President Trump and the GOP love to position themselves as champions of the common man. They frequently appeal to rural Americans, framing this demographic as a critical part of the Republican base.

It’s true that many rural Americans harken to conservative philosophies, but with campaign season over, much of what they were promised hasn’t arrived. Case-in-point: health care.

There are few demographics with so much to gain from a single-payer system than those living in the countryside, but party-line politics are keeping them from subscribing.

Tuesday in Maryland."

That’s how POLITICO’s Isaac Dovere’s reported on businessman Neal Simon’s official announcement to run for U.S. Senate as an independent candidate yesterday.

As Neal told the Baltimore Sun, “I do not believe that having another party-line Republican or party-line Democrat go to Capitol Hill is going to change anything.”

Josh Silver is the founder and director of Represent.us, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to ending political corruption in America. He was also the man in charge of the Unrig the System Summit in New Orleans, La.

If you’ve ever filled out a ballot, you already know how difficult it can be to find accurate information. Thoroughly researching the candidates and measures for even one election can take days. The internet is a vast source of information you can tap for this purpose, but sifting through it is far from easy. VoteMatrix arose to combat this problem.

Friday, the White House released a controversial memo meant to provide some context to the whole Trump/Russia investigation.

The Nunes memo is four pages long, and it explains many of what seem to be very questionable actions by the Department of Justice and the FBI in how they got their hands on FISA warrants on Trump campaign officials.

But more than just this case, this memo backs up what civil libertarians have been screaming about for years. And begs the question—can the FISA court system actually be trusted?

Remember 2017? I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that the country was in somewhat of a challenging place. People were angry, sad, frustrated. Those on the left were upset either because they felt they had lost all political power nationally, or because they felt their own party had played a part in losing that power.

Those on the right were angry that those on the left often lumped them all together in unflattering terms. It often felt that we were too divided to recover from whatever was ailing the country.

TJ is joined by John Cox, the leading Republican Candidate for Governor in California. 

The two explore California's economic dilemma and his solutions with regard to tax rates, the business environment, unfunded pension liabilities, poverty, etc, as well as immigration, education and more.

Welcome to one of our weekly posts, Independent Action, where we let you know the important moves independent candidates and organizations made over the past week. This week we will be discussing Greg Orman, State Senator Bob Krist, and the Unrig the System Summit hosted by Represent.Us.

The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from Republican leaders in the Pennsylvania legislature to overrule a decision by the state Supreme Court to strike down the state's congressional map on the grounds of partisan gerrymandering. Time is running out for state lawmakers as they have 10 days to get new maps drawn and approved by Governor Tom Wolfe.

In this new series, Independent OGs, writers at IVN News will chronicle the lives and exploits of independents throughout history – or as we are calling them: Independent O.G.s (short for Original Gangstas).

Of course George Washington was THE Independent OG of all American history, and it would seem that every president since has departed further and further from the example and precedent that Mr. Washington set.