Republican Party Archives

How the Ukraine War Is Affecting American Politics

The notion that foreign policy was unimportant to most Americans is a long-held belief by many. One explanation is that foreign policy issues felt distant. Another explanation is that Americans lacked sufficient knowledge of it. But while that may be true in times of peace, Americans definitely do care about foreign policy when a major crisis occurs. This is clearly shown in the overwhelming response Americans have displayed with regards to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

2022 Gubernatorial Election Ratings (Mar 2022)

Thirty-six states are holding gubernatorial elections this November. And while most states vote the same way for their governor as they do federally, gubernatorial elections are typically far less partisan. This makes rating these elections more difficult, as incumbent popularity and campaign platforms play a bigger role here than they do nationally. Despite their status as being less partisan, they are still overwhelmingly important. Control of governorships usually dictates a state’s policy. Wisconsin, for instance, would be far more conservative if the governor was Republican.

Major House Redistricting Victories for Democrats

Since the last update on congressional redistricting, there have been substantive changes in the playing field in the decennial process. Despite what seemed to be hopelessly bad turf for the Democratic Party, they have managed to turn the tables and gain a narrow edge over the Republicans. In total, of the 44 states that have finished redistricting so far, the Democrats have a net gain of 12 seats. Republicans lost five seats. This is mainly due to a string of court, legislative, and commission victories in the Democrats’ favor.

Schumer Sets Up Vote For Senate Rule Change To Pass Voting Rights Legislation

On Monday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced in a letter to colleagues that the Senate will vote on changing the rules to pass voting rights legislation if Republicans block a vote to open debate by Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 17. The threat to nuke the filibuster comes at the beginning of a critical midterm election year for the Democratic Party, where control of both houses of Congress is at stake.

Redistricting: Which Party Is Ahead? (Dec 2021)

Forty-four states have already begun the decennial congressional redistricting process, with 20 states already enacting finalized House maps that will run through the next 10 years. That is 14 more than in the previous update (not including states with only one district). In this post, we’re going to take a look at how redistricting is going in each state and discuss which party is doing better.

Virginia Gubernatorial Election Points to 2022 Red Wave

On Tuesday, off-year elections were held in various states, with the most notable races being the Virginia gubernatorial election and the New Jersey gubernatorial election. A number of other special elections were also held to fill congressional vacancies, and multiple cities also held mayoral elections. Notably, Republicans swept into power in Virginia, and New Jersey’s incumbent Democratic governor was just a hair’s smidge away from losing to a Republican. Yet, in what seemed like a great year for Republicans, a number of progressive Democrats won races in local elections.

Gavin Newsom Survives Recall Election

Almost five months after an effort led by the California Republican Party to recall Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and a month of mail voting, in-person voting for the recall election finally closed on Tuesday. Less than an hour later, The Associated Press called the race against the recall for Newsom, and with 74 percent of the vote in, 64 percent of voters voted against recalling Newsom. Just 36 percent of voters voted in support of the recall.

Senate Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill In Peril

It has been a long time since President Joe Biden first announced an infrastructure and jobs bill and over a month since a group of senators agreed on a bipartisan infrastructure package totaling $1.2 trillion, with $600 billion in new spending. Anything this large on a bipartisan scale is clearly fragile, and with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer trying to force a procedural vote on the bill on Wednesday, many Republican senators, including some of those who helped negotiate the bill, are having second thoughts.

Vaccination Rates Highlight Red and Blue State Divide

The Delta variant of COVID-19 has started to gain a foothold in the U.S. recently. On Monday, 32,105 cases were reported across the U.S., representing a 94 percent increase over the past 14 days. The uptick in cases is mainly fueled by rising case levels in states with low COVID-19 vaccination rates, with Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana seeing particularly alarming outbreaks.

SCOTUS: Obamacare Lives Again (California v. Texas)

The Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, has survived its third Supreme Court challenge. On Thursday, America’s highest court ruled in California v. Texas that allowed the entirety of the law as it currently exists to stay. It capped a decade-long attempt from the Republican Party to kill the largest overhaul to the U.S. health care system since Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

Decoding the Moves of Sen. Joe Manchin

Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from the very Republican state of West Virginia, may seem to be one of the last, if only, conservative-esque, centrist Democrats left in Congress. He seems to oppose many Democratic priorities, such as on abortion, increasing the minimum wage, and gun control, and always tries to act in a bipartisan way. Lately, he voiced his opposition to passing the For the People Act, a large, sweeping Democrat-backed voting rights reformed package also known as H.R. 1 or S. 1. However, despite this, he isn’t nearly as conservative or as Republican-friendly as he may first seem.

Texas Dems Defeat GOP Voter Suppression Bill For Now

In a stunning turn of events, members of the Democratic caucus of the Texas House of Representatives staged a dramatic walkout in a last-ditch effort to stop the Republican Party from passing one of the most severe voter suppression bills in the U.S. The walkout by all 67 Democrats in the state House meant that the Republican Party wouldn’t be able to form a 100-member quorum in the 150-member body, meaning that the bill was not able to be passed before the end of this legislative session, which ended on May 30.

Senate GOP Blocks Jan. 6 Commission

Despite compromises by the Democratic Party, Senate Republicans have blocked an effort lead by the Democrats to establish a bipartisan commission investigating the riots and insurrection at the Capitol Building on Jan. 6. With a bipartisan commission now officially off the books, the only other solution left for the Democrats may be to establish a congressional select committee into investigating the attack, which is sure to be more partisan.

Glenn Youngkin Wins Virginia GOP Primary for Governor

After a grueling weekend of vote tabulation of ranked-choice voting, the results of the Virginia Republican Party gubernatorial primary held on May 8 were released, indicating that Glenn Youngkin, a former CEO and businessman, had won the party’s nomination to run in the Virginia gubernatorial election this November. The results indicated that once again, the Republican Party had chosen to embrace the pro-Trump strategy.

Liz Cheney Likely to Be Removed After Impeaching Trump

Rep. Liz Cheney, Republican from Wyoming, is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The daughter of one of the country’s most prominent (and polarizing) politicians and former Vice President Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, the third most powerful House Republican, is now in hot water from her own party. After having voted to convict former President Donald Trump back in January, she is now expected to be given the boot and ousted from her leadership position.

Why Missouri Could See a Competitive Senate Race in 2022

Missouri, once a major political bellwether, has slowly drifted into being solid for the Republicans. Therefore, it may come as a surprise to many that Missouri had a Democratic senator as recently as 2018, and the 2016 U.S. Senate election here was very competitive as well. Though the 2022 Missouri U.S. Senate election is expected to be safe for the Republicans, there is one scenario in which this race could become competitive.

Why Puerto Rico Should Be Granted Statehood

The push to make Washington, D.C. a state has never been greater. Not only has the House passed a bill that would admit the federal district as a state this Congress, making it the second consecutive Congress that passed such an act, it has also been introduced in the Senate and there has been a great push for it to become a real state. However, the push to make Puerto Rico, an American territory in the Caribbean which has a population of 3 million, a state has not garnered such attention and support. Granting Puerto Rico statehood would give more than 3 million Americans representation in government.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Recall Effort Qualifies

A recall effort organized by Republicans against California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has reached the number of valid signatures required for the state to hold a recall election, the California secretary of state reported Monday. The state is now all but certain to be holding a gubernatorial recall election later this year, for only the second time ever in the state’s history.

An Early Look Into the 2022 Senate Elections

After talking about why increasing political polarization and hyperpartisanship are horrible for the Senate, today, we are going to discuss the 2022 Senate elections as a whole. The 2022 midterms will be the first major federal elections to be held in President Joe Biden’s first term, and we could see a Republican sweep if Biden is disapproved of in a year and a half’s time, or we could see Democrats maintain control if Biden and his party remain popular.

Partisanship is Destroying How the Senate Functions

The Senate is the most important legislative body in the United States. It is the upper chamber of Congress, and is also the body that confirms all of a president’s nominees. By design, the Senate was meant to exist to give smaller states equal representation in Congress and encourage bipartisanship, but America’s increasing partisanship is slowly eating away at the principles of how the Senate once worked.

Matt Gaetz In Hot Water After DOJ Probe Revealed

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a three-term Republican congressman from Florida and a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, is currently embroiled in a major scandal. On March 30, The New York Times first reported that an inquiry into Gaetz had been opened by the Department of Justice in the final months of the Trump administration, looking into allegations over Gaetz having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in 2019 and whether he had violated federal sex trafficking laws.

Voting Rights and How America’s Pastime Got Pulled Into Politics

Major companies have come out in criticism of Georgia’s new voter-suppression law that makes it harder to vote, especially in the urban areas. As companies headquartered in Georgia like Coca-Cola and Delta slammed the law for being “based on a lie” and President Joe Biden calling the law “Jim Crow on steroids,” Major League Baseball has chosen to move this season’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta, resulting in Republicans, who have rallied against “cancel culture,” calling on people to boycott MLB.

Georgia GOP Passes Sweeping Voter Suppression Bill

Georgia Republicans, who currently hold a majority in that state’s legislature and the governorship (despite Democrats winning statewide on the presidential level and having both U.S. Senate seats), passed a disgraceful bill Thursday which would substantially restrict voting rights and make it far more difficult for people to vote, especially to those living in cities and for communities of color (both groups which vote overwhelmingly Democratic).

Boulder Shootings Reignite Gun Control Debate

On March 22, 2021, a 21-year-old man opened fire inside a King Soopers supermarket in the town of Boulder, Colo., a suburb of Denver, killing 10 people, including a police officer. This is the second major mass shooting in a week. Last Tuesday, a gunman opened fire in three spas in the Atlanta area, killing a total of eight people. The shootings have once again brought the issue of gun control front and center onto the national stage.

GOP Opposition On COVID-19 Relief May Backfire

There is no doubt that the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill is popular among Americans. Among the bill’s many provisions include a provision that sends most Americans $1,400 in stimulus money, extends unemployment benefits, and provides many poverty-reducing measures, including a tax credit that could cut child poverty in half. However, the Republican Party has been completely united on opposing the bill, a decision which may come back to bite the GOP in the foot come the 2022 midterms.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Faces a Recall Effort

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing a major recall effort organized in part by the state GOP after outrage began last year over coronavirus-related restrictions. It is the largest and likeliest-to-succeed recall effort of a California governor every since then-Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, was recalled in 2003, with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger succeeding him.

Why So Many GOP Senators Are Retiring in 2022

Midterm elections are generally seen as being unfavorable to the incumbent president’s party. For example, Republicans made large gains during the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections during the Obama administration, while Democrats won back the House in the 2018 midterms during the Trump administration. So to see five Republicans (and counting) announcing retirement in the 2022 election cycle is extremely unusual and surprising.

House Passes Landmark Sweeping Voting Rights Bill

The Democratic-controlled House passed the For the People Act of 2021 on Wednesday, also known as H.R. 1. This is a major, sweeping election reform bill that will expand voting rights, limit gerrymandering, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of financial lobbying, create a public financing option for congressional campaigns and create new ethics rules for officeholders. Unfortunately, it faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

Trump Dominates CPAC, Showing the Future of the GOP

In his first major public appearance since leaving office, former President Donald Trump used a lie-filled speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., to vilify President Biden’s administration, showed no remorse for the Jan. 6 insurrection, repeated his lies about election fraud, and signaled that he would run for president again in 2024. His comments at CPAC demonstrates that the Republican Party is still very much a party centered around Trump.

Senate Official Rules Against $15 Minimum Wage In Stimulus

Democrats, especially progressive Democrats, suffered a major setback on Thursday in their bid to include a provision that would gradually increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package, after the Senate parliamentarian, who acts as the rule enforcer, said that it could not be included in the bill, since the bill is to be passed via the budget reconciliation measure.

Neera Tanden Faces Hard Path to Confirmation as OMB Director

Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, is facing scrutiny from members of Congress. As Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced on Friday that he would vote against her confirmation, it significantly reduces the likelihood of her confirmation given Republican resistance to her confirmation.

Ted Cruz Vacations in Mexico As Texans Suffer

Much of Texas has been weathering from days of harsh winter weather, snow, ice, and freezing rain since a major winter storm hit the region beginning on Feb. 15, battering the state’s power grid and leaving millions without power or water. Meanwhile, as Texas recovers from the winter storms, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, was spotted on a plane heading to Cancún, Mexico, on Thursday.

What Would Happen if the GOP Broke Into Two?

We have increasingly begun to see that the Republican Party is seeing two distinct factions forming within it: the more moderate, traditional type conservative faction and the pro-Trump, far-right faction. Especially after the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, the two sides haven’t been getting along quite well lately, with people on both sides mulling over starting their own party.

House Removes Greene From Committee Assignments

After House Republicans voted against removing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., of her committee assignments on Wednesday, the Democratic-controlled House held a floor vote on Thursday which removed her from her committee assignments on the House Budget Committee and House Committee on Education and Labor.

Divided GOP Refuses to Punish Greene But Lets Cheney Stay

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the House Minority Leader, refused on Wednesday to take action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., for spreading false and dangerous conspiracy theories and threatening violence against Democrats by removing all her committee assignments. However, in a House Republican Conference call, House Republicans voted not to remove Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from Republican leadership even though she voted to impeach Trump last month.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Faces Backlash for Conspiratorial Comments

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a newly-elected Republican representative from Georgia’s 14th Congressional District in the northwestern part of the state, is under huge scrutiny from the Democratic Congress and even Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for her embracement of QAnon conspiracy theories, some of which include 9/11 conspiracy theories, school shootings as Democratic conspiracies to enact gun control, and more.

2020 Election Recap: Most Tumultuous Election of Our Time

With the inauguration of President Joe Biden on Jan. 20, 2021, the 2020 election season officially comes to an end, marking the end of one of the most tumultuous, most defining elections of our lifetimes. A record-breaking 158 million Americans voted in this election, and 74 million of them voted for the Donald Trump-Mike Pence ticket, and 81 million voted for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket. It was the first time in history any ticket surpassed 70 million votes.

Trump Likely To Be Acquitted In the Senate

Senate Republicans largely voted against trying former President Donald Trump after he was impeached with just a few days left in his term in the House for incitement of insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Only five Republican senators voted against tabling a bill forced by Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky, which, if passed, would have declared the trial unconstitutional and ended.

Sen. Rob Portman to Retire in 2022, Opening Path For Dems

Sen. Rob Portman, a well-respected two-term Republican senator from Ohio, announced Monday that he will retire when his term ends in 2022 and will not run for reelection, explaining that it is becoming increasingly difficult to “break through the partisan gridlock” in Congress and opening up a major battleground state in what will be a hotly contested midterm election for Senate control.

Arizona GOP Censures Three of Its Top Members

The Arizona Republican Party may have just spelled out its own death sentence. The state GOP approved resolutions on Saturday to censure three of its most prominent members, including Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake, and Cindy McCain, the widow of former Sen. John McCain. Including its previous censure of McCain five years ago, before his death in 2018, the Arizona GOP has now censured almost all of its members who have managed to win statewide in recent years.

Impeached Again: Trump Impeached for a 2nd Time

President Donald Trump has become the first president (and first-ever federal official for that matter too) in history to be impeached by the House of Representatives for a second time, this time for “incitement of insurrection.” In the most bipartisan impeachment ever, 10 Republicans bucked the party line and voted to impeach a president from their own party.

Trump’s Presidency Will End With Second Impeachment

Representatives in the House said they would move to impeach the president on Wednesday, after formally calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office Tuesday. The sole article of impeachment accuses the president of “willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States,” after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week.

First Look at the 2022 Midterm Senate Elections

Although the 2022 Midterms are still two years away, it is never too early to start thinking about them. In today’s post, we are going to take a look at where things stand in the 2022 Senate elections. Like in every American election, there will be some key battleground races to focus on, which will once again determine which party will gain (or retain) control of the Senate.

Donald Trump Could Be Impeached Again

While Congress certified the electoral votes to affirm Joe Biden’s victory on Wednesday, an armed insurrection, egged on by President Trump’s claims of voter fraud, of the United States Capitol Building took place. Insurgents and rioters attempted to stop Congress certifying Biden’s victory after Trump called for people to go to the Capitol Building. Now, the president is now being accused of causing the insurrection, and Democrats floating the idea of impeaching Trump for the second time.

Violent Rioting Mob Storms Into US Capitol

After a proud moment for the Democrats and the country yesterday as the party took back the United States Senate for the first time in six years, yesterday, Wednesday, January 6, 2021, marks a sad and disgraceful day in the history of the United States. A violent mob, encouraged by the words of President Trump, rioted in the nation’s capital city, eventually breaking into the U.S. Capitol and causing the building to be evacuated, just as Congress began certifying electoral votes for President-Elect Joe Biden.

US Senate Majority to Be Decided Today In Georgia Runoffs

This is it, folks. The last official race of the 2020 election season, and arguably one of the most important set of races. Voters in Georgia will be deciding which party controls the United States Senate in two runoff elections today, Jan. 5. Incumbent Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing off against Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, and the Democrats must win both races in order to win the Senate majority.

Trump Demanded Georgia Officials to ‘Find’ Votes So He Wins

In a stunning hour-long phone call on Saturday afternoon made public by The Washington Post, President Trump demanded Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes in order to overturn the results of the election after his decisive loss to President-Elect Joe Biden. The call raised legal questions from experts and is causing issues for the GOP in the Georgia runoffs, which are just two days away.

GOP Plans To Challenge Electoral College Vote Will Fail

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is planning to object to Congress certifying the Electoral College vote for President-Elect Joe Biden when on Jan. 5, after the 117th Congress is sworn in. He is expected to be joined by over 140 House Republicans in objecting to the vote, citing voter fraud, which has already been debunked thoroughly, including Trump-loyalist former Attorney General William Barr and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The move, though has attracted criticism not just from across the aisle but also from fellow Republicans.

Georgia Senate Runoffs Edge Closer and Closer

Although the outcome of the 2020 presidential and House races have been determined for the Democrats, control of the Senate still remains up in the air. With the Democrats and Republicans alike hardly flipping any seats in the Senate this election cycle, the Georgia Senate runoffs will now singlehandedly decide the balance of power in the 117th Congress.

House Overrides NDAA Veto; Passes $2,000 Stimulus Checks

In a special holiday session between Christmas and New Year, the House of Representatives convened again to do two things, presenting a major issue to the GOP and causing a fracture within the party: scheduling two votes, one to override the veto of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and another to increase the amount offered to Americans via stimulus checks in the stimulus bill from $600 to $2,000.

Trump Signs Relief & Funding Bill, But Only After Aid Lapses

President Trump has finally signed the massive $2.3 trillion combined COVID-19 relief and government funding bill for the next fiscal year, despite calling the bipartisan bill, which passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming veto-proof majorities, a “disgrace” a few days earlier on Twitter. Though signing the bill will avert a federal government shutdown which would’ve begun Monday, the bill was only signed after two critical unemployment provisions lapsed.

Trump Demands More Stimulus, Throwing Relief Bill Into Doubt

After Congress finally managed to negotiate a bipartisan coronavirus relief deal after months of arguments and it passed both houses of Congress by overwhelming veto-proof majorities, President Trump is now throwing doubt as to whether or not the bill can be passed by demanding that the bill include more money than the proposed $600 stimulus checks and to cut back the non-coronavirus related spending (the bill is tied to an omnibus government funding package, which means it has lots of unrelated provisions).

SCOTUS Rejects Texas Suit Trying to Nullify Election

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton which sought to nullify the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, effectively trying to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters and overturn the results of a fair, free election which found no evidence of voter fraud. The rejection effectively puts a rest to the shameless attempt by the Trump wing of the GOP to subvert the election.

Texas GOP Lawsuit To Invalidate Millions of Votes Is Ludicrous

On December 8, 2020, the Republican Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court alleging that Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Michigan violated federal law by changing election law prior to the election, claiming that voter fraud would be “undetectable.” The lawsuit is basically asking the Supreme Court to disenfranchise millions of voters in battleground states and overturn the results of a fair, free election with no evidence of voter fraud.

SCOTUS Denies Pennsylvania GOP to Overturn Certification

In just one sentence, “[t]he application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday denied Pennsylvania Republicans’ request to overturn the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, where President-Elect Joe Biden won by 1.2 percent.

Trump Considering Preemtive Pardons for 20 Allies

President Trump is considering preemptively pardoning upward of 20 close allies and aides before leaving office in January, including his sons Eric and Donald Jr., his daughter Ivanka, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and even himself. The possible move is frustrating fellow Republicans, who are worried that such moves could cause massive backfire.

William Barr Breaks With Election Fraud Claims

President Trump’s fantastical election fraud claims received yet another credibility blow Tuesday. Attorney General William Barr, a staunch supporter of the President, admitted Tuesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ), which he heads, found no instances of significant voter fraud. This comes as the Trump campaign has faced defeat after defeat in court over vain and longshot attempts to overturn the results of a legitimate, fair election. Republican governors and secretaries of states, including in Arizona and Georgia, have all certified their results for President-Elect Joe Biden.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Dismisses Another GOP Lawsuit

On Saturday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed yet another Republican-led lawsuit trying to invalidate all votes cast by mail in the state. All seven judges in the court unanimously voted to throw out the lawsuit brought by Rep. Mike Kelly and other top-level Republicans. With this lawsuit loss, the Trump campaign has lost 39 election-related lawsuits. The President, despite losing the election, has so far refused to concede, despite already approving the transition process to a Biden administration.

‘Rigged Election’ Claims Raise Concerns From Georgia GOP

The Georgia U.S. Senate runoff elections will decide control of the United States Senate of the 117th Congress. Currently, the GOP sits at 50 seats in the Senate, while the Democrats are at 48. To win a majority, Democrats must win both seats in the upcoming runoff elections. It isn’t a stretch to say that this runoff will be a very, very important election. Yet, President Trump’s comments about the 2020 election being “rigged” is causing concern for many Republicans, especially the Georgia GOP.