions are different from theirs and there's this single truth. It's extremely dystopian, and I find it really disorienting, and it's bad for medicine. It's bad for patients. The lack of self-awareness of really what I'm seeing now from the Left and from Left-leaning media that they're abandoning their principles. I used to be for free expression, free speech and really questioning authority, and now they're the authoritarians. And so like Elon [Musk], I'm very disoriented by it.

DRUG AGAINST COVID: US MOVES TO MAKE ANTIVIRAL MORE ACCESSIBLE

If you see how [Dr. Fauci's] opinions have shifted over time and that goes back to my point we need open, honest, scientific, transparent debate. That's how medicine advances. This is so bad for patients. For one person sitting atop the federal government health agencies telling us what is true and we're not allowed to debate that or question that's not how medicine advances. That's not how we discover how to help patients. It's absolutely going to hurt medicine if he keeps doing this, and it has to stop.

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Physician explains why heterodox views on COVID led to his Republican conversion - Fox News

Opinion: Matt Salmon is the last remaining high-profile Republican in Arizona with any combination of guts, morals and common sense. Which voters used to think of as good things.

They are either cowards or comrades.

Its difficult to tell which is worse, and it includes every prominent Republican in Arizona … with the exception of gubernatorial candidate Matt Salmon.

Among elected members of the GOP, and those seeking nominations for the states highest offices, the only person publicly condemning Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers for her vile comments and her unhinged advocacy of false, specious conspiracies the only one saying she should resign from office is Salmon.

Sadly, he is apparently the last remaining high-profile Republican in Arizona with any combination of guts, morals and common sense.

That is a tragedy.

Every political party, team, social club or service organization occasionally includes someone that you absolutely do NOT want on your side. Someone whose moral compass has reversed its polarity, north pointing south, truth pointing to lies, civility pointing to cruelty, reality pointing to fantasy.

Like when Rogers called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a globalist puppet for Soros and the Clintons and claimed that half of the combat footage taken in the city of Kyiv was a video game.

Or when she suggested that people she proclaimed to be traitors should be publicly hanged. Or when she threatened to personally destroy the career of any Republican who partakes in the gaslighting of me.

Or when she called the white nationalists at the America First Political Action Conference in Florida patriots. And sang the praises and expressed love for the groupsracist, anti-Semitic leader, Nick Fuentes, who told attendees at the gathering, Now, theyre going and saying, Vladimir Putin is Adolf Hitler, as if that isnt a good thing.

It goes on.

Most recently, Rogers has been peddling the white nationalist replacement theory, which suggests that Democrats and elites are trying to flood the U.S. with brown and Black immigrants in order to secure political power. And she went so far as to suggest that the Buffalo shooting may have been a false flag event directed by the federal government.

What kind of people would what such a person in their political party?

Republicans, it seems.

Former TV news reader and Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake is thrilled to have Rogers endorsement. The two have a back and forth Twitter lovefest.

As when Lake tweeted:

Senator Wendy Rogers is a proven fighter whether it was 20 years in the Air Force or going against the woke political left and their media activists constantly trying to take her down. I cannot wait to fight alongside her for the America First agenda!

Likewise, GOP governor candidate Karrin Taylor Robson has bragged about helping Rogers get elected. She tweeted:

As Chairwoman of Arizonas Republican Legislative Victory Fund, I was proud to support @WendyRogersaz who overcame millions of dollars in attacks from the Left to win and help us protect our one-seat conservative majority!

Is truth an attack?Or is it, simply, truth?

Last week, on KTARs The Mike Broomhead Show, Matt Salmon said, I think that this conspiracy theory she (Rogers) has, that the federal government is behind the latest horrible attack, that it was a red flag issue, its completely bogus. And I reject that and I reject her, and I believe that she should step aside.

Salmon has spoken out about Rogers before.

He told Broomhead, The last time around when she said that anybody that disagreed with her, she was going to come after them and that that the people that she disagreed with should be hung on the gallows, I called on her to resign at that time. And thats the strongest thing that I can possibly say, and I reiterate that again now.

Without naming Lake or Robson he added, I think its sad that … one of them helped her (Rogers) get elected and is proud of that and says that all the time. The other one pals around with her all the time and takes her pictures with her and has endorsed her and has been endorsed by her.

Hes right. That is sad.

Sadder still is the reason Salmon is on an island in his condemnation of Rogers.

Its because all those other high-profile Republicans know that being honest, showing a little integrity and a little guts, will hurt youwith Arizonas Republican base.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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Why is Matt Salmon the only GOP governor candidate trashing Sen. Wendy Rogers? - The Arizona Republic

No ones paying any attention to it, said Christopher Nicholas, a longtime Republican consultant based in Harrisburg.

Ever since the 2020 election, the Republican Party has been transfixed by Trumps baseless claim that the 2020 election was rigged, a falsehood large majorities of Republicans still believe. Its an obsession that has animated primary campaigns across the country. And it will almost certainly resurface in the general election, when Republicans are running against Democrats, not one another.

Yet in Pennsylvania, Trumps earliest effort to graft his 2020 complaints onto ballot counting in a midterm primary is falling flat. MAGA hard-liners whove lost primaries in other states in recent weeks have not contested the results. And when the primary calendar turns to Georgia on Tuesday, Trumps election conspiracy crusade is likely to take another hit.

In that state, Gov. Brian Kemp is widely expected to finish first in his gubernatorial primary, despite being savaged by Trump for his resistance to Trumps efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Its an indication, early in the midterm primary calendar, that even in a party beholden to Trump, there is a limit to his reach.

I think the shine has gone off a bit, said Jason Shepherd, a former chair of the Republican Party in Georgias Cobb County, in the Atlanta suburbs.

Republicans, he said, are realizing its great to have Trumps endorsement, but that the former president is not going to be the end-all and be-all.

In Pennsylvania, where votes are still being counted, the Oz and McCormick campaigns are preparing for a potentially fierce recount, including bringing on alumni of Trumps 2020 campaign. Its possible, once the result comes in, that the party will once again abandon pre-Trump norms.

Mehmet Oz, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, waves to supporters at a primary night election gathering in Newtown, Pennsylvania on Tuesday.|Seth Wenig/AP Photo

But one Republican who has advised Trump and is familiar with both the Oz and McCormick operations said nobody wants to be viewed as a sore loser and make allegations they cant sustain.

Theyre both intelligent guys, the person said. Theyre both sane guys, and neither of them wants to embarrass himself.

Two years ago, Republicans did not have such reservations with losing candidates up and down the ballot copying Trumps fraud claims or refusing to concede. They may do so again in the fall.

But Trump never limited his complaints about rigged elections to match-ups with Democrats. He accused Sen. Ted Cruz of stealing the Iowa caucuses in 2016, calling for a do-over.

Yet losing candidates so far in this midterm have been reluctant to go there. In Nebraska, Charles Herbster, a Trump megadonor and friend of the former president who attended the Jan. 6 rally in Washington that preceded the riot at the Capitol, conceded after losing his gubernatorial run. So did Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, after her failed, Trump-backed bid to unseat Gov. Brad Little.

Even Rep. Madison Cawthorn conceded, the North Carolina Republicans diatribe about Dark MAGA notwithstanding.

None of that is because Trump or voter fraud does not still resonate in the GOP. Trump helped pull his favored candidates to victory in key Senate races in Ohio and North Carolina. And in Pennsylvania last week, Doug Mastriano, the far-right election denier Trump endorsed, won the gubernatorial primary.

Even candidates Trump has not endorsed are wrapping themselves in any connection they can draw to him, and his rhetoric is still being parroted by prominent personalities on the right.

Last week, Cruz told The Washington Post that mail ballots in Pennsylvania create serious opportunity for mischief. And Fox News host Sean Hannity, an Oz ally, also parroted Trump, saying he does not trust the people that have the ballots.

But for Republican candidates this cycle, the difference between 2022 and 2020, said John Thomas, a Republican strategist working on House campaigns across the country, is that were just not seeing it where people hang on his every word.

He advises his candidates to watch Tucker Carlson every night to be in tune with the electorate, not Trump on Truth Social, the platform on which Trump suggested the Pennsylvania election might be rigged.

You want the glow and the halo effect of Donald Trump, but hes not shaping policy at the moment, Thomas said. It matters who can get that nod and that halo effect from Trump, but outside of that, he kind of feels like an ex-president to me.

Trump will likely have a mixed night Tuesday in the next big round of primaries. His preferred Senate candidate in Georgia, Herschel Walker, is favored to win. And Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is at risk of losing reelection after refusing to find votes for Trump in 2020.

But even in Georgia, which became an epicenter of Trumps false election claims after he lost the state to Joe Biden in 2020, the tide may be shifting away from him. A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found Republican voters are more confident now in the integrity of their states elections than they were just several months ago.

And in a Fox News poll last week, just a quarter of Republican primary voters said its extremely important that a candidate identifies as a strong Trump supporter in order to earn their vote for governor. By contrast, nearly two-thirds said someone who can win in November is paramount, and 35 percent said its critical that a candidate supports a Georgia abortion ban.

In that race, Kemp is running so far ahead of Trumps endorsed candidate, former Sen. David Perdue, who has made false claims about the 2020 election a centerpiece of his campaign, that he may avoid a runoff.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks during a gubernatorial republican primary debate on May 1, 2022, in Atlanta.|Brynn Anderson, Pool, File/AP Photo

We get it that people are still trying to exude a level of Trumpism as an attractive policy agenda, said John Watson, a former chair of the Georgia Republican Party. But my personal sense is that voters are saying, Dude, chill.

He said, I think theres always going to be a constituency in the party, at least for the foreseeable future, that thinks that every damn election is rigged. But I think fundamentally, your average, serial primary voter is just smarter than that. I think they just believe it to be a Trump shtick at this point.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. But for the former president, the imperative of keeping the routine up is obvious. He is deeply invested in his win-loss record in the midterms, and casting doubt on the Pennsylvania election will offer him a crutch in case Oz loses.

Among traditionalist Republicans, Trumps intervention in Pennsylvania was widely viewed as a distraction from a favorable midterm election climate for the GOP, with concerns about the state of the economy and a deeply unpopular Democratic president to run against.

There are pressing issues that need to be addressed, like inflation and the war in Ukraine, and we have a lot of overreach in the regulatory environment, said Melissa Hart, a former congresswoman from Pennsylvania who dropped out of the states gubernatorial primary days before the election. As far as Im concerned, its time to move forward.

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'No one's paying any attention': The week that Republicans ignored Trump's election lies - POLITICO

The Republican governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, has admitted that an anti-abortion trigger law that he signed on to the books would lead to heartbreaking circumstances if Roe v Wade is overturned, in which girls as young as 11 who became pregnant through rape or incest would be forced to give birth.

Hutchinsons remarks give a revealing insight into the twisted human and political quandaries that are certain to arise should the US supreme court, as expected, destroy the constitutional right to an abortion enshrined in Roe v Wade when it issues its ruling next month. The governor told CNNs State of the Union on Sunday that in 2019 he had signed the Arkansas trigger law, Senate Bill 6, which would ban almost all abortions the instant Roe were reversed, even though he disagreed with its lack of exceptions for incest and rape.

Asked why he had put his signature on the law, despite the fact that it would prohibit all abortions other than in cases where a pregnant womans life were in imminent danger, he said: I support the exceptions of rape and incest I believe that should have been added; it did not have the support of the assembly.

Under intense questioning from the CNN host Dana Bash, the governor was asked why an 11- or 12-year-old girl who is impregnated by her father, or uncle or another family member be forced to carry that child to term?

He replied: I agree with you. Ive had to deal with that particular circumstance even as governor. While its still life in the womb, life of the unborn, the conception was in criminal circumstances either incest or rape and so those are two exceptions I think are very appropriate.

He added that if the supreme court does throw out the constitutional right to an abortion, then these are going to become very real circumstances. The debate and discussion will continue, and that could very well be revisited.

But Bash pressed Hutchinson on what would happen if the absence of rape and incest exceptions cannot be revisited in the law that he had personally approved, pointing out that his term as governor comes to an end in January. If you cant change [the trigger law], that means girls who are still children, 11- and 12-year-olds, might be in that situation in a very real way in just a couple of months, Bash said.

Those are heartbreaking circumstances, Hutchinson replied. When we passed these trigger laws we were trying to reduce abortions, but whenever you see that real-life circumstances like that the debate is going to continue and the will of the people may or may not change.

A report by the Guardian this month found that at least 11 US states have passed laws that ban abortions without any exceptions for rape or incest. Such trigger laws are legally written in such a way that they would come into effect the second that the constitutional right to an abortion embodied in Roe were overturned.

Earlier this month, a draft majority opinion of the supreme court written by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked to Politico. With the apparent backing of five of the six conservative justices on the nine-member court, it would eradicate federal abortion rights in the most aggressive terms.

The court has insisted that the draft is not final and that changes to its wording or outcome are still possible. But the country on both sides of the abortion divide is bracing now for Roe to be undone and power over womens reproductive choices to be handed to individual states like Arkansas.

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Arkansas Republican admits abortion trigger law would cause heartbreak if Roe is reversed - The Guardian US

CIBOLO, Texas A Black conservative and a rising star in the Republican Party, Wesley Hunt is almost certain to be elected to Congress this fall in a majority-white district in and around Houston.

The district is new, one of two added in Texas after the 2020 census, and was drawn in large part for Mr. Hunt, an example of Republican lawmakers crafting safe seats out of Texas diversifying suburbs rather than going after incumbent Democrats.

That safety has enabled Mr. Hunt, a regular on Fox News supported by top Republicans like Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, to focus his attention on something bigger than his own election: his conviction that the Republican Party needs more conservatives who look like him if it is going to survive.

Diversity in the Republican Party is not the best, Mr. Hunt, 40, said in an interview. If you dont have people like me, and women, step up and say, actually, its OK to be a person of color and to be a Republican, then were going to lose the next generation.

Mr. Hunt has been traveling far beyond his Texas district, raising money and giving support to conservative Black and Hispanic candidates, and talking frankly about the need for Republican officeholders to better reflect the nations changing demographics. He is part of a growing Republican effort to diversify its roster of candidates and undercut Democrats among voters they have long counted on.

On a recent evening, Mr. Hunt showed up more than two hours west of Houston at a political event for a young Hispanic woman, Cassy Garcia, in the town of Cibolo, a Republican area in the fast-changing farmlands outside San Antonio. Ms. Garcia is running in a longstanding Democratic district held by Representative Henry Cuellar that runs from around San Antonio down to the border with Mexico.

He was very interested in our race, said Ms. Garcia, a former aide to Senator Ted Cruz. It means everything that Wesley is invested.

Mr. Hunt introduced himself to the mostly white audience and went over his background West Point graduate, Apache helicopter pilot, staunch conservative speaking loudly to the small crowd under a corrugated metal roof as if projecting into a room far larger than the cinder block bar he found himself in.

The stop at Ms. Garcias event in Cibolo was part of Mr. Hunts effort to support a diverse slate of upstart Republican candidates like John James in Michigan, Jeremy Hunt in Georgia and Jennifer-Ruth Green in Indiana. Each of those candidates, like Ms. Garcia, faces a considerably more difficult race this fall than Wesley Hunt does.

He believes in helping to change the face of the G.O.P., Tim Edson, a political consultant on Ms. Greens campaign, said of Mr. Hunt. I also think he recognizes that by helping others, it can help him hit the ground running and be effective in Congress.

If Mr. Hunt wins, as expected, he would be the third Black Republican in the House, joining Representatives Byron Donalds in Florida and Burgess Owens in Utah, who also represent majority white districts. Even as Republicans have made recent inroads, particularly with Hispanic voters in Florida and Texas, Democrats still outperform them in minority communities.

Unusual among not-yet-elected candidates, Mr. Hunt has already created a political action committee to make donations to others, which he named Hellfire PAC in a nod to his focus on helping those who are military veterans. Mr. Hunt has also been able to cultivate a roster of donors, raising nearly $4 million so far for his own run.

He is running in an area along Interstate-10 known as the energy corridor because of its high concentration of oil and gas businesses, executives and employees. To the extent that Mr. Hunt has firm policy goals, they revolve around questions of domestic energy production. In the interview, he said he hoped to be viewed as the energy congressman.

This is Mr. Hunts second try for Congress, having narrowly lost a bid to unseat Representative Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat representing parts of western Houston and Harris County.

But rather than creating a more favorable rematch against Ms. Fletcher, a relatively moderate incumbent, during the redistricting process last year, Republican mapmakers redrew her district to make it safer, and created a new one Texas 38th Congressional District that would be a virtual lock for Republicans for the foreseeable future. The district would have overwhelmingly re-elected former President Donald J. Trump. (Mr. Hunts Democratic opponent will be chosen in Tuesdays runoff election.)

Instead of getting two seats that should be majority-minority districts, which should be majority Hispanic districts, they drew that seat to make it easier for Wes Hunt to be a member of Congress, said Odus Evbagharu, the head of the Harris County Democratic Party.

He added that the fact that Mr. Hunt is Black could be seen as an asset, particularly when it comes to attracting suburban white Republican voters.

It helps combat the notion that the Republican Party is racist: Hey, look, we have a white district, but were running a Black man in it, said Mr. Evbagharu, who is Black.

Mr. Hunt said nothing had been given to him, pointing to his dominant performance in the Republican primary in March in which he bested a field of 10 candidates without a runoff.

But he does not avoid the topic of race. Among the campaign advertisements from his first run is a spot highlighting his familys history of enslavement.

What I never want to do is ignore the clearly checkered past that weve had in this country, he said in the interview at a corner table at Avalon Diner, a preferred breakfast spot for Houston power brokers. I want to talk about the hope that we have that a descendant of a slave is now going to be a congressman in a predominantly white, Republican district. In Texas. Thats pretty cool.

Mr. Hunt is used to standing out in white spaces, starting at the elite private school he attended in Houston, more than an hours drive from his childhood home in a predominantly white northern suburb.

What is redistricting? Its the redrawing of the boundariesof congressional and state legislative districts. It happens every 10 years, after the census, to reflect changes in population.

How does it work? The census dictates how many seats in Congress each state will get. Mapmakers then work to ensure that a states districts all have roughly the same number of residents, to ensure equal representation in the House.

Who draws the new maps? Each state has its own process. Eleven states leave the mapmaking to an outside panel. But most 39 states have state lawmakers draw the new maps for Congress.

If state legislators can draw their own districts, wont they be biased? Yes. Partisan mapmakers often move district lines subtly or egregiously to cluster voters ina way that advances a political goal. This is called gerrymandering.

Is gerrymandering legal? Yes and no. In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal courts have no role to play in blocking partisan gerrymanders. However, the court left intact parts of the Voting Rights Act that prohibit racial or ethnic gerrymandering.

When I got to St. Johns in middle school, I was one of two Black kids in my entire grade, Mr. Hunt said. But I was elected class president in eighth grade! he said, laughing.

He said it was around that time he decided he was a Republican. He voted for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary in 2008, though he said he did so as part of an effort, promoted by Rush Limbaugh, to stoke disarray in Democratic ranks that election. In many ways President Obama is actually why somebody like me even exists, he said, adding that he voted for Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate, in the general election.

Mr. Hunt would go on to a military career, following the example of his father, who had been in the Army, and his two siblings, who like Mr. Hunt went to West Point.

During his time at West Point, Mr. Hunt said, he lived in barracks named for Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, and said he would never want its name changed. I loved walking in there and thinking to myself, there was a time when this general fought against the rights of people that looked like me, yet here I am, he said. If it were named anything different, I wouldnt have that perspective.

His views on most issues are well within the mainstream of Texas Republicans, attracting support from business conservatives and an endorsement in the primary from Mr. Trump. He supports recent restrictions on voting opposed by Democrats. He opposes transgender girls participating in youth sports as just not fair, and agrees with Gov. Greg Abbott that medically prescribed treatments for transgender children constitute child abuse.

For his supporters, Mr. Hunt is evidence that whom they vote for is driven by policy and ideology and not by what a candidate looks like.

I hate this whole identity race stuff, said Cody McCubbin, who works in the oil and gas industry and has held events for Mr. Hunt. Personally I dont care what people look like. Its all about whats between your ears.

Still, Mr. Hunt said he often found himself fielding questions from his white friends about race, such as the moment when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage during the Academy Awards in March. My phone blew up immediately, asking whats your take on this, he said. It was the ask-a-Black-guy moment. You always get one, and Im totally fine with that.

At the campaign event in Cibolo, the heat rose to near 100 degrees just before sundown. Mr. Hunt arrived, looking the part of a congressman in a fitted navy suit, pocket square and American flag lapel pin. He was beaming after what he said had been a successful meeting with executives at Valero, a San Antonio-based oil and gas company a big, big meeting for us, he said.

In his remarks endorsing Ms. Garcia, Mr. Hunt praised her support of more restrictions on abortion, more border fortifications, more gun rights and more support for schools. She joked that she had recently been on Fox News, but added, I cant get on prime time like you, Wesley.

Sam Hines sat at the bar with his father and uncle. A police officer from the nearby town of Adkins, Mr. Hines, 29, came to the event to support Ms. Garcia shes almost like a foil for A.O.C., he said, referring to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic congresswoman in New York. He said he went away impressed by Mr. Hunt, whom he had never seen before.

Its good to have minority candidates be successful in the Republican Party, said Mr. Hines, who is white. It appeals to a broader base than a lot of people realize.

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Wesley Hunts Advice for the Republican Party: Update Your Look - The New York Times

Wirt Yerger, Jr. died May 2nd at 92. He founded the current Republican Party out of whole cloth beginning in the fifties. Back in the same period, I asked a prominent Sage in Greenville why we werent Republicans? He explained that the Republican Party at that time was controlled by a black attorney from Mound Bayou who lived and practiced in Washington. Perry Howard chose the convention delegates and what patronage there was.

It was a competition between the termed black and tans and the lily whites. This is just an indication of the political climate at that time. For example, in 1948, the Deweys forces paid Perry Howard $1,500 for the Mississippi votes. The bag man on the way from New York to Washington died on the train while he was trying to deliver the money.

The bag mans widow claimed the money and they had to pay twice. This story was confirmed to me by Lynn Hall the chairman of the Republican Party and by John Osborne a prominent reporter for the New Republic. In the late 1960s, Wirts good friend and mine Charles Blum slated to become the next Mississippi chairman.

He had a family problem that caused him to withdraw. Wirt turned to me and said you would take it if we cannot find anyone and the rest is history. I became state chairman in 1966. Wirt doggedly pursued what had to be done. For example, I met Wirt at his brother Swans wedding. He soon named me county chairman without anyones permission. Election was to come later.

The process of building a party was far more complex than this. He pushed to get every county in the state organized. There were miles to go but we were on a trajectory. By 1964, the Goldwater National Convention, the south and the conservative were clearly becoming the majority. Mississippi was on its way to become a majority Republican State. Rest in peace, Wirt.

Clarke Reed lives in Greenville, Mississippi. He is a former chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party.

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Opinion: Wirt Yerger built the state's Republican party - Northside Sun

Massachusetts Republicans held their state party convention on Saturday as they wrestle with how far to the right they should move in a deeply blue state.

Members of the state GOP gathered in Springfield ahead of this autumn's elections to hear from candidates and party leaders as they hope to rebuild a bloc that's lost nearly all of the levers of political power in the state.

The top job for Republicans is hanging on to the governors office.

Gov. Charlie Baker, who has remained popular with voters throughout his two terms in the corner office, has decided not to seek a third, four-year term. Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito are the only statewide Republican officeholders in Massachusetts.

Neither planned to attend Saturday's convention, reflecting a rift between them and former state Rep. James Lyons, the state's GOP chairman, a stalwart supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Former GOP state representative Geoff Diehl and Wrentham business owner Chris Doughty are both vying for the chance to succeed Baker. The first hurdle both candidates faced at Saturdays convention was gathering the support of at least 15% of delegates a threshold needed to make sure their name appears on the Sept. 6 primary ballot.

Diehl won the support of 71% of the delegates, while Doughty came away with 29%.

Diehl has the backing of Trump, who endorsed his candidacy in October, calling him strong on crime, election integrity, the southern border and taking care of veterans.

Diehl was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018 and lost to Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He also served as co-chair for Trumps Massachusetts 2016 presidential campaign.

Doughty has touted his success at creating jobs as the president of a company that manufactures metal machine parts.

Hes said he wants to protect businesses, recruit high-paying jobs to the state, make Massachusetts an educational leader from early education through college and trade schools, and make the state more affordable.

Following a Republican tradition in Massachusetts politics, both candidates have named their preferred running mate although candidates for lieutenant governor and governor run separately in the primary and only as a ticket in the Nov. 8 general election.

Diehl is teaming up with former Republican State Rep. Leah Allen Cole while Doughty is hoping for a ticket with former state Rep. Kate Campanale.

Shiva Ayyadurai, who in 2020 lost a Republican primary bid for the U.S. Senate, has also said hes running for governor.

Whoever wins will face the winner of the Democratic primary for governor, a race that includes Attorney General Maura Healey and state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz.

There is little Republican primary drama in other statewide races.

Rayla Campbell, a Randolph resident and Republican who has worked in insurance and claims management, is running for secretary of state. Republican Jay McMahon, a trial attorney and lifelong Cape Cod resident, is running for attorney general, a job he ran for and lost in 2018 to Healey.

Anthony Amore, the head of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, is running for state auditor. Amore ran for secretary of state in 2018 and lost.

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Mass. Republicans gather for convention and decide guv hopefuls Diehl, Doughty will make ballot - WBUR News

MINOT, N.D. Jeffrey Powell is an administrator at Mayville State University and the Democratic-NPL candidate for secretary of state. He was endorsed by the partys executive committee (he made a late decision to run so didnt attend the partys state convention in Minot) and in November will be facing off against one of two potential Republican candidates.

State Rep. Michael Howe is squaring off with Bismarck mechanic Marvin Lepp in the NDGOP primary.

Powell has been watching that race, and on this episode of Plain Talk, said it frustrates him when the Republican candidates talk about election integrity, arguing thats a code word for voter suppression.

He said the primary job of a secretary of state is to protect the right of the people to vote, and he accused Republican lawmakers of enacting laws to suppress votes in past legislative sessions.

Powell also spoke about running as a Democrat in a state that has become deeply Republican over the last couple of decades. He said there is a sense of fear among Democrats who think about running for office in North Dakota. He acknowledged that both Republicans and Democrats have become more extreme in recent years, but that the alleged danger is more keenly felt by people who are more likely to be Democrats.

Powell said he hasnt personally felt any danger in running for office.

Also on this episode, Dickinson-based oil worker Riley Kuntz, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. John Hoeven for the NDGOPs primary nomination, spoke about why he decided to mount what he admits is a long-shot bid to defeat one of North Dakotas most popular political figures.

He said he was disappointed state Rep. Rick Becker, who challenged Hoeven at the NDGOPs state convention, wasnt successful and felt he had to continue the challenge to Hoeven.

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Plain Talk: Dem sec. of state candidate says 'election integrity' is Republican code for 'voter suppression' | Say Anything - Say Anything Blog

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The false claim that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election has become gospel among most Republicans. Polls over the past year have shown that nearly 70 percent of all Republicans believe that President Joe Biden stole the election from Trump. The stolen election conspiracy theory runs so deep that, according to the New York Times, more than 350 Republican state legislators in nine critical swing states had taken steps to either discredit or overturn the 2020 election results. Election deniers represent 44 percent of GOP legislators in those states.

In light of this it seems notable that on Sunday, the man charged with helping the GOP win back the Senate, went on national television and admitted that Biden was in fact the countrys duly elected president:

Rick Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is not the only Republican senator to publicly acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election, but he doesnt have a lot of company. In December 2020, a Washington Post survey of all GOP members of Congress found only 27 who would come out and admit that the election was not, in fact, rigged, and that Trump had lost fair and square. Nearly 90 percent of the Republican members simply refused to say who they thought won the election.

In the Senate, Scott is joined only by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who voted to impeach Trump, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), and latecomer Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who finally admitted in January that Biden had fairly won the election. For this indiscretion, Rounds was promptly attacked by Trump, who released a statement saying, Senator Mike Rounds of the Great State of South Dakota just went woke on the Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020. He made a statement this weekend on ABC Fake News, that despite massive evidence to the contrary, including much of it pouring in from Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other states, he found the election to be ok just fine. Is he crazy or just stupid?

What makes Scotts admission particularly noteworthy is that he was one of eight Senate Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election results. Scott has hitched his wagon so closely to Trump, particularly in messaging and fundraising campaigns for the 2022 midterm elections, that he invented an award to give to the former president in April 2021. Making Trump the first recipient of the NRSC Champion of Freedom award, Scott called Trump a proven champion for all Americans. Trump has reportedly urged Scott to run against McConnell for the senate leadership post, and his PAC has defended Scotts unpopular 11-point plan to rescue America that included raising taxes on poor people and sunsetting Medicare and Social Security, two programs used by millions of voters in his home state. But now, Scott, the richest member of the Senate, seems to be gearing up to run for president himself. Last week, he launched a second national ad campaign targeting Biden, calling him incompetent and confused.

Given Scotts acknowledgment of Bidens legitimacy and his recent moves suggesting he is mulling a presidential bid, its a wonder that Trump hasnt denounced him in a press release. Though perhaps Trump, a famous devotee of TiVo, has yet to watch Scotts appearance on Face the Nation.

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Top Senate Republican Who Voted To Overturn 2020 Election Admits Biden Won Fairly Mother Jones - Mother Jones