Gonzales has faced growing scrutiny in recent months for an affair with one staffer and for sending inappropriate messages to another. He withdrew from the Republican primary in March, following encouragement from fellow GOP lawmakers to drop his reelection bid.
"My constituents are saving thousands of dollars and they know it. Republicans can and should take credit because the alternative would've been massive tax hikes under the Democrats had they won the 2024 election."
A ProPublica investigation has found that most of these bills are part of a coordinated effort, orchestrated by a constellation of groups that share staff or have funding ties to the prominent conservative activist Leonard Leo.
"What they're talking about doing is banning certain kinds of shapes," says Kyle Wiens of iFixit, an outspoken opponent of the proposals. "We are starting to really dangerously undermine a lot of assumptions that go into how we make and use technology."
The proposal is the North Carolina GOP's latest attack on the state bar, a government agency that regulates lawyers. If this proposal becomes law, the same Republicans who have targeted Democratic justices with bogus ethics charges will control the committee that decides when lawyers violate ethics rules.
Gill's comments sum up the conservatives' view: The protest has little to do with policy substance and everything to do with forcing action on the SAVE Act. As long as the blockade continues, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will have to rely on Democratic support to pass any bills that originate in the Senate.
"It'll guarantee the midterms," he told Republicans gathered in the ballroom of his golf course just outside Miami on Monday. "If you don't get it, big trouble." Trump insisted that building on strict national voter identification laws, banning mail ballots, and restricting transgender rights would secure Republican electoral success.
Trump wins 69% of cases before Trump-appointed district judges. Now compare that to: 21% win rate before non-Trump Republican appointees and 38.6% win rate before Democratic appointees. Earlier Republican-appointed judges rule against Trump at a rate approaching four out of five cases. That means Trump's 69% success rate before his own appointees isn't some partisan alignment, but rather a notable statistical anomaly.
The scene was chaotic and joyful, with several young kids running around and scattering croissant crumbs on our sofa while their parents attempted adult conversation over mimosas. Inevitably, the moment arrived when a child knocked over a drink on our coffee table. It was an old West Elm design with a panel on top and a storage area underneath. The spilled beverage was dripping into the seams, so a crowd of parents rushed to open the table and mop up the liquid pooling within.
"It is not the critic who counts," President Theodore Roosevelt once said. "The credit belongs to the man who is in the arena." The Heritage Foundation has been in the arena for many years, fighting many battles, so it's no surprise that it has attracted many critics as well. And while Heritage cannot claim perfection, this much is certain: We have stayed true to our mission despite the critics;
Earlier this week, Gary Kendrick, a GOP council member in the red town of El Cajon, on San Diego's eastern outskirts, announced that he was crossing the aisle and joining the Democrats. Kendrick was the longest-serving Republican official in the region's local government. "I've been a Republican for 50 years," he said, in the statement explaining his action. "I just can't stand what the Republican Party has become. I'm formally renouncing the Republican Party."
