Republicans
December 1, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I wrote an update on two of the three House races I discussed on Sunday — Iowa-2 and New York-22. Today, there is definitive news about the third of these races. In California-25, Republican Mike Garcia is the winner. Democrat Christy Smith has conceded. This seat traditionally has been held by Republicans. Katie Hill won it for the Democrats in the Democratic wave of 2018, but resigned due to
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November 20, 2020 — Scott Johnson
After noting the strong women candidates who contributed to the Republican pickups in the House when I wrote about them this past weekend, I thought it might make sense to speak with Rep. Elise Stefanik. She had a hand in all those races and kindly gave me a telephone interview this afternoon. Indeed, she stayed on with me until she had answered all my questions. Do you have anything more,
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November 15, 2020 — Scott Johnson
As of this morning, with five races yet to be called, RealClearPolitics notes that Republicans have picked up a net of 9 House seats. RCP projects that Republicans will pick up a net 10-13 seats when the counting is done. A few more excellent candidates helped the GOP hold House seats where there was no incumbent. I am thinking, for example, of Beth Van Duyne, one of the successful candidates
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November 6, 2020 — John Hinderaker
The presidential election seems to be going South and a Joe Biden administration may be in the offing. It is a bitter pill to swallow and I am profoundly depressed. Nevertheless, here are a few mostly-optimistic observations on the current scene. * My guess is that in a perfect world, where only legal voters vote, and everyone votes only once, President Trump won the election. The problem is that, while
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November 6, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
After the 2016 election, Republicans controlled the White House, the Senate, and the House. In theory, President Trump should have been able to have his nominees confirmed by the Senate fairly promptly. However, Senate Democrats, despite being in the minority, managed to block the confirmation of key nominees throughout the federal bureaucracy. For example, my friend Eric Dreiband was blocked from becoming Assistant Attorney, Civil Rights Division until November 2018.
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October 30, 2020 — John Hinderaker
YouGov conducted an interesting survey, asking Americans their opinions of various countries. Among other things, the survey identifies differences between Republicans and Democrats in their views of nations, including the United States. This chart shows the countries with the greatest and least partisan divides with respect to the percentage having a positive view: Two things jump out at an observer. The first is the parties’ radically different opinions of Israel.
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October 12, 2020 — John Hinderaker
To recast an old formula, it appears that Republicans are from Mars and Democrats are from Venus. I don’t know how else to explain the deep gulf that separates Democrats from Republicans when it comes to the Wuhan flu. Check out these numbers, from Gallup: It is amazing but I suspect these numbers will converge after the election. https://t.co/Dn9OyVORqH — Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) October 11, 2020 I gave a speech
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August 26, 2020 — Scott Johnson
There is a wealth of riches to pick over from day 2 of the Republican National Convention. We had First Lady Melania Trump speaking from the White House Rose Garden after a memorable walk to the lectern. We had Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaking from Jerusalem. We had former Planned Parenthood employee Abby Johnson, now a pro-life advocate. We had Nicholas Sandmann, the young victim of the mainstream media
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July 8, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Earlier today I spent 30 minutes interviewing South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem in a webinar sponsored by Center of the American Experiment. We had more than 2,300 registered for the event, with many more watching on Facebook Live. If you missed it earlier, here it is again. I thought Governor Noem was terrific. As you watch the video, ask yourself: how many better leaders do we have in the U.S.
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June 23, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Kristi Noem is a four-term Congresswoman and the current Governor of South Dakota. In today’s authoritarian environment, with governors issuing diktats purporting to organize every facet of our lives, she has stood tall as a voice for freedom. Early in the COVID epidemic, Governor Noem gave a press conference in which she said that South Dakotans are free Americans, not subject to arbitrary orders from politicians. They are also smart:
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June 9, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Tim Alberta of Politico wonders whether we are witnessing “the last stand of ‘law and order’ Republicans.” Alberta’s piece is defective as a matter of logic and evidence. It’s also intellectually dishonest. Alberta sees an emerging divide in the Republican party on the issue of policing. On the one hand, there are traditional Republicans who, he says, believe that “police are heroes and protesters are criminals and the only tragic
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March 10, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Gallup finds evidence that the Democrats’ failed impeachment drive hurt them and is benefiting Congressional Republicans: More Americans approve of the job congressional Republicans are doing than of congressional Democrats’ performance — 40% vs. 35%. The rating for Republicans in Congress has risen six percentage points since late October, before the impeachment of President Donald Trump in the U.S. House of Representatives. Over the same period, congressional Democrats’ approval rating
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January 22, 2020 — John Hinderaker
President Trump’s approval ratings among Republicans have set records, for reasons that are easy to understand. And the current impeachment farce has united Republican politicians, as well as the party’s rank and file, behind the president. Much could be said about this, but for now, let’s go with a few tweets. Rand Paul is one of the most independent of Senate Republicans and has clashed with the president from time
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December 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
At FiveThirtyEight, Perry Bacon argues that President Trump completed his takeover of the Republican Party this year. I think that’s right. Trump’s control of congressional Republicans is exemplified by the fact that no GOP member of the House voted for his impeachment. Indeed, as far as I know, no GOP member acknowledged that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine for a time in order to induce the Ukrainian government to
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November 30, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Daniel Horowitz asks: “Who needs George Soros when you have Republicans. . .enacting his number one agenda item – de-incarceration?” Horowitz’s case in point is Oklahoma: The Koch-funded “conservative” organizations have convinced Oklahoma Republicans to embark on a one-sided mission of prison release rather than stemming the tide of growing crime. They have made them feel guilty about having the highest incarceration rate of any state. Yet rather than identifying
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November 22, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee performed like all-stars in the Schiff impeachment theater, the stalwart Ranking Member Devin Nunes foremost among them. We have previously recognized Rep. Elise Stefanik for her work during the Schiff show. The rest of the GOP members also excelled. I would like to recognize them by name: Mike Conaway (Texas), Mike Turner (Ohio), Brad Wenstrup (Ohio), Chris Stewart (Utah), Will Hurd (Texas),
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October 1, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
This is the 70th anniversary of a dark day in history — the founding of the Chinese Communist dictatorship. Jay Nordlinger correctly calls this dictatorship “one of the great tragedies and horrors of modern times.” John McCormick provides examples of the horrors: A decade [after the revolution], Mao’s Great Leap Forward killed perhaps 45 million people. The Communist regime still denies its people freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and
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