SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

DEM WOES – FROM FOX:   An end-of-the-year report filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) revealed that the federal arm of the Florida Democratic Party is more than $868,000 in debt following November's election season.  The reports of receipts and disbursement also showed that the Democratic Executive Committee of Florida had less than $61,000 in cash on hand at the time of filing on Sunday.  Florida Democrats are no strangers to financing issues.  In 2018, the Naples Daily News reported that the party would be questioned by the FEC over how it had failed to explain why a federal account used for federal campaigns ended up $159,333 in the red.  An important story because Florida is a must-have state for the Democrats.  If they can't run an effective campaign because of brokeness, rather than wokeness, they may suffer greater than usual losses in 2022.

LARA RISING? – FROM EPOCH TIMES:    The chairman of the Republican Party in North Carolina believes Lara Trump would be the candidate to beat if she decided to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) in 2022.  “She would have immediate attention and interest from across the state. She did a fantastic job representing the president when she was down here as a surrogate throughout the last four years, and campaigned very hard for him in ‘16 and ‘20. She’s very beloved here down in North Carolina,” the state’s Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley told The Epoch Times.  “Everybody at this point is just waiting to see what she’s going to do.”  Rumors of Trump’s potential run for the Senate in the Tar Heel State percolated as recently as last year. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) reignited the conversation over the weekend, touting her as a replacement for Burr, who had voted to impeach President Donald Trump, Lara Trump’s father-in-law. Graham said Lara Trump is the “future of the Republican Party” and preemptively threw his support behind a hypothetical run.  This could be exciting.  As I've said before, I've seen and heard her in person.  She's dynamite, and she's not afraid of the media. 

February 16, 2021