Georgia Elections Board Confirms Officials’ Right To ‘Reasonable Inquiry’ Before Certifying Elections

The Georgia State Election Board ruled that county board members can demand a 'reasonable inquiry' before certifying election results.

Voters Prohibit ‘Zuckbucks’-Style Private Funding And Staff From Wisconsin Elections

Wisconsinites approved two constitutional amendments prohibiting 'Zuckbucks' and mandating only legally authorized officials may administer elections.

Democrats Canceled Their Florida Primary To Help Biden. It Backfired And Helped Republicans Flip Local Seats

The Tampa Bay Times attributed the wins to 'significant conservative turnout.'

Thanks To Mail-In Voting, California Still Counting Ballots Two Weeks After Election

Democrats are aiming to use California's extensive ballot alteration possibilities to manipulate the outcome of a leftist ballot proposal.

Loophole In ‘Weak’ North Carolina Voter ID Law Lets Just About Anyone Cast A Ballot

'There's all kinds of excuses you can put on the form and you'll still be granted the right to vote, nobody will be turned away.'

Why Trump Is Winning By Double Digits Heading Into Iowa

It looks like DeSantis will lose Iowa and New Hampshire. As of now, at least, it looks like Nikki Haley will too.

The DNC Is Engaged In ‘Unlawful Voter Suppression’ Ahead Of Primaries, New Hampshire AG Says

The New Hampshire attorney general's office sent a cease-and-desist order to the DNC for apparently violating voter suppression laws.

DeSantis hauls in a record $8.2 million in 24 hours after launching presidential campaign, easily beating Biden and Trump



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hauled in a record $8.2 million in the first 24 hours after launching his presidential campaign.

DeSantis was able to garner millions even though his presidential campaign announcement was blemished by temporary technical difficulties at the start of the Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk, which had nearly 4 million people tune in.

DeSantis easily out-fundraised the past two presidents – who are currently the front-runners in the 2024 race.

"The money raised by DeSantis tops the previous record – the $6.3 million that President Joe Biden hauled in as a White House candidate during the first 24 hours after his campaign launch in 2019," according to Fox News.

Donald Trump raised $9.5 million in his first six weeks after announcing his 2024 candidacy in mid-November. The former Republican president also reportedly raised $7 million in the three days after his indictment in Manhattan.

Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting DeSantis, expects to have an overall budget of at least $200 million – including $80 million transferred from an old DeSantis state political account.

Top officials with Never Back Down believe they can promote DeSantis as "the only candidate to take on — and win — the cultural fights that are definitional for the Republican Party in 2024," according to the New York Times.

The super PAC is preparing to launch a "$100 million voter-outreach push so big it plans to knock on the door of every possible DeSantis voter at least four times in New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina — and five times in the kickoff Iowa caucuses."

Never Back Down plans to hire more than 2,600 field organizers by Labor Day in an attempt to sway Americans to vote for DeSantis in the upcoming Republican primary. The organization – which was established in March by Ken Cuccinelli, a former senior official in Donald Trump's administration – has already started hiring recruits in 18 states.

Never Back Down executive director Chris Jankowski told the Times, "No one has ever contemplated the scale of this organization or operation, let alone done it. This has just never even been dreamed up.”

Never Back Down hired top Republican strategist Jeff Roe, the founder of political consultancy Axiom Strategies and Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign manager in 2016, as well as a close adviser to Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Roe conceded that Trump has been "the leader of a movement," but proclaimed that DeSantis "has the opportunity to be the leader of the party and the movement."

"That is a key difference," Roe stated. "I don’t believe people fundamentally understand that you can be a leader of a movement and not be the leader of your party. Ron DeSantis has the ability to be both. Trump does not."

Regarding defeating Trump, Roe said, "How do you beat Trump? Well, you beat Trump by beating Trump. And where Ron DeSantis has beaten Trump is by doing what Republican voters want him to do the most.”

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Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson blasts Trump, reveals 2024 plans, and defends state's abortion ban in interview



Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday that he is "laying the foundation" for a 2024 presidential campaign, asserting that former President Donald Trump has "disqualified himself" from returning to the White House by his conduct leading up to and after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

While he has not committed to running for president and says he is waiting until after the 2022 midterm elections to make a final decision, Hutchinson offered blistering criticism of Trump during an interview on CBS News and indicated he would be willing to challenge the former president for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

"Obviously, there's talk about 2024, and I had to make it clear that Trump has disqualified himself, in my judgement, from his actions from Jan. 6 and leading up to that," Hutchinson told "CBS Mornings" on Friday. "And so we have to go in a different direction for our country, for my party. I want to be a voice for commonsense conservatism."

"I haven't made a commitment to it, I haven't made a decision on it, but I'm laying the foundation for that if that is something that's going to be helpful to our country," he said.

Hutchinson joined the program for a wide-ranging interview that covered the demise of Roe v. Wade, Arkansas' trigger law that nearly banned abortions in the state, and the latest testimony from the House Jan. 6 committee.

On abortion, the Republican governor described actions lawmakers will take now that all abortions are illegal in Arkansas, excepting medical emergencies when the life of the mother is endangered. The state's trigger law went into effect last week after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its decision for Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

Hutchinson said that Arkansas accepted Medicaid expansion to provide "health coverage for the working poor" and that in addition to $1 million for pregnancy centers, the state will increase funding for mental health and other services.

Noting that there were about 3,000 abortions in Arkansas last year, the governor said "a significant number of those will be reduced" thanks to the statewide abortion ban.

”Some of those moms will put their child up for adoption,” said Hutchinson, ”so we’re going to have to increase our adoption services. Others will go out of state, which I think will be a small minority, but there’ll be many that will carry that child to term and to keep that child. And so we want to make sure that we have the wraparound services for that mom, both during the pregnancy, but also afterwards. So we’re looking at as to how we can beef that up.”

Asked about an effort from some GOP state lawmakers to prevent women from traveling out of state to seek abortions, Hutchinson said he would not support such legislation, calling it "a violation of interstate commerce."

Turning to the Jan. 6 committee hearings, CBS host Nate Burleson asked if Hutchinson agreed with Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney's assertion that Trump is "a domestic threat we have never seen before."

Hutchinson agreed that Trump's attempts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results were "a threat to our democracy."

"That's not the behavior we want to see in a responsible president," he said.

"I would not be supporting him for 2024," Hutchinson added. "He acted irresponsibly during that time. He was a risk to the nation, absolutely."

Watch:

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on state’s near-total abortion ban youtu.be

Ron DeSantis has raised more money than any other candidate for governor ever, report says



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may soon raise more money for his re-election campaign than he and his former Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum raised combined in the 2018 gubernatorial election.

DeSantis has raised more than $100 million for his 2022 campaign, a monstrous sum achieved entirely through donations. He raised $6.1 million in March alone, according to CNN, and had previously reported raising a total of $96 million for this election cycle through February.

In comparison, the leading Democratic candidate to challenge DeSantis this year, Rep. Charlie Crist, has raised only $7.1 million and has $4.7 million cash on hand. Another Democratic candidate, state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, raised just $6 million so far and has spent more than half of that in the Democratic primary campaign.

The March fundraising numbers will be officially released Monday, which is the Florida deadline to report candidate fundraising.

To put the $100 million figure in perspective, DeSantis and Gillum raised a combined $113 million in their match-up four years ago. If DeSantis' 2022 fundraising keeps pace with what he's already raised, he will blow past that number before November's election.

CNN reports that only two other gubernatorial candidates have managed to raise more than $100 million for their campaigns: 2010 California GOP nominee for governor Meg Whitman, a former business executive, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whose family owns Hyatt Hotels. Both of these candidates were mostly self-funded, whereas DeSantis, whose net worth is only $348,000 according to his financial disclosures, has managed to win the allegiance of grassroots supporters and big-time GOP donors. He may be the first candidate for governor anywhere to do so.

It's a monumental achievement for DeSantis, a former congressman who was in the middle of the pack of GOP candidates for governor before President Donald Trump endorsed him in 2018.

What the numbers demonstrate is that since becoming governor, DeSantis' record has earned national support from Republicans, many of whom believe he will be a formidable presidential candidate in the future.

His fundraising strength "catapults him into the top tier of potential GOP candidates," veteran GOP strategist Scott Reed told CNN.

"He's been asking for big licks -- $5 million and $10 million per fundraiser -- and he's getting them and that's a warning sign," Reed said. "DeSantis is the talk of every Republican cocktail party and every organizational meeting. His support spans the money class and the movement conservatives. And that's a strong combination early in the game."

After analyzing the governor's fundraising records, CNN reports that cash is flowing to his campaign from a variety of places. DeSantis is picking up small-dollar donations from grassroots supporters as well as wealthy and influential GOP donors in all 50 states. His political action committee has also reportedly received six-figure sums from members of former President Donald Trump's donor network, including Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, WeatherTech CEO David MacNeil, and shipping magnate Richard Uihlein and his wife, Elizabeth.

Rob Stutzman, a California-based GOP consultant, told CNN that the governor's fundraising and his popularity with Trump's donors "certainly confirms conventional wisdom that he is the non-Trump front-runner for the nomination" in 2024.

"Demonstrating that kind of fundraising network is what other candidates will notice as they assess whether to enter the field to compete against him," Stutzman added. "It may be an issue that continues to engender Donald Trump's jealousy, too."

While GOP consultants and political pundits speculate over whether DeSantis could mount a 2024 campaign for president, Trump is showing every intention of running again and has said publicly that he doesn't expect to be challenged for the GOP nomination.

In an interview with the Washington Post last week, Trump said that he "made" DeSantis by endorsing him in 2018 — a claim he's stated before — and said he doesn't believe the Florida governor or any other notable Republican will run against him if he runs for president again.

"If I ran, I can't imagine they'd want to run," Trump said. "Some out of loyalty would have had a hard time running."