Free Republic

Tucker Carlson is reportedly in talks with former President Donald Trump to host a GOP forum featuring Republican presidential contenders, a move that could mean millions of dollars forfeited for the former Fox News host as he is still legally obligated to the network until the end of 2024, reports The Washington Post.Sources told the Post that Carlson may be willing to give up the money Fox owes him as part of his noncompete clause if it means he can publicly reestablish his image faster."He could go straight to the candidates, stream it live, invite the networks but maintain control...

Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, is quietly assembling a senior staff for an expected 2024 presidential campaign that will be headed by his top political adviser, Generra Peck, and around seven other Republican operatives serving as top advisers, according to two people familiar with the matter. The leadership roster remains subject to change since the campaign – which could launch as soon as the start of next month – does not yet technically exist and most salaries are being paid, for the moment, through the state Republican party. But some of the senior staff have started to move in recent weeks...

Hoffman, 55, has told New York Magazine‘s Kara Swisher: “The short answer is I will spend as much as I possibly can and it takes and is effective [to beat Trump].” This could involve aiding other GOP primary candidates, reports Puck News, to the point where Hoffman and his cohorts are investigating state primary rules, as well as the idea of supporting anti-Trump, right-leaning media. The issue was discussed at length in a late March podcast by the new, D.C.-based news site. While Hoffman has demurred on specifically endorsing a Republican candidate, claiming “I’m almost certainly in the Biden camp,”...

Victory Insights found the Florida Governor holding a lead in November. But that's gone now. Gov. Ron DeSantis handily won re-election last cycle. But a new poll shows he may lose his home state in a GOP Primary for President against Donald Trump. Victory Insights, a polling firm with a presence in Naples, found Trump beating DeSantis both within a wide field and in a head-to-head matchup. Among likely GOP Primary voters, Trump comes out on top in a crowded field with almost 43% of the vote, while DeSantis lands at just under 35%. Author and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy pulls...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has chosen a finance director for his prospective presidential campaign, two sources close to DeSantis said on Thursday. Lauren Lofstrom, who served as finance director for Texas Senator Ted Cruz during his 2016 presidential campaign, is joining DeSantis' political operation and has begun meeting with the governor's allies to discuss fundraising strategies, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Others who have joined DeSantis' political operation include Jason Johnson, who served as Cruz's chief strategist in 2016, the sources said.

DeSantis led Trump as recently as January, but the trend since is against the Governor. Donald Trump continues to stretch his lead over Ron DeSantis in the Lone Star State. A survey conducted between March 30 and April 2 by CWS Research and commissioned by the Defend Texas Liberty PAC finds the former President is supported by more than half of those surveyed, with more than double the support of the Florida Governor, who still is his nearest competition. Fifty-two percent of the 1,067 likely voters in the 2024 Republican Primary say they back Trump, with just 20% claiming to...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ team is already plotting out a strategy to run against Donald Trump for the long haul. The plan focuses less on making a quick splash in places like Iowa or New Hampshire and more on outlasting the former president in a battle for Republican convention delegates. Even though it’s early and DeSantis isn’t officially a candidate yet, in talks behind the scenes, an expanded map is viewed as one of the keys to victory, three sources close to the governor said. “There have been multiple conversations about delegates and how they are picked in various states...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is polling under 20 percent in a hypothetical 2024 Republican primary field after former President Donald Trump received a surge in the polls when a New York grand jury voted to indict him last week. Reuters surveyed 706 U.S. adults from March 31 to April 3, just days after a New York grand jury voted to indict the former president. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump focuses on his alleged role in paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money. March 20: • Trump — 44% (+14) • DeSantis — 30% APRIL...

14 min clip from Viva/Robert Barnes podcast. Barnes explains why DeSantis is running for president, donors convinced him Trump would be kneecapped by numerous indictments (most have failed) and thus DeSantis would win the primary. Secondly, DeSantis will not win the general because Trumpers will not vote. Outcome - destroy Trump, DeSantis and MAGA in one swoop. Barnes also explains the case against Trump and other insights. Worth the time.

They haven't—at least so far—accused Donald Trump of "holding a gun to the head" of the GOP. But it's early days yet in the 2024 Republican primary. MSNBC's Morning Joe certainly headed in that direction today, with Jonathan Lemire claiming that Trump is attempting to "blackmail" the GOP into nominating him.Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland who positioned himself as one of his party’s fiercest critics of Donald Trump, said Sunday he will not challenge the ex-president for the GOP’s White House nomination in 2024. “I would never run for president to sell books or position myself for a Cabinet role,” the 66-year-old Hogan wrote in The New York Times. “I have long said that I care more about ensuring a future for the Republican Party than securing my own future in the Republican Party. And that is why I will not be seeking...

Former President Trump won the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll on Saturday as the preferred 2024 GOP presidential nominee and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake won as the vice presidential choice of CPAC attendees. Over 2,000 votes were cast and Trump won with 62% while Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis earned 20%. DeSantis also came in second as the vice presidential pick with 14% compared to 20% for Lake.

To judge by several early polls, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has a decent shot of beating former President Donald Trump in the race to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Some liberals have pronounced this terrible news — because, they say, a DeSantis presidency would be just as awful as, and perhaps even worse than, a second Trump term. This is wrong. A DeSantis presidency would be bad in many ways, and my fellow liberals should fight with all they have to prevent it. But Mr. DeSantis almost certainly would not be worse than Mr. Trump. Exaggerating the...

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis released a new digital ad Sunday night rallying conservatives to fight for freedom ahead of a potential 2024 presidential run. “When the world lost its mind… when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue… Florida was a refuge of sanity, a citadel of freedom for our fellow Americans and even for people around the world,” DeSantis said in the nearly two-minute video. The ad features numerous major figures at Fox News — including Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Dana Perino, and Lisa Boothe — touting DeSantis’ repeated successes while serving as the governor of Florida. “Florida’s...

Fox News is running an hour-long campaign infomercial to support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis winning the 2024 GOP primary nomination. Inside the political messaging, Jeb Bush gives his full-throated endorsement. {Direct Rumble Link} WATCH:Based on current available evidence, the announcement of a 2024 presidential bid is a mere formality, likely to surface later in 2023, as all the background datapoints reflect the strategic and financial team behind Ron DeSantis have been positioning an announcement since late 2021. One visible datapoint has been his campaign office, specifically his then spokesperson Christina Pushaw, reaching out to a group of Florida influencers and...

The 2024 presidential race will start to heat up very quickly, indeed, the talk is already moving towards the front burner. On the Democratic side, the nomination is Biden’s, if he wants it; the fact that he hasn’t announced yet has created some questions (Breitbart headline, 2/22: “2024: Joe No Show? Delayed Decision Causing ‘Doubt’”), but Biden will almost surely run again, and there are no Democrats strong enough to challenge him. The Republicans now have three candidates: Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, and multi-millionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who, on Tucker Carlson’s February 21 show, announced his intention to run for...

The group of Ron DeSantis’ top donors and supporters gathering in Palm Beach, Fla., this weekend includes some longtime backers of former President Donald Trump. The Florida governor’s three-day retreat at the Four Seasons hotel — just four miles down the road from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate — kicked off Friday evening with a cocktail reception and dinner for the approximately 150 attendees. The event, billed as a celebration of the “Florida blueprint,” precedes a likely DeSantis presidential bid that would pit him against Trump. And the roster of people there shows that the governor is appealing to major GOP figures...

The newest Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, is officially on the campaign trail. His first stop was in New Hampshire on Feb. 22, where he answered several questions from the audience.

The Republican National Committee says it will hold the first 2024 GOP presidential nomination debate in August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

President Donald Trump is up double digits in the latest 2024 Republican primary poll, released by Premise Data. The survey asked, “Who do you think the Republican Party should nominate as the party’s candidate for president in 2024?” A majority of Republican respondents, 57 percent, chose Trump, leaving Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) 29 points behind with 26 percent support. No other candidate came close, as Vice President Mike Pence came in third with five percent support. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) came in fourth place with three percent support, followed by former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley (two...