first Elise Stefanik drops out of the NY Governors race and even leaves her Congressional seat because of

"missing her son"

which sounds ominously more like "I don't think I can win"

then today Ben Sasse announced he is dying of pancreatic cancer.

seems so many young people are getting cancer lately!

two of my friends have died from cancer before the age of 53

bobbranco said:

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Elise Stefanik will be missed.

Sad about Sasse, but he was cut from the same cloth as Mitt.

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Stefanik dropped out after Trump refused to endorse her.

And she's simply not running for reelection. She isn't quitting like MTG is in the middle of the term.

bobbranco said:

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Elise Stefanik will be missed.

Sad about Sasse, but he was cut from the same cloth as Mitt.

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Yup, fraternized way too much with the enemy for my taste.

Yep every time we lose one it's a concern. Gonna be hard to get a replacement in NY that's a Republican. Even if they're a squishy Republican they're still better than any dem.

Ben Sasse wasn't even in politics anymore though, was he? I thought he was the president of UF or something.

AJ02 said:

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Ben Sasse wasn't even in politics anymore though, was he? I thought he was the president of UF or something.

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Correct. Doesn't stop posters from here pissing on him in tribalistic fervor, apparently.

ts5641 said:

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Yep every time we lose one it's a concern. Gonna be hard to get a replacement in NY that's a Republican. Even if they're a squishy Republican they're still better than any dem.

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Stefanik is pretty liberal and she is from a GOP district. Politics is a rough game. Saase has been out of politics since he stepped down as President of UF I believe, very sad though. He is a very interesting guy with some great perspective but unfortunately didn't do much in terms of real accomplishments. Cancer sucks though and I hope he can find some peace in what time he has left.

ts5641 said:

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Yep every time we lose one it's a concern. Gonna be hard to get a replacement in NY that's a Republican. Even if they're a squishy Republican they're still better than any dem.

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I wish more hard core conservatives really understood this.

The "Susan Collins" approach. Still better than a dem in a place where no conservative will EVER get elected.

He was, but he quit due to his wife's health difficulties last summer.

Completely agree. It is better to win 50-60% of the time then zero percent of the time in these marginal areas. You can't just will a conservative to power in an area dominated by a left leaning electorate, no matter how badly you wish it would happen.

Lost in the latest round of conservative doom headlines this week was a conservative/GOP sweep in South Carolina special elections.

Today, Republicans won all three special elections and that success belongs to the voters who showed up.

While Democrats hoped low turnout would hand them a win, Republicans proved them wrong at the ballot box. We didn’t sit this one out. We showed up, voted, and protected… pic.twitter.com/ozIShR6HSo

— South Carolina Republican Party (@SCGOP) December 24, 2025

Stefanik was one of the most liberal republicans in the House. It's a R+10 district. Sure, they can't get Gohmert there, but they can do much better than stefanik!!