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Influential Iowa conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats has endorsed Ted Cruz for president. Cruz is already surging in Iowa and of its first-in-the-nation presidential contest, and the key endorsement will add to perceptions that Cruz is in a strong position to win the state's presidential caucuses. The news comes just days after a Monmouth University poll showed Cruz edging out Donald Trump at the top of the Hawkeye State. A second poll from CNN showed Cruz in second place and trailing Trump. Vande Plaats announced his pick during a press conference Wednesday morning in Iowa. The evangelical leader has endorsed...

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said Friday that “Obama-Clinton foreign policy” is to blame for growing threat of Islamic terrorism at a gathering of social conservatives in Iowa.Hosted by the Family Leader Christian advocacy group, the forum provided seven of the remaining GOP presidential candidates a platform to speak to evangelical and born-again Christian activists that can make or break a campaign. And it was much different in nature from the first four GOP debates.Candidates sat side-by-side at a “Thanksgiving table.” Instead of attacking each other, they trained fire at Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton - in particular, over The...

This makes two major endorsements for Cruz in Iowa, the first being talk-radio host Steve Deace back in August. Probably the biggest among Iowa social cons is Bob Vander Plaats, head of the Family Leader, which is hosting its presidential forum this Friday. Vander Plaats endorsed Huckabee in 2008 and Huckabee won the caucuses; he endorsed Santorum in 2012 and Santorum won that year. (King, by contrast, endorsed Fred Thompson in 2008 and made no endorsement in 2012.) Vander Plaats, discussing the Christian conservative vote, also told NRO last month, “Our destruction in the past has been division we divide...

Rick Santorum had been the last best hope of Christian conservatives who opposed Mitt Romney, derided by many as a “Massachusetts moderate.” Now, facing the abrupt end of Mr. Santorum’s presidential bid, some evangelical leaders have begun to rally behind Mr. Romney, saying their shared hostility toward President Obama will be a powerful force for uniting the party in November. In one sign of coalescing support from Christian conservatives, the National Organization for Marriage, a leading opponent of same-sex marriage, endorsed Mr. Romney on Wednesday morning. The group called Mr. Romney a “true champion” and said that President Obama “has...

When Rick Santorum ended his presidential bid on Tuesday, he spoke about the illness of his three-year-old daughter, Bella, and expressed a desire to spend more time with her as a parent. But on Thursday, the former Pennsylvania senator suggested the decision largely came down instead to a simple reality: He was out of cold, hard cash. After losing Wisconsin's April 3 primary to rival Mitt Romney by seven points - a contest, Santorum said, that his campaign viewed as necessary to win in order to do well in his home state of Pennsylvania - his fundraising dried up. "For...

I think you are missing something here. Newt would bring the ever Lurking Calista with him and she was the cause of divorce # 2. He was rubbing it in everybody's face that an old coot like him could get somebody like her. No matter how God awful she looked. He was delusional to think he could get the evangelicals with that approach. Newt is the one that shot himself in the foot not Hume. Hume is just another excuse for Newt in a long line of excuse's. He was rubbing it in everybody's face that an old coot like...

My Message to Rick Santorum March 23, 2012 Not too long ago, I had asked a woman from Pennsylvania what she thought about Rick Santorum. Knowing that she was as conservative and as Republican as I am, I was surprised at her response. She said, “He is the worst. Those of us who know him best have nothing but contempt for him. He is not an honest person and certainly would not hesitate to stab a fellow politician in the back.” That was a few weeks ago, but I have learned what a tawdry character Santorum is. He is a...

Those who continue to believe that Romney can be stopped are focused — as is the campaign of Newt Gingrich — on the possibility of a long delegate fight. They have largely given up hope of anyone winning a knockout victory over Romney, hoping instead that some other candidate can prevent the former Massachusetts governor from wrapping the race up before the Republican National Convention, which is set for Tampa, Fla., in late August. “We have never gone through a delegate fight like this,” said Bob Vander Plaats, an influential conservative and the head of the Iowa-based Family Leader organization....

In the 13 years since he suffered a string of political setbacks and quit the third most powerful job in Washington, Newt Gingrich has been busily laying the foundation for a comeback to an even grander perch. On any given day, the former Speaker of the House can be found on a chartered jet headed to Iowa to train future GOP candidates through his American Solutions group, or in Phoenix discussing ways to lower health-care costs with drug makers through his for-profit Center for Health Transformation. He might also be in Philadelphia, narrating a film produced by Gingrich Productions, or...

The president of the influential Christian organisation Family Leader has said Republican candidate Mitt Romney "will not be the eventual nominee" despite leading the polls for the nomination. Bob Vander Plaats told the International Business Times UK that 75-80 percent of Republicans across the US do not want Romney. "The only reason why he is ahead is because there hasn't been a real alternative," said Plaats. "But now it looks like Gingrich is going to be that person." Plaats, who initially endorsed former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, carries significant political clout within the Republican Party. He said: "When I endorsed...

Three days after Bob Vander Plaats endorsed Rick Santorum for president, the evangelical leader has become mired in charges that he illegally solicited money from Santorum's campaign to "promote the endorsement." Santorum told CNN that before Vander Plaats -- the president of The Family Leader, an influential Christian conservative group in Iowa -- announced his endorsement on Tuesday, he called Santorum and said that he "needed money to promote the endorsement, and that [it] would be important to do that." Santorum emphasized that Vander Plaats did not request money specifically from Santorum's campaign -- "There was never a direct ask...

A key Iowa social conservatives group announced Tuesday it will not endorse former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney or businessman Herman Cain, but is still evaluating if it would back one of the other candidates. The Family Leader, which hosted a forum that six Republican candidates attended last Saturday, said in a statement that its board had narrowed its choices of an endorsement to Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ex-senator Rick Santorum (Penn). The statement said the group would not consider endorsing Romney, who the group criticized for skipping its event. The...

Cain slammed by influential group of Iowa conservatives Cameron Joseph November 22, 2011 A top organization of Iowa social conservatives slammed Herman Cain as it narrowed its list for a possible presidential endorsement list. Cain and Ron Paul were dropped from The Family Leader's consideration, leaving Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann as the possible winners. Mitt Romney did not seek the group's endorsement. Headed by the influential activist Bob Vander Plaats, the group criticized Cain, saying he lacked "clarity on the key issues of life, marriage, foreign policy, and presidential readiness" — a major diss to...

I’d never heard a Minnesotan say “ain’t” before last Monday. I grew up in North Carolina. Ain’t is part of the vernacular there. In Iowa and Minnesota, not so much. If you ain’t from there, you ain’t allowed to use it… How bad was T-Paw’s faux pas Monday, calling Steve Scheffler “Chuck” three different times in a 10 minute speech? On the bright side, Scheffler has been called much worse than “Chuck” lately. On the other hand, if you’re trying to win the Iowa Caucus, STEVE Scheffler is a name you should know… By the way, they don’t say “faux...

Tim Pawlenty said all the right things during the inaugural “Presidential Lecture Series” event sponsored by The FAMiLY Leader. A crowd of 150 attendees, plus a dozen media members, gathered at Pella Christian High School early Monday afternoon to listen to the former Minnesota governor. The crowd liked what they heard, but was not blown away by Pawlenty’s delivery. If elections were won only on substance, Pawlenty would stand a strong chance in the 2012 Iowa Caucus. However, style matters too. Oratorical skills propelled Barack Obama to the White House in 2008. Pawlenty will need to become a more passionate...

If Mike Huckabee runs for President, he is obviously the odds-on favorite to earn The Family Leader’s endorsement. Vander Plaats was Huckabee’s state chair for the 2008 campaign. The former Arkansas governor’s last two visits to Iowa were to raise money for the IFPC. It is hard to imagine the group endorsing anyone instead of Huckabee. Some attendees have privately suggested that Vander Plaats’ current tour is a thinly veiled campaign on behalf of Huckabee. Indeed, Vander Plaats mentions Huckabee at almost every stop. The events are frequently held in the same Pizza Ranch locations that Huckabee and BVP toured...

There aren’t a whole lot of things in politics about which anyone can claim: “This has never happened before!” But in Iowa, a major battle over judicial activism fits the bill. In all the years that Iowans have held to their odd, some would say cozy, system of appointing judges at all levels including the Supreme Court, a justice has never been voted off that court even though they all come up for a vote on a rotating basis. Each election cycle a few justices come up for retention, and in total they face the voters once every eight years....

SIOUX CITY -- The human services agency led at one time by 2010 Iowa gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats nearly closed its doors in the early 2000s in large part because he failed to produce adequate fundraising support after stepping down as CEO, according to a former board member and executive for Sioux City-based Opportunities Unlimited. Vander Plaats’ inability to raise funds for Opportunities Unlimited in what is described as a hybrid management/board position led to his termination by the board, said Jackie Kibbie-Williams, a former board member and the person who succeeded Vander Plaats as CEO of Opportunities Unlimited....

Iowa, your great state’s motto is “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.” That motto will be well served by voting for Terry Branstad for governor next Tuesday! Please join me in supporting Governor Branstad’s campaign. Visit his website here, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. - Sarah Palin

The gubernatorial campaign for Terry Branstad is downplaying a heart procedure that was successfully completed on the former governor today at a Des Moines hospital. “In the interest of openness and full disclosure, we are releasing this information to the press and public,” said campaign manager Jeff Boeyink. Dr. Michael Fraizer, an interventional cardiologist at the Iowa Heart Center, stated that the procedure was not done due to a heart attack, but was a routine procedure mandated by a stress test. “Today former Gov. Terry Branstad had an elective heart procedure. This demonstrated a partially blocked artery that was treated...