Republicans
July 14, 2023 — John Hinderaker
This graphic comes from my friend and colleague John Phelan. Ask yourself, without looking: what does it show? It shows the states that were fully under the control of either the Democrats or the Republicans in 1993–i.e., the states that had “trifectas.” (Nebraska has a unicameral legislature, so we can call that an exacta.) It is hard to remember now, but in 1993 there were nineteen states where the Democrats
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May 13, 2023 — John Hinderaker
If this poll is any guide, Elizabeth Warren could be the underdog in her race for re-election: The poll also asked several questions about Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is seeking reelection in 2024. Warren’s approval among those surveyed was 49% approving, 44% disapproving, and 7% unsure. When asked about a hypothetical head-to-head with former Republican Governor Charlie Baker, 49% of those surveyed indicated they would support Baker for U.S. Senate,
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April 29, 2023 — John Hinderaker
My colleague Bill Glahn has taken a dive into the data now available on political spending in Minnesota during the 2022 election cycle. He has written several posts on his research at AmericanExperiment.org. Bill’s most recent findings are disturbing: 23 of America’s richest billionaire families donated to Minnesota Democrats (DFL) in the past three years. Collectively, they donated over $6.2 million to the MN DFL in that time. These 23
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April 3, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Not as much as you might think, my colleague Bill Glahn writes at AmericanExperiment.org. The conventional wisdom is that in the 2021-22 election cycle, dollars spent on behalf of Democratic candidates in Minnesota exceeded Republican dollars by a factor of around ten to one. The disproportion in spending by the parties themselves was even greater, more like 18 to one. The Democratic Party is awash in cash, it seems. But
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March 18, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Ron DeSantis struck a moderate note in his recent comments on the war in Ukraine, drawing criticism from many Republicans. The Wall Street Journal headlines: “Pence and Other Potential GOP 2024 Rivals Pounce on DeSantis Over Ukraine Aid.” Former Vice President Mike Pence, without mentioning Ron DeSantis by name, rebuked the Florida governor Saturday for his isolationist approach to the war in Ukraine. Isolationist approach? Seriously? A sharp divide inside
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March 6, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The New York Times sends out an email each morning; you can view today’s, by David Leonhardt, here. The email is headed: Asian American voters, like Latinos, have shifted toward the Republican Party since 2018. Why? Rather than Why, some would ask, What took them so long? But let’s enjoy the good news: In the past two elections — 2020 and 2022 — Asian Americans have moved toward the right,
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February 12, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Abraham Lincoln stands not only as America’s greatest president but also as its greatest lawyer. At the time of his election to the presidency in 1860 he was the most prominent practicing lawyer in the state of Illinois. As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history. Perhaps most important, Lincoln was America’s indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom
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January 29, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Donald Trump has officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign. He is entitled to take a shot at another term, but his country and his party would be far better served if, for once, he put their interests ahead of his own ego. Given his history, though, we shouldn’t be surprised. Charles Gasparino’s piece in the New York Post is headlined: “Donors slow as the realization hits that Trump can’t beat
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January 27, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Few men emerged from the Nixon White House with their reputations unscathed, let alone enhanced. Pat Buchanan was one of the few, a distinction he achieved in part by vanquishing the Senate Watergate Committee in his televised testimony at the end of the hearings. Buchanan tells the story of his Senate Watergate Committee testimony in chapter 17 (“Before the Watergate Committee”) of his 2017 memoir Nixon’s White House Wars: The
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January 22, 2023 — Steven Hayward
One of Stan Evans‘s many great quips was that it was fortunate Republican politicians were pro-life, since they spend so much time in the fetal position. The lack of fight in congressional Republicans was a source of endless frustration for Stan, and despite some indications the new House GOP majority may pick some worthy fights, in some areas they are already proving to be a colossal failure. The Washington Free
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January 8, 2023 — Steven Hayward
The media and the left were content to munch popcorn this week as House Republicans struggled to select a Speaker, but now that the deed is done largely on terms dictated by the so-called “Chaos Caucus” (I prefer Rebel Alliance), they are starting to wring their hands about how terrible this is. Which means they are worried. Which means the outcome is probably good. There is a disturbance in The
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January 7, 2023 — Steven Hayward
I’ll ask readers to indulge a roundabout introduction, as I think it useful for setting up such a rare occasion as a substantial disagreement with what Brother John has written here about the McCarthy Question. It has become a frustrating and annoying practice of the Supreme Court to issue decisions whose summary begins as follows (in this case, Allegheny County v. Greater Pittsburgh ACLU in 1989): “BLACKMUN, J., announced the judgment of
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January 6, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The fiasco in the House of Representatives may be drawing to a close, as 14 of the 21 Republicans who collaborated with Democrats to prevent the organization of a Republican House have now come to their senses. Only a few more need to wake up, and Republicans can start carrying out the duties for which they were elected. How much damage has the tiny minority of sellouts done? Quite a
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January 5, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Unless I am mistaken about the order of things, the impasse over selecting the next Speaker of the House will end very soon for a simple reason: since no members can be officially sworn in until there is a Speaker, it means none of them can draw a paycheck. That will tend to concentrate the mind of many House members. I am not as averse to the current general scene
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January 3, 2023 — John Hinderaker
First, the bad and ugly: the House adjourned today with no speaker for the first time in a century. Nineteen Republican spoilers have prevented Kevin McCarthy from taking the gavel. Reportedly, some of the dissident Republicans have told McCarthy that they don’t mind if far-left Democrat Hakeem Jeffries becomes Speaker. I don’t want to believe that, but there are some conservatives who are only comfortable as outsiders and who shun
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January 3, 2023 — Steven Hayward
As of this writing, Kevin McCarthy has lost two rounds of voting to be the next Speaker of the House, something that hasn’t occurred in a century. Nineteen Republicans voted for someone else in both votes (McCarthy could only lose five votes). One interesting wrinkle though is that in the first round, the renegade GOP votes were split between Jim Jordan and Andy Biggs, but in the second round all
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December 29, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I detect Seth Lipsky’s characteristic prose and train of thought in the New York Sun editorial “Yes, Virginia–There Is a Santos Clause.” Seth’s hand in the editorial makes sense: he is the editor of the Sun. The subject of the editorial is the post-election discovery that Rep.-elect George Santos is not who he said he was. The subhead summarizes the gist of the editorial: “All the falsehoods George Santos is
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