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US Senate Tag

Hours after the death of Senator John McCain (R-AZ) was announced, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) proposed renaming the Russell Senate office building the McCain Building.  Soon-to-be former Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) quickly added his name to the proposal. The idea, however, has been met with push back from other Senators, including McCain's good friend Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and from the GOP base.  The idea is a bad one for a number of reasons, but if the goal was to unify the Senate GOP, it's working quite well.

Tuesday had a bunch of primaries, but Florida and Arizona caught my eyes. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), managed to win the Democrat primary for the Florida governor race and is the first black nominee for the position. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ), defeated former state senator Kelli Ward and former Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the Republican primary to take over retiring Sen. Jeff Flake's seat.

The family of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has announced that he will end treatment for brain cancer. From The Washington Examiner:
“Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: he had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious. In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict,” the McCain family said.

Have you ever come across something so dumb it leaves you speechless? I give you the latest in dumb government: What products should be called milk? Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced an amendment that would have stopped "spending on a Food and Drug Administration study on what can be marketed as milk" because the FDA wants "to start cracking down" on those who use "milk" for items like soy milk, almond milk, or coconut milk. The Senate defeated the amendment with a vote of 14-84. The powerful dairy industry, along with the FDA, claims the actions are strictly to protect the consumer.

Florida's Republican governor Rick Scott is challenging Democrat Bill Nelson for the U.S. Senate this fall. Nelson has been in office since 2001. The GOP believes this is one of the seats they can pick up and they have good reasons to think so.

Last year, we covered Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court, including their misguided insistence on using the filibuster in an attempt to stop the nomination.  At that point, former Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had eliminated the filibuster on lower court nominations but since there was no Supreme Court vacancy during his tenure as majority leader, Reid preserved the filibuster for the Supreme Court.

It appears that the recent and entirely unexpected defeat of Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), the number 4 Democrat in the House, at the hands of newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a far-left progressive who organized for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during his presidential run, has sent shock waves through the country that have finally hit California.

The Democrats are desperate to crash the House and Senate in November, taunting the right that a blue wave is coming their way. Do they even know what is considered a wave in elections? I guess not because analysis from Ballotpedia shows the Democrats that it's not just taking over the House and Senate. In order for an actual wave to happen, the Democrats have to win a lot more seats than they need to control Congress.

This is a subject that has strayed into the background and I'm thankful the Washington Free Beacon reported on it last night. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked him about the attacks:
"That's a very good question," Pompeo told Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) during testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee. "I don't know if they were the same events. It is the case that the medical condition, the single medical condition to date in China is, as the medical folks would say, consistent with what happened in Cuba."

Kenneth Marcus has been confirmed as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Department of Education. In that capacity, he will lead the Civil Rights Office, which was scandalized during the Obama administration, particularly on the issue of campus due process. The nomination had been opposed on a party-line vote, with Democrats siding with anti-Israel activist groups. See these posts for background:

June 5 was the most important primary night for 2018 with a handful of states hitting the polls. Most eyes stayed on California since the state has a crazy jungle primary, which means the top two candidates will land on the ballot even if they're in the same party. It looks like the important House races in California remain undecided and we won't have an answer for days, which means the GOP could still shut out Democrats in those districts. The Democrats also had a huge blow on the governor's ballot as a Republican grabbed the second spot over a former Los Angeles mayor. What about other states? Here are a few key points I put together from a crazy night.