Republicans

The Hill reports: Florida’s abortion-rights ballot initiative fell short of passing on Tuesday, leaving in place a six-week abortion ban that has helped restrict access across almost all of the Southern U.S. The measure’s defeat is a significant victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who engaged multiple levers of state-sponsored power to oppose it. The measure needed a 60 percent …

Florida Politics reports: Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has secured re-election to Florida’s 13th Congressional District, narrowly avoiding becoming a one-term Representative in a district that favors the GOP. With 58% precincts reporting, Luna secured 54% of the vote, edging out Democratic challenger Whitney Fox, who posted a performance no one would have expected just one year ago. A …

The Associated Press reports: Jim Justice won a U.S. Senate race from West Virginia on Tuesday, flipping a seat to the Republican Party after Joe Manchin decided not to seek reelection. Justice, who boldly predicted victory long before the election, defeated Democrat Glenn Elliott, a lawyer and former mayor of the city of Wheeling who was endorsed by Manchin. A …

NPR reports: Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun has won Indiana’s open governor’s race, according to a race call by The Associated Press. Braun, a Trump ally finishing out his first term in the Senate, beat out Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater. Braun’s victory creates a bit of Indiana history: the state has never had governors from one party …

“All this hyperbole and madness about, ‘Oh, they’re going to try to unwind the election.’ None of that is true. None of it. President Trump mentioned that we had a ‘secret’ while he was in Madison Square Garden and the secret is our telephone town halls. “It’s not some ulterior motive. The media went crazy over that. There’s just too …

“In terms of Trump accepting the results of the election if he loses, George, I’d just ask Reince [Priebus], what’s the evidence that he will? He never has. “And so all of a sudden now he’s going to get religion and accept them if he loses? I don’t think that’s the case. Now, I don’t think it’ll matter nearly as …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was not among 51 members of the National Association of Attorneys General who signed a letter on Monday calling for a peaceful transfer of power and condemning violent acts relating to the election results. Paxton was one of only three state attorneys general who didn’t sign the letter, along with his …

Mediaite reports: Sean Davis, a co-founder of pro-Trump website The Federalist, claimed that if former President Donald Trump doesn’t win the White House it’s proof that the entire electoral process is a “manufactured facade.” “Either Trump wins or elections in this country are a completely manufactured facade,” Davis said. In another post, he said a Trump loss would mean the …

The Hill reports: Federal judges denied two states’ requests to bar the Justice Department (DOJ) from dispatching lawyers to monitor adherence to federal voting rights laws on Election Day. Both Missouri and Texas asked federal courts to keep DOJ lawyers away from their polls. Missouri’s attorney general and secretary of state said any monitoring would “displace state election authorities,” and …

The Daily Beast reports: Royce White, the GOP Senate candidate in Minnesota who once wrote that the “bad guys won” World War II, had another bizarre take Monday—this time about the downsides of being married to an “educated” woman. On a Nov. 1 radio interview on far-right Christian preacher Jesse Lee Peterson’s The Fallen State, White, who also said he …

The Texas Tribune reports: Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Bo French is under fire this week for a series of recent social media posts in which he repeatedly called his political opponents slurs for gay people and people with disabilities. “This is the gayest ad in history,” French, 55, wrote in an Oct. 11 response to a Democratic advertisement on …

Via press release: Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, in conjunction with the Missouri Attorney General’s office, filed a lawsuit today to block the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) continued attempts to interfere with polling places on Election Day. Ashcroft serves as the chief election officer in Missouri. “No one is above the law,” Ashcroft said. “The law clearly and specifically …

NBC News reports: Given former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s lack of physical presence on the Trump campaign trail — and her consistent drumbeat of criticism of the way he and the party are speaking to women voters — it’s notable that she put her pro-Trump stance in written form for voters in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “I don’t …

Politico reports: “My internal polling looks good,” Kari Lake said in an interview from her campaign bus adorned on the outside with a massive photo of her and Trump and on the inside with a life-size cardboard Kari Lake cutout. “We’re ahead of my opponent, and I feel comfortable with our polling,” she insisted. “Our polling is a little different. …

CBS News reports: Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, knows what he’ll say to people who will inevitably challenge the results. “I’m sorry that your candidate lost. But the rules are the rules. The law is the law. And the count is the count,” Sterling said. As of Friday, more than half of registered …

The Independent reports: Tim Sheehy sat down for an interview with conservative journalist Megyn Kelly on Saturday, where he struggled to explain the shifting story behind an injury he claims was a bullet wound suffered in Afghanistan in a possible friendly fire incident — one he says he covered up to avoid getting Afghan allied forces in trouble. Kelly pressed …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas’ top elections official told the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday its election monitors aren’t permitted in the state’s polling places after the federal agency announced plans to dispatch monitors to eight counties on Election Day to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws. The Justice Department regularly sends monitors across the country to keep …

Politico reports: A new robocall targeting Maryland voters attacks Larry Hogan for acknowledging Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The recording knocks Hogan, the GOP nominee for Senate, for not being MAGA enough and urges support for Libertarian Party candidate Mike Scott, who is “pro-pardoning President Trump” and “the only true conservative on the ballot.” “Lockdown Larry said Biden won …

Axios reports: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) handed his Democratic foes another last-minute gift on Friday by suggesting Republicans would try to repeal the CHIPS and Science Act. Johnson quickly attempted to walk back the comments, but Democrats said it’s too late for that — the damage is already done. Asked by reporters during a campaign stop in upstate New …

Florida Politics reports: Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential Secretary of State if Donald Trump is elected President, says the “media” is delivering “disinformation” to get Kamala Harris elected instead, and that’s why they talk about “fascists, garbage, Nazi supporters.” Rubio went on to accuse “the media and all these Democratic activists” of a “public temper tantrum” because they can’t believe …