Free Republic

Ted Cruz speaks to reporters on the campus of Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C. on Nov. 14, 2015. (Photo by Abby Livingston) DES MOINES, Iowa — A former spokeswoman for ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has joined Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, giving the Texas senator a key operative who worked for the last two winners of the Iowa caucuses. Alice Stewart, who stepped down as Huckabee's communications director last month, is now working for Cruz's team, she said Monday. Her official title is senior adviser.Stewart was also Huckabee's communications director during the 2008 cycle, when he won the Iowa caucuses....

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Wednesday blasted Ted Cruz after a POLITICO report quoted the Texas senator telling a donor that fighting gay marriage wouldn't be a "top-three priority" for his administration. "Conservatives are being asked to 'coalesce' around yet another corporately-funded candidate that says something very different at a big donor fundraiser in Manhattan than at a church in Marshalltown," Huckabee said in a statement released by his campaign Wednesday afternoon. "Shouldn't a candidate be expected to have authenticity and consistency, instead of having to look at a map to decide what to believe and what to say?"...

A Super PAC supporting Mike Huckabee recently ran an ad that quotes Ted Cruz at a Manhattan fundraiser. The precisely edited clip makes it appear as though Cruz isn’t who he says he is. The recording from which that clip was taken has a lot more to offer. Here’s the actual transcript of the exchange between Cruz and his questioner as provided by Politico: DONOR: “Can I ask you a question? So, I’m a big supporter. And the only issue I really disagree with you about is gay marriage. And I’m curious: Given all the problems that the country’s facing–like...

A Super PAC supporting Mike Huckabee recently ran an ad that quotes Ted Cruz at a Manhattan fundraiser. The precisely edited clip makes it appear as though Cruz isn’t who he says he is. The recording from which that clip was taken has a lot more to offer. Here’s the actual transcript of the exchange between Cruz and his questioner as provided by Politico: DONOR: “Can I ask you a question? So, I’m a big supporter. And the only issue I really disagree with you about is gay marriage. And I’m curious: Given all the problems that the country’s facing–like...

“Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty.” – Nathaniel HawthorneI am profoundly disheartened by Mike Huckabee’s behavior. I was a supporter of his in 2008 because he was clearly the more conservative alternative to John McCain, but a short eight years later, he’s let me down–not because he’s polling at a paltry 1.8%, but because he was willfully dishonest when asked about a recent attack on a fellow candidate.A Super PAC supporting Mike Huckabee recently ran an ad that quotes Ted Cruz at a Manhattan fundraiser. The precisely edited clip makes it appear as though Cruz isn’t...

National Review's Tim Alberta and Eliana Johnson report a potentially important development: The emergence of an Anybody-But-Cruz-(Except-Trump) movement from the soon-to-be ashes of the Iowa campaigns of Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. It would seem that some social conservatives, including a few currently supporting the last two Iowa winners, consider Sen. Ted Cruz a "phony opportunist" -- and would rather see Sen. Marco Rubio do well if their own candidates don't have an unexpected late surge. This suggests that reporting indicating that Cruz has wrapped up the support of Iowa Christian conservative leaders may have overstated the strength of his...

Back in 2008 on the day of the Iowa caucus, when I was reporting on my first election for Townhall.com, I happened to be grabbing lunch in the same hole-in-the-wall restaurant as then-Huckabee National Campaign Advisor Ed Rollins. He sat in the cafe loudly trash talking the Romney campaign to any reporter he could call on his cell phone. Expletives and insults flew. Anyone sitting in the eatery could hear him. I, stunned any known operative would be so foolish to speak in such a way in a public place, wrote it up as an item. These are the same...

Do supporters of the Christian right candidates Ted Cruz has eclipsed hate him so much they'd sabotage their own heroes? The late stages of the invisible primary would not be complete without reports of intrigue and skullduggery in Iowa, with campaigns forming tactical alliances against common enemies. We have one today from National Review's Tim Alberta and Eliana Johnson, who report that supporters of the last two caucus winners, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, are so bitter at being eclipsed by Ted Cruz that they are conspiring to block the Texan and instead elevate Marco Rubio. There's only one problem...

If there is, is there any way to explain it apart from pure spite? Huckabee and Santorum combined are averaging less than three percent in Iowa. Rubio is nearly 20 points behind Cruz in the state. Denying Cruz some extra social-con votes won’t do much to help Rubio but it might be enough to help Donald Trump, the least socially conservative candidate in the race, top Cruz if the caucuses are close. That’s a natural thing to do if you’re angry at Cruz for dislodging your hero as the GOP’s premier evangelical and want to punish him, but as a...

Some who mistrust the Texas senator may tactically support Rubio over their first-choice candidates. To a concerned and angry bunch of Iowa Republicans, their mission heading into next month’s caucuses is as simple as ABC: Anybody But Cruz. As the Texas senator solidifies his front-runner status with just over a month to go before the February 1 caucuses, a loose network of social-conservative activists has undertaken a quiet effort to defeat him by any means necessary — even if that means rallying together behind a more electable rival to their own preferred candidates. Many supporters of Mike Huckabee and Rick...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has said he will not participate in an “undercard” debate if he is not allowed on the main stage in the next Republican debate, which would be tantamount to quitting the race. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has said that he will bow out if he doesn’t poll in the top three in the Iowa caucuses on February 1. And considering that he is currently in a three-way tie for 7th place in that state’s polling average, there seems to be a good chance that he’ll be gone before New Hampshire votes on February 9.

Just like it's past time for Jeb Bush and Rand Paul to get out, and it's past time for Rick Santorum and George Pataki to get out. That's obvious, but it's made more obvious now that Huckabee is resorting to off-base and stupidly dishonest ads attempting to trash candidates who have taken his votes away. Here's a PAC ad Huckabee's camp is running in Iowa... (VIDEO-AT-LINK) The same consulting firm also put out similar attacks on Cruz in Iowa on his opposition to ethanol subsidies and accusing Cruz of being bankrolled by the oil industry....

The GOP presidential field that rolled into the 2016 election cycle like a crowded bus already has dropped a few passengers, but the remaining 13 appear committed to staying on board at least through the next debates and the first two contests. Just three of them have double-digit numbers in an average of national polls, with front-runner Donald Trump gobbling up more than a third of primary support. On the other end, candidates such as Rick Santorum and George Pataki have failed to garner even 1 percent. Though Santorum has never been among the 2016 front-runners and did not compete...

When it comes to Donald Trump's threat to go after Bill Clinton as the former president ramps up campaigning for his wife's bid, Mike Huckabee is all in on his Republican rival. "Look, nothing's backfired on Donald Trump yet. I'd put my money on him," the former governor of Arkansas told "Fox and Friends" in an interview Monday. "Frankly, he's played the whole media game like a kid on Christmas morning with a toy drum. He's beaten the heck out of them, and I honestly don't think that this is going to hurt Donald Trump - and I think the...

I’ve never quite understood either the appeal of Mike Huckabee as a national candidate or why Mike Huckabee thinks of himself as a national candidate but, for the second time Governor Huckabee has made a bid to become the GOP’s nominee for president. In 2008, he made a creditable run in the early states but dropped out in March when it became apparent that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) 48% would win Texas and the nomination. Huckabee had hoped to reprise his 2008 campaign this year but has been frustrated by one man: Ted Cruz. Cruz won the endorsement of Iowa...

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is letting US Senator Ted Cruz have it. Huckabee, trailing badly in the polls in the race for their party’s presidential nomination, took to Twitter on Wednesday (23 December) to slam the higher-polling Cruz for saying that same-sex marriage is a state-by-state issue. ‘If marriage and sanctity of life are truly issues of principle-not politics-there shouldn’t be geographical boundaries to what’s right and wrong,’ Huckabee tweeted. At a fundraiser held on 9 December at the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm on Madison Avenue, Cruz said to a group fiscally conservative but mostly socially liberal Republicans:...

Mike Huckabee: "Whether you agree w him, 1 reason I respect Trump: he doesn't pretend w his principles or change his message depending on location/audience."

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Wednesday blasted Ted Cruz after a POLITICO report quoted the Texas senator telling a donor that fighting gay marriage wouldn't be a "top-three priority" for his administration. "Conservatives are being asked to 'coalesce' around yet another corporately-funded candidate that says something very different at a big donor fundraiser in Manhattan than at a church in Marshalltown," Huckabee said in a statement released by his campaign Wednesday afternoon. "Shouldn't a candidate be expected to have authenticity and consistency, instead of having to look at a map to decide what to believe and what to say?"...

After that audio of Cruz questioning Trump’s judgment at a private fundraiser leaked a few weeks ago, Mike Allen of Politico promised more was coming. Promise kept. Here’s how he answered when someone stood up at a fundraiser in Manhattan on December 9th and told him he agreed with him on nearly everything — except gay marriage. What sort of priority would the fight against SSM be for President Cruz, he asked? The exchange: Cruz: “My view on gay marriage is that I’m a constitutionalist and marriage is a question for the states. And so I think if someone wants...

One candidate, who says he jumped into the Republican presidential race with the understanding he would have the support of evangelical leaders across the country, is now lamenting their lack of support. Following last week's debate in Las Vegas, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told National Review's Tim Alberta he was still scratching his head over evangelical leaders' recent decision to back U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) instead of him: "For reasons I don't fully understand, years and years of actually doing something and getting things done didn't matter. And I don't understand that ... "You know, everybody has a...