John McCormack

But at least Paul Ryan told some hard truths about entitlements.

New York

Congressman Dan Lipinski beat back a primary challenge Tuesday night from liberal activists who targeted the Illinois Democrat mainly because of his anti-abortion views and votes.

At oral arguments Tuesday for the case NIFLA v. Becerra, a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed skeptical about the constitutionality of a California law that requires pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to advertise for "free or low-cost" government-funded abortions.

The renewed push for an assault weapons ban got a boost this week when President Trump seemed to endorse it at a White House meeting with members of Congress. After the bill’s sponsor, California senator Dianne Feinstein, touted the measure, the president encouraged her to “add what you have” to an…

In a crowded nine-way Republican congressional primary in Texas, former Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw has decided that the best way to break out of the pack in his run for Congress is to run for Congress—literally. February 20 marked the first day of Crenshaw’s 5-day, 100-mile run through a congressional…

Florida senator Marco Rubio was grilled about his views on gun control before a stadium-sized live audience on CNN on Wednesday night. Some of the questions and comments were tough and smart; others were viciously ad hominem and stupid. But Rubio stood there and articulated why he opposed the…

In the wake of the Florida school massacre that left 17 innocents dead, there’s been a push to renew the Assault Weapons Ban. “Courage and conviction led to an assault weapons ban once before. Let’s do it again,” tweeted Bill Clinton, who signed the Assault Weapons Ban into law in 1994. The federal…

There’s been a lot of rancor in Washington over immigration this past month—you may recall President Trump’s concern about immigrants from s—hole countries, the ensuing s—storm in the media, and the less-memorable government shutdown. Four separate immigration bills were shot down in the Senate on…

When Paul Ryan agreed in October 2015 to become speaker of the House, some Republicans worried he couldn’t handle the political side of the job. Known as a policy wonk and not a political fundraiser, Ryan had insisted that one condition of his taking on the job would be that he would spend his…

In the spring of 2017, the Democratic party kicked off a debate about whether pro-life Democratic candidates should be tolerated anywhere in the country. The controversy began in the middle of middle America: Bernie Sanders and Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez attended a “unity…

Steve Bannon is a self-described Leninist who wants to destroy The Weekly Standard. Much worse, he's a notorious creep who promotes even bigger creeps like Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Roy Moore. So it is more than a little amusing to watch President Trump furiously attack Bannon in response…

This tax calculator is the most useful tool I've found online to estimate how the new tax law passed by the Republican Congress and awaiting the president's signature will affect U.S. taxpayers.

Senate Republicans announced Wednesday afternoon that they would not attach measures providing additional funding to Obamacare in a year-end spending bill to keep the government open.

For a Republican to lose the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions one year after Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Alabama by 28 points, everything had to break just right for the Democrat. And it did. Turnout was high in heavily African-American Democratic counties. It was low in rural and…

In an interview that aired Friday with ABC News, Beverly Young Nelson, the woman who alleged that Roy Moore sexually assaulted her at age 16, admitted that she added a note underneath the Roy Moore inscription in her high school yearbook. Nelson provided the yearbook in a press conference last…

One day in October, Arkansas senator Tom Cotton approached Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor to pitch the majority leader an idea: In the tax reform bill, Republicans should repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate, the tax penalty most Americans lacking federally approved health insurance must pay.…

Henagar, Alabama

The House of Representatives passed its tax reform bill on Thursday on a 227-205 vote. All Democrats present and 13 Republicans voted against it.

While the allegations of sexual misconduct and assault against Roy Moore have seriously cast the viability of his Senate candidacy in doubt, some Republicans are now calling for his expulsion if he still wins the Senate race in deep-red Alabama.

Since the Washington Post published its bombshell report Thursday—in which a woman alleges that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore molested her when she was a 14-year-old and Moore was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney—almost all Republican senators and President Trump have said that Moore…

With each passing week, more and more congressional Republicans are announcing their retirements. Their reasons are varied. Jason Chaffetz of Utah quit Congress to take a job as a Fox News commentator. Several members not seeking reelection, like South Dakota’s Kristi Noem and Tennessee’s Marsha…

House Republicans reversed course Thursday on their plans to scrap the adoption tax credit. Kevin Brady, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, issued a statement that an amendment to the committee's bill would restore the adoption credit and make other tweaks to the bill. The…

The federal adoption tax credit is a tiny sliver of federal spending—the $300 million spent annually equals less than 0.01 percent of the federal budget. But the House GOP's proposal to scrap this little tax credit as part of their overhaul of the tax code is already receiving a lot of pushback.

Scottsdale, Ariz.

Scottsdale, Ariz.

New rules issued Friday by the Trump administration—effective immediately—will allow conscientious objectors to opt out of Obamacare's contraception and abortion-pill mandate for religious or moral reasons.

The victory of Roy Moore, a populist and religious fundamentalist, in the Alabama Senate primary last week can be seen in two different ways: continuity with the recent past of GOP politics and a radical break from it.

The victory of Roy Moore, a populist and religious fundamentalist, in the Alabama Senate primary last week can be seen in two different ways: continuity with the recent past of GOP politics and a radical break from it.

With all precincts reporting, former Alabama supreme court justice justice Roy Moore defeated former state attorney general Luther Strange 54.6 percent to 45.4 percent in the Republican Senate primary to finish out Jeff Sessions' term.

The Graham-Cassidy bill to block-grant Obamacare's spending and provide waivers from Obamacare's regulations to the states seemed to be on death's door Friday afternoon.

Out of 100 members of the United States Senate, precisely one man—Alabama's Jeff Sessions—endorsed candidate Donald Trump while the Republican presidential nomination was hotly contested. So it's not terribly surprising that the Senate GOP primary to replace President Trump's attorney general is…

At the end of July, Kentucky senator Rand Paul advocated and voted for the so-called "skinny repeal" bill of Obamacare. "Skinny repeal is better than no repeal," Paul said on Fox News. "The reason I will advocate and vote for skinny repeal is that it's the best I can get."

Kentucky GOP senator Rand Paul met with reporters Monday in his Capitol Hill offices to discuss his opposition to Graham-Cassidy, the last-ditch effort to repeal and replace Obamacare that would turn most of Obamacare's funding into block grants and provide waivers from Obamacare's regulations to…

On Wednesday, a group of four Republican senators—South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, Louisiana's Bill Cassidy, Nevada's Dean Heller, and Wisconsin's Ron Johnson—revealed the text of their 140-page health-care reform bill.

Earlier this year, the LA Times reported: "TSA quietly launches new 'enhanced' pat-down procedure." The Times noted that TSA would not describe precisely how the new procedure is different from the old one: "TSA officials declined to detail the new universal procedure or the previous pat-down…

A new poll in the Alabama Senate GOP primary runoff shows a dead heat between Republicans Roy Moore and Luther Strange. Harper Polling reports:

As presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised he would make really great deals that would bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. “We will get our people off of welfare and back to work—rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor,” President Trump said in his…

As presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised he would make really great deals that would bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. “We will get our people off of welfare and back to work—rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor,” President Trump said in his…

...by the clouds.

Earlier this year, WEEKLY STANDARD senior editor Christopher Caldwell wrote the single best piece on the opioid crisis in America. In Mosaic Magazine, he's just published another great piece on the topic of addiction: "Why There Is No Secular Substitute for Alcoholics Anonymous."

We now live in an era when news cycles are lucky to last a full 24 hours, so please take a moment to clear your mind as we travel back in time to two long years ago.

We now live in an era when news cycles are lucky to last a full 24 hours, so please take a moment to clear your mind as we travel back in time to two long years ago.

Shortly before 10 p.m. on Thursday, Senate Republicans finally revealed to the public the text of the health-care bill they hope to pass. The so-called "skinny" repeal bill is just 8 pages long. You can read it here. A vote is scheduled shortly after midnight.

Senate Republicans still don't have 50 votes to pass any piece of legislation dealing with Obamacare, but they may nevertheless vote to proceed to debate on health care legislation Tuesday with no apparent endgame in sight.

Some of the Senate's rules governing what legislation can be passed with a simple majority, rather than 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster, are vague and confusing. So it was widely expected that the Senate parliamentarian would say that some provisions in the GOP bill to partially repeal and…

The latest version of the Senate GOP’s bill to partially repeal and replace Obamacare was pronounced dead the evening of Monday, July 17, when Utah senator Mike Lee and Kansas senator Jerry Moran announced their opposition, bringing the number of “no” votes to at least four. In a Senate that…

The latest version of the Senate GOP’s bill to partially repeal and replace Obamacare was pronounced dead the evening of Monday, July 17, when Utah senator Mike Lee and Kansas senator Jerry Moran announced their opposition, bringing the number of “no” votes to at least four. In a Senate that…

The latest version of the Senate GOP's bill to partially repeal and replace Obamacare died Monday night when GOP senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas announced their opposition to legislation. The bill could lose only two GOP votes and still pass, and Lee and Moran brought the grand…

If Senate Republicans are going to pass a bill to partially repeal and replace Obamacare, it appears they'll need everyone but libertarian Rand Paul and moderate Susan Collins to do it.

After a frenzied week of healthcare negotiations, the Senate recessed for the Fourth of July holiday not with a bang, but a whimper.

Late Friday night, Utah senator Mike Lee issued a lengthy statement (which is well worth reading in full) ripping and ridiculing the Senate GOP health care bill:

Senate Republicans unveiled a 142-page bill to partially repeal and replace Obamacare on Thursday. The bill can only lose two GOP votes and still pass the Senate, but several Republicans expressed opposition or concerns about the bill in its current form. In a joint statement, conservative senators…

Lena Dunham, the HBO celebrity and Democratic activist, had an op-ed in the New York Times over the weekend arguing against a regulation under consideration by the Trump administration. According to a leak, conscientious objectors could opt out of the Obamacare mandate that forces American…

On Wednesday morning, Vox published a leaked draft of a proposed federal regulation that would allow business owners to opt out of Obamacare's contraceptive mandate for religious or moral reasons. "Employers seeking an exemption would not be required to notify the government, under the drafted…

At 4:20 a.m. on July 10, 2016, gunshots rang out in Washington, D.C. When Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived at the scene, about two miles north of the U.S. Capitol, they found Seth Rich, a 27-year-old employee of the Demo­cratic National Committee, lying down but "conscious and…

Here's (hopefully) the wildest campaign story of 2017: On the eve of Thursday's special congressional election in Montana, Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs asked GOP candidate Greg Gianforte a couple of questions about the CBO score of the House health care bill. Gianforte responded by—I kid you…

There's been an avalanche of news over the past week, but here's one report that shouldn't be buried:

When news broke that Jim DeMint, the former South Carolina senator and president of the Heritage Foundation, was being removed from his role at the prominent conservative think tank, activists and political insiders wondered: Had the Founding Father of the Tea Party finally been defeated by his…

When news broke that Jim DeMint, the former South Carolina senator and president of the Heritage Foundation, was being removed from his role at the prominent conservative think tank, activists and political insiders wondered: Had the Founding Father of the Tea Party finally been defeated by his…

Amid a tense Democratic debate over whether pro-lifers have any place inside the party, Nancy Pelosi delivered a blunt message to her fellow Democrats: Trump won because of the party's rigid stance on abortion and other social issues.

On Tuesday, the Heritage Foundation's board of Trustees unanimously "asked for and received the resignation of Jim DeMint as president and CEO of the organization," according to a statement from board Chairman Thomas Saunders. The statement blames DeMint for unspecified "significant and worsening…

John McCain and Lindsey Graham have been two of President Trump's loudest critics within the Republican party, but following a private dinner at the White House with the president Monday night, both men expressed confidence in Trump's seriousness about addressing a major foreign policy crisis: the…

After the Trump administration announced on Monday it will impose tariffs of up to 24 percent on Canadian lumber, the National Association of Home Builders said it was "deeply disappointed in this short-sighted action." A previous NAHB study suggested such tariffs would raise the price of new homes…

In the Kansas special election on Tuesday to replace former congressman (and current CIA director) Mike Pompeo, the Republican candidate won by seven percentage points (52.5 percent to 45.7 percent, with almost all precincts reporting).

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell was asked at his weekly press conference on Tuesday if he was confident Republicans had the votes necessary to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court by eliminating the Senate minority's ability to filibuster Supreme Court nominees.

Less than two weeks before the 2016 elections, Virginia senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine said that he would support eliminating the 60-vote hurdle to confirm Supreme Court nominees in order to get Judge Merrick Garland on the court.

Late in the Obama administration, the Department of Health and Human Services enacted a rule to stop states from defunding Planned Parenthood. On Thursday afternoon, the Senate voted 51-50 to overturn that rule.

Another veteran Republican senator is ready to thwart an unprecedented filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday morning that he will try to lead fellow Senate Democrats to block an up-or-down vote on the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. The Democratic leader demanded a new nominee (who takes a liberal approach to constitutional…

The American Health Care Act lost another vote Wednesday night when Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, an ardent pro-lifer and fiscal moderate, announced his opposition to the bill. "The overriding concern I have is the Medicaid expansion being significantly altered," Smith told the Asbury Park Press.…

A debate over the military's budget is emerging between defense hawks on Capitol Hill and fiscal hawks in the Trump administration. The fiscal hawks, chief among them Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney, want the next annual defense budget set at $603 billion, a 3 percent…

Early Tuesday afternoon, a senior GOP House aide mapped out a short path through the House for the American Health Care Act (legislation that repeals and replaces parts of Obamacare): Due to the snowstorm on the East Coast, the Budget committee hearing would be pushed back from Wednesday to…

A debate over the military's budget is emerging between defense hawks on Capitol Hill and fiscal hawks in the Trump administration. The fiscal hawks, chief among them Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney, want the next annual defense budget set at $603 billion, a 3 percent…

Political correctness holds too strong a grip on too much of American life these days. Religious citizens who politely and conscientiously object to working gay weddings may be crushed by the state and driven into bankruptcy. In academia, the very place where the life of the mind is supposed to…

Political correctness holds too strong a grip on too much of American life these days. Religious citizens who politely and conscientiously object to working gay weddings may be crushed by the state and driven into bankruptcy. In academia, the very place where the life of the mind is supposed to…

What's the best way to get your message to President Trump? Two groups on opposite sides of the abortion debate seem to agree: Target the TV shows he likes to watch and tweet about like Morning Joe and Fox & Friends.

Back in October, congressman Devin Nunes met with a group of executives from major corporations to talk business. "I was trying to sell them on" the House GOP's tax plan, Nunes says, "explain how it would work and how the economy would grow." There was only one problem: None of the business…

Back in October, congressman Devin Nunes met with a group of executives from major corporations to talk business. “I was trying to sell them on" the House GOP's tax plan, Nunes says, "explain how it would work and how the economy would grow." There was only one problem: None of the business…

Dozens of pro-life leaders sent a letter to Congress Thursday afternoon urging Republican senators and representatives to honor their commitment to prohibit taxpayer-funding of elective abortion coverage under any health-care bill to replace Obamacare.

In mid-October, when it seemed likely that Democrats would win the White House and a Senate majority, retiring Senate minority leader Harry Reid said that Senate Democrats would scrap the 60-vote hurdle for Hillary Clinton's Supreme Court nominee, just as they had done in 2013 for lower-court and…

Shortly after noon on January 20, America's newly installed president issued a declaration of war against global free trade. "We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great…

In a joint statement issued Sunday, Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona expressed concern that Donald Trump's temporary ban on individuals from seven Middle Eastern and North African countries from entering the United States would prohibit the Iraqi military from…

Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday suspending the U.S. refugee program for 120 days and barring U.S. entry for 90 days for people from seven countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. Trump's order also states that after the refugee program restarts, Syrian refugees…

Shortly after noon on January 20, America's newly installed president issued a declaration of war against global free trade. "We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great…

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which bars federal funds from going to overseas organizations that perform or promote abortions.

There are some myths that just won't die, and one of those myths was perpetuated in a Washington Post article on Wednesday. In a story on GOP efforts to redirect taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood to community health centers, the Post reports:

Retired Marine Corps general Jim Mattis's confirmation hearing was such a breeze that even the Code Pink protesters in the room didn't say a peep. The anti-war activists who had disrupted Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions' hearing on Tuesday by ranting about racism and the KKK only protested…

Oklahoma senator James Lankford, a member of the intelligence committee, said on CNN Thursday that there's no doubt that Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic campaign officials.

During an interview with Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday night, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asserted: "We have the trust of our sources, we have the trust of our readers, having never got it wrong."

Ilyse Hogue, the president of the pro-abortion group NARAL, had been mulling a run for Democratic National Committee chair, but she announced Wednesday she will not seek the Democratic party's top post.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, a leading evangelical who served as a Donald Trump surrogate during the general election, is not happy with Trump's choice of ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to serve as secretary of state. When Tillerson was CEO of Exxon, the energy company donated money…

On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden told a group of reporters at the Capitol, "I'm going to run in 2020."

Some conservatives have criticized the deal the incoming Trump administration struck with Carrier to keep several hundred manufacturing jobs in Indiana as "crony capitalism," but Texas senator Ted Cruz had nothing but praise for Trump when asked about the deal on Tuesday.

On Friday, Donald Trump became the first president-elect to speak to the leader of Taiwan since 1979. As the Financial Times notes, Trump's call could anger the Communist Chinese regime in Beijing:

The Washington Post's Dan Lamothe reports:

Ohio congressman Tim Ryan, who has served in Congress since 2003, announced in a letter to colleagues Thursday afternoon that he would challenge Nancy Pelosi in House Democratic leadership elections.

When Democrats thought they had a lock on the White House and the Senate, retiring Senate minority leader Harry Reid made one thing abundantly clear: If necessary, Democrats would get rid of the Senate's 60-vote hurdle to confirm a Supreme Court justice—just as they had done for other judicial and…

"Republicans Dominated The Senate Races, Except The Ones Who Dumped Trump," the Daily Caller reports. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway calls the story an "important read - and critical to remember moving forward. Still waiting for those stories on how Trump helped down-ballot [Republicans]…

Donald Trump owes his victory in the Electoral College to three states he won by the smallest number of votes: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So it's fair to say that the 2016 presidential election was decided by about 77,000 votes out of than 136 million ballots cast. According to the…

First-term Republican senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire conceded Wednesday evening:

The House Republican caucus lost only five members on net in Tuesday's elections. After runoff elections are held in Louisiana, there will be 241 Republicans and 194 Democrats taking office in January. Among the new congressmen-elect are Brian Mast of Florida and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, who…

Donald Trump has shocked the world and won the presidential election. But you shouldn't blame most of the polls for your surprise. Polling errors of about three percentage points are fairly common, as we've pointed out at THE WEEKLY STANDARD and as Nate Silver has explained at FiveThirtyEight.com.

As voters head to the polls today, the partisan impulse for Republicans to support Donald Trump has never been stronger. But according to the final New York Times/CBS poll, only 39 percent of Republicans say Trump has been good for the party, while 41 percent say he's been bad for the party, and 16…

Throughout 2015 and 2016, Donald Trump never led Hillary Clinton in a single public poll of New Hampshire. Until Thursday. A WBUR/MassINC poll shows him up by one percentage point, the ARG poll (which has a poor reputation) shows Trump up by five points, and the Boston Globe/Suffolk poll shows…

Two weeks ago, a Monmouth poll found that Democrat Evan Bayh had a 6-point lead over Republican Todd Young in the Indiana Senate race, but that same pollster now finds the race tied:

Draper, Utah

Draper, Utah

When Florida Democrat Randy Perkins faced off against his Republican opponent Brian Mast at an editorial board meeting last month, the two had some unpleasant exchanges, including one in which Perkins badgered Mast, a wounded veteran, about his health care:

Draper, Utah

Las Vegas

For the first time ever, the Democratic platform is explicitly calling for a repeal of the Hyde amendment, a longstanding budget measure that prohibits federal funding of abortion except in very rare cases.

St. Louis

St. Louis

Following the release of a 2005 video in which Donald Trump made obscene comments about how he gropes women and might commit adultery, Utah senator Mike Lee called on Trump to step aside so that someone else could challenge Hillary Clinton.

Bill Clinton made headlines this week when he said that Obamacare "craziest thing in the world" because small businesses and individuals "who make just a little too much" to qualify for any of Obamacare's subsidies are "getting killed." Indeed, Obamacare's structure is so crazy that that those who…

In 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that poverty "in many cases is the root cause of terrorism." But a new World Bank study on ISIS recruits shows that Kerry's claim isn't true. "This result is consistent with a number of other studies that come to a similar conclusion: poverty is not a…

According to CNN's instant (scentific) poll of debate watchers, 48 percent said that Mike Pence won, while 42 percent said Tim Kaine won. That seems about right to me. Pence was better than Kaine on both substance and style.

Four polls conducted prior to the first presidential debate suggested that the race in potentially decisive Colorado had become a dead heat: Trump narrowly led in two polls, while Clinton narrowly led in the other two. But the first poll of Colorado conducted since the first debate finds that…

A new Quinnipiac poll shows Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton tied at 47 percent in a head-to-head race in Colorado. When Libertarian and Green Party candidates are added into the mix, Trump is down just 2 points (44 percent to 42 percent). That's a big swing from Quinnipiac's last poll of Colorado…

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Friday afternoon that Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson will not be allowed on the presidential debate stage in September because he failed to garner at least 15 percent in national polls:

The New Hampshire Union Leader is endorsing Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for president:

A new Bloomberg poll shows Trump leading Hillary Clinton by 5 points in Ohio:

Fifteen years ago, Brian Mast was running on the treadmill at Palm Beach Atlantic University's gym when he looked up at the TV in disbelief. Smoke was pouring out of a gaping hole in the World Trade Center's north tower. At first, he thought he was watching a fictional show. "Then I saw the second…

Elliott Abrams asks the question. It appears the UN may be to blame:

In Wisconsin's 8th congressional district, Democrat Tom Nelson is running a TV ad hitting Republican Mike Gallagher for wanting to "reduce all Social Security benefits to the poverty line." FactCheck.org reports that attack is simply not true:

The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal Marist poll should quiet down the chatter that John McCain could lose his Senate seat: The Arizona senator leads his Democratic challenger 57 percent to 38 percent.

At an LGBT gala fundraiser featuring Barbra Streisand Friday night, Hillary Clinton said half of Trump supporters are "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it" and cast them into the "basket of deplorables." NBC News reports:

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial in Friday's paper explaining the Democrats' decision to filibuster a bill to combat the Zika virus:

Fifteen years ago, Brian Mast was running on the treadmill at Palm Beach Atlantic University's gym when he looked up at the TV in disbelief. Smoke was pouring out of a gaping hole in the World Trade Center's north tower. At first, he thought he was watching a fictional show. "Then I saw the second…

The new Marquette law school poll shows shows Hillary Clinton up just 3 percentage points over Donald Trump among likely voters in Wisconsin, where she led Trump by 15 points earlier this month:

On Tuesday, Arizona senator John McCain defeated his GOP primary challenger Kelli Ward 52 percent to 39 percent, while Florida senator Marco Rubio defeated his GOP primary challenger Carlos Beruff 72 percent to 18 percent. Both Ward and Beruff styled themselves as Trumpist candidates in their races…

Reid Wilson reports at The Hill:

The Guardian reports:

CNN released a new poll Wednesday evening showing John McCain leading Kelli Ward in the August 30 Arizona Senate primary by 26 points (55 percent to 29 percent).

Democrats changed their party platform this year to call explicitly for repealing the Hyde amendment, a longstanding and popular budget measure that prohibits federal funding of abortion for Medicaid recipients except in rare circumstances. Taxpayer-funding of abortion is so unpopular that even…

Monmouth University released a new poll Monday reminding Republicans that they might easily be winning the 2016 presidential race if they had nominated a natural-born citizen over the age of 35 who is not Donald Trump.

House speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin crushed his GOP primary opponent Paul Nehlen Tuesday by nearly 70 points. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Ryan led Nehlen 84 percent to 16 percent.

Pennsylvania has long been viewed by election analysts as a potentially decisive state in the 2016 presidential contest, but new polls out of the Keystone state show a race that isn't even close.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine has created some confusion about his position on the Hyde amendment, a longstanding budget measure that bans federal funding of abortion except in extreme cases.

The latest Fox News poll, released Wednesday night, shows Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump 49 percent to 39 percent. An overwhelming majority say that Trump's response to the Muslim parents of a fallen U.S. soldier was "out of bounds."

The Senate campaign of Democratic candidate Ted Strickland tells the Columbus Dispatch that Strickland supports repealing the Hyde amendment, a longstanding budget measure that bans federal funding of abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and threats to the mother's life.

While campaigning in Florida Tuesday, Tim Kaine blamed Republicans for Congress's failure to pass a bill to do more to combat the disease. The Miami-Herald reports:

Tim Kaine has moved sharply to the left on the issue of abortion over the last 10 years, but there remains some confusion over where the Democratic vice presidential nominee stands on the issue of federal funding of abortion.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

When news broke that Hillary Clinton had chosen Virginia senator Tim Kaine to be her running mate, NARAL (the group formerly known as the National Abortion Rights Action League) showered praise on Kaine for maintaining a "100% pro-choice voting record in the U.S. Senate." Despite saying that he's a…

Cleveland

Cleveland

Cleveland

Cleveland

Cleveland

Cleveland

Donald Trump had his best polling news of the summer when Quinnipiac released polls yesterday showing Trump tied or leading Hillary Clinton in three swing states. Trump and Clinton were tied in Ohio, while Trump led Clinton by two points in Pennsylvania and three points in Florida.

The Republican National Committee released a partial list of convention speakers Thursday morning. Among the named speakers are potential vice presidential picks Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, Mike Flynn, and Scott Walker. But Indiana governor Mike Pence isn't named. A colleague asks: Does that…

With fewer than than 48 hours until the 2016 Republican National Convention's Rules Committee convenes, a leading anti-Trump delegate is increasingly convinced she'll have the votes necessary to allow the delegates to vote their consciences when casting ballots for the GOP's presidential nominee.

A GOP delegate has won his lawsuit challenging a Virginia law that would have forced him to vote for Donald Trump on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention next week.

On Tuesday night, House speaker Paul Ryan was asked during a Fox News appearance about Donald Trump's deeply misleading comment that Saddam Hussein was good at killing terrorists. "Tonight at a rally, Donald Trump said, 'Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, but he was very, very good at killing…

According to a draft released last week by the the Democratic National Committee, the 2016 Democratic platform will for the first time explicitly call for unlimited taxpayer funding of elective abortions for Medicaid recipients.

Senate Democratic leaders Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer held a press conference Thursday morning alongside Planned Parenthood's executive director in an effort to justify their decision to block $1.1 billion in federal funding to combat the Zika virus.

In a 5-3 decision Monday, the Supreme Court declared that a 2013 Texas statute regulating abortion clinics was unconstitutional. The Texas law, which would have established the same health and safety standards for abortion clinics as outpatient surgical centers and require a doctor on staff to have…

Congressional Democrats emerged from the Capitol building Thursday afternoon from their 25-hour long "sit-in" in the House of Representatives sleepy but satisfied with what they'd accomplished. They may not have secured a vote on gun control legislation they were demanding in the wake of the…

A recent New York Times story by Jonathan Mahler and Matt Flegenheimer on Donald Trump's relationship with Roy Cohn, the former aide to Joe McCarthy and high-powered New York lawyer, includes this amusing anecdote:

Back in March, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan declared that he would speak out against Donald Trump when he saw "episodes where conservatism is being disfigured" or "comments that mislead the people as to who we are as Republicans." True to his word, last week Ryan strongly condemned Trump's racial…

Three GOP senators sounded off Wednesday on Donald Trump's comment that American soldiers stole money intended for Iraqi reconstruction.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid continued his push Tuesday for a bill to ban the sale of guns to Americans suspected of terrorism, even if the government can't show probable cause to a judge that Americans on the terror watch list are plotting terrorism. But Reid suggested it's "foolishness" for…

In the wake of the Islamist terror attack that killed 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Hillary Clinton and congressional Democrats are vigorously pushing legislation to ban American citizens from purchasing guns if the federal government has a reasonable suspicion the gun may be used in a…

Since Donald Trump became the presumptive GOP presidential nominee on May 3, Ted Cruz has declined to say whether or not he will support his former rival in the November election. "I am watching and listening and like millions of voters assessing the candidates. And I expect voters will continue to…

One month after announcing his support for Donald Trump, Marco Rubio still believes that the presumptive GOP nominee is unfit to be commander-in-chief. "I stand by everything I said during the campaign," the Florida senator told THE WEEKLY STANDARD on Thursday when asked if he still believes Trump…

Scott Walker has said that he would support Donald Trump if he were the nominee, but the Wisconsin governor backed away from that pledge in the wake of Trump's racial attack on the federal judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University. Trump said the judge, an American citizen born in…

BuzzFeed reports that in a radio interview Newt Gingrich condemned Donald Trump's attack on the federal judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump, saying that the logic behind GOP nominee's attack "totally goes against our whole model of being an American." Trump said last week that the judge, an…

Social conservatives and evangelical leaders who were some of Donald Trump’s staunchest foes during the GOP primary now face a dilemma in the general election: Should they vote for a man as immoral as Trump in order to stop Hillary Clinton from becoming president?

A new poll of New Hampshire voters released by WBUR shows that Mitt Romney would start out in a competitive position if he decided to run as an independent against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump: "Romney has been a leader in the Republican-led Stop Trump movement. The poll found that in a…

Florida senator Marco Rubio said in an interview Tuesday that he intends to support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the November election despite the fact that he still believes Trump should not have access to the United States' nuclear weapons launch codes.

Donald Trump is now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. But that doesn’t change the fact that he is manifestly unfit to be president.

A new CNN poll shows Hillary Clinton crushing Donald Trump among registered voters by 13 points (54 percent to 41 percent). The same survey shows that Clinton trails Ohio governor John Kasich by 7 points (51 percent to 44 percent) in a general election match-up.

TV networks called the Indiana primary for Donald Trump immediately after polls closed Tuesday night.

Donald Trump is expected to win all five northeastern states holding GOP primaries today, likely taking close to 110 of the 118 bound delegates up for grabs. His total delegate haul could drop to 95 or so if he unexpectedly fails to win 50 percent of the statewide vote in Connecticut and if he…

If they don't simply call it an "anti-LGBT law," those in the news media typically call North Carolina's law requiring single-sex public restrooms and changing facilities the "bathroom bill" or the "bathroom law."

With less than two weeks to go until the critical Indiana primary, not a single public poll of the presidential contest has been released. But Politico's Shane Goldmacher reports that two private polls show Trump and Cruz tied, while a third poll showed Trump leading Cruz:

After Donald Trump lost the Wisconsin primary two weeks ago by a double-digit margin to Ted Cruz, he was garnering about 54 percent in the New York GOP primary polls. But Trump didn't suffer any negative consequences in New York because of his failure in Wisconsin. He won his home state on Tuesday…

"Donald J. Trump" has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today in which he whines that the Republican establishment robbed him of delegates by rigging the contest in Colorado. As Michael Warren reported the other day, Trump's claim is the opposite of true: The establishment wanted a primary in…

The rap on Ted Cruz has been that his strength is limited to (1) caucus states and (2) states with large proportions of evangelical Christians. But Cruz undid that analysis with his double-digit victory over Donald Trump in Wisconsin last week.

Milwaukee

Madison, Wisc.

A new Fox Business poll of the Wisconsin GOP presidential primary shows Ted Cruz leading Donald Trump 42 percent to 32 percent, with John Kasich in third place at 19 percent. Cruz leads Trump among nearly every demographic group except for independents:

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who endorsed Ted Cruz for president on Tuesday, stars in a new Cruz TV ad released today:

During a townhall event today with MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Donald Trump said "there has to be some form of punishment" for women who obtain abortions. Trump quickly reversed himself after pro-life advocates pointed out that they have long opposed imposing criminal penalties on a woman who undergoes…

A new Marquette Law School poll shows Ted Cruz jumping out to a 10-point lead over Donald Trump—40 percent to 30 percent—with John Kasich far behind in third place at 21 percent.

A new LA Times poll released on Sunday finds that the GOP presidential race in California is a dead heat among likely voters: Donald Trump leads Ted Cruz by just one point—36 percent to 35 percent—with John Kasich in third place at 14 percent. The California primary is more than two months away,…

The poll, conducted March 20 to 22 by Emerson College, indicates that Kasich's presence in the race is taking more votes from Cruz than from Trump. Kasich's supporters view Cruz as more favorable than Trump by an 9-point margin—36 percent to 27 percent.

A poll of Arizona Republicans conducted last week but released today shows Donald Trump leading Ted Cruz 31 percent to 19 percent, with John Kasich and Marco Rubio tied at 10 percent.

With Donald Trump's defeat in Ohio on March 15, Trump's opponents now have a plausible path to holding him to fewer than 1,100 delegates in the GOP presidential race—well short of the majority (1,237 delegates) required by the rules to win the Republican nomination.

The March 15 Republican primaries will be the most important contests to date in determining who the GOP presidential nominee will be. Donald Trump would be in a strong position if he sweeps Ohio, Florida, Illinois, and Missouri on Tuesday. But mixed results for Trump could make it difficult for…

Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to engage in violence against peaceful protesters at his rallies by saying on Sunday that he is considering paying the legal fees of a North Carolina man who punched a protester in the face. Time reports:

A new Kansas City Star poll shows Donald Trump leading Ted Cruz 36 percent to 29 percent in Missouri's Republican presidential primary. Marco Rubio and John Kasich are far behind in the single digits at 9 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

Following Thursday night's debate, Donald Trump shrugged off reports that Michelle Fields of Breitbart News was assaulted by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. "Perhaps she made the story up. I think that's what happened," Trump told reporters in the spin room.

Michelle Fields, a Breitbart.com reporter and a former Fox News contributor, was grabbed by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and yanked "toward the ground like a ragdoll," an eyewitness tells the Daily Beast. The altercation occurred Tuesday night following Trump's press conference in…

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows Hillary Clinton clobbering Donald Trump 51 percent to 38 percent in a general election. But Clinton leads Ted Cruz by just 2 points (47 percent to 45 percent) and is tied with Marco Rubio at 46 percent each.