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A poll conducted late last month for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) shows him with a wide lead over challenger David Brat heading toward next Tuesday's Republican primary election. The poll, shared with Post Politics, shows Cantor with a 62 percent to 28 percent lead over Brat, an economics professor running to Cantor's right. Eleven percent say they are undecided.

A conservative challenger is expected to fall far short of defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in Tuesday’s congressional primary. Disorganization and poor funding have stymied the campaign of tea party activist David Brat, even as he tapped into conservative resentment toward a party leader who has been courting the Republican right for years.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will meet with the top four House Republicans next week in Washington. The high tech CEO’s visit comes as Facebook is facing ongoing scrutiny over privacy concerns and Internet safety. Zuckerberg will meet Thursday with Speaker John Boehner and the rest of his leadership team, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Whip Kevin McCarthy and Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers. The meeting is expected to be a broad discussion of issues related to Facebook, according to a GOP aide. While immigration may come up, the meeting is not specifically to discuss comprehensive reform, which Zuckerberg has...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) joined President Obama for his second closed-door dinner with Senate Republicans on Wednesday. Rubio had been invited but had not committed for most of the day of the dinner. The Florida Republican's office said immigration meetings might get in the way of him going to the dinner, but later said he would attend. Besides Rubio, Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), John Boozman (Ark.), Susan Collins (Maine), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Deb Fisher (Neb.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Johnny Isackson (Ga.), Pat Roberts (Kan.), John Thune (S.D.) Roger Wicker (Miss.) dined with Obama. Obama's first meeting with...

President Obama’s second big dinner with Senate Republicans will be at the White House Wednesday night, press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday. Carney declined to say which senators will join Obama but Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who is organizing the guest list, said Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) will join him at the dinner. Isakson’s office said he would release the full guest list Wednesday. The dinner follows Obama’s initial outreach to Senate Republicans last month. That dinner grew out of discussions Obama had with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Carney said topics of discussion will include Obama’s...

President Barack Obama is keeping up his congressional charm offensive, with a second dinner with Senate Republicans planned for next month. Obama dined with a dozen GOP senators earlier this month at a hotel near the White House. …

There are 23 names on the Conservative Political Action Conference's much watched 2016 GOP presidential nomination straw poll. And there's one glaring omission: Jeb Bush. It appears the former two-term Florida governor is the reason his name isn't on the ballot. "He requested not to be put on the poll this year," an official with the American Conservative Union, the group that puts on CPAC, told CNN.

As the GOP struggles to broaden its appeal, the head of the American Conservative Union declared Thursday that the Republican Party is not a home for everyone, as prominent voices in Republican politics gather with thousands of conservatives and tea party activists outside Washington. The Conservative Political Action Conference offers Republican leaders—past and potential presidential contenders among them—a high-profile stage to court their party's most passionate voters. The three-day gathering also shines a spotlight on deep divisions within the Republican Party as it tries to recover from a painful 2012 election season. “I’m a firm believer that if the Republican...

Jeb Bush Going For 'Full Ginsburg' To Promote Immigration Policy On TV Named for the Lewinsky lawyer who first pulled off the feat, former governor to appear on all five major Sunday talk shows 9 March 2013 In insider Washington slang it is a publicity coup that has been dubbed the "full Ginsburg" – when a single interviewee snags a slot on all five of American television's major Sunday morning talk shows on the same day. It was named after Monica Lewinsky lawyer William Ginsburg – who was the first to pull it off in 1998 – but now former...

President Obama and Republican senators had a “good exchange of ideas” this evening during their roughly two-hour-long dinner at the posh Jefferson Hotel, just blocks from the White House, according to a senior administration official. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., gave the meeting a thumbs up as he exited the hotel, saying it was “just fine,” “great” and “wonderful.” McCain told reporters gathered across the street that it was a “very enjoyable evening,” but declined to discuss specifics. Obama invited 12 GOP senators to break bread as part of a larger effort to jump start budget negotiations and try to cut...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said Tuesday that he would endorse a pathway to citizenship that does not incentivize illegal immigration. It's a stance that differs from the immigration reform plan that he laid out in his new book. Bush, a well-known pro-immigration reform Republican, raised eyebrows on Monday when he said on the "Today" show and in his book that he opposes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, arguing that it would violate the rule of law and encourage future illegal immigration. In his new book, "Immigration Wars," Bush offers up a plan that would provide a...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush won’t confirm he’s a candidate for the next presidential race, but he sounded like a White House hopeful Monday, declaring his party in need of leadership. “I have a voice, I want to share my beliefs about how the conservative movement and the Republican party can regain its footing, because we’ve lost our way,” he told TODAY’s Matt Lauer. Bush said he wouldn’t rule out a run in 2016, “but I won’t declare today either.”

During an appearance on NBC’s “The Today Show,” Bush said it’s not the time to talk about increasing taxes after what he called the biggest tax hike in American history two months ago following the fiscal cliff deal. But he also wouldn’t rule out the idea that revenues could be part of a package — something Republicans in Congress have said is off the table.

<p>FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is gearing up for a tough re-election fight next year in Kentucky.</p> <p>He wants to prevent one, too.</p> <p>McConnell is trying to head off a GOP primary challenge by cozying up to the tea party. He's also trying to scare off potential Democratic contenders — actress Ashley Judd is one — by providing a glimpse of his no-holds-barred political tactics.</p>

Don't anyone tell Marco Rubio, John McCain or Jeff Flake that nearly 80 percent of Hindus voted for Obama, or who knows what they'll come up with. I understand the interest of business lobbies in getting cheap, unskilled labor through amnesty, but why do Republican officeholders want to create up to 20 million more Democratic voters, especially if it involves flouting the law? Are the campaign donations from the soulless rich more important than actual voters? Without citing any evidence, the Rubio Republicans simply assert that granting 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens amnesty will make Hispanics warm to...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will deliver the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address on Feb. 12. Rubio's response will be delivered in both English and Spanish, according to Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) office. "Marco Rubio is one of our party’s most dynamic and inspiring leaders. He carries our party’s banner of freedom, opportunity and prosperity in a way few others can. His family’s story is a testament to the promise and greatness of America," Boehner said in a statement on Wednesday. "He’ll deliver a GOP address that speaks from the heart to the hopes and dreams...

Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist says that large-scale immigration is good for America and the Republican Party — and that critics of easy immigration should get out of the way. “There are a whole bunch of people who are listening to loud voices, some of whom claim to be Republican … talking about [employers] who didn’t fill out the paperwork, about going after [an immigrant's] aunt,” said Norquist, whose opposition to tax increases has made him popular among Republicans and a hate-figure among progressives. Once advocates for tighter immigration are sidelined, the GOP will be able to win...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor attempted to project a softer Republican tone on immigration during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, but indicated there is a ways to go until Republicans and Democrats agree on an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican, endorsed a path to citizenship for DREAMers, the undocumented young people brought to the United States as children.

He's already being treated like the 2016 GOP presidential front-runner, and now there is another reason Republicans are excitedly buzzing about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio: He alone would reverse the party's slide among Hispanic voters. A new nationwide poll from JZ Analytics found that Rubio would get 48 percent of the Hispanic vote, about twice what Mitt Romney won in 2012. Republican strategist told Secrets that a win among Latino voters that big would assure Rubio the presidency, since he would also likely keep the regular GOP base. "If he does that good, then he's the next president," said a...

“I don’t think the party dies immediately,” Gilmore says. “It’s not going to just disappear like the Whigs did, since there is so much law that supports the two-party system. But Republicans will be locked into a permanent minority at the national level unless we seriously rethink our approach.”