Republicans

Charleston’s CBS affiliate reports: Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would eliminate vaccination requirements for children in virtual, private and parochial schools. The governor had until midnight to take action on House Bill 5105, which would eliminate those requirements or let parents opt out. Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV), who is running against Justice in the U.S. …

Mediaite reports: The Michigan Republican Party used the word “colored” to describe Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) in a social media post on Thursday while also calling him a communist. Rather than wait for an investigation into the incident to uncover the cause of the bridge collapse, right-wing social media accounts immediately suggested the blame should be placed on diversity, …

Axios reports: After just nine months, the Arizona Republican Party’s new headquarters is about to become its old headquarters. The building on Central Avenue across from Park Central mall has major financial and logistical downsides that could have hindered the party in an election year, chair Gina Swoboda tells Axios. The party’s leadership voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to sell the …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas’ top campaign finance watchdog gave initial approval last week to a proposal that would require social media users to disclose if they are being paid to share or create political advertisements. The Texas Ethics Commission’s action comes just months after The Texas Tribune reported that a secretive and politically-connected company, called Influenceable LLC, paid internet …

Austin’s NBC affiliate reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he’s looking into a company that supplies parts to Boeing, and part of his investigation includes whether its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) commitments factored into safety issues. Paxton announced Thursday he sent a “request to examine” letter to Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc., which has a facility in Texas and …

From the Family Research Council’s website: Thanks to attention-seekers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), getting comfortable with the Republican majority is a luxury this speaker will never have. In the days since her selfish ploy to oust Mike Johnson (R-La.), even the media seems increasingly charitable about the predicament he’s in. “Mike Johnson’s Job Is Impossible,” a sympathetic headline …

The Denver Post reports: Republicans in Colorado’s sprawling 4th Congressional District on Thursday night chose former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez as their nominee to appear on the June 25 special election ballot to fill out the rest of former Rep. Ken Buck’s term. Lopez, a conservative who ran unsuccessfully for Colorado governor in 2018 and 2022, has said publicly he …

Via press release from Texas Democrats: Leaked video shows Hood County Constable Scott London, Hood County GOP Chair Steve Biggers and Hood County GOP Chair candidate Greg Harrell attending a meeting held by Abolish Abortion Texas (AATX) where they supported the death penalty for women who seek abortions or use IVF, including pregnant minors. London and Harrel have also signed …

NBC News reports: Georgia could join other states in requiring children younger than 16 to have their parents’ explicit permission to create social media accounts. Lawmakers on Friday gave final approval to Senate Bill 351, which also would ban social media use on school devices and internet services, require porn sites to verify users are 18 or over and mandate …

Axios reports: Eleven Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration over its latest efforts to provide student debt relief for millions of borrowers. The Kansas-led lawsuit is seeking to have the SAVE plan immediately halted. The attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah joined the suit. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) …

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: An organizer of a recall effort against Wisconsin’s Assembly speaker has launched a second recall effort now that the first one is on pace to fail without enough signatures and allegations of widespread fraud. Matthew Snorek of Burlington filed paperwork with the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Wednesday indicating his intention to circulate a new recall petition …

The Associated Press reports: Georgia lawmakers on Thursday approved new rules for challenging voters and qualifying for the state’s presidential ballot that could impact the 2024 presidential race in the battleground state. Republicans in Georgia have repeatedly floated election changes in the wake of false claims by former President Donald Trump and other Republicans that he lost Georgia’s 16 electoral …

The Dallas Morning News reports: Senator Ted Cruz is one step closer to his dream law to force law enforcement officers to give top national officials a private escort past airport security. Cruz introduced language into the Federal Aviation Administration’s funding bill. Yet despite some derision against him, the language remains in the bill. During the ice storm of 2021, …

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports: Lawmakers approved a bill that would require age verification to access pornography websites in Kentucky. The purpose of the measure is to prevent minors from viewing porn, said bill sponsor Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville. House Bill 278 would allow the parents of minors who access porn sites, or anyone else injured by the access, to sue …

The Associated Press reports: Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed two top Democratic legislative priorities on Thursday: bills that would have allowed the recreational retail sales of marijuana to begin next year and measures mandating a minimum wage increase. In 2021, Virginia became the first Southern state to legalize marijuana, adopting a policy change that allowed adults age 21 and …

Via press release from Rep. James Comer: The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today is offering President Joe Biden the opportunity to testify at a hearing in furtherance of the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry and is calling on President Biden to answer questions about his participation in his family’s pay-for-influence schemes. The Bidens received …

Politico reports: The Republican National Committee is weighing whether to restrict NBC’s access to this summer’s convention, following the network’s decision to drop former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel as a contributor. Such a move would mark a dramatic escalation in the growing rift between Donald Trump-allies and the TV network — a rift that has stemmed from NBC’s decision to …

The Associated Press reports: Kentucky lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to a bill stripping the state’s Democratic governor of any role in picking someone to occupy a U.S. Senate seat if a vacancy occurred in the home state of 82-year-old Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. The legislation calls for a special election to fill any Senate vacancy from the Bluegrass …

The Washington Post reports: A federal court ruled Thursday that time had run out to draw a new congressional district in South Carolina and said the state could use its existing map this year even though it had earlier determined that map was unconstitutional. The panel of three judges last year concluded that South Carolina’s Republican-led legislature “exiled” 30,000 Black …

“In 2020, absentee ballot voting was at its highest. And so when President Trump got on the phone with our secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and said, ‘can you find the votes? Where are they?’ “He was basically looking for ballots, and these ballots have been lost in the mail. And so there was nothing wrong with Trump, with what …