Republicans

ABC News reports: Americans aren’t vibing with the Republican vice-presidential nominee. On average, only 33 percent have a favorable opinion of Sen. JD Vance, while 42 percent have an unfavorable one. That is a historically bad net favorability rating for a vice-presidential candidate. We applied our current favorability polling average formula to old polls of six freshly minted VP picks …

CBS News reports: After he was charged with indecent exposure and disorderly conduct, the chair of a key West Virginia state legislative committee was removed from his position by chamber leadership Wednesday. Republican Sen. Mike Maroney, who led the state Senate Health and Human Resources Committee, was arrested Tuesday on the two misdemeanors after an Aug. 4 incident at Gumby’s …

The New Republic reports: Elon Musk is pouring his heart and soul (and cold hard cash) into electing Donald Trump this November. New Federal Election Commission filings on Wednesday show that Musk’s pro-Trump America PAC has ramped up its operations, spending an initial $5.8 million. Musk initially seemed to promise a monthly donation of $45 million to the Super PAC, …

The Florida Alligator reports: Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis has called on the Board of Governors, which oversees the State University System, to launch an investigation into former UF President Ben Sasse’s “exorbitant spending” of university funds. The Alligator first reported Monday that Sasse, a former Nebraska Republican senator, more than tripled spending under the president’s office compared to …

The Daily Beast reports: JD Vance said America’s immigration challenges are like a sandwich that’s too big for your mouth, and he wants to deport undocumented migrants a “bite” at a time. Vance claimed at a Pennsylvania event Thursday there are at least 20 million undocumented immigrants in the states and he wants to deport a “million” of the “most …

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports: Hundreds of New College of Florida library books, including many on LGBTQ+ topics and religious studies, are headed to a landfill. A dumpster in the parking lot of Jane Bancroft Cook Library on the campus of New College overflowed with books and collections from the now-defunct Gender and Diversity Center on Tuesday afternoon. Video captured in …

Mediate reports: Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) confronted his Democratic challenger at the Missouri state fair on Thursday, challenging him to an impromptu debate during an awkward exchange between the two. In a video posted by Hawley on X, the senator says “Guys, how are you? Let’s go find Lucas Kunce. Let’s go find him. Come on, where’s he been? I …

The Christian Science Monitor reports: In 2021, J.D. Vance gave a speech to a conservative think tank on “woke capital” – and accused Amazon of funding Black Lives Matter in order to burn down the competition. “Who benefits most when small businesses on Main Street are destroyed? Who wants to see their competitors unable to deliver goods and services to …

Roll Call reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration Wednesday seeking to block a rule that requires nursing homes to have a minimum level of nurse and aide staffing to care for patients. The lawsuit argues the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services does not have the authority to require more staffing in nursing homes. The lawsuit …

City & State reports: In her bid to unseat Pat Ryan from the 18th Congressional District, Republican Alison Esposito has touted her 25 years of experience in the New York City Police Department as proof she has what it takes to “restore law and order.” Twice in Esposito’s career, the city settled lawsuits and paid people who alleged that Esposito …

Salon reports: In a 2020 appearance on the Portal podcast — hosted by Eric Weinstein, the Managing Director of Peter Thiel’s Thiel Capital — the then-venture capitalist expressed his weird take on elderly women and how his mother-in-law has helped raise his son — he now has three children. “There’s sort of all the classic stuff that grandparents do to …

The Associated Press reports: An informational pamphlet for Arizona voters who will decide in the fall whether to guarantee a constitutional right to an abortion can refer to a fetus as an “unborn human being,” the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday. The Arizona Supreme Court sided with Republican lawmakers over proponents of the ballot measure on abortion rights. The pamphlet …

“The media are doing their damnedest just to help her steal this election. When I say steal the election, I don’t mean like she’s gonna change the votes, or that she’s gonna rig the ballot boxes or anything like that. But to steal the election means to completely obscure the record and positions of one of the candidates to completely …

“When he has what appear to be senior moments, I will call him out on it and he doesn’t like that, and I can’t say that I blame him, but that’s my job. “I will say that in that discussion with Elon, to me he seemed quite rambling. I mean it was like he rambles, he goes on too long …

The Arizona Republic reports: Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has endorsed not only Donald Trump — a guy who savaged him for certifying the state’s 2020 election — but Kari Lake. He’s endorsing Lake, who once called him a “doormat” to the Mexican drug cartels. “I will be voting for Republicans up & down the ballot in November — and …

Spectrum News reports: Former Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., says he plans to vote for former President Donald Trump this November, even though he voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial. Trump’s second impeachment trial, which was held in early 2021, ended up isolating Burr from a large part of the Republican Party. Despite Burr’s tense relationship with his …

“What Donald Trump needs to do is go out there and campaign every single day, telling the American people exactly what Kamala Harris has said. “We are 80-plus days out. We need him to win, but you’ve got to go out and do the work, and the one thing Republicans have to stop doing, quit whining about her. “We knew …

Reuters reports: General Motors has been sued by the state of Texas, which accused the automaker of installing technology on more than 14 million vehicles to collect data about drivers, which it then sold to insurers and other companies without drivers’ consent. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said GM’s data were used to compile “Driving Scores” assessing whether more than …

Florida Politics reports: A digital advertisement for U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack’s re-election campaign says “Gator nation” doesn’t need a chicken representing them. “Gator Nation is my home, and I will continue to work tirelessly for my constituents to protect and defend their freedoms,” Cammack said. “The radical Left’s on a warpath,” a narrator states, “and too many politicians in Washington …

CBS News reports: Republican Royce White has defeated Joe Fraser in the Minnesota primary election and will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar on the November ballot. White, a 33-year-old Minneapolis native who briefly played in the NBA, beat Fraser in what political experts saw as a struggle for the soul of the Minnesota Republican Party. Fraser, 50, was originally …