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COLUMBUS, Ohio Ohio Republicans are divided on the effort to legalize marijuana for recreational use in the state.

Just because they belong to the same party doesn't mean they have to agree on everything which is exactly what is happening right now with weed.

Recreational marijuana may become legal this November and many Ohio Republicans aren't happy about it.

"It would be a mistake," Governor Mike DeWine said.

He has always been anti-recreational weed. He opposes the ballot issue that would legalize marijuana for adults 21 and up. If passed, Ohioans could also grow up to six marijuana plants. In addition, the proposal would impose a 10% tax at the point of sale for each transaction.

RELATED: Recreational marijuana makes Ohio's Nov. ballot, joining abortion rights amendment

"This product has been developed and its potency is significantly higher than it was years ago," DeWine said. "It's not your grandfather's marijuana or your grandmother's marijuana."

Legalization will only tell kids that drugs are okay, the governor added.

"Even though they might not be able to use it until they're 18 or 21... the message you're sending to a 13-year-old is, 'well, look, it's legal'" he said. "That is reinforced every time the 13-year-old is in the car with mom or dad and they go by a shop at least in Denver with a little green man."

RELATED: Advocates say budding careers will grow if Ohio legalizes marijuana this November

Not everyone in his party feels the same. Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau tried to ask the governor a few times about this.

"I dont speak for them and they dont speak for me," DeWine said, cutting Trau's question off.

Republican state Rep. Jamie Callender (R-Concord) has put forward legislation to legalize adult use. His bill is very similar to the current ballot proposal, which he supports.

"Cannabis has some very legitimate uses, whether it's pain relief, whether it's an alternative to alcohol," Callender said. "I don't know that we have any business legislating or certainly making criminal."

He responded to the governor that marijuana may be more potent, but it's actually safer now.

"Any cannabis that would be sold in any form would be tested in a pharmaceutical quality lab," Callender added. "And in Mike DeWine's grandfather's day that was not the case."

Callender isnt the only supporter either; other GOP lawmakers like Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville) support legalization. The approval isn't limited to state politics.

"Congressman Joyce plans to vote yes and thinks its important that all Ohioans make their voices heard in November," a spokesperson for Congressman Dave Joyce (R-OH) said.

Callender is concerned that even if it passes, Ohioans still won't get recreational marijuana.

"There are a number of legislators who have publicly commented that they will block marijuana in any way they can and that could possibly mean overturning the will of the voters," he said.

This is a bad idea, he said.

"I think that would be politically ill-advised especially after Issue 1 just failed so strongly for the legislature to override the clear will of the people," the lawmaker added.

Callender was one of the few Republicans who opposed the unpopular Issue 1 when it was going through the House process to get on the ballot. The Northeast Ohio Republican is also one of the most moderate, which makes sense given his Cleveland-area constituents. He often opposes the most controversial bills, like one restricting healthcare for transgender youth that also banned trans kids from playing middle and high school sports.

The General Assembly is able to repeal a ballot proposal when the issue is an initiated statute. This differs from the abortion proposal, which is a constitutional amendment.

This means that lawmakers are technically able to repeal the proposal the day after it passes.

When asking Senate President Matt Huffman, avidly anti-marijuana, his team said it was too early to tell, and to let November happen first.

"Those are just not good things that we need to see in the state of Ohio," DeWine said.

GOP Divide

Despite having a dominant supermajority, Ohio Republicans don't or rather can't use it.

The House GOP is completely divided due to the speakership "coup" that happened in Jan. Twenty-two Republicans (known "affectionately" by the other faction as the "Blue 22") voted for state Rep. Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) for speaker, while the majority of Republicans voted for state Rep. Derek Merrin (R-Monclova). Stephens, still a conservative, is more moderate than Merrin.

The anti-Stephens faction has been relentless in fighting Stephens at every opportunity. Stephens has had to rely on Democrats, the majority of the lawmakers who voted for him as speaker, to get his work done like passing the House rules. The budget was bipartisan, with Finance Chairman Jay Edwards (R-Nelsonville) working closely with state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland).

The latest drama is with the effort to repeal scandal-ridden, taxpayer-funded subsidies for coal plants.

RELATED: Ohio Statehouse drama continues as lawmakers attempt to repeal scandal-ridden coal plant subsidies

Other recent GOP divides include:

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.

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Ohio Republicans split on Nov. marijuana legalization and could ... - News 5 Cleveland WEWS

Next year Nevada Democratic U.S. Rep. Susie Lee will try to do something no Nevadan has ever done: Win the states 3rd Congressional District for a fourth time.

Republican Jon Porter, the first person to win election to the seat in 2002 after the district was created following the 2000 Census, was reelected twice, but was denied a fourth term when he was defeated by Democrat Dina Titus in 2008.

Two years later in 2010, the year of the Tea Party and dramatic Democratic congressional losses nationwide, Titus was defeated by Republican Joe Heck, who would serve three terms before leaving the seat to lose a U.S. Senate race to Catherine Cortez Masto in 2016.

That same year, Jacky Rosen was plucked from relative political obscurity by Harry Reid and the Reid machine, and won seat Heck left open by defeating Republican opponent Danny Tarkanian.

Two years later, in 2018, the Reid machine again turned to Rosen, this time to challenge successfully Republican Dean Heller for the U.S. Senate.

And that same year, the Reid machine tapped Susie Lee to fill Rosens shoes in CD3. The Republican opponent was once again Tarkanian, who lost to Lee by a bigger margin than he had lost to Rosen.

Lee has since dispatched Republican challengers Dan Rodimer, in 2020, and April Becker, in 2022.

Monday, Republican Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama Nevada Realtor of the Year, 2015, according to her bio on the states legislative website announced she will run in the Republican primary for the chance to challenge Lee in the general election in 2024. She joins Drew Johnson, a policy researcher and advocate on the professional right, and Elizabeth Helgelien, who, then known as Elizabeth Halseth, served a portion of a single term in the state Senate before resigning in 2012. Steven London has also filed with the Federal Election Commission as a candidate in CD3.

Between the two of them, Porter and Heck won six of the first seven elections for the CD3 seat, and some of those by very comfortable margins over the Democratic opposition. Even during those years, however, relatively close voter registration numbers prompted both parties to perennially view CD3 as a swing district, and both parties have continued to view the district as competitive.

But between Rosen and Lee, Democrats have won it four times in a row, ever since Heck relinquished the seat to run for Senate in 2016. State legislative Democrats redrew the district following the 2020 census to make it more Democratic, a move that many including Democratic Rep. Dina Titus considered rash at the time, as it also rendered Tituss traditionally safe first congressional district much more competitive.

As it turned out, the Democratic redistricting gambit paid off in 2022, as Lee, Titus, and Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford all won reelection. Democrats hope the redistricting pays off yet again next year, while Republicans hope they can keep Lee from being the first person to win CD3 four times.

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Republicans line up to deprive Lee of a 4th term - Nevada Current

By Victor Reklaitis

Democrats largely close ranks behind Joe Biden for 2024, but Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are challenging the president

The 2024 Republican presidential field stands at a dozen relatively well-known contenders, having grown crowded in June as five candidates officially announced their White House runs.

Former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd of Texas entered the race on June 22, following Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who launched his bid on June 14.

In early June, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and current North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum all formally kicked off their campaigns.

Meanwhile, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in May that he won't be on the presidential campaign trail in 2023 because of elections for his state's legislature in November, but he appears to have left the door open for a 2024 White House run.

In the latest polls of Republican primary voters, former President Donald Trump has a big lead, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a distant second.

Below is MarketWatch's list of Republican presidential contenders and the status of their candidacies.

The first official debate of the GOP presidential primary is slated to be held in Milwaukee on Wednesday night. The party's White House hopefuls will to try to chip away at Trump's big advantage in their race, even as the frontrunner himself said he'll skip the debate.

Read more:Non-Trump Republican presidential candidates to try for 'breakout moment' in this week's debate

And see:Republican presidential debate: What time it starts, how to watch and more

The second debate is scheduled to take place Sept. 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, and the Republican Party has raised the qualification bar for that event.

Trump has grabbed the spotlight throughout August thanks to his widely followed indictments in Washington, D.C., and Georgia's Fulton County in election-interference cases tied to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential race's result. He has denied wrongdoing and argued the charges are politically motivated, as he did with his spring indictments in a hush-money case and a classified-documents case.

Related:Trump's PAC has spent $40 million on legal fees so far this year

And see: How DeSantis is leading Trump in cash on hand, even as the former president dominates in polls

On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden officially launched his re-election campaign in April, even as most Americans don't approve of his performance. The president has been talking up the strong job market and his legislative record.

In addition to the relatively high-profile names on the list above, there are some lesser-known GOP presidential hopefuls as well, such as Aaron Day, who is known in part for his 2016 run against former Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, a fellow Republican; Perry Johnson, a former gubernatorial candidate in Michigan; Steve Laffey, a former mayor of Cranston, R.I.; and former Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton.

A number of other Republican politicians have been talked about as potential 2024 contenders but have not said they are running. That group includes Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; John Bolton, a former national-security adviser and former ambassador to the United Nations; and former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who has run an ad in New Hampshire, a key state.

Among the prominent Republicans who have said they're not seeking their party's presidential nomination in 2024 are Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.

From MarketWatch's archives (September 2022): In a conversation with MarketWatch, Vivek Ramaswamy says companies should 'leave politics to the politicians'

Democrats are largely closing ranks behind Biden, although author and activist Marianne Williamson has said she's seeking the party's nomination again and vigorously defended her decision to challenge the president in an extensive question-and-answer session with MarketWatch. Antivaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is also mounting a long-shot challenge to Biden and held a kickoff event for his campaign in April. And Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota has said he's being urged to consider a White House run.

Among third-party candidacies, Cornel West, a former Ivy League professor now at Union Theological Seminary, has announced that he's a presidential candidate for the People's Party and that he's seeking the Green Party's nomination. In addition, a group called No Labels has been considering a "unity ticket" for 2024, saying that a rematch between Biden and Trump would be "the sequel that no one asked for," but a Politico report said the group would not submit a third-party challenger if DeSantis becomes the Republican nominee.

Now read:Nikki Haley says 'no Republican president will have the ability to ban abortion nationwide'

And see: Biden's age is figuring 'prominently' in the 2024 White House race -- but here's what the pundits could be getting wrong

Plus:Billionaire investor Bill Ackman says JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon should run for president

MarketWatch's Robert Schroeder contributed to this article.

-Victor Reklaitis

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-21-23 1611ET

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Here are the Republicans running for president in 2024, as their first ... - Morningstar

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has run into a surprising buzz saw in his bid to sell himself as the Republican Partys most electable standard-bearer in 2024 and it has more to do with President Biden than it does with Donald J. Trump.

For months, Republican voters have consumed such a steady diet of clips of Mr. Biden stumbling, over words and sandbags, that they now see the 80-year-old Democratic incumbent as so frail that he would be beatable by practically any Republican even a four-times-indicted former president who lost the last election.

As Mr. Trumps rivals take the stage for the first debate of the 2024 primaries on Wednesday, the perceived weaknesses of Mr. Biden have undercut one of the core arguments that Mr. DeSantis and others have made from the start: that the party must turn the page on the past and move beyond Mr. Trump in order to win in 2024.

The focus on electability the basic notion of which candidate has the best shot of winning a general election was most intense in the aftermath of the disappointing 2022 midterms. Republicans were stung by losses of Trump-backed candidates in key swing states like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania. And the issue offered a way to persuade a Republican electorate still very much in the thrall of Mr. Trump to consider throwing its lot in with a fresh face in 2024. It was a permission slip to move on.

But nine months later, interviews with pollsters, strategists, elected officials and Republican voters in early-voting states show that the dim Republican opinion of Mr. Bidens mental faculties and political skills has complicated that case in deep and unexpected ways.

I mean, I would hope anybody could beat Joe Biden at this point, said Heather Hora, 52, as she waited in line for a photo with Mr. Trump at an Iowa Republican Party dinner, echoing a sentiment expressed in more than 30 interviews with Iowa Republicans in recent weeks.

Mr. Trumps rivals are still pushing an electability case against the former president, but even their advisers and other strategists acknowledge that the diminished views of Mr. Biden have sapped the pressure voters once felt about the need to nominate someone new. When Republican primary voters in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll were asked which candidate was better able to beat Mr. Biden, 58 percent picked Mr. Trump, while 28 percent selected Mr. DeSantis.

The perception that Biden is the weakest possible candidate has lowered the electability question in the calculus of primary voters, said Josh Holmes, a Republican strategist and a longtime adviser to Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader.

Though the urgency of electability has plainly waned, it remains one of the most powerful tools Mr. Trumps rivals believe they have to peel the party away from him and some privately hope that Mr. Trumps growing legal jeopardy will eventually make the issue feel pressing again. For now, the fact that many polls show a razor-thin Biden-Trump contest has made it a tougher sell.

Conservative media, led by Fox News, has played a role in shaping G.O.P. views. Fox has often elevated Mr. DeSantis as the future of the Republican Party, coverage that has frustrated the former president. But the networks persistent harping on Mr. Bidens frailties may have inadvertently undercut any effort to build up Mr. DeSantiss campaign.

More than two-thirds of Republicans who described Fox News or another conservative outlet as the single source they most often turned to for news thought Mr. Trump was better able to beat Mr. Biden in the Times/Siena College poll, a 40-point advantage over Mr. DeSantis. Those who cited mainstream news outlets also said Mr. Trump was the stronger candidate to beat Mr. Biden, though by less than half the margin.

There is little question that Mr. Biden has visibly aged. The presidents slip onstage at an Air Force graduation ceremony in June his staff subsequently blamed a stray sandbag is seen as a moment that particularly resonated for Republicans, cementing Mr. Bidens image as frail, politically and otherwise.

Google records show search interest for Biden old peaking three times in 2023 during his State of the Union address in February, when he announced his 2024 run in late April and when he fell onstage in June. The number of searches just for Biden was higher after his fall than it was around the time of his re-election kickoff.

Interviews with Republican voters in Iowa in recent weeks have revealed a consistent impression of Mr. Biden as weak and deteriorating.

Its just one gaffe after another, Joanie Pellett, 55, a retiree in Decatur County, said of Mr. Biden as she settled into her seat in a beer hall at the Iowa State Fair four hours before Mr. Trump was set to speak.

What strength as a candidate? Does he have any? Rick Danowsky, a financial consultant who lives in Sigourney, Iowa, asked of Mr. Biden as he waited for Mr. DeSantis at a bar in downtown Des Moines earlier this month.

Hes a train wreck, said Jack Seward, 67, a county supervisor in Washington County, Iowa, who is considering whether to vote for Mr. Trump or Mr. DeSantis.

Kevin Munoz, a campaign spokesman for Mr. Biden, said Republican depictions of Mr. Biden as old were recycled attacks that had repeatedly failed.

Put simply, its a losing strategy and they know it, he said. Republicans can argue with each other all they want about electability, but every one of them has embraced the losing MAGA agenda.

Some Republicans worry that their voters have been lulled into a false sense of complacency about the challenge of beating a Democratic incumbent president. The last one to lose was Jimmy Carter more than four decades ago.

Electability is more than just beating Biden Republicans need to choose a candidate who can build a majority coalition, especially with independents, to win both the House and Senate, said Dave Winston, a Republican pollster.

There were always structural challenges to running a primary campaign centered on electability. For more than a decade, Republican voters have tended to care little about which candidate political insiders have deemed to have the best shot at winning and have tended to revolt against the preferences of the reviled party establishment.

Then there are the hurdles specific to Mr. Trump, who was portrayed as unelectable before he won in 2016, and whose 2020 loss has not been accepted by many in the party.

In a sign of how far electability has diminished, Republican voters today say they are more likely to support a candidate who agrees with them most on the issues over someone with the best chance to beat Mr. Biden, according to the Times/Siena College poll. They are prioritizing, in other words, policy positions over electability.

Mr. DeSantis has sharpened his own electability argument heading into the first debate, calling out Mr. Trump by name. Theres nothing that the Democratic Party would like better than to relitigate all these things with Donald Trump, Mr. DeSantis said in a recent radio interview. That is a loser for us going forward as a party.

The picture is brighter for Mr. DeSantis in Iowa, according to public polling and voter interviews, and that is where he is increasingly banking his candidacy. More than $3.5 million in television ads have aired from one anti-Trump group, Win It Back PAC. Those ads are explicitly aimed at undermining perceptions of Mr. Trump with voter testimonials of nervous former Trump supporters.

For 2024, Trump is not the most electable candidate, one said in a recent ad. I dont know if we can get him elected, said another.

Likely Republican voters in Iowa see Mr. Trump as able to beat Joe Biden more than Mr. DeSantis despite that advertising onslaught, according to a separate Times/Siena College Iowa poll. But the margin is far smaller than in the national poll, and a larger share of Iowa Republicans say they would prioritize a candidate who could win.

Mr. DeSantiss improved standing in the state when it comes to electability is heavily shaped by the views of college-educated Republicans. Among that group, Mr. DeSantis is seen as better able to beat Mr. Biden by a 14-point margin compared with Mr. Trump.

Mr. DeSantis faces his own electability headwinds. Some of those same party insiders who are worried about Mr. Trump topping the ticket have expressed concerns that the hard-line stances the governor has taken especially signing a six-week abortion ban could repel independent voters.

Mr. Danowsky, the financial consultant who was at the bar in downtown Des Moines, worried that Mr. DeSantis was a little extreme, including on transgender rights.

But more Iowa Republicans volunteered concerns about Mr. Trumps viability as the top reason to move on from him, even as they saw Mr. Biden as weak.

I might be one out of 1,000, but I dont think he can beat Biden, Mike Farwell, 66, a retired construction worker in Indianola, said of Mr. Trump. He added that Mr. Biden would be an easy president right now to beat if he faced a strong enough opponent.

Don Beebout, 74, a retiree who lives in Chariton and manages a farm, was worried about Mr. Trump as the party nominee as he waited to hear Mr. DeSantis speak at the state fair. But he also was not sold on any particular alternative.

He may be easy to beat, he said of Mr. Biden, if we get the right candidate.

Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan contributed reporting.

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How G.O.P. Views of Biden Are Helping Trump in the Republican ... - The New York Times

Press Release from the Branford Republican Party

The Branford Republicans are announcing a primary election for the 5th District Representative Town Meeting race. This primary will be held at Indian Neck School, inviting all registered Republicans to exercise their voting rights and participate in shaping the future of the district.

Scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 12, the primary will take place between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. at Indian Neck School, 12 Melrose Avenue.

A primary election is triggered when an individual seeks to challenge the selections made by the Republican Town Committee. This requires petitioning for the opportunity. Notably, one individual has successfully met the petitioning requirements, leading to the initiation of this primary.

When voters arrive at the polling booths, they will encounter a ballot featuring two distinct sections:

Row A: This section showcases the candidates endorsed by the Republican Town Committee, including Donald Conklin, Dennis Flanigan, Ray Ingraham, and Kyle Nelson.

Row B: Here, voters will find the challenging candidate, Carolyn Sires, who is contesting the choices put forth by the Republican Town Committee.

For those unable to attend the voting location in person, an option for absentee voting is available. Starting Aug. 22, registered Republicans meeting specific criteria can request absentee ballots. To be eligible, voters must meet the following conditions: have a valid reason for absentee voting; be a registered voter within the state of Connecticut; possess a valid Connecticut drivers license, with a recorded signature at the Department of Motor Vehicles; specifically, for this primary, voters must be registered Republicans residing in the 5th District.

An online absentee ballot application is accessible for eligible voters at oabr-sots.ct.gov/ streamlining the process for those meeting the specified criteria.

Additionally, a printable absentee ballot application form can be downloaded from https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/SOTS/ElectionServices/AB-Application/AB_Application_20220922/ED-3-Rev-English-20220922

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Branford Republicans Announce Primary Election for 5th District ... - Zip06.com