Free Republic

Former First Lady Melania Trump is helping the homosexual ‘conservative’ group Log Cabin Republicans kick off its ‘Road to Victory’ campaign at her and her husband’s Florida resort home on April 20. ... PALM BEACH, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — After an extended absence from public view, former First Lady Melania Trump is reportedly set to return to the campaign trail for her husband starting with a fundraiser for homosexual “conservative” group Log Cabin Republicans at her and husband Donald’s resort home of Mar-a-Lago. The news puts to rest unsubstantiated rumors that Mrs. Trump was distancing herself from the former president’s 2024...

Former Senate majority leader Harry M. Reid said Thursday that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or any presidential candidate should not get the Democratic nomination if they end the primary process in first place but are shy of the requisite majority of delegates. Reid (D-Nev.) dismissed suggestions from Sanders and his supporters that he should become the nominee if he finishes with a plurality lead ahead of the rest of the candidates but short of the 1,991 delegates needed to secure the nomination outright. Reid even suggested that a group of moderate candidates, trailing Sanders overall, could assemble a coalition ahead...

Sen. Bernie Sanders will back Hillary Clinton in exchange for speaking opportunities at fall campaign rallies, a fully-funded campaign aircraft and a share of the credit for her hoped-for election, according to a negotiating memo obtained by BuzzFeed News and dated two days before the June 7 California primary. “Request a plane and staff for a series of fall rallies in battleground states … plane would be paid for by the DNC,” according the the Sanders memo, titled “End Game 2016” and addressed to “Bernie 2016.” The memo’s authenticity has not been confirmed by Breitbart News, but it has not...

Kasich: "We believe that an open convention is the best way for the Republican Party to win" http://cnn.it/1pzz0Ig

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)said Wednesday morning that a contested Republican convention is certain and that supporters of Donald Trump are ultimately helping Hillary Clinton reach the White House. During a radio interview for a Philadelphia morning show, Cruz predicted with certainty that the Republican Party is “headed to a contested convention.” He suggests Trump supporters “might as well put a Hillary sticker on your car.”

John Kasich's campaign is urging "every Republican in the country" to rally around his candidacy, despite his overwhelming loss to Donald Trump in Tuesday’s New York primary. "The next 7 days are absolutely critical and every Republican in the country who wants an open convention and to win the White House should rally around Gov. Kasich in the upcoming April 26 states," said Kasich's chief strategist, John Weaver, in a memo issued on Tuesday night after Trump won New York by some 30 points. The Ohio governor's campaign also blamed the "Never Trump," movement, castigating the conservative outside groups opposed...

"The dialogue and the narrative of this campaign isn't focusing on the real issue," Trump convention manager Paul Manafort said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday. "The real issue is there's not going to be a second ballot." "There are many paths to [a delegate majority] for Donald Trump, between now and middle of June," Manafort said. "We are working all of those paths." . . . "The states that we just finished — this was the time when Cruz was supposed to be ahead," Manafort said. "With Cruz, he wins the reddest of red states, where you get voterless primaries,...

In an extraordinary display of discord, the chairman of the Republican Party’s rules committee accused top GOP officials Saturday of “a breach of our trust” by improperly trying to derail a proposed change in bylaws that would make it harder for party leaders to nominate a fresh candidate for president. Bruce Ash, RNC committeeman from Arizona, wrote the harshly worded email to the other 55 members of the GOP rules committee that he chairs. The confidential email was obtained by The Associated Press. Ash wrote that the incident shows that top GOP officials “could use their power to attempt to...

Despite only winning his home state of Ohio, Kasich continued to defend his staying in the race as he spoke to voters and host Chris Matthews at an MSNBC town hall in New York Thursday. Audience member Steve Young confronted Kasich on his "responsibility to voters," reminding the Ohio governor that his poll numbers don’t seem to indicate a GOP nomination. "Don't you think at some point you have a responsibility to voters to recognize the fact that they're not voting for you," Young asked, noting that Kasich’s message does not seem to have resonated. ... Kasich again made the...

Republican delegates are not going to be likely to support either Donald Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz when they get to the party's national convention in July, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said on Sunday. . . . "Here's what's interesting," Kasich said, suggesting that he was prepared to go down in history. "I am the second choice of both the Cruz people and also the Trump people. As you know, we've had 10 contested conventions, and only three times has the front-runner won. I don't want to go back in history too far, but I think old Honest Abe...

What Kasich doesn't like to talk about, however, is that after the first few rounds of voting, the delegates are free to vote for whomever they want. Ryan's failure to participate in the primary won't matter. . . .Of course, Ryan has said he doesn't want to run for president. At least not right now. But his modus operandi has been to say he doesn't want something and then end up with it anyway. . . . So why not go with Kasich over Ryan at the convention? Because I'm not convinced Kasich can win if Trump runs as an...

Donald Trump and his supporters are crying foul at the very mention of a contested convention. Despite their contention that the majority-vote requirement is “totally arbitrary,” it seems pretty obvious that, in a democratic republic like America, a majority vote is the norm, and it is indisputable that both parties have always required at least a majority vote to secure their nomination. While it has been several decades since we last saw a contested convention, it is definitely not uncharted waters. The parties have not only survived contested conventions, but these contested conventions have often nominated good candidates. However, there...

Link only

Nikki Haley is the best (and perhaps only) choice in this scenario for many reasons. First, unlike with Trump, there is no doubt that Haley is an ardent conservative. She has fought Democrats, both in her state and nationally. Second, she is a governor of an important red state. Third, and perhaps most importantly, she's energetic, passionate, and unafraid to pick a fight, which is something Republicans have lacked since Ronald Reagan left office. The added bonus, of course, is that Haley is a woman and an ethnic minority, being of Indian descent. . . The Republican National Convention is...

Without saying it, Reince Priebus just told Sean Hannity Tuesday on Fox News that one of the three candidates currently in the running — Trump, Cruz, Kasich — WILL BE the nominee. And he won’t count out Kasich? When pressed by Hannity that there’s no way Kasich can be the nominee for all the Rules reasons, Priebus refused to agree.

And by "Trump ally," I mean the always, er, colorful Roger Stone -- who recently sounded the alarm over the Cruz campaign and other Republican officials working assiduously to fill delegate slates with people who are legally bound to support Trump on an open convention's first ballot, but who would bolt immediately thereafter.  These "trojan horse" delegates, as Stone labeled them, could also vote against Trump's interests on key decisions involving the convention's rules, which will be determined by a special committee that anti-Trump forces are moving behind the scenes to stack in their favor.  Bear in mind that all of these moves are fully within the bounds of...

According to the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, 51 percent of likely Republican voters would like to avoid a lengthy battle on the convention floor by nominating the candidate with the highest delegate count in July. . . Thirty-four percent of respondents in the same survey said delegates at the convention should be free to vote for whomever they want . . Four percent of voters said party leaders should choose the nominee

But even if an almost best-case scenario shakes out for Cruz, this is a suicide mission whether he realizes it or not. Because a brokered convention needs two — not just one — sacrificial lambs. Coming within 100-150 delegates of Trump will do a lot to convince any remaining delegates not that Cruz is the answer but that Trump really doesn't have any chance of getting enough Republican support to even remotely challenge Hillary Clinton in the general election. . . . Ryan's chances of winning are a different discussion, as is the crucial decision of who would be his...

Charles Koch is confident House Speaker Paul Ryan could emerge from the Republican National Convention as the party’s nominee if Donald Trump comes up at least 100 delegates shy, he has told friends privately. Koch believes Ryan would be a “shoo-in” at a contested convention, should the campaign get to that point. Though Koch’s wealth gives him significant influence within the Republican Party, it does not necessarily translate into skill in political prognostication. Still, he and his brother David are fond of Ryan. As a source close to the brothers told The Huffington Post, they appreciate the agenda he has...

Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Sunday that Republican party leaders prefer Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump for president. "The establishment Republicans would prefer to see someone like Hillary Clinton than they would Donald Trump," Carson said Sunday on "The Cats Roundtable," a radio show hosted by supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York on Sunday. After dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination Carson, a former neurosurgeon and promotional speaker, endorsed Trump, calling him a fellow outsider. "The establishment in the Republican Party is scared out of their wits about the possibility of...