Republicans

The Texas Tribune reports: Former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores said she has no problem with requiring South Texans to carry passports to prove their citizenship. Flores, a Republican running to recapture the congressional seat she briefly held in 2022, made that assertion Thursday night during a debate with U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, the Democrat incumbent. Gonzalez was explaining why he …

The Intercept reports: Across battleground states, attorneys who helped former President Donald Trump undermine confidence in the 2020 election results are back at it, filing lawsuits that seed doubt in advance about this year’s outcome. Some of Trump’s attorneys from the 2020 election cycle were disbarred, indicted, or otherwise sanctioned for their roles, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Sidney …

The Washington Post reports: A former SEAL colleague, Dave Madden, who had what he described as a close relationship with Mr. Sheehy before they deployed to Afghanistan, said that Mr. Sheehy never mentioned a gunshot wound to him, and almost certainly would have done so in a conversation they had during their deployment if he had indeed been wounded. On …

Florida Politics reports:  The Republican National Committee (RNC) and Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) have filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit over a state law requiring that a voter’s name and Social Security number match the info on their government ID. Civil rights groups, collectively represented by nonprofit plaintiff Florida Rising Together, sued Secretary of State Cord Byrd, …

The Hill reports: The non-partisan Cook Political Report has shifted Rep. Scott Perry’s (R-Pa.) race toward Democrats, calling the contest a toss-up on Friday. Perry is in a competitive race with Democrat Janelle Stelson in a battle that Cook previously had rated as lean Republican. “While the political environment should still favor Perry, his unique vulnerabilities, coupled with Democrats’ spending …

Florida Politics reports: Bob Milligan, who served as Florida’s last elected Comptroller before it changed to the current Chief Financial Officer post, says he’s backing Kamala Harris for President. Jim Smith, Florida’s 32nd Attorney General and two-time Secretary of State, and longtime GOP strategist Mac Stipanovich are doing the same. Milligan, who retired from the U.S. Marine Corps as a …

The Florida Phoenix reports: A federal judge temporarily barred the DeSantis administration from intimidating and coercing television stations that air ads in support of the proposed Amendment 4, which would bar government interference in abortion. The ruling stops Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo as the head of the Florida Department of Health from acting against broadcasters the department has already threatened …

The Associated Press reports: Mitch McConnell said after the 2020 election that then-President Donald Trump was “stupid as well as being ill-tempered,” a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist,” according to excerpts from a new biography of the Senate Republican leader that will be released this month. In a statement to the AP on Thursday, McConnell referenced two fellow Republican …

NBC News reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a Dallas doctor Thursday accusing her of providing transition-related care to nearly two dozen minors in violation of state law. Paxton alleged that Dr. May Chi Lau, who specializes in adolescent medicine, provided hormone replacement therapy to 21 minors between October 2023 and August for the purpose of transitioning genders. In …

Axios reports: NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo will moderate a town hall with Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in Detroit on Oct. 24, broadcast on the network and live-streamed exclusively on X. The network has extended a similar invitation to Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Why it matters: Harris’ clearest path to victory runs through the Rust Belt, …

High Point’s Fox affiliate reports: The man who is being sued alongside CNN by North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson for what Robinson alleges are defamatory claims has filed a motion to dismiss the claim. The complaint claims that the defendants — CNN and Louis Love Money, who spoke to The Assembly in September — intentionally shared defamatory statements about …

Media Matters reports: Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is set to speak at a conference this weekend with Christiane Northrup, a health misinformer who has repeatedly promoted pro-Nazi and antisemitic material. The 2024 “Back to Basics Conference: Summit on Family, Food and Healthcare” will be held in Waltham, Massachusetts, on October 19. The event will also feature Mary Holland — …

The Associated Press reports: Mitch McConnell said after the 2020 election that then-President Donald Trump was “stupid as well as being ill-tempered,” a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist,” according to excerpts from a new biography of the Senate Republican leader that will be released this month. McConnell made the remarks in private as part of a series of personal …

Reuters reports:  A judge on Wednesday overturned controversial changes to Georgia election rules made by a Republican-controlled state board, the latest defeat for allies of Donald Trump seeking to change how the battleground state’s votes are counted in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. Judge Thomas Cox struck down a half-dozen new rules that were described by Republicans as necessary …

The Oklahoman reports: The state’s multicounty grand jury on Tuesday blamed Gov. Kevin Stitt and state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, without specifically naming them, for the misspending of pandemic relief funds, calling it “grossly negligent.” . Grand jurors did not issue any indictments, saying they found insufficient evident to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a crime was committed. They …

“I don’t want to be mean and also I don’t want to say things I can’t prove, but like, let’s, let’s be real. I’m never going to take another lecture about gay rights from these people, like, ‘Oh, you hate gays and you keep them all in the closet or whatever.’ “Any party — you know, stop with the, with …

Breitbart reports: Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) today released a new anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ad that calls for getting tougher on China. In the ad, Blackburn says: “Some say I’m too tough, that I should be more delicate. But you know what? It’s time to break some China. China stole our jobs, sent us a virus. They’re buying up our …

The Daily Montanan reports: Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Sheehy said at multiple campaign stops this year that he wants to do away with the U.S. Department of Education to save money — by “throwing it in the trash can” — and that education is one of his top three priorities. “We have a Department of Education, which I don’t …

Florida Politics reports: A Fort Myers TV station acquiesced and stopped playing pro-abortion rights ads after a Department of Health (DOH) lawyer threatened Florida TV stations with criminal prosecution. It’s a revelation in a new First Amendment lawsuit as the political committee supporting the Amendment 4 abortion rights initiative sued a pair of state officials Wednesday in federal court. Floridians …

CNN reports: A text message last week to young voters in Wisconsin is stirring new concerns in the battleground state about a messaging campaign that could intimidate college students from casting ballots this election, according to a letter from voter protection groups released Tuesday. The unsolicited text, sent from at least one 262- number to cell phones of people in …