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ELECTIONS

John James, the Michigan GOP’s Rising Star

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/06/01/john-james-the-michigan-gops-rising-star/
From Army aviator to the U.S. Senate?

You can’t choose your crisis: As an Army chopper pilot in Iraq, John James said on May 7, “I didn’t get to pick which call I would take, whether I would take a troops-in-contact call or whether I would take a point-of-origin rocket-attack call. I had to figure out how to do both.” In an online interview with Rick Loughery of the Young Republicans National Federation, James called it good training for confronting the COVID-19 pandemic: “We have a dual obligation,” he said, to “flatten the COVID curve without flatlining our economy.”

As a GOP Senate candidate from Michigan, James refers to his military career at almost every opportunity. An op-ed he wrote in the Detroit News on May 5 carried this headline: “Leaders Should Learn These 3 Rules from West Point.” His campaign’s logo features an Apache attack helicopter in its background. “I don’t want to go to Washington,” he said on February 5, before the coronavirus forced him to suspend public appearances. “I want to go to the swamp about as much as I wanted to go to the desert.”

He really does want to go to Washington, of course—he’s running for the Senate for the second time in two years—but his audience of Livingston County Republicans that evening seemed to appreciate the expression of modesty.

Wisconsin special election goes to GOP’s Tom Tiffany

Republican Tom Tiffany, a Wisconsin state senator endorsed by President Trump, easily won a special congressional election Tuesday in the state’s heavily conservative, rural 7th Congressional District.

Meanwhile, with less than half the vote in, Trump has already doubled his 2016 total in the Nebraska presidential primary, also underway Tuesday. That led GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to tout what she called surging “enthusiasm” for the president’s reelection.

CALIFORNIA DISTRICT 25

Republican and combat pilot veteran Mike Garcia wins big! Mike Garcia, who won the endorsement of President Trump, flipped California’s 25th Congressional District after Representative Katie Hill, a Democrat, resigned last year.

Ben Sasse Defeats GOP Primary Challenger by 50 Points By John McCormack

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/ben-sasse-defeats-gop-primary-challenger-by-50-points/

The freshman senator from Nebraska cruised to victory despite his sometimes-uneasy relationships with both President Trump’s supporters and opponents.

Incumbent freshman Ben Sasse coasted to victory in Tuesday’s Nebraska GOP Senate primary with 75 percent of the vote.

Sasse had faced a challenge from Matt Innis, a businessman who argued he’d been insufficiently supportive of President Trump in the Senate. Sasse angered some Trump loyalists because he cast his presidential ballot for Mike Pence in November 2016 and has been more willing to criticize Trump than many of his GOP colleagues on a wide range of matters, from the president’s character and the Ukraine scandal to trade policy.

At the same time, Sasse’s record over the last few years has left some staunch Trump critics disappointed. He voted to uphold the president’s declaration of a national emergency to divert funding toward the construction of a border wall in March 2016, and he came to the conclusion that the president’s behavior in the Ukraine scandal was bad but didn’t merit removal from office. His criticism of the president also became quieter last year as he geared up for the primary, a development that helped earn him Trump’s endorsement and scorn from Michigan congressman Justin Amash, who left the Republican Party over his opposition to Trump:

Democratic Senate Candidates Stand By Biden To Move Goalposts On Sexual Assault Allegations By Tristan Justice

https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/12/democratic-senate-candidates-stand-by-biden-to-move-goalposts-on-sexual-assault-allegations/

Now facing competitive elections just six months away, Democratic Senate candidates are moving the goalposts for Joe Biden.

It was only a year and a half ago that last-minute sexual assault allegations upended the confirmation process for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Desperate to block President Donald Trump’s second pick for the nation’s highest court, Democrats flocked to give unsubstantiated claims of a 30-year-old rape allegation their unwavering support in an attempted character assassination that threatened to bring about an end to the standard of presumptive innocence.

Dems in Top Senate Races Duck Queries on Biden Allegations . By Susan Crabtree

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/05/07/dems_in_top_senate_races_duck_queries_on_biden_allegations.html

Sen. Susan Collins, one of the few remaining centrists in Congress, has suffered plenty of slings and arrows for her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in the fall of 2018. Just hours after casting it, the four-term Maine Republican said she knew it would put a target on her back in her 2020 reelection campaign.

That was an understatement. Democrats have vowed to make Collins pay for the vote, and Republicans are equally adamant in supporting her. Tens of millions of dollars in outside money are pouring into the race from both sides, threatening to upend the more restrained, less partisan politics of the state. 

The Women’s March, the group that organized the worldwide protest against President Trump’s inauguration, set the tone shortly after the Kavanaugh vote. The group labeled Collins a “rape apologist” for her pivotal vote in favor of the nominee despite the 36-year-old sexual assault allegations against him.

Allegations of sexual assault against Joe Biden, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for president, are clouding that argument, and not just for Collins’ likely opponent, Sara Gideon. The “believe all women” battle cry used to assail Kavanaugh and his supporters has placed other Democratic Senate challengers, and incumbents, in the uncomfortable position of defending Biden in an election that will determine not just the occupant of the White House but control of the upper chamber. Republicans’ razor-thin majority could be surrendered with the loss of a single seat should Democrats win the presidency, putting not just Collins in the spotlight but a handful of other imperiled GOP incumbents as well.

Collins and the five other female senators who supported Kavanaugh were dubbed “gender traitors” by a New York Times opinion writer for their votes to confirm him. Collins is now in the fight of her political life, one of most targeted Senate Republicans in the country. Gideon, Maine’s House speaker, has made the confirmation vote a central part of her campaign, saying she was partly motivated to run because of it.

BAD NEWS IN IOWA: SENATOR JONI ERNST FACES AN UPHILL BATTLE

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/495937-poll-ernst-lead-evaporates-in-iowa-senate-race

Joni Kay Ernst is  the junior United States Senator for Iowa since 2015. A Republican, she served in the Iowa State Senate from 2011 to 2014. She served in the Iowa Army National Guard from 1993 to 2015, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

To learn about her and support her please visit: https://joniernst.com/

Poll: Ernst lead evaporates in Iowa Senate race

The Senate race in Iowa is tightening, according to a new poll that shows Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) lead over her likely Democratic opponent, Theresa Greenfield, narrowing to just 1 point.

The survey from the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling shows Ernst leading Greenfield, 43 percent to 42 percent. That suggests a significantly closer race than a previous poll conducted by the firm in December that found Ernst ahead of Greenfield by a 6-point margin.

A Republican Underdog Fights for a Senate Seat in Wisconsin By Alexandra DeSanctis

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/08/leah-vukmir-wisconsin-republican-senate-candidate-underdog/?itm_source=parsely-api

Leah Vukmir just survived one of the toughest GOP primaries of the cycle. Now, she’s aiming to upset incumbent Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin in November.

Wauwatosa, Wisc. — Don’t count Leah Vukmir out yet.

While many political observers have written off the U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin as unwinnable for the GOP, Vukmir, a Republican state senator, has already pulled off a big victory in a tight primary earlier this month — and she intends to give incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin a real challenge between now and November.

Vukmir, a Wisconsin state senator since 2010, has already weathered one of the toughest Republican primaries this cycle, defeating Marine Corps veteran Kevin Nicholson for the GOP nod last Tuesday.

President Trump, who eked out a marginal victory in Wisconsin in November 2016, declined to endorse either of the primary candidates. That left Nicholson — a businessman and former Democrat who billed himself as a political outsider in the mold of Trump — to build the core of his support from conservative groups outside the state. Heavy hitters such as the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, and Tea Party Patriots backed him enthusiastically, and his fundraising numbers showed it.

But Vukmir dominated where it mattered most: the state’s GOP establishment. The Republican party in Wisconsin is one of the strongest and most influential state parties in the country, and as a long-time local politician with high name recognition, Vukmir was confident in her ability to win the support she needed at the polls. In May, she locked down the Republican party of Wisconsin’s endorsement with a whopping 72 percent of ballots, a resounding vote of confidence from state party insiders. She also managed to obtain key endorsements from Wisconsin congressman Sean Duffy and House speaker Paul Ryan. It proved to be more than enough, propelling her to victory over Nicholson on August 14 with nearly 49 percent of the vote to his 43 percent.

Meet the Hudson Valley’s Anti-AOC By Joseph Duggan-(R-NY district 19)

https://amgreatness.com/2020/04/29/meet-the-hudson-valleys-anti-aoc/

Is Washington, D.C. ready for a Christian Arab, pro-life—and pro-Israel!—glamorous, conservative, Second Amendment stalwart, fashion model cancer-survivor as a member of Congress?

Ola Hawatmeh is a name to learn and remember. This dynamic conservative Republican woman appears poised to win the GOP nomination to oppose a left-wing, first-term Democratic incumbent in a mostly rural and small-town, conservative district covering the Catskills and the Hudson Valley running south from the suburbs of Albany to Poughkeepsie.

Hawatmeh (pronounced ha-WAHT-meh) was born in New York state and grew up in the district. She’s a native speaker of Arabic as well as English.  She is the devout daughter of Eastern-Rite Christian parents who settled in the Hudson Valley after leaving their native homes in Jordan and Lebanon.

Ever since her surprise victory in New York’s 14th district primary and easy ride to the general election in 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has captured much of the nation’s attention as a young, energetic, female federal legislator with a passionate oratorical style and glamorous looks.

Ocasio-Cortez is appealing on her side of the ideological divide because she dramatically symbolizes the possibility that an outsider can beat a well-funded pillar of the old-boy network. She offers an attractive face for the anti-establishment, left-wing of the Democratic party. She is an uncompromising socialist in an environment where that stance wins votes and accumulates power.

New York’s 19th district now is about to launch the political career of the Anti-AOC. If elected in November, Hawatmeh will become La Pasionaria of conservative politics.

Antone Melton-Meaux-Democart Running Against Omar- Minnesota District 5

Antone Melton-Meaux (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District. He declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on August 11, 2020.

Read All About him at:  https://antoneforcongress.com/about/

Israel/Palestine

For decades, the United States and Israel have represented a strong, united alliance in both the Middle East and beyond. In a region where too many people live under oppression and without basic freedoms, Israel has long stood as a beacon of liberal democracy. Our two countries are part of the same family of nations that recognize the rights of every citizen regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. We believe in a free press and the rule of law. We believe in leaving a safer, healthier, and more just world for our children. We understand the importance of the land of Israel to the Jewish people.

It is vital to the national interests of both Israel and the United States that our two countries continue to be collaborative allies. It cannot be overstated how critical our Israeli partners are in pushing back against Iranian aggression, as well as setting the example of a vibrant democracy for its neighbors. This is why we should continue to support our mutual goals for the stability of the region and its people. Movements such as Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Israel (BDS) only serve to further the conflict, elevate the violence, and harm those they seek to help. That is why I will always oppose BDS.