Free Republic

State Representative Sheila Butt (R-Columbia) announced Thursday she is endorsing U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for president in 2016. “It’s time to stand for our country and foundational principles, including the rule of law,” Butt stated in a press release. “Senator Cruz has a consistent record of fighting for the principles on which our country was created. After meeting with Senator Cruz and his team, I am convinced he will fight until the end to restore the Tenth Amendment, tackle our national debt, provide unwavering support to Israel and our allies, and restore the balance of power in Washington.” Butt...

Donald Trump took his colorful campaign to Nashville on Saturday, where he courted a constituency that some say he is tailor-made for: the tea party. He is competing in a presidential straw poll and addressed the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, a group that boasts it was "the tea party before there was a tea party." Trump's appearance was highly anticipated at the conservative gathering: As a candidate, he's hitting the same notes -- anger at conventional politics, contempt for Washington and distrust of special interests and lobbyists -- that propelled the tea party movement in 2010. "You have not...

Politically wounded presumptive nominee staggering in the desert of her email scandal.Hillary is politically wounded by her never-ending email scandal, which keeps sucking the life out of her favorability ratings, and has Democrats panicked with fear: “I’m not sure they completely understand the credibility they are losing, by the second,” said one Democratic strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At some point this goes from being something you can rationalize away to something that becomes political cancer. And we are getting pretty close to the cancer stage, because this is starting to get ridiculous.” “Look, this is a...

Senator Ted Cruz made his mark on Murfreesboro for an appearance at Patterson Community Center Monday. The event was held in the local gym. Evidently, the event was so packed, that the fire marshal was forced to stop people from entering the large gym. A few hundred were placed in the smaller adjoining gym. Senator Cruz explained why he was running for president . . . (AUDIO-AT-LINK)Comments from Public NewsRadio WGNS asked a random group of persons at the Patterson Community Center what they liked about Senator Cruz . . . (AUDIO-AT-LINK)During his talk he received numerous cheers when mentioning...

U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz passed through Nashville yesterday, stopping to speak to supporters in nearby Murfreesboro and Franklin. Cruz had previously announced a state Leadership Team that includes Murfreesboro businesswoman Michelle Garcia and Clarksville Mayor Pro-Tem and pastor Tommy Vallejos. While pressing the flesh, Cruz posed for a photo with Garcia and Vallejos. From the Cruz campaign press release on the Tennessee Leadership Team: Michelle Garcia is a wife, a mother of two, and a Tennessee native who strongly supports conservative principles and who eagerly strives to serve her community. Michelle speaks fluent Spanish and is actively...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz stopped in Chattanooga on Monday as he spent the congressional recess politicking around the South. The Texas senator and presidential dreamer (being called a dreamer will probably cause him a little heartburn) is best known for shutting down the government, reading Green Eggs and Ham during a filibuster and opposing immigration reform — never mind that he is son of a Cuban immigrant. In Chattanooga, the tea party-leaning Republican made what he called a biscuits and gravy stopover during his eight-state "Cruz Country" bus tour through the southern states. He made a stump speech at GraceWorks...

Ted Cruz visit moved to larger site U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's visit to Chattanooga on Monday will take place at GraceWorks Church, 6445 Lee Highway, according to a Republican Party news release. Cruz, the Texas senator who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, will make a "Biscuits and Gravy" morning stop at 9 a.m. The public is invited to meet him and hear him speak. There will be biscuits, gravy and other breakfast foods. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. Admission is free but attendees are asked to RSVP at www.tedcruz.org/rsvp/chattanooga/ Former assessor employee to seek top post Sterling Jetton is...

Chattanooga Tea Party leader Mark West is among those announced as the Tennessee leadership team for the presidential campaign of Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Senator Cruz has an upcoming trip to Chattanooga. Stephen Siao joins the Cruz campaign as state director, and 24 "top grassroots and faith leaders" join chairman Kevin Kookogey on the state leadership team. Mr. Siao previously led Heritage Action's efforts in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Before joining Heritage Action in January 2014, Siao served on the communications staff of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and completed a fellowship at the John Jay Institute. A graduate...

So many people want to see presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz next week, he had to find a bigger place to meet. Chattanooga Tea Party President Mark West said Wednesday, the U.S. Senator from Texas will be visiting with Southeast Tennessee residents at GraceWorks Church, 6445 Lee Highway in Chattanooga. Cruz is visiting Chattanooga at 8:30 a.m. Monday to meet with residents and share his vision for the nation. There will also be biscuits and gravy served. The venue change was due to "a higher than expected response" West said in an email.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will spend much of August on an eight-state “Cruz Country” bus tour through the South, as his team looks beyond the first four 2016 states to March’s delegate-heavy SEC Primary states, including Georgia and Texas. Cruz advisers say they’re not only vigorously competing in the early states, but already organizing the so-called SEC states (a nickname from college sports’ Southeastern Conference), with advertising planned through March 15. An adviser said the objective of the bus trip is “to ensure that by the time other candidates get to the March 1 voting states following early state voting,...

What’s the only thing that could make the Democratic field more pathetic (and ancient) that it already is? I mean besides Al Sharpton running? How about Al Gore, a relatively youthful 67? The good folks at Salon.com think he should be drafted: It’s time to draft Al Gore: If Democrats want to win, it’s clear neither Hillary nor Sanders is the way By Sean Illing The presidential election is still sixteen months away, but this much is clear: Hillary Clinton is a vulnerable candidate. Since announcing her candidacy in April, Clinton’s stature has steadily slipped. Things got even worse this...

If you had to vote in your state primary/caucus today, knowing what you know now about the various declared and probable candidates, who would you vote for? Why? Who would you like to see as the running mate for your preferred candidate? If you could help staff your candidates cabinet and other top appointments, who would you choose? If you could recommend different congressional leaders than we have now, who would they be? And who would you like to see on the Supreme Court and why? And finally, feel free to donate to Free Republic.

There’s going to be an important race for the White House next year, but then again, every election for the leader of the United States and the rest of the free world is important. It must be so, because a presidential election is the only time many Americans will step into a voting booth. The 2016 campaign is well underway, with Hillary Clinton already taking shots from would-be Republican nominees. As of this writing, there are 20 declared GOPers and at least five other credible Republicans still mulling bids. Of course, Hillary is also under fire from a self-professed socialist,...

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz has named former Williamson County GOP chairman Kevin Kookogey, a critic of Sharia law, as his Tennessee chairman. Now, the U.S. senator is drawing fire from the Council on American-Islamic Relations which on Tuesday urged Cruz to drop Kookogey because of what the group called "his longstanding support for anti-Muslim and Islamophobic causes." In announcing Kookogey's appointment, Cruz on Monday called him "a consistently strong voice for conservative principles and an active member of our party for a number of years. "His experience and knowledge of both the landscape in Tennessee and the issues that...

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has named anti-Shariah activist Kevin Kookogey as his state chairman for Tennessee. Kookogey, a former chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party, was unsuccessful in his bid to coalesce tea party support for a primary challenge to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander last year....

Republican heavyweight Haley Barbour said Monday "no true" front-runner exists among the various Republicans announcing for president or those expected to become candidates in 2016. Whoever it is can't just run against the policies of Democratic President Barack Obama but has to "give something to be for" particularly in improving the economy, creating jobs and bringing down the national debt, he said. Barbour made the comments at a news conference before speaking at the annual Lincoln Dinner of the Knox County Republican Party at Rothchild catering center in West Knoxville. Some 325-350 people attended based on table arrangements for 400....

The National Rifle Association’s annual leadership conference is always a treasure trove of GOP smack-talk and an all-out constitutional liturgy — and if Friday night’s viral talking points are any indication, this year’s celebration ranks further right on the political spectrum than usual. Not that that’s surprising: it is the run-up year to a presidential election cycle, which means that the Republican machine was churning out even more harsh allegations than usual. Of course, one of the biggest showboats of the night was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who told political opponent Hillary Clinton to “come and take” away his guns,...

How's this for some political arithmetic: Take a shallower-than-usual Democratic bench for 2016, hypothetically devalue a leading candidate due to an e-mail scandal, then toss in a retro candidate who lost one of the most controversial elections in history and you have the darkest of dark horse possibilities: Al Gore for president. The former vice president and 2000 Democratic presidential nominee is headed to Iowa in May for a climate change event, and these days, that's all it takes to fuel speculation that he may be considering another presidential run. At least, according to Ezra Klein, formerly of The Washington...

This clip confirms the extent to which condescension on the left has replaced efforts to convince those skeptical of the medical community’s assessment of Ebola’s communicability of their error. In an appearance on CNN on Thursday, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) sought to assure the viewing audience that everyone (including, presumably, the Democratic governors of California, New Hampshire, and New York) is overreacting to the threat of Ebola. When probed by anchor Carol Costello as to why the president’s freshly appointed “Ebola Czar,” Ron Klain, has not come out publicly and assured the nation that there is no medical need to...

The former vice president believes the politics of global warming are changing.Al Gore says Republicans seeking the White House in 2016 are in a bind on climate change. Asked if it would hurt the GOP nominee to be a climate skeptic or advocate against taking action on global warming, Gore replied: "Oh, yes. Definitely." "In a general election? At the national level, where moderate voters hold the balance? It would be extremely harmful to a Republican candidate," Gore told National Journal in an interview Wednesday. But Gore doubts that a "pro-climate" Republican can get the GOP nod, because "carbon polluters...