Free Republic

Part of Mitt Romney's success in securing the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 bore out of the fact that he benefited from the spoils of a divided faction on the right. If Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich were ever able to consolidate the sum of their supporters around one of them, Romney's path to victory could have faced great peril. This calculation is weighing heavy on the minds of social conservatives as they look for a horse to ride in 2016. With an adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz telling National Journal Monday the Texas freshman is "90 percent" likely to...

In the straw poll at the annual Values Voters Summit for right-wing Republicans, Democrats actually did well. In fact, some Democrats did better than some of the leading… Wait, what? Yup. You heard me right. Vice President Joe Biden, Gov. Chris Christie, and 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton finished in a three-way tie. Behind them? New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez and Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin. The GOP has such awful candidates that even their own most ardent supporters aren’t believers in half of their candidates including Chris Christie who is in the midst of an extended PR campaign stumping...

I’m blown away. Not because McCain is saying he’d back Paul in 2016 as the nominee; of course he’s going to say that while he’s thinking of running again for Senate in Arizona. What blows me away is his reasons for saying so. The great fear among hawks is that, for all of Rand’s posturing lately about destroying ISIS and standing up to Russia, there’s little daylight on foreign policy between him and Ron Paul. No matter how hawkish Rand gets during the primaries, that’s the trump card that rivals like Rubio and Cruz can and will play on him:...

'We're inviting him because he's one of Israel's greatest friends,' ZOA's president said.Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas will be the keynote speaker at the annual dinner of the Zionist Organization of America in late November, giving him an audience of some of the nation's most influential Jewish leaders, including casino magnate and political financier Sheldon Adelson. "We're inviting him because he's one of Israel's greatest friends," the organization's president, Morton Klein, said. Klein said he expects as many as 1,000 attendees at the dinner, which will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on Nov. 23....

In fairness, the culture-war right has done less damage than the neocons and the super rich have. But they’re still the ones on the ropes.I’m not sure what’s come over me and I suppose it’ll pass, but at just this moment I’m feeling a little bit sorry for evangelical conservatives. They were apparently pretty droopy, these proceedings over the weekend at the Values Voter Summit, as my colleague Ben Jacobs described things. Oh, yes, Ted Cruz fired them up, and some of the old stalwarts put in respectable appearances, but they have to know deep down that they’re like the...

Democrats think conservatives in general, and Tea Partiers in particular, are stupid. Here’s how to reinforce that belief: Sit out the 2014 congressional elections because your favorite candidate lost his primary bid to an establishment Republican. If you live in Kansas, for example, you can suck your thumb while Democrat ringer Greg Orman beats Republican Senator Pat Roberts. If you’re a Kentucky conservative, you can stay home and bitch about Mitch while Alison “Rubberstamp” Grimes heads to Washington. If you’re in Mississippi, you can stay mad at Thad and allow Travis “no repeal” Childers to win. That’ll show those RINOs!...

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — New England Republicans are poised to win elections in bright blue states and give the Democrats a run for their money in areas they've dominated for years. And many Republicans say their momentum is largely thanks to President Barack Obama's planned executive amnesty. Polling data shows that governor’s races in Massachusetts and Rhode Island—two solidly blue states—are winnable for GOP candidates. Maine’s incumbent conservative GOP governor is locked in a dead heat for his position, holding fast after many in the political class thought it would be a cakewalk to make him a one-term proposition. A...

From a dubiously purported Native American, a self-described "socialist" and a peddler of dirty books, the Democratic bench of primary challengers is laughably weak. Whether you believe Hillary Clinton will coast to the Democratic nomination, or that she's the same old flawed candidate who lost to Barack Obama in 2008, it is looking increasingly likely she will have to fend off some primary challengers along the way. Even many liberals who want her to prevail think there might be some salutary effects to a primary fight. Well, they'd better hope she runs and wins, because the Democratic bench is laughably...

Dems freaking out. Remember Joni Ernst? She’s the pig-castrating, conservative candidate for Senate out of Iowa who took the internet by storm earlier this year with her campaign video claiming she’ll “make big spenders squeal” when she gets to Washington. Since she kicked off her campaign, Ernst has been seen as a long-shot to take the seat that had been held for 30 years by Democrat Tom Harkin, but a recent poll shows that her Dem opponent Bruce Braley is now running defense. Via the Des Moines Register: Ernst leads 44 percent to 38 percent in a race that has...

DES MOINES — Republican Joni Ernst leads Democrat Bruce Braley by 6 percentage points in Iowa’s open-seat U.S. Senate race, a new Iowa Poll published Saturday night reveals....

At the Values Voter Summit, the Texan highlights his strong beliefs on conservative issues.In an already crowded field of likely contenders for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Ted Cruz has found his way to stand out against potential primary opponent Rand Paul: championing the most fundamental planks of the conservative base. In a passionate speech Friday morning to conservatives at the Values Voter Summit, Cruz left no room for doubt about where he stands on the social issues that—albeit amid party conflict—still define the GOP. "How do we win? We defend the values that are American values," he boomed. "We...

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz won the Value Voters Summit presidential straw poll on Saturday. The crowd burst onto applause on Saturday, as Family Research Council President Tony Perkins announced that Cruz won 25 percent of votes at the annual Washington conference. The victory is a big victory to the Republican firebrand and Tea Party icon, coming just a day after he drew standing ovations with a religious and emotional speech that blasted ObamaCare, congressional Democrats and called for Republicans to take over the White House in 2016. Cruz also won the straw poll in 2013. Coming in second was...

Sarah Palin is known for having the backs of conservatives. Nicolle Wallace is not. Wallace, who has elevated her profile in the liberal press and most likely got her co-hosting job on the The View solely because she stabbed Palin and other conservatives in the back to please the media elite, proved it again this week while gossiping about a story in which the Palin family allegedly brawled to defend their eldest son, who was reportedly attacked at a party in Alaska. According to Newsbusters, Wallace said on Monday's The View, "I mean, sometimes with the Palins, it's exactly what...

After a week of watching you guys dry-heave at the thought of another Romney run, I thought it’d be fun to wind down on Friday by having you dry-heave at the thought of Bush’s candidacy instead. Dude, this is happening. Or is it?But people who have met in recent weeks with Jeb Bush in New York, Washington and Florida say they are far less certain that a campaign will ultimately materialize. Some described Bush as deeply engaged on issues beyond his usual focus on immigration and education, suggesting he was very much preparing for a national race. Others said it...

Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin is back in the spotlight for the Republican party as she attempts to help rescue struggling campaigns. This follows a less than stellar appearance by the Palin clan at a party in Alaska a few weeks ago. On Thursday, Palin was in Kansas to throw her support behind U.S. Senator Pat Roberts. The former Alaskan Governor stood next to the 78-year-old Republican Senator, flipping pancakes at a public appearance in front of 250 people at the Independence Historical Museum and Art Center. The appearance was intent on helping bolster the Republican Senator’s numbers and supporters...

Many GOPers continue the self-deception—she’s not running. Here’s a whiff of reality from a Republican. She’s running, and she’s formidable.Over the last two years I have engaged in countless discussions with Republican friends and colleagues about whether Hillary Clinton would run for president in 2016. What I discovered were two distinct schools of thought: Republicans who were hopeful that she would not run, and Republicans who were confident that she would not run. Both camps believed that Clinton would bow out or not win her party’s nomination for one or more of the following reasons: She has secret health problems....

I’ve been mostly ignoring the various “Romney 2016!” trial balloons floated by various parties over the last six months or so (including by some of my dear friends, alas), but now that someone as sober and well-informed as Byron York has weighed in with a “this could happen” column, it’s worth saying something about why the possibility keeps coming up. Part of the answer can be found in Henry Olsen’s helpful analysis, from earlier this year, of how exactly Republican presidential primaries tend to shake out. Olsen offered a four-group typology of G.O.P. primary voters — secular conservatives, religious conservatives,...

Probably not fatal to the GOP’s hopes of retaking this seat, but not helpful either. Per Becket Adams, since when do tea partiers describe rich people as “the one percent”? [Palin] is slated to appear at a Saturday event organized around [Rob] Maness’s “#OneofUs” campaign, a campaign intended to frame the candidate as an average Louisianan in contrast to the GOP front-runner in the race, Rep. Bill Cassidy, and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), both of whom Maness has characterized as out-of-touch Washington elites. “If you could sum up this campaign, it’s two of them vs. one of us,” a source...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Prospective Republican presidential candidates are expected to promote "religious liberty" at home and abroad at a gathering of religious conservatives, rebuking an unpopular President Barack Obama while skirting divisive social issues that have tripped up the GOP. The annual Values Voter Summit opens Friday in Washington with speeches from several potential presidential candidates, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. The speaking program features ambitious Republicans with positions on social issues across the spectrum — from the libertarian-leaning Paul, who favors less emphasis on abortion...

Sarah Palin appears in Kansas Thursday to stump for Sen. Pat Roberts, the most endangered Republican senator. She could be helpful, but there's irony in her pitch.Sarah Palin has come to the rescue. The Republicans’ 2008 vice presidential nominee – and big-time political lightning rod – took the stage Thursday in Kansas on behalf of the state’s endangered Republican senator, Pat Roberts. Three-term Senator Roberts is widely seen as the most vulnerable Republican senator in the November midterms. A loss would seriously harm the Republicans’ chances of retaking the Senate. Enter Ms. Palin. The former Alaska governor’s public favorability has...