2022 Midterm Elections

[Cartmann99]

From the article linked by @Howl :

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Taylor, a former state senator, was first elected in 2018 to represent the 3rd Congressional District in the Dallas suburbs. His four primary challengers on Tuesday criticized his vote last year for a commission to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

[...]

Self, who served three terms as county judge starting in 2007, ran against Taylor as someone who "lost his way" and "went Washington." He criticized Taylor for voting to certify the 2020 election results and vowed support for a "full forensic audit" of the election in Texas.

All the challengers focused on Taylor's 2021 vote for a proposed bipartisan, independent commission to probe the events of Jan. 6, when supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol. The commission never became law, but Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi later formed a select committee on Jan. 6 whose work is ongoing. Taylor voted against that committee, but his foes blurred the distinction as they attacked Taylor as insufficiently supportive of Trump.

You'll never experience true joy until you fully submit yourself to Dear Leader.

[Cartmann99]

Bell wants to represent VA-02 in the U.S. House.

 

[Cartmann99]

Nevada’s Democratic governor was accosted. Here’s how his GOP opponents responded

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Candidates seeking Nevada’s GOP gubernatorial nomination separated themselves this week in their responses to a threatening verbal attack against incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat.

The drama unfolded Sunday, when Sisolak and his wife were subjected to a profanity-laced rant in a Las Vegas restaurant by two men, one of whom threatened the governor by says he would, “string you up by a lamppost.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal posted the cellphone video of the incident. The Associated Press reported that a video posted to Instagram splices together scenes of the incident from two vantage points.

“Where’s your security at, punk, huh?” one man asks, pointing his cellphone toward Sisolak’s face. As the governor’s wife, Kathy Sisolak, joins the governor to leave, the man trails them, declaring, “You working-for-China (expletive).”

Kathy Sisolak, who was born in Ely, Nevada, is of Asian descent.

Another man seen pushing a child away as he rises from a restaurant booth follows, calling Sisolak a traitor. The man says the governor should be hung, then turns and returns toward the restaurant.

The video ends in the restaurant’s parking lot, where Sisolak’s daughter, Ashley Sisolak, a lawyer and public defender, rushes to the governor and his wife near their vehicle.

“Because your daughter’s with you, I’m going to leave you alone now,” the man said as he turned away, the AP reported.

The incident, which is being investigated by state police, comes as Republicans hope to take back the governor’s seat that Sisolak captured in 2018. He became the first Democratic governor in Nevada in 20 years and is seeking a second term in a state that has slipped out of GOP control.

After the video was published, the Nevada GOP issued a statement saying “there is no place for the behavior and violent threats against the governor we saw on video from this weekend.

Chairman Michael J. McDonald urged voters to express their views “at the ballot box by electing our Republican nominee, not at a restaurant as (Sisolak) sits down for a meal with his wife and children.”

But responses from those seeking the GOP nomination were mixed in condemning the verbal attack against their Democratic opponent and his family.

Former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee have opted to say nothing, the Reno Gazette Journal reported. And conservative firebrands Joey Gilbert and Michele Fiore said Sisolak was asking for it and should expect more of it.

Gilbert, a Reno attorney and former boxer, wrote on Facebook he couldn’t “think of a more deserving person” than Sisolak to get harassed and threatened. 

“Hell no I do not condemn it,” he wrote. “You earned it Steve. You absolutely earned it.”

The Las Vegas Sun reported that Fiore, a Las Vegas city councilwoman, said Sisolak was “lucky it was just words” and “if you look at the history of dictators pitchforks will be next.”

Only Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo saw the incident as out of line.

“While I understand the frustration with Gov. Sisolak and his left-wing policies, no one deserves to be accosted while trying to enjoy a peaceful meal with their family,” Lombardo said in a statement. ”Hateful verbal abuse and violent threats have no place in our political system.”

A recent pollby the Nevada Independent showed Lombardo comfortably ahead all candidates seeking the GOP nomination. The same poll showed Sisolak over Lombardo, 52% to 48%, at the time the poll was taken in January.

The weekend confrontation in Las Vegas, comes at a time when threats against public officials have surged, The New York Times reported, citing its recent review of more than 75 indictments of people charged with threatening lawmakers since 2016.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, recently defended previously undisclosed expenditures for security at his private home in rural Utah because of “serious concerns about real threats and vulnerabilities.”

In Nevada, a statement following Sunday’s encounter the governor’s office said that Sisolak was “deeply disappointed in how this incident unfolded, particularly with the language used to talk about first lady Kathy Sisolak’s heritage. We can disagree about the issues, but the personal attacks and threats are unwarranted, unwelcome and unbecoming behavior for Nevadans.”

One of the men who accosted the governor and his wife was defiant at a news conference he held on Tuesday in Las Vegas, the Times reported.

“I will not apologize for speaking out and expressing two years of frustration,” Justin Andersch said. “I will not apologize for holding public officials responsible for their choices.”

He blamed his job loss on Sisolak’s policies responding to the pandemic.

Andersch is a self-described “digital creator” who promotes far-right anti-government conspiracy theories on a blog called “Cannabis and Combat,” the AP reported.

Sisolak’s campaign issued a statement saying that without strong condemnation of last weekend’s encounter, more of the same can be expected.

“Words have consequences — and the GOP field should be horrified that their rhetoric is encouraging violence,” the campaign stated. ”Anything less than a denunciation is condoning this behavior and encouraging it to continue.”

The video in the tweet below is NSFW because of language.

 

[Cartmann99]

Oklahoma GOP Chairman John Bennett announces run for Congress

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Oklahoma GOP Chairman John Bennett became the latest Republican to announce his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives, aiming to grasp the 2nd Congressional District seat that is being vacated by Rep. Markwayne Mullin. 

Taking the stage Friday during a campaign rally for U.S. Senate candidate Jackson Lahmeyer, Bennett announced his plans to an audience of about 350 people.

“Some of you may not be in my district and that’s OK, because there are no borderlines for liberty,” said Bennett, of Sallisaw. “We’re going to get this country back where it needs to be, and we’re going to put freedom back on the offensive where it belongs.”

Bennett, a 46-year-old Marine Corps veteran, was elected as the GOP leader in April. He previously served in the Oklahoma House from 2011 to 2018.  

Last summer, he came under fire from some members of his own party for comparing vaccine mandates to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. He later doubled down on those claims.

While it is nearly unheard of for party leaders to publicly support candidates in a primary election, Bennett has backed Lahmeyer for Senate, turning away from incumbent James Lankford. 

“We need people with a spine and principles who will stand up and fight for we the people,” said Bennett to rally attendees, stressing the need to recapture the country from progressive politicians and policies.

Lahmeyer, a Tulsa pastor, offered support to Bennett during the rally at Sundance Airport in Oklahoma City. Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, allies to former President Donald Trump, also spoke during the campaign event. 

“There is no question whatsoever that we need to put that great American patriot, my new friend and a man I admire enormously, John Bennett, in Congress,” said Stone. 

Last month, Mullin, R-Westville, announced he would run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe, who will step down from office in January. 

 

[Cartmann99]

On 3/2/2022 at 7:35 AM, Howl said:

Re: Bianca Garcia -- so a lot of Texans have failed the test and are going straight to hell.  Is Bianca coping with major cognitive dissonance this morning? Or did she suddenly decide God has other plans for her? 

Gracia and two other candidates have filed a lawsuit against the Harris County Elections Administrator, Isabel Longoria:

Spoiler

On March 3rd, Gracia blamed the "Republican elite" for her loss:

Spoiler

 

The Harris County Republican Party has filed their own lawsuit against Ms. Longoria:

Spoiler

 

[GreyhoundFan]

TW: Rape. Horrible candidate projected to win a seat in the MI house. Story under spoiler.

Spoiler

A Republican candidate favored to win a seat in the Michigan House said he tells his daughters to “just lie back and enjoy it” if raped, as he attempted to make an analogy about abandoning efforts to decertify the results of the 2020 election.

Robert Regan, who is running to represent Michigan’s District 74 in the state legislature, made the comments during a Facebook live stream Sunday. The discussion was hosted by the Rescue Michigan Coalition, a conservative group that supports former president Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The Justice Department found no evidence to support Trump’s baseless allegations.

During the discussion, fellow panelist Amber Harris, a Republican strategist, told the group that it is “too late” to continue challenging the results of the 2020 election, suggesting Republicans should instead move on and focus on future races, to which Regan replied: “I tell my daughters, ‘Well, if rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it.’ ”

Regan then moved on to other comparisons, drawing a parallel between his recent victory in the Republican primary and the biblical story of David and Goliath.

A shocked Harris, however, tried to cut in as Regan and the discussion’s host, Rescue Michigan Coalition founder Adam de Angeli, moved on. When de Angeli gave Harris the chance to speak, she said Regan’s comments were “shameful.”

“I’ve got advice to give to your daughters: Don’t do that,” Harris said. “Fight all the time.”

Regan’s three daughters urged voters not to elect him to office in a viral tweet during his 2020 bid for the state House.

“If you’re in Michigan and 18+ pls for the love of god do not vote for my dad for state rep. Tell everyone,” Stephanie Regan wrote on Twitter.

Regan, who last week advanced to the general election after winning the special Republican primary by 81 votes, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. On Monday, he told Bridge Michigan, a local news outlet, that “sometimes” his words “aren’t as smooth and polished as the politicians are because I’m not a politician.”

“I’m working on it,” Regan said. “The only reason the left trolls attack you is because they know you’re directly over the target, dropping direct hits on an issue. If you’re not scoring hits, they leave you alone.”

He said his comments on rape and the election only meant “nothing is inevitable.”

De Angeli told The Washington Post in an email conversation Tuesday that it was clear to him that Regan was “speaking extemporaneously.”

“Upon reviewing the video, I think he was actually talking about the 2020 election and saying that Republicans shouldn’t concede that Biden won fairly,” De Angeli said, adding that Regan apologized for his comment.

During the discussion, Regan also said that, if elected, he’d push for the decertification of the results of the 2020 election in Michigan. Under both state and federal law, a state can’t decertify an election.

“We do want to decertify this election and we do want it returned to the rightful owner, just like if someone stole your car or stole your jewelry,” Regan said. “It goes back to the rightful owner. You decertify and you give it to the rightful owner, and that’s Donald Trump, and that’s what I’m pushing for and we’re going full-bore on that.”

Other comments by Regan surfaced online after a clip of the live stream went viral, including a 2021 Instagram post from the candidate in which he claimed that feminism is a “Jewish program to degrade and subjugate White men.” Regan has also called the Russian invasion of Ukraine a “fake war just like the fake pandemic.”

Regan’s comments drew criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike, with Michigan GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock calling them “offensive and disappointing.”

“I’d like to think he didn’t mean what he said,” Maddock told Bridge Michigan. “If I could control what our candidates say all the time, that would be a great thing.”

The state party’s other co-chair, Ron Weiser, a former U.S. ambassador to Slovakia, also criticized Regan.

“Mr. Regan’s history of foolish, egregious and offensive comments, including his most recent one are simply beyond the pale,” Weiser said in a statement. “We are better than this as a Party and I absolutely expect better than this of our candidates.”

Still, the party leaders did not call for Regan to drop out of the race.

Jason C. Roe, a Republican strategist in Michigan, said that while the group of people who continue to say that “we should re-litigate 2020 is shrinking,” the “obsession” among some Republicans in his state with a forensic audit of the presidential election is going to cause the party to miss out on “historic” gains in the next election.

“Increasingly, I think there’s a lot of frustration that we’re giving away our opportunities statewide, and I think this adds to the problems,” Roe said of Regan’s controversy. Regan, he said, is still poised to win this year’s election, but once the district is redrawn, “he’s gone.”

Regan will face Democrat Carol Glanville, Walker City commissioner, in a May 3 special election to fill the vacant Michigan House seat in the state’s Kent County.

The chair of the state’s Democratic Party, Lavora Barnes, said in a statement Monday that the state’s GOP should denounce Regan’s remarks and make clear that the 2020 presidential election will not be decertified.

“This type of language is disgusting and Michigan Republicans have got to stand up and denounce Regan’s remarks and what his candidacy represents,” Barnes said. “If they don’t, Regan will be the face of the Michigan Republican Party. His extreme views and reckless comments on the Russian invasion, 2020 election results and now rape show he is totally unfit for office.”

In 2012, Republican Rep. Todd Akin (Mo.) lost his bid for the U.S. Senate after a remark about “legitimate rape” that touched off an outcry among Republicans and Democrats. Akin, an abortion rights opponent, had suggested in an interview that women’s bodies could stop a pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.” “The female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Akin said.

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

Remember Michelle Fiore?

Seven days later, she's running for a different office:

Spoiler

 

 

[Audrey2]

Just in case anyone hadn't heard about the Ohio senatorial debate, here is the new Lincoln project ad that covers the incident.

I know I've talked about Josh Mandel before but he is absolutely not suited to be in the senate. He would be the same disaster as mMTG, Bobert, Crenshaw, Hawley, and Madison are in the house.

[Cartmann99]

 

[AnywhereButHere]

Because Jesus hasn’t got anything better to do than hang out in a closet in CA dispensing scrolls. 
 

https://www.salon.com/2022/03/20/california-candidate-running-for-office-because-jesus-spoke-to-her-son-in-the-closet_partner/

Spoiler

California Republican Rachel Hamm is running for Secretary of State in the June primary. Like many candidates, she is speaking about her motivation for running. Like many GOP candidates, she is claiming God was involved in her decision. Unlike any other candidate, Hamm says Jesus spoke to her son in a closet and told her to declare her candidacy.

"I've been a prophetic dreamer so I had spent a lot of 2019 and 20 having a lot of political dreams that I was in office. And because our youngest son, Ezekiel is a seer I went and got him and I said, 'Hey, can you look around and see what you're seeing?' Because I just really, I get a kick out of hearing him describe, you know, what he sees?"
 

And so, he said, you know, let me know if you see anything. And so he looked at my bedroom and my bathroom. He said, 'There's nothing there.' And then he goes into the closet – which is where I had been when I was praying – and he said, 'Whoa,' and his eyes got like, big as saucers, and he kind of like started backing away, and then started bending down and he said, 'You've got a really big guy in your closet, and his power is pushing me to the ground,' and we had never had he'd never had that reaction ever, to an angel. And so I'm like, is he's for us, not against us, right?"

"'He's full of light, I can't even see his face.' And then he said, 'he has a scroll in his hand.' And so I was like, then he came with a message is what is the message and the message was a commissioning. so at the very end, I asked him what his name was. 'What angel is this?' you know? And he said, 'Immanuel,' That wasn't an angel. It wasn't an angel that was Jesus Himself. And so that's why I'm running for Secretary of State."

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

[Cartmann99]

 

[Audrey2]

I actually think she needs to go to congress. Let's build a fake capital building on a nice comfortable Island someplace and send all the people like MTG, Bober, Jordan, Madison, Gates and some of the others to the island to play government. We could even build a fake White House there as well as some golf courses and let Trump play president. Then the adults could work in Washington and actually get things done.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Audrey2

[Cartmann99]

The backstory:

Eric Greitens accused by ex-wife of physically abusing his family, 'unstable and coercive' behavior

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The ex-wife of former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a contender for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, alleged in a court filing that Greitens committed acts of physical violence against her and the couple's children, threatened to kill himself and made threats against her.

Sheena Greitens made the allegations in a sworn statement Monday that was filed in the couple’s divorce case in Missouri. She is attempting to have child-custody proceedings moved to Texas, where she now lives, because of her concerns about her former husband’s influence in Missouri as he seeks public office once again.

Now a public affairs professor at the University of Texas, Sheena Greitens filed for divorce in 2020 in Boone County, two years after Eric Greitens resigned in disgrace as governor on June 1, 2018.

A woman had accused Eric Greitens of sexual misconduct during an affair that started in 2015, saying he brought her to his basement, tied her up, took her clothes off and took a photograph of her without consent. The woman said the photograph was used as blackmail if she ever disclosed what happened.

Other scandals emerged during Greitens' time as governor, including accusations that he stole a donor list from a charity he founded.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged Greitens in 2018 with invasion of privacy for the alleged blackmail photograph but later dropped the charge.

Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker considered charges against Greitens when the case was transferred to her office. She ultimately did not bring a case against him, although Baker said she believed the victim’s statement about being photographed.

The investigation did not turn up the alleged photograph. But in Monday’s sworn testimony, Sheena Greitens said that Eric Greitens admitted to her in January 2021 that he did take the photograph, and that she would be exposed to legal jeopardy if she told anyone about it, including her family or therapist.

Sheena Greitens’ sworn testimony said in April 2018, about a month before Eric Greitens resigned, he knocked her down during an argument and confiscated her cell phone, wallet and keys. Sheena Greitens said when her mother confronted Eric Greitens about the incident, he said it was to prevent his wife from doing anything “that might damage his political career.”

Around that time, Sheena Greitens said she became afraid for her safety and that of her two young sons because of Eric Greitens’ “unstable and coercive behavior.”

“This behavior included physical violence toward our children, such as cuffing our then three-year-old son across the face at the dinner table in front of me and yanking him around by his hair,” Sheena Greitens said.

Sheena Greitens also said that her ex-husband made repeated threats to kill himself during the spring and summer of 2018 unless she “provided specific public support to him.” Those threats led to three separate instances in which others intervened to limit Eric Greitens’ access to guns, according to the affidavit.

“As I became afraid of his escalation of physical violence in early June 2018, I begged Eric to tell me where his firearm was – one that he had purchased in January 2018 and subsequently concealed from me,” Sheena Greitens wrote. “He refused, saying that I was not being sufficiently ‘cooperative.’ I started sleeping in my childrens’ room simply to try and keep them safe.”

Sheena Greitens also alleged that her ex-husband ordered her to delete emails she sent to her therapist.

“Eric threatened to accuse me of child abuse if I did not delete the emails and also convince the therapist to delete them,” Sheena Greitens wrote. “In the same call, he accused me of providing information both to the prosecutors who were investigating him and to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and called me ‘hateful, disgusting, nasty, vicious…a lying (expletive).’”

In November 2019, Sheena Greitens wrote that one son came home from a visit with Eric Greitens with a swollen face, bleeding gums and a loose tooth, and that the child said Eric Greitens hit him. According to the affidavit, Eric Greitens said the two were roughhousing and that the hit was an accident.

On Monday, Eric Greitens denied the allegations by his ex-wife. The Greitens campaign released a statement saying he was a “great Dad” and that his ex-wife had a history of “emotionally-abusive behavior.”

 

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

The backstory:

Eric Greitens accused by ex-wife of physically abusing his family, 'unstable and coercive' behavior

 

Sadly, Eric is a Republican, which means they'll probably elect him. If he were a Democrat, his political career would be over.

The Republicans are the family values party, y'all.

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

None of this will matter to his supporters.

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

Can someone please ask her ten-year-old, the one she thinks is a prophet, to explain to her that voting is a right instead of a privilege?

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Cartmann99