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Clinton bested Sanders in all the March 15 primaries except for Missouri, and Cruz is now Trump's only competition for the Republican nomination.With the exception of Gov. John Kasich taking his home state of Ohio, Donald Trump won or is projected to win all the March 15 Republican primaries. Trump came in second in Ohio. However, the race is very close in Missouri, with Cruz only a quarter point behind Trump with 62 percent of the precincts reporting. Although Sen. Marco Rubio came in second in his home state of Florida, he saw the writing on the wall and suspended...

UPDATES 8:54 - GOP reports from Missouri going back and forth faster than a ping-pong match. We'll just have to wait and see. 8:48 - Trump slips into the lead in Missouri by just over 1,000 votes with 82 percent reporting. This one may be too close to call tonight. 8:46 - With 77 percent reporting in Missouri, Cruz leads Trump by the narrowest of margins - 41.7 to 41.6 percent....

The important, but overshadowed, Missouri presidential primary is Tuesday. It's overshadowed by the big contests in Ohio and Florida and because of the five states voting that day, it's the smallest prize in terms of delegates. But it's important nonetheless as the oh-so-competitive primary campaigns rage across the nation. And, hey, the candidates are competing here, which means they consider it worth winning. So who will the battle of Missouri? Here's a series of predictions: Dave Helling, Kansas City Star political writer: Republicans: Ted Cruz. "Missouri liked Santorum, Akin, and almost picked Huckabee. And the suburbs may be scared of...

Missouri Rep. Ann Wagner on Friday endorsed Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, hailing the Texas senator as a constitutional conservative Republicans should unite behind. Wagner's support comes a day after Cruz got his first Senate endorsement from Mike Lee and just a few days ahead of Missouri's primary. "I am proud to endorse Senator Ted Cruz ahead of the GOP Primary on March 15th," Wagner said in a statement released by the Cruz campaign. "Republicans must unite to win behind a strong, constitutional conservative like Ted Cruz." Cruz will campaign in suburban St. Louis on Saturday at a rally with Carly...

Perhaps nobody on the planet knows more about intelligence protocol than Edward Snowden. If Snowden says it's "completely ridiculous" to believe that Clinton's emails were safe, then yes, it's fair to include his viewpoint in any critique of Hillary Clinton's latest controversy. In addition, since I believe Senator Bernie Sanders is desperately needed at this point in U.S. history, and electing Clinton or a Republican would essentially be nominating the same president on war and foreign policy, it's important to address relevant analysis of the email controversy. There seems to be a bizarre paradigm of thought among some Democrats that...

Eight-term Missouri Congressman Sam Graves on Monday endorsed Ted Cruz for president. Said Graves of northwest Missouri: “I have personally seen Ted Cruz stand up and fight on the issues that matter the most to conservatives, even when it wasn’t popular in Congress. He has never wavered. He has always stood on principle. And he has always put the American people first.” Graves’ long-time campaign consultant Jeff Roe is running Cruz’s campaign, so the endorsement is not a big surprise. “As threats emerge – from ISIS, to Russia, to the Iranian nuclear program – we need a president with the...

Donald Trump was the winner by a wide margin among area Republicans who cast ballots in a presidential preference straw poll held last week as part of the annual Newton County Republican watermelon feed. Trump received 27 percent of the vote, followed by Ben Carson, 14.5 percent; Ted Cruz, 13.7 percent; Mike Huckabee, 9.6 percent; Scott Walker, 9 percent; Jeb Bush, 7.2 percent; Rand Paul, 6 percent; Carly Fiorina, 4.2 percent; Marco Rubio, 2.4 percent; Bobby Jindal, 1.8 percent; and John Kasich, 1.2 percent. Chris Christie, Mark Everson and Rick Perry each received 0.6 percent, and Mitt Romney and Sarah...

It was a good week for disruptive innovation. Three protestors affiliated with Black Lives Matter shut down Bernie Sanders yet again, this time at a Seattle rally Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Donald Trump escalated his disruptive impact on the Republican presidential field, with a post-debate remark implying that Fox reporter Megyn Kelly was menstruating when she asked him provocative questions, fittingly, about his coarse put-downs of women. The two forms of disruption invite comparison. BLM is disrupting the most progressive candidate in the Democratic field. Why? Because in the year since the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, the issue of...

One year ago today, on August 9, 2014, police officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. A grand jury investigated the incident for three months and decided not to indict Wilson. About 5,000 pages of grand-jury transcripts and evidence were released to the public. The US Department of Justice conducted a parallel investigation and issued a report, titled Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation Into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson (hereafter called the Justice Report) on March 4, 2015. The two most important passages were: … federal prosecutors...

Donald Trump is surging in GOP presidential polls ahead of next week’s first Republican debate among the party’s presidential candidates, but the controversial businessman finished third in a sampling of conservative activists, according to a survey released Saturday by the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition. In email polling of 122 coalition members conducted July 26 through July 29, Texas Senator Ted Cruz came in first at 29 percent, followed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at 27 percent, with Trump at 19 percent. The rest of the crowded GOP field finished in single digits. You can see the entire poll here....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Donald Trump's incendiary comments - and the GOP response - are proving political gold for Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid jumped on both Tuesday, first attacking Trump for his criticism of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., then pivoting to a larger target: the growing GOP presidential field and the entire Republican Party. Reid, D-Nev., noted that while Trump's GOP White House rivals were nearly unanimous in denouncing Trump's suggestion that McCain is not really a war hero, they were more tentative in responding to his criticisms of Mexican immigrants as "criminals" and "rapists."(continued)

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.

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul will host a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus next week to discuss criminal justice reform. The libertarian-leaning senator from Kentucky has long been an outspoken advocate for changing how the American criminal system prosecutes and sentences. Now he’s teaming up with Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), and other black lawmakers, to craft a strategy for advancing legislation as law enforcement issues have taken center stage following the death of several unarmed black men at the hands of police. “Not only is Senator Paul the [S]enate co-sponsor of the Justice Safety Valve Act, which...

Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) said it could have set race relations back by several decades if police had fired back at the shooter of two officers in Ferguson late Wednesday. Cleaver, the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, along with Ferguson Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) has offered a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the shooter(s) responsible for wounding two officers outside of the Ferguson Police Department. Cleaver told CNN today that “what I think most people can agree on including the police in Ferguson is that the shots didn’t come from the demonstrators.”...

St. Louis, Missouri -- David Gregory, an attorney and lifelong resident of south St. Louis County, has been elected Treasurer of the Tesson Ferry Township Republican Club in South St. Louis County. As Treasurer and member of the Executive Board, Gregory will help establish club policies and guide official business as well as help plan club activities, recommendations, positions, and responses to political action requests. In addition, Gregory will help establish an annual club operating budget and formulate annual goals and objectives. Gregory is an attorney who specializes in civil and criminal litigation. He earned a degree in accounting, a...

JEFFERSON CITY — Some Missouri Republican lawmakers outlined proposals Tuesday to strengthen parental notification requirements for minors seeking abortions, as they sought to expand upon a new law tripling the state's abortion waiting period. Supporters of abortion rights said the bills heard by a House committee could make it more difficult for minors to get abortions and potentially put them at risk of harm from parents who disagree with their decision. Last year, Missouri lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a mandatory 72-hour waiting period before abortions. Tuesday's hearings were the first on the topic this year, as...

For the third time, the cops of the NYPD have turned their backs on the mayor of New York. The first time was when Mayor Bill de Blasio arrived at Woodhull Hospital where mortally wounded officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu had been taken on Dec. 20. The second was when the mayor spoke at Ramos’ funeral. The third was at Liu’s service on Sunday. Detestation of de Blasio among the NYPD and the cops who came from across the country to stand in solidarity with their slain brothers is broad and deep. And, in a way, de Blasio served...

Senator Blunt Joins Cruz, Cornyn On Amicus Brief Against President Obama’s Executive Amnesty WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) joined an amicus brief led by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (Texas) and co-signed by U.S. Senator John Cornyn (Texas) in support of a lawsuit brought by the State of Texas against President Barack Obama’s illegal amnesty. The brief is also co-signed by a number of members from the U.S. House of Representatives. Blunt also voted in favor of a constitutional point of order offered by Cruz and U.S. Senator Mike Lee (Utah) against the president’s executive amnesty. “I agree...

Sen. Rand Paul is blaming politicians for the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, arguing that the criminal justice system fuels racial tension by disproportionately targeting African-Americans. The so-called war on drugs has created a culture of violence and put police in a nearly impossible situation," Paul said in an op-ed published for TIME. He acknowledged that the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer wasn't related to drugs, but argued that outsized penalties for nonviolent drug crimes creates a "tension in some communities that too often results in tragedy." The comments are another attempt by Paul, a Kentucky...

"We want a fair, impartial, and color-blind criminal justice system. But if we're honest with ourselves, that doesn't exist for all Americans today."Late Monday night, after the House took its final votes, members of the Congressional Black Caucus took the floor to speak for about one hour about race in the wake of a grand jury's decision last week not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. "Hands up, don't shoot," Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York began. Charles Rangel, the longtime New York Democrat, followed Jeffries and CBC Chairwoman...