Free Republic

A tea party leader is favored to become Texas' lieutenant governor. A Ted Cruz-endorsed newcomer is inching closer to replacing Democrat Wendy Davis in the statehouse. On television, millions of dollars in attack ads have given established Republican incumbents all they can handle. For all the talk of Texas growing competitive for Democrats in 2016 and beyond, GOP voters are poised to make a harder turn right on Tuesday. Though the tea party has sputtered this year in elections around the country, Texas' conservative insurgents are the front-runners in Republican primary runoffs for major statewide offices and positioned to bolster...

It’s early for a palate cleanser but I’m not sure this doesn’t qualify as legit news. I … did not expect to find myself eager to revisit the Romney 2012 campaign on film, but here we are, my friends. Here we are. It’s true that the trailer is more humanizing than anything Romney’s campaign did for him, but the deck is stacked. The bio video that the GOP produced for the convention was solid but nothing as stage-managed as campaign propaganda will ever have the disarming charm of behind-the-scenes footage of the candidates in unguarded moments. Plus, the trailer’s cheating...

Despite rumblings from some Republican backbenchers, Speaker John A. Boehner’s hold on the House’s top post appears secure after key conservative lawmakers said they don’t expect anyone to challenge him. Several congressman who were booted from their committees last week have refused to commit to voting for Mr. Boehner when the House elects its speaker next year. But the discontent has not spread widely among their GOP colleagues, who generally give the Ohio Republican good marks for playing a difficult hand in the current budget negotiations. -snip- The four lawmakers who were booted from their committees remain angry, and they...

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) took a public shot at House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Tuesday night, in the wake of a shake-up that knocked a small group of conservatives off prominent committees. Justin Amash ✔ @repjustinamash Still waiting for call from GOP leadership. Are they too embarrassed to explain they booted me for working to reduce debt? 4 Dec 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite Amash, a libertarian-leaning conservative, was taken off the House Budget Committee. Tea party-backed Rep. Tim Huelskamp (Kan.) was taken off Budget and Agriculture. Reps. Walter Jones (N.C.), a rare moderate, and David Schweikert (Ariz.) lost their spots on the...

President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney talks in the Oval Office following their lunch. Bitter campaign foes just weeks ago, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney met for lunch at the White House on Thursday, sitting down with an eye on overlapping interests rather than the sharp differences that defined their presidential contest. In their first meeting since the election, Obama and the Republican nominee met in the White House's private dining room, fulfilling a promise Obama made in his victory speech the night of Nov. 6. Romney arrived at the White House early Thursday afternoon in...

According to ABC, campaign manager Matt Rhoades told Romney: 'We would rather lose with you than win with anyone else.' Colleagues also stood and clapped for Rhoades and Mitt's 'Body Man,' Garrett Jackson who often tweeted behind-the-scenes pictures during his many hours at Romney's side on the campaign trail. The defeat was a stunning blow to the Republican camp who had been confident they would win even in the last few hours of the campaign.

On night two of the Republican National Convention, Fox News Channel was once again the network more people went to to get their political fix. That said, every network was down substantially from the same night in 2008, when Sarah Palin made her RNC debut.

Initially I was a Cruz supporter, but as the campaign rolled on and I found out that Cruz is a trial lawyer, I was skeptical, but I still supported Cruz, because he said the right things. Still, though, saying the right things cannot hide your initial background, a trial lawyer=community activist. As in all elections, the choice is the lesser of two evils, and a businessman is a lesser evil than a trial lawyer.

Mitt Romney's march to a possible Republican presidential nomination just got a lot longer and harder. Front-runner Romney left Tuesday's round of three nominating contests with another reminder of his own shortcomings, after a two-state winning streak that had placed him firmly in the driver's seat in the nomination race. Bad losses to rival Rick Santorum in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota raised more questions about whether conservative Republicans are ready to give their hearts to a millionaire former Massachusetts governor who once supported abortion rights and a government requirement that people have health insurance.

Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele dropped his bid for a second term on Friday after being offered a lucrative deal in exchange for his endorsement, sources on the committee tell The Hotline. Steele dropped out of the race for chairman after four ballots on Friday and threw his support to Maria Cino, a former Bush administration official who finished third in the race. Steele endorsed Cino from the stage after ending his bid, a rare public announcement in a contest marked more by quiet member-to-member conversations. That endorsement came at a cost, according to committee insiders. As candidates...

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.