Latest news with #RepublicaninNameOnly
Wall Street Journal
5 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
No Longer ‘Dead Brad Walking': Georgia's Election Chief Makes a Comeback
ATLANTA—Five years ago, Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was banished to the political wilderness. Donald Trump blamed the mild-mannered election chief for his narrow 2020 Georgia defeat, branding him a RINO (Republican in Name Only), 'incompetent and strange.' Death threats poured in. GOP senators demanded he resign for reaffirming, after recounts and audits, that Trump lost the battleground state.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Civil War Over ‘Betraying' Trump Set to Devour GOP: ‘MAGA Is Sick of RINOs'
Trump fundamentalists are weighing up bids to oust Senate Republicans who have dared to cross the president, Axios reports. The planned move, in states like Texas and North Carolina, could spark a MAGA civil war—but the president's most fervent acolytes see it as a necessary risk, despite the chance of far-right challengers flopping at a general election. 'MAGA is sick of RINOs (Republican in Name Only), especially in states Trump won. And in a state like Texas, it's inexcusable,' far-right political activist and commentator Jack Posobiec told Axios. Posobiec's anger is shared by much of the MAGA base. The movement called for Texas Sen. John Cornyn's head when the 72-year-old broke with Trump's platform to support aid for Ukraine and a bipartisan gun reform bill in the wake of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. His challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 62, disparaged Cornyn as a 'Republican in name only,' and accused the congressman of 'betraying' Trump. Cornyn has responded to a Paxton charm offensive on Trump with overtures of his own. This included him posting a picture on X of him reading the president's 1987 book, The Art of the Deal. But the MAGAverse is rallying behind the challenger, unconvinced that Cornyn will do Trump's bidding. Paxton already has far-right podcaster Charlie Kirk's backing, and Kirk has Trump's ear. Steve Bannon has also given him the nod. He told Axios that he, like Kirk, plans to have Paxton on his show. He slammed Cornyn as the 'epitome of the establishment.' Ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz has also endorsed Paxton, but some top Republicans reportedly aren't hot on the controversial figure—who was impeached by the state House on bribery and corruption charges in 2023. He was later acquitted by the state Senate. Polling, however, shows Paxton 'creaming' the incumbent. Punch Bowl News used that term in reporting that the GOP-backed super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, shows Cornyn trailing Paxton by 16 points in its polling. In a three-way race with Rep. Wesley Hunt, Paxton commanded 44 percent to Cornyn's 34. Hunt, who is considering a run, got 19 percent, insiders who have seen the details said. However, there are fears for Paxton when it comes to a general election. Polling shows he was down 1 percent, Punch Bowl said. Cornyn leads Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, who is considering a run, by 6 points. Hunt was up by 4. SLF Communications Director Chris Gustafson was clear whom the PAC is backing, saying that 'Texans only need one quick look at Paxton's record before his support plummets.' He went on: 'It's clear he would risk delivering the Senate majority to Chuck Schumer.' Trump has stayed silent on the matter so far, choosing not to endorse anyone publicly. He needs Cornyn's support to pass his legislative agenda. The Wall Street Journal reported that the president's silence could also be a plan to keep Senate Republicans in check. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis is also a target for primary challengers, as is Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy—who voted to impeach the president after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in 2021. Louisiana, however, is a safer bet for Republicans, with the Democrats preparing strong candidates in Texas and North Carolina. Tillis infuriated the MAGA movement earlier this month when he opted against a vote to confirm Ed Martin as Washington's top prosecutor. 'I have no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on Jan. 6,' he gave as his reasoning. The comment was a reference to Martin's support for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists and his move to demote prosecutors who oversaw cases linked to the invasion of the Capitol in 2021. 'What Thom and his consultants don't realize is that MAGA voters will stay at home in the GENERAL when he votes like this. Never take MAGA for granted,' Charlie Kirk warned in response. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has urged caution as Trump weighs up rolling the dice. He has reportedly encouraged the president to 'get behind his members,' as Axios put it. 'I think the president's got his own timetable, but obviously we're consulting with him and his team, and trying to ensure that we have the best candidates on the field that we think are going to be successful, not only in primary elections, but in general elections,' Thune said. 'I just think for him it's a function of, in some cases, in some of the states, he's not ready to move yet.' Harrison Fields, a Trump spokesman, said the president is merely focused on his America-first agenda.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
6 takeaways about Alex Fairly's journey into Texas GOP politics
Alex Fairly, an Amarillo businessman, is the newest Republican megadonor making waves in the Texas capitol. Last week, The Texas Tribune published a story about his sudden rise as a major powerbroker and one of the most prolific donors to GOP legislative candidates. The story details Fairly's involvement in last year's turbulent Republican primaries through this year's contentious race for House Speaker. Initially, Fairly aligned with ultraconservatives in an ongoing GOP civil war challenging more establishment Republicans. Fairly spent heavily to try and oust former House Speaker Dade Phelan — who critics labeled a Republican in Name Only, or a RINO — from the Legislature. Fairly also advocated against current Speaker Dustin Burrows in the race for House leader and spent millions supporting hardline conservative candidates for 19 House seats across the state. [Texas megadonor Alex Fairly joined forces with the GOP's ultraconservative wing. He didn't like what he saw.] But Fairly told The Texas Tribune in an interview that once he started digging into the speaker race, he didn't like what he saw. He concluded that he had been misled about much of Texas Republican politics by the well-organized political operation funded largely by oil billionaire Tim Dunn, one of the most feared and influential conservative figures in Texas politics. Here are six takeaways from our coverage: Fairly spent most of his life being apolitical. He didn't register to vote in Texas until he was 37. Before 2024, Fairly's political contributions included only a few big checks to statewide officials, including Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lt. Gov Dan Patrick. He was also a major supporter of U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo. By the end of that year, Fairly would be the 10th biggest donor in legislative races, giving $2.2 million to 19 House candidates and one Senate candidate across the state, according to a Tribune analysis. Fairly gave the most money to Phelan's primary challenger David Covey, funnelling $700,000 to Covey's campaign, most of which was sent after Covey pushed Phelan into a primary runoff. Overall, Fairly's giving made up more than a quarter of all of the money Covey raised. The majority of other donations were between $50,000 and $100,000. However, in local House races, that could be a significant contribution. For instance, Fairly's $150,000 donation to Rep. Denise Villalobos, R-Corpus Christi, accounted for 12% of her total haul. His donations to his daughter's race — $525,600 — accounted for 43% of her contributions. As Fairly's support for hardliners became more prolific, he got an invitation to meet Dunn at his political headquarters outside Fort Worth. Fairly said he got a tour of Dunn's operation, including the network of consulting, fundraising and campaign operations. For years, this operation has worked to support extremely conservative candidates and target those who they deem too centrist in an effort to shift the state further to the right. Dunn asked Fairly if he'd be willing to partner with him. At the time, Fairly seemed well positioned to be a second Dunn-like figure, who could add pressure and funding to Dunn's political aims. Fairly eventually turned down Dunn, saying it wasn't the right time. He would later come to the conclusion that he opposed what he called dishonest and bigoted attacks used by Dunn's network, entirely. A few months later, Fairly went back to Dunn in an effort to try and get him to change the way they try to achieve their common conservative goals. A few months after Phelan hung onto his House seat by 389 votes, Fairly asked him to meet. Fairly said it wasn't a peace offering, but if Phelan was going to remain House speaker, he wanted to see if he would run the House in a different way. During the tense meeting last August, Phelan and Fairly discussed the best way to manage the lower chamber. Phelan told Fairly was naive about Texas politics. At one point, Phelan accused Fairly of paying for the ugly tactics used in the campaign against him — including accusing him of supporting Sharia law because he supported a resolution commemorating a Muslim holiday. Fairly ended up apologizing. After the party's far-right flank continued to attack Phelan in his quest to be speaker for a third session, he eventually dropped out of the leadership race. A new battle would emerge between Phelan-ally, Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, and Rep. David Cook of Mansfield, who would challenge the establishment Republicans in the House. In mid-December, the Texas House was embroiled in an ugly fight over who Republicans should support to lead the lower chamber. The House Speaker is the leader of the lower chamber who plays a key role in what bills are passed. More establishment Republicans had aligned behind Burrows while many in the GOP caucus were behind Cook who campaigned on reforming the House to reduce the power of Democrats. The far-right groups behind Cook, including Dunn's PAC and the Republican Party of Texas — which is largely funded by Dunn's PACs — accused Burrows of being a secret liberal. Fairly believed this to be true, and felt Republicans needed to come together behind Cook. He announced he was pouring $20 million into a new PAC 'out of concern that the Texas House still lacks a united Republican majority.' 'These funds will be available to help expand a true Republican majority,' Fairly said. 'My strong hope is that we can focus them on expanding victories in the next general election." But after a series of meetings with lawmakers, including Burrows supporter and incoming freshman John McQueeney, Fairly started to see how lawmakers were being harassed and targeted by dishonest attacks. A few days before the start of the Legislature, he released a new statement reversing his stance on the speaker race. 'The vote for Speaker belongs to the members,' Fairly wrote in his statement. In the months leading up to the legislative session, Rep. Caroline Fairly was struggling with her own decision over who she would support for House speaker. She originally sided with Cook, but didn't agree with the characterizations of Burrows as a liberal, and thought it was hypocritical to attack Burrows for making deals with Democrats when Cook had openly courted Democrats for votes, too. But she felt she needed to stick with Cook at the risk of being attacked as a RINO. When her dad changed directions with his PAC, she felt she pressure to remain with Cook to avoid criticisms that her father, who was her campaign's top financial supporter, controlled her seat. But the morning of the speaker race, Caroline Fairly woke up and said she couldn't stick with Cook. 'I won't start my tenure as your representative capitulating to outside pressures to place a vote I disagree with,' she wrote in her statement announcing her decision to switch sides. Once the legislative session was underway, Fairly went back to Dunn to see if he would consider changing how his operation works. Over a span of a few months, the two men met multiple times to discuss if there were better ways to achieve conservative goals in the state that didn't require eviscerating fellow Republicans. He commended Dunn for having a candid and difficult conversation, but wasn't optimistic anything would change. Last month, after Republican Party of Texas Chair Abraham George posted on social media a threat to primary Republican lawmakers who don't pass all GOP priority bills, Fairly called him and tried to get him to stop. '[Dunn's network] is the place where you can get money, whether it's their money or their friends' money,' Fairly said he told George. 'But … the thing that you live on is choking the life out of you.' Fairly still hasn't spent his PAC money. He remains a deeply conservative Republican and is still aligning with hardliners like Paxton. As Fairly considers his next move on the state stage, he says he's intent to remain his own person, rather than committing to join any specific political faction. 'Everyone puts people in a camp, and because I don't really just fit in one, it feels it doesn't make that much sense to people,' Fairly said. 'That's just who I am, and I think I'm really comfortable with it.' First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Upstate GOP businessman kicks off challenge to Lindsey Graham
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, speaks to reporters in Columbia, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette) A Greenville businessman is the first Republican to announce a bid to take on U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham next year. Mark Lynch, owner of Jeff Lynch Appliance Center, officially kicked off his campaign Monday at the store his father founded more than 70 years ago. He's running to the right of Graham, saying South Carolina's senior senator — first elected to the seat in 2002 — is not a strong enough ally to President Donald Trump. 'Lindsey is not one of us, we all know that,' Lynch said while holding a Graham mailer. 'I'm running for the United States Senate to remove a 30-year veteran named Linsey Graham.' The event followed Lynch's campaign announcement, posted on social media last week, that accused Graham of betraying Trump and Republicans. His posts refer to Graham as a RINO, which stands for Republican in Name Only. Acknowledging Graham's sizable campaign war chest, Lynch said he plans to put between $4 million and $5 million of his own money into the campaign — possibly more if necessary. Graham has more than $15.6 million available, as of his latest campaign filing. 'We the people spoke during Trump's election, and we are going to speak again,' Lynch said. 'Lindsey Graham doesn't have the money that God does.' He touts that his business employs 110 South Carolinians. And 'in his spare time,' he's an addiction counselor, avid marksman and guitarist for a band name Concealed Damage. He's also a deacon at his church, Burnsview Baptist, in Greer. Lynch, a father of two and grandfather of four, previously tried to oust a state senator. In 2020, Lynch challenged state Sen. Scott Talley of Spartanburg County and lost by less than 6 percentage points. Lynch's Feb. 5 entry into the 2026 race came a day after Graham announced that his re-election co-chairs are Gov. Henry McMaster and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott. SC's Sen. Lindsey Graham wants to 'claw back,' redirect clean energy funding to border control 'I have never known anyone who works harder for South Carolina than Lindsey Graham,' McMaster said in the release. 'As our senator, Lindsey Graham is always on the front lines of the fight – where conservatives can count on him to stand with President Trump.' Graham has had a sometimes-rocky relationship with Trump since the 2016 presidential campaign, which Graham briefly entered. He exited the race in December 2015 ahead of South Carolina first-in-the-South presidential primary, which Trump won. Graham declined to endorse anyone that November. But he's been a strong ally since. Last month, Graham did say he thinks Trump made a mistake in some of his pardons of people involved in the Jan 6., 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. 'Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently I think was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that's an OK thing to do,' Graham told NBC News' 'Meet the Press.' On Sunday, both Graham and Scott were among lawmakers accompanying Trump to the Super Bowl in New Orleans aboard Air Force One. 'Lindsey Graham is a conservative fighter, a colleague, and a friend, and I am proud to endorse his campaign and serve as co-chairman,' Scott, who leads the national committee to elect Republicans to the U.S. Senate, said in Graham's Feb. 4 announcement. Graham, who Republicans have blasted in the past as being too willing to compromise with Democrats, has a history of attracting — and besting — GOP challengers. In 2014, he fended off six Republican opponents without needing a runoff. In 2020, he easily defeated three GOP challengers to his right before taking on Democrat Jaime Harrison, who lost by double digits in what was then the most expensive U.S. Senate race ever. Graham was first elected to the state House in 1992. Two years later, he became the first Republican since Reconstruction elected to represent South Carolina's 3rd District in the U.S. House. In 2002, voters elected him to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, who left office after turning 100 and died six months later.
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
MAGA Turns on Lindsey Graham Over His Criticism of Trump's Pardons
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham incited the fury of President Donald Trump's most fervent supporters after describing the president's decision to pardon more than 1500 Jan. 6 insurrectionists as a 'mistake'—with one former prisoner slamming Graham as a 'Republican in name only.' During a segment on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, host Kristen Welker asked Graham if he believed that Trump was 'wrong to issue these blanket pardons' to hundreds of 1,500 defendants convicted for their connection to the Capitol riot in 2021. 'Number one, he had the legal authority to do it,' Graham replied. 'But I fear you will get more violence. Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently, I think, was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that's an OK thing to do.' Derrick Evans, a former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates who was sentenced to three months in prison in June 2022 for his involvement in the riots, clapped back at Graham's comments on X and insinuated that the 20-plus year veteran of the U.S. Senate was not a true member of the GOP. 'Senator Graham calls Trump's decision to pardon January 6th protestors a 'mistake,'' Evans wrote on X Sunday. 'I'm one of those J6 Prisoners who received a pardon and Lindsey is a RINO [Republican in Name Only] POS.' A host of other MAGA supporters echoed Evans' sentiment and voiced their frustration over Graham's 'circus' politics. 'Lindsey Graham's political career is like a circus—except no one's buying tickets anymore, and the clown's lost the plot,' one user wrote on X. Another added, 'I lost respect for Lindsey Graham in 2016. Who cares what he says.' 'Actions speak louder than words. And Lindsey Graham is a COWARD,' a third user wrote. On the first day of his administration, Trump announced he would blanket pardon nearly all of the criminal defendants involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Throughout his campaign trail last year, the president repeatedly promised to pardon Jan. 6 prisoners whom he referred to as 'hostages' and 'patriots.'
