Republicans

The Associated Press reports: Six years after being elected in an expensive and heated race, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton is on the ballot again and he’s campaigning hard — just not in Arkansas. With no Democratic rival and millions in campaign funds to spend, Cotton has run ads in the battleground states of Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. He’s on …

CNBC reports: Minnesota Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jason Lewis was rushed into emergency surgery Monday for a severe internal hernia, just eight days before the election, his campaign announced. The condition is life-threatening if not treated quickly, the campaign said in a statement. Lewis, a one-term former congressman best known to Minnesota voters from his days as a conservative talk …

The Hill reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is battling for his Senate career in a toss-up re-election race, on Sunday brushed off a sharp attack from Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, telling reporters, “I don’t really worry much about Mr. Dobbs.” Graham, when asked whether he wanted President Trump to stand up for him against attacks from the right, …

CNN reports: Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced Saturday that she will ultimately vote yes on Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States. “I believe that the only way to put us back on the path of appropriate consideration of judicial nominees, is to evaluate Judge Barrett as we would want to be judged — on the …

The Hill reports: Democratic Louisiana House candidate Rob Anderson is fundraising off of opponent Rep. Clay Higgins’s (R) Friday claim that his wife has “the gift of premonition” and woke up this week crying over a dream of a dystopian future. Higgins tweeted Friday that his wife dreamed that “Federal squads were in our home seizing guns, knives, ‘unauthorized foods’ …

The Washington Post reports: Madison Cawthorn, a House Republican candidate in North Carolina, created a website attacking his Democratic opponent that made a racist characterization of a watchdog reporter as someone who works “to ruin white males.” The website, MoeTaxes.com, about Cawthorn’s Democratic opponent Moe Davis, alleged that local journalist Tom Fiedler was working with Davis allies and described Fiedler …

The Detroit News reports: U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga of West Michigan compared Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders to the presidential orders in the 1940s that sent Japanese people to internment camps. Huizenga, R-Zeeland, made the comments during a Thursday debate with his Democratic challenger Bryan Berghoef, a debate hosted by the Grand Haven Tribune and held via Zoom roughly a …

The Washington Post reports: Senate Republicans are growing increasingly frustrated with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as he makes what they see as unacceptable compromises in his quest for a stimulus deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, multiple people familiar with the talks said Thursday. Mnuchin has committed to a top-line figure of around $1.9 trillion, much too high for many …

The New York Daily News reports: Mitch McConnell asserted Thursday that he is healthy after speculation swirled over what is wrong with the Senate majority leader’s hands. McConnell showed up to work at the Capitol Thursday with both hands appearing severely discolored in a deep purple, with band-aids covering some of the knuckle areas. The Kentucky Republican’s lips and the …

The Washington Post reports: After reporting more than 16,000 coronavirus-related deaths, the Florida Department of Health said Wednesday that the fatality data “presents confusion and warrants a more rigorous review.” State Surgeon General Scott Rivkees said in a news release that health officials will begin an additional review of all coronavirus-related deaths to ensure that Florida’s public health statistics are …

Vice News reports: Almost 21,000 Election Day polling places have been eliminated heading into the 2020 U.S. election, a drastic dip in voting locations driven by a heavy shift to mail voting, coronavirus-related consolidations, cost-cutting measures, and voter suppression. VICE News obtained data from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., on the number of physical polling locations they will have …

The Texas Tribune reports: Lacey Mase, one of the top aides who accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of crimes including bribery and abuse of office, has been fired, she told The Texas Tribune on Tuesday evening. “It was not voluntary,” she said, but declined to comment further. Mase was hired in 2011 and worked most recently as the deputy …

Reuters reports: The Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on Thursday on President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to a lifetime U.S. Supreme Court post, with Democrats boycotting the proceedings after fiercely opposing her confirmation. Barrett, a federal appeals court judge whose confirmation would expand the top U.S. judicial body’s conservative majority to 6-3, was poised …

The Washington Post reports: Former New Jersey governor and longtime Trump ally Chris Christie published a striking op-ed in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal in which he laments “the polarization of something as practical as a mask” and admits that his own failure to wear one at a White House event last month could have been fatal. “I am lucky to …

Fox News reports: Utah Sen. Mitt Romney says he has already voted in the upcoming election, but the Republican added that he did not vote for President Trump. CNN reporter Manu Raju tweeted out a conversation he had with Romney Wednesday. Romney told Raju he had voted, but would not say whether he had voted for Joe Biden or a …

Fox News reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged the White House not to strike a big coronavirus deal before the election, despite President Trump’s public wishes to do so. McConnell is concerned that Pelosi, D-Calif., is not negotiating in good faith with the White House. And if a big deal is struck — which Trump has said he wants …

Susan Collins has done a fawning interview with Maine’s Christian Civic League, the group once headed by this guy: Mike Heath, a long–time anti-LGBTQ activist in Maine who now runs Helping Hands Ministries, has been a regular participant in Dave Daubenmire’s daily program. On Friday, Daubnemire turned the mic over to Heath so that he could announce his plans. “I’m …

Reuters reports: A U.S. federal appeals court late on Tuesday left in place North Carolina’s plan for counting absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day, dealing a setback to President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. In a 12-3 decision, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a bid to halt the North Carolina State Board of Elections from tallying ballots …

The Hill reports: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has seen a tsunami of Democratic small-dollar donations flood the South Carolina Senate race, says the sources of the massive amounts of money flowing through ActBlue and other groups need to be reviewed by policymakers. Graham says that Congress has little idea who’s behind the huge inflows of money …

Fox News reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that the upper chamber of Congress will vote next Monday, Oct. 26, to confirm President Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, to the Supreme Court. The Judiciary Committee is expected to vote her out of committee on Thursday at 1 p.m. ET, as it’s customary for the committee to hold over …