Category Archives: GOP

Nashville in, Kansas City out, for 2024 GOP Convention

By Matt | Published January 2, 2022

Nashville throws its hat into the ring:

Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. officials formally submitted the bid Dec. 8 to the Republican National Committee. That came after Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s office earlier requested they do so, the convention group’s president and CEO, Butch Spyridon, confirmed in a statement to the Times Free Press earlier this month.

Lee’s office also asked the visitor bureau to seek bid specifications from the Democratic National Committee, which has yet to provide them, according to Bonna Johnson, the Nashville convention bureau’s vice president of corporate communications. Continue Reading...

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Trump Impeachment and 2024

By tmess2 | Published February 14, 2021

Despite hopes for better from the Republican Party, Donald Trump again escaped being held politically liable for his misconduct.  Of course, President Trump is the only U.S. president in which members of his own party voted for conviction, but seven Republican senators out of fifty.

There were some surprises in the final vote.  Of the four Republicans who will be retiring in 2022, two voted to convict.  The only Senator currently running for re-election in 2022 that voted to convict was Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.  Given that Alaska has done away with party primaries and will be using a top four primary with ranked choice voting in the general, Donald Trump’s threats against Senator Murkowski do not carry much weight.  Of the other four votes, two come from long-time Trump critics — Mitt Romney of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska — whom Trump would go after regardless of their vote and one came from Susan Collins of Maine who has always faced the need to triangulate between being a loyal Republican and the Democratic majority in her state.  The only Senator to vote to convict who is probably running again and was not considered to be  a member of the moderate/conservative wing of the Republican Party was Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (who like Collins was just re-elected and can hope that six years is long enough for this madness to pass).  And like Murkowski, Senator Cassidy is from a state that does not have partisan primaries.  He just needs to keep enough Republican support to finish in the top two and then win the run-off.

But the bigger question is what this means for the 2024 election.  Not being convicted means that Donald Trump is technically eligible to run in 2024.  And he will continue to make noise about running.  While the odds are that he will not run, his omnipresence will alter the trajectory of the run-up to that race.  While some would-be candidates (like Nikki Haley) are apparently going ahead with making initial plans, others are going to have to wait for Trump to  yield the field.  Candidates will certainly not be able to raise money from Trump supporters until he announces that he is not running. Continue Reading...

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GOP considering whether to postpone 4th nite

By Matt | Published August 26, 2020

Was waiting for the first signs of this:

Trump’s address to the Republican National Convention may not happen as scheduled, two officials familiar with the matter said, as Hurricane Laura threatens the Gulf Coast.

Advisers will decide Thursday morning whether he will speak, after assessing the damage to Texas and Louisiana. Trump is scheduled to address an audience from the South Lawn of the White House. – Washington Post Continue Reading...

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Networks have no clue what GOP convention will be like

By Matt | Published August 20, 2020

Next week will be an adventure for all of us:

Multiple sources told The Daily Beast that when Democratic officials met with various broadcast network executives about their convention coverage plans, the executives stressed that they could not broadcast two hours each night in part because they then would have to give the same airtime to Trump, and all the wild unpredictability that might entail from an editorial perspective.

“We don’t know what that content is going to be,” was the line offered up, according to one source. Continue Reading...

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GOP gives up on Jacksonville convention

By Matt | Published July 23, 2020

Well, this was predictable:

President Trump announced Thursday he’s canceling the Jacksonville, Florida, portion of the Republican National Convention next month, citing the raging coronavirus crisis.

Speaking from the White House briefing room, Mr. Trump said delegates will formally nominate him in Charlotte, North Carolina, but he did not announce where his speech will take place. Much of the convention had already been moved from its original site in Charlotte to Jacksonville. Continue Reading...

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Bleeding Kansas

By tmess2 | Published July 21, 2020

In two weeks, Kansas and Missouri will have their state and federal primaries.  (There are also primaries in Arizona, Michigan, and Washington.)  While on the Missouri side of the state line, the biggest race is actually a ballot issue (Medicare expansion which is expected to pass), Kansas has some major races on the Republican primary ballot.

The big one is the U.S. Senate race.  The incumbent Senator — Pat Roberts — is a conservative Republican.  However, that is not enough to guarantee a win in the Republican primary, and Senator Roberts had a tough race in 2014 (only getting 48% of the primary vote for an 8% margin).   Senator Roberts has  decided that forty years in Congress (sixteen in the House and twenty-four in the Senate) is enough and it’s time to enjoy retirement.  And eleven Republicans decided that their names would sound so much better with Senator in front of it.

At this point in the race, it appears that there are three major contenders.  The establishment choice is very conservative Representative Roger Marshall.  Marshall represents the first district of Kansas which covers western and north central Kansas.  Meanwhile, the Tea Party candidate is Spawn of Satan Kris Kobach.  Folks may remember former Secretary of State Kobach as the Republican who lost the governor’s seat in 2018 or as the author of much of the anti-immigrant legislation passed over the past decade.  Finally, there is Bob (Hamilton) the plumber.  Hamilton runs a highly successful plumbing company in the Kansas City area and is trying to paint himself as a Trump clone. Continue Reading...

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GOP convention plans remain in flux

By Matt | Published July 13, 2020

Even Trump is starting to face reality:

After a venue change, spiking coronavirus cases and a sharp recession, Trump aides and allies are increasingly questioning whether it’s worth the trouble, and some are advocating that the convention be scrapped altogether.

.. Continue Reading...

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GOP Jacksonville money woes continue

By Matt | Published July 11, 2020

Raising money for a last-minute convention that may not happen is not so easy:

Republicans are scrambling to raise millions of dollars after President Donald Trump moved most of the event from Charlotte. They say they’ve received several millions in commitments toward a fundraising goal of $20 to $25 million, but declined to be more specific.

Convention fundraising typically occurs over a span of two years. But after Trump clashed with North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper over his refusal to allow a full-fledged convention, Republicans launched a new multi-million-dollar drive in order to pull off a separate event in a different state. Continue Reading...

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GOP now looking at outdoor Jacksonville convention

By Matt | Published July 9, 2020

An outdoor convention. In Florida. In the summer time. OK:

The Republican convention in Jacksonville, Fla., next month could be moved to an outdoor stadium as cases of the novel coronavirus in the state increase, according to several officials with knowledge of the plans.

While no decision has been made, Republican officials are studying two outdoor professional sports stadiums near the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena where the convention is currently slated to be held. They are also looking more broadly into the logistics of pulling off an outdoor convention, according to two Republicans involved in the planning. Continue Reading...

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Jacksonville convention causing headaches for GOP

By Matt | Published July 6, 2020

I mean, none of this could be predicted, right?  First, the Times goes deep on the money problem:

The abrupt uprooting of the Republican National Convention from Charlotte to Jacksonville has created a tangled financial predicament for party officials as they effectively try to pay for two big events instead of one.

Tens of millions of dollars have already been spent in a city that will now host little more than a G.O.P. business meeting, and donors are wary of opening their wallets again to bankroll a Jacksonville gathering thrown into uncertainty by a surge in coronavirus cases. Continue Reading...

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