Free Republic

The operating assumption for political observers going into the 2016 election has been that Sen. Ted Cruz doesn't stand a chance to win a general election. But now that the odds have increased of him actually being the Republican nominee, it's worth revisiting that assumption. There are no doubt a number of good arguments as to why Cruz would be too polarizing to win a general election, particularly given how the nation's demographic trends favor Democrats. There's a reason why the smart money would be betting against him. But let's entertain an alternate possibility. To start, of all the Republicans,...

What the Ted Cruz campaign says in public and what it says in private are two very different things, according to a series of tweets from a top strategist for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. The Friday tweets from strategist John Weaver follows tensions between the Ohio governor and the Texas senator over whether Cruz is telling New York Republicans Kasich won’t be on the ballot when the Empire State’s crucial April 19 Republican presidential primary rolls around. Cruz has publicly said Kasich should withdraw from the race because he cannot win the nomination outright. “A vote for John Kasich is...

Donald Trump's son, Eric, blasted Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday over an ad released by an anti-Trump PAC that takes aim at Trump's third wife. The ad of a scantily clad Melania Trump was circulated in Utah by Make America Awesome PAC, which is not affiliated with the Cruz campaign. But that didn't stop Trump from linking Cruz to the ad on Twitter Tuesday night and threatening to "spill the beans" on the Texas senator's wife, Heidi. "I noticed this morning ... Ted Cruz is saying things about Melania, and your father fired back," Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt told Eric...

Mitt Romney's speech against Donald Trump is not likely to win many converts. Romney's remarks will just further vindicate and entrench Trump supporters. Romney, though a good man, is quintessentially GOP establishment and has shown, by his speech, that he still doesn't understand the role he and his colleagues have played in bringing about the Trump surge. During campaign season, these guys always seem to get it. They profess to understand how destructive President Obama's agenda is, but once they're elected, they lose their will to fight, which makes many conservatives believe they didn't believe their own rhetoric in the...

A controversial voter-turnout tactic employed by Senator Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign in Iowa is cropping up in New Hampshire, this time by way of a mysterious organization about which few public details are available. Voters in New Hampshire received envelopes in the mail this week claiming to contain “important taxpayer information,” according to Christopher Crawford, who received one of the mailers and posted pictures of it on Twitter. Mr. Crawford, who recently moved to Washington, was visiting his parents at their home in Nashua, N.H., this week when he opened an envelope addressed to him only to find a chart...