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LIKLIHOOD THAT STEFANIK WILL MAKE IT ONTO THE 20-24 PRESIDENTIAL BALLOT MEANTIME IN THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE. GOVERNOR PHIL SCOTT ENDORSING NIKKI HALEY FOR PRESIDENT TODAY. SCOTT BELIEVES AMERICA DOES NOT NEED FOUR MORE YEARS OF FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP. ADDING-- ITS NOW A TWO HORSE RACE... AND ITS TIME FOR AMERICA TO MOVE FORWARD

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott endorses Nikki Haley in the Republican primary

This comes as the campaign trail has brought Republicans to New Hampshire which will take place on Tuesday.

Updated: 4:42 PM EST Jan 19, 2024

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott has officially endorsed Republican Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. This comes as the campaign trail has brought Republicans to New Hampshire, which will take place on Tuesday. In a statement on Friday, Scott said, "America has a decision to make, and our friends and neighbors in New Hampshire have an opportunity to showcase their deep-rooted independent streak. After years of controversy, violent rhetoric and growing polarization, the very last thing we need is four more years of Donald Trump."Scott also feels it's now a two-horse race between the former president and the former South Carolina governor and ambassador saying, "In my view, the Republican Primary is now a two-person race. Governor Haley is our only chance to ensure America has the choice it deserves in November. Whether you're a Republican or independent, I encourage you to vote for Governor Haley in the Republican Primary. It is my sincere hope that the good people of New Hampshire will send a clear message."

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott has officially endorsed Republican Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. This comes as the campaign trail has brought Republicans to New Hampshire, which will take place on Tuesday.

In a statement on Friday, Scott said, "America has a decision to make, and our friends and neighbors in New Hampshire have an opportunity to showcase their deep-rooted independent streak. After years of controversy, violent rhetoric and growing polarization, the very last thing we need is four more years of Donald Trump."

Scott also feels it's now a two-horse race between the former president and the former South Carolina governor and ambassador saying, "In my view, the Republican Primary is now a two-person race. Governor Haley is our only chance to ensure America has the choice it deserves in November. Whether you're a Republican or independent, I encourage you to vote for Governor Haley in the Republican Primary. It is my sincere hope that the good people of New Hampshire will send a clear message."

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Vermont Gov. Phil Scott endorses Nikki Haley in the Republican primary - WPTZ

Neither of the two Republican debates planned for the days before the New Hampshire primary will be happening.

CNN canceled the debate it was set to host because only one candidate agreed to participate, the network said on Wednesday, a day after ABC News did the same.

The CNN debate had been scheduled for Sunday, and the ABC News/WMUR debate for Thursday. CNN said it would host a town-hall event with Ms. Haley on Thursday instead, after hosting one with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Tuesday.

Only Mr. DeSantis, who finished second in the Iowa caucuses, had said he would debate. Former President Donald J. Trump, who won Iowa overwhelmingly, has skipped every debate throughout the campaign. And Nikki Haley, the third-place finisher in Iowa, said on Tuesday that she would not do any more unless Mr. Trump participated.

Weve had five great debates in this campaign. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them, Ms. Haley said on X. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.

Ms. Haley is trying to present the race as a two-person contest between her and Mr. Trump despite her third-place showing in Iowa. Her campaign has noted that Mr. DeSantis focused on Iowa largely to the exclusion of other states. He is polling far behind Ms. Haley in New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Jan. 23, and in South Carolina, where Republicans vote on Feb. 24.

Mr. Trump, who is far ahead in polls of both states, has been uninterested in debating either of them. He has cast the race as over and himself as the inevitable nominee.

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CNN and ABC Cancel Republican Debates Ahead of New Hampshire Primary - The New York Times

The Kansas GOP zombies have returned.

These decayed corpses, shambling through the marble hallways of the Statehouse, dont hunger for brains. Instead, they crave discredited policy proposals from the past, outdated social issues and the return of their necrotic leader: Sam Brownback.

As anyone who has seen a zombie movie knows, zombies can be dealt with fairly easily if folks keep their wits about them and act rationally. Above all, dont try to reason with zombies they want what they want without regard for empathy, logic or common sense. Easier said than done, I know.

Wednesday showed the zombies advancing on two fronts.

One batch of the undead touted a platform proposal from the Kansas Republican Party. In the leaked document, the party denounces same-sex marriage, abortion and gun control, not to mention gender reassignment surgery and Medicaid expansion. Never mind that gay marriage has been legal since 2015 thats nine years of happy couples tying the knot or that 92,000 LGBTQ+ people live in the state (according to the Movement Advancement Project).

These zombies want to party like its 2004 and George W. Bush has just called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Sure, the stance sends a horrible message to the young people that employers desperately want to attract and retain, but zombies have a reputation for not thinking things through.

A second batch of zombies decided Wednesday that it would be a dandy idea to pass a flat tax. Their hated human enemy, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, had stolen headlines with a genuinely bipartisan tax plan last week, so they were going to regain control of the narrative. Their plan? Ram through a tax scheme that promises to return the deficits of Brownbacks fiscal experiment. (I never tire of reminding folks that he once polled as the United States least-popular governor.)

That doesnt matter, though! The zombies hunger for succulent tax cuts.

They want them even though Senate President Ty Masterson couldnt wrangle a veto-proof majority last year and appears to be short of the necessary votes this year, too. They want them enough to cram the legislation in a shell, hold an unlisted hearing, stream it online with a 2021 date and suspend normal order. The House eagerly followed suit on Thursday.

One might think that Kansas would want to stay fiscally responsible and plan for the future, but zombies, yknow? They lumber along mindlessly.

If zombies are dead, how can they move fast? asked George Romero, the filmmaker behind Night of the Living Dead and creator of the modern zombie mythos. My guys dont run. They never have and they never will. Theyre just lumbering oafs that are easy to dispose of unless you make a mistake.

Stepping back from metaphor for a moment, I just dont get it.

Same-sex marriage, abortion and Medicaid expansion receive overwhelming public support. Does the Kansas Republican Party platform committee really want to pick a fight with the states own people? Kelly won two terms as governor largely because of Brownbacks catastrophic mismanagement of the state economy. Do leaders really think they can bully the governor and sensible senators into submission over yet another dumb tax plan?

None of it makes sense. Sure, you can construct some wide-angle justifications. A handful of outspoken social conservatives never tire of targeting LBGTQ+ folks. Rich people will spend whatever it takes to rig the tax code in their favor. But a party led by sensible people, people whose brains havent been consumed by zombie fungus, would comprehend whats popular and whats possible and react accordingly.

Most Kansans dont want this stuff. Most legislators dont want this stuff.

Yet the zombies shamble forward, devouring all good sense in their path. They want what they want and they keep coming, no matter what.

Special thanks to former dean of Kansas lobbyists Tom Witt, who talked about zombie proposals a couple of years ago. I wrote about them then and revived the concept while putting this column together. Thanks, Tom.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

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Dawn of the misled: Zombie Republican proposals lurch across the Kansas landscape - Kansas Reflector

Republicans who will gather to cast the first votes of the 2024 presidential primary season have one essential responsibility: to nominate a candidate who is fit to serve as president, one who will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Donald Trump, who has proved himself unwilling to do so, is manifestly unworthy. He is facing criminal trials for his conduct as a candidate in 2016, as president and as a former president. In this, his third presidential bid, he has intensified his multiyear campaign to undermine the rule of law and the democratic process. He has said that if elected, he will behave like a dictator on Day 1 and that he will direct the Justice Department to investigate his political rivals and his critics in the media, declaring that the greatest dangers to the nation come not from abroad but from within.

Mr. Trump has a clear path to the nomination; no polling to date suggests he is anything but the front-runner. Yet Republicans in these states still have their ballots to cast. At this critical moment, it is imperative to remind voters that they still have the opportunity to nominate a different standard-bearer for the Republican Party, and all Americans should hope that they do so. This is not a partisan concern. It is good for the country when both major parties have qualified presidential candidates to put forward their competing views on the role of government in American society. Voters deserve such a choice in 2024.

Mr. Trumps construction of a cult of personality in which loyalty is the only real requirement has badly damaged the Republican Party and the health of American democracy. During the fight over the leadership of the House of Representatives in the fall, for example, Mr. Trump torpedoed the candidacy of Tom Emmer, a lawmaker who voted to certify the 2020 election results, to ensure the ascendancy of Mike Johnson, a loyalist who was an architect of the attempt to overturn that election. (Mr. Emmer has since endorsed Mr. Trump.) But some Republicans have set an example of integrity, demonstrating the courage to put their convictions and conservative principles above loyalty to Mr. Trump. Examples include people whom he once counted as allies, like former Attorney General Bill Barr, former Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats.

Voters may agree with the former presidents plans for further tax cuts, restrictions on abortions or strict limits on immigration. Thats politics, and the divisions among Americans over these issues will persist regardless of the outcome of this election. But electing Mr. Trump to four more years in the White House is a unique danger. Because what remains, what still binds Americans together as a nation, is the commitment to a process, a constitutional system for making decisions and moving forward even when Americans do not agree about the destination. That system guarantees the freedoms Americans enjoy, the foundation of the nations prosperity and of its security.

Mr. Trumps record of contempt for the Constitution and his willingness to corrupt people, systems and processes to his advantage puts all of it at risk.

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Opinion | The Responsibility of Republican Voters - The New York Times

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WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz this year, was among three Texas Democrats who voted on Wednesday to condemn President Joe Bidens handling of the southern border, rebuffing their party as Republicans continue to weaponize the migrant crisis in an election year.

The resolution denounces the Biden administrations open-borders policies and condemns the national security and public safety crisis that Republicans claim the administration has created on the border. U.S. Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Tyler, introduced the resolution. All Republicans voted for the resolution.

Allred's vote drew criticism from his electoral opponents from both sides. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who is running against Allred for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, blasted Allred for his vote, saying he sided with GOP extremists.

The Democratic nominee that goes up against Ted Cruz should fight tooth and nail against Trumps dangerous so-called policies. If our nominee agrees with Trump and Ted Cruz's idea of border security then we're in a hell of a lot of trouble, Gutierrez said in a statement.

A Cruz campaign spokesperson meanwhile called the move a "cowardly flip-flopping strategy" after Allred "consistently voted with his party for reckless border policies that benefit the undocumented, while weakening our country and its borders."

Allred responded to the criticism over his vote by touting his own bipartisan legislation that hes cosponsoring called the Dignity Act, which he said would help secure our border, provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and others who are living here and following our laws, and surge resources to our Border Patrol and border communities. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, co-authored the Dignity Act with Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar.

Our immigration system is broken, and we need bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform that reflects our values and meets the needs of our economy not more partisan stunts that lead us nowhere, he said.

U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both centrist border Democrats, also voted for the resolution, however the two of them have previously been much more likely to entertain Republican proposals to harden the border in the past and have criticized members of their party for not giving the issue enough attention.

Migrants continue to arrive in historic numbers while our U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers remain stretched thin, Gonzalez, whose district Republicans are targeting this cycle, said in a statement. This is all at the expense of border communities, like those in the 34th Congressional District of Texas.

Allred has been a reliable Democratic vote, but he has more recently shown a willingness to take harder steps on the border. After Biden announced in October that the administration would open the door to constructing more walls on the Texas-Mexico border, Allred praised the decision as a necessary step.

The border has emerged as one of the biggest Republican attack points against Democrats. Cruz routinely lambastes the administration and Democrats for the number of migrants entering the country and the growth of human trafficking and drug cartels.

Cruz went head to head with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a Senate Judiciary hearing in March where he demanded the secretary resign over his handling of the border. Cruz also introduced a House-passed Republican border bill into the Senate that would increase penalties for illegal immigration, build more walls and expedite deportations. Democrats in both chambers have been emphatic that they would never accept the House Republican border bill.

Despite Allreds Wednesday vote, he has emphasized that he opposed Republicans border plans as too severe and performative.

I have long said we need comprehensive reform. But now more than ever extreme politicians need to stop their political stunts and come to the table to form a real, bipartisan solution, Allred said in a statement last week against both Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott. That is something Ted Cruz has no interest in and something I will do as Senator.

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U.S. Rep. Colin Allred joins Republicans to condemn Biden's handling of border - The Texas Tribune