Political Wire

  • Front Page
  • Members
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In
  • Trending
  • Resources
    • Politics Extra
    • Political Job Hunt
    • Political Dictionary
    • Electoral Vote Map
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • Contact Us
Members should sign in for the full experience.

GOP Holds Edge in Party Affiliation

January 21, 2025 at 3:30 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Gallup: “Overall, 46% of Americans identified as Republicans or independents who leaned toward the Republican Party, compared with 45% who identified as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents.”

Prior to 2022, Republicans only had a slight edge once before, in 1991.”

Filed Under: Republicans

Why We’re Back Here Again

January 20, 2025 at 7:57 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Seth Masket offers two very basic facts about modern Republican politics:

  • Republican voters largely love Donald Trump. Not all of them, to be sure, but enough of them like what he stands for, like who he has chosen for his enemies, and look back with fondness on his first term.
  • Republican officeholders are largely terrified of Donald Trump. They know that if they cross him too much, he can end their career in a primary election, and his supporters can also threaten them and their families.

Filed Under: Republicans

Michael Whatley Re-Elected RNC Chair

January 17, 2025 at 11:42 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Republican National Committee on Friday reelected Michael Whatley as chair, continuing the tenure of President-elect Donald Trump’s second hand-picked leader for the GOP, Politico reports.

Filed Under: Republicans


You're reading the free version of Political Wire

Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.

    Upgrade Now

  • ✔ Become a member to get many great benefits -- exclusive analysis, a trending news page, a private podcast, no advertising and more!
  • ✔ If you're already a member, log in for the full experience.



Georgia GOP Boots Geoff Duncan from the Party

January 7, 2025 at 5:38 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Early Monday afternoon, former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) received an email from a Georgia GOP official spelling out a trio of punishments for his embrace of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign last year,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

“The state executive committee formally expelled Duncan from the party, demanded he cease referring to himself as a Republican and banned him from attending any state GOP events.”

Filed Under: Republicans

Sununu Insists Trump Hasn’t Changed the GOP

December 30, 2024 at 8:02 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said he does not think President-elect Donald Trump has permanently changed the GOP, The Hill reports.

Said Sununu: “We’ve always been a spectrum in the party. We’ve had moderates, we’ve had fiscal conservatives and social moderates and social conservatives. It’s a huge spectrum, and it’s a big tent, and it will be, it will continue to be.”

Filed Under: Republicans, Trump Legacy

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

December 19, 2024 at 5:50 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Is Elon Musk the new dictator of the Republican Party?”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), quoted by the New York Times.

Filed Under: Republicans, Trump Transition

Romney Says MAGA Is the Republican Party

December 15, 2024 at 10:20 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Sen. Mitt Romney, a frequent Donald Trump critic who will soon retire from Congress, stood by his criticism of the president-elect’s character but said Trump and his MAGA movement now define the Republican Party,” CNN reports.

Said Romney: “I’m, as you know, not a supporter of President Trump’s. I didn’t support him in this election. I didn’t the last time he ran either, largely for matters of character.”

However, he added: “MAGA is the Republican Party and Donald Trump is the Republican Party today.”

Filed Under: Republicans

Lara Trump Steps Down as RNC Co-Chair

December 9, 2024 at 6:34 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Lara Trump will step down as co-chair of the Republican National Committee as she considers a number of potential options with her father-in-law, President-elect Donald Trump, set to return to the White House,” the AP reports.

“Among those possibilities is replacing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Trump tapped to be the next secretary of state. If Rubio is confirmed, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will choose who takes the seat through the remainder of Rubio’s term, which expires in 2026.”

Filed Under: Republicans

America’s Nightmare Is Two Feral Parties

December 5, 2024 at 10:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Janan Ganesh: “Had Kamala Harris won the U.S. election last month — and it was close, remember, despite the tone of the coverage since then — would Donald Trump have conceded defeat within 24 brisk hours? Would Republicans in Congress be preparing to certify the result in the new year? Would the party’s voters accept her as the legitimate president when asked in polls? On all three counts, there is enough doubt that posing the questions doesn’t seem exotic.”

“Without quite acknowledging it, American politics has arrived at an understanding. One side can ignore the rules of the game — to the point of challenging election outcomes without proof of fraud — and the other can’t, or at least doesn’t. In the language of the street, but also of game theory, the Democratic party is the sucker. If it were one of the two detainees in the prisoner’s dilemma, it would confess to a crime, the accomplice wouldn’t, and jail would beckon for the former. The prisoner at least has the excuse of ignorance. Democrats are aware of being diddled.”

“This isn’t tenable. The ultimate risk to the American republic is that Democrats give up their unilateral observance of basic norms. The system can survive, just about, one of the two main parties going feral. It can’t survive both. And so the story isn’t that Joe Biden has pardoned his son, having promised not to. The story is what far worse behaviors it might augur from the Democrats in future, given the incentives they face.”

Filed Under: Democrats, Republicans

Michael Whatley to Remain RNC Chair

December 4, 2024 at 4:21 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley has agreed to remain in the role following President-elect Donald Trump’s request for him to stay, Politico reports.

Filed Under: Republicans

The Rise of the Anti-Elite Elite

December 4, 2024 at 12:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Derek Thompson: “This primitive romanticism is the core of the modern Republican Party. To the extent that any single attitude unites the motley coalitions under Donald Trump, it is a pervasive distrust of incumbents, establishments, and legacy organizations. In Pew Research surveys, less than half of Republicans say they believe that higher education, Big Business, tech firms, the media, the entertainment industry, or unions have a positive effect on society.”

“Although more than 60 percent of Democrats say they trust a variety of news organizations, including CNN and The New York Times, there is not one media company that more than 60 percent of Republicans say they trust, including Fox News.”

Filed Under: Republicans

Two Big Fights Defining Washington

December 1, 2024 at 11:33 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “Over the last 16 or so hours, we’ve seen a dramatic escalation in two big fights that will define the near-term future of politics here in Washington.”

“One is over a key administration post — and what that tells us about both the state of today’s Republican Party and what America under Trump 2.0 will look like.”

“The other is for the chairmanship of the Democratic Party as it finds itself locked in the wilderness.”

Filed Under: Democrats, Republicans, Trump Transition

A Guide for the Politically Homeless

November 26, 2024 at 1:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Eliot Cohen: “Those of us who first became politically homeless in 2016 have lately been in a quandary: We need to figure out who we are. If we are not to succumb to the Saruman trap—going along with populist authoritarians in the foolish hope of using them for higher purposes—then we had better establish what we stand for.”

“Labels matter in politics. They can also lose their meaning. There is, for example, nothing ‘conservative’ about the MAGA movement, which is, in large part, reactionary, looking for a return to an idealized past, when it is not merely a cult of personality. Today’s progressives are a long, long way from their predecessors of the early 20th century—just invoke Theodore Roosevelt’s name at a gathering of ‘the Squad’ and see what happens.”

“Even the terms left and right—derived, let us remember, from seating arrangements in the National Assembly during the early days of the French Revolution—no longer convey much. Attitudes toward government coercion of various kinds, deficit spending, the rule of law—neither party holds consistent views on these subjects.”

Filed Under: Democrats, Republicans, Third Parties

Bonus Quote of the Day

November 19, 2024 at 1:26 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I think there is sort of a faction in the Republican Party that has a strange kind of… sort of homoerotic fascination for Putin, which I personally don’t share.”

— Former British prime minister Boris Johnson, speaking at an event.

Filed Under: Republicans

Rubio Sees ‘Remaking’ of the Republican Party

November 6, 2024 at 8:33 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said Tuesday’s election showed a realignment of the Republican Party and the American electorate that centers less on race and more on occupation, the Washington Post reports.

Said Rubio: “Donald Trump won it by fundamentally remaking the Republican Party but I hope also revealing to people that for voters in the United States of America, their primary identity is not their ethnicity, it’s not their race. It’s what they do for a living, it’s who they are in their daily lives.”

Filed Under: Republicans

Trump Identifies a Scapegoat If He Loses

October 29, 2024 at 12:09 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Donald Trump is making clear that he’ll blame Michael Whatley, the Republican National Committee chair who Trump tasked with building the party’s massive “election integrity” team, Axios reports.

Said Trump at a recent rally: “So Michael, you better win or you’re never going to be able to come back here. He doesn’t win, he won’t be at RNC and he will no longer be in North Carolina. He’ll be looking for a job.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Republicans

There Was No Saving the Republican Party

October 27, 2024 at 4:14 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

David French: “When Trump announced his first run for president, his vitriolic speech planted a seed of hatred in the American body politic. That seed found fertile soil.”

“If I could talk to my 2015 self, I’d deliver a simple, dispiriting message: There isn’t a specific tactic or argument that will win back the Republican Party from Donald Trump.”

“You’ve already lost.”

Filed Under: Republicans

Liz Cheney Says She’s Not a Member of Trump’s Party

October 13, 2024 at 11:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) told NBC News that she is a “conservative” but does not consider herself to be “a member of Donald Trump’s Republican Party.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Republicans

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • …
  • 168
  • Next Page »

Get Smarter About Politics

Members get exclusive analysis, a trending news page, the Trial Balloon podcast, bonus newsletters and no advertising. Learn more.

Subscribe

Your Account

Sign in

Latest for Members

  • Why Democrats Must Keep the Epstein Story Alive
  • Republicans Take a Big Gamble in Texas
  • Trump Takes Charge of Epstein Cover-Up
  • Trump’s Approval Rating Hits Familiar Lows
  • Why Is Biden Talking Now?

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

Praise for Political Wire

“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”

— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”

“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”

— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report

“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”

— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report

“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”

— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia

“Political Wire is a great, great site.”

— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”

“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”

— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post

“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”

— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit

“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”

— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.

Copyright © 2025 · Goddard Media LLC | Privacy Policy | Corrections Policy

Political Wire ® is a registered trademark of Goddard Media LLC