Free Republic

The Texas conservative and his team are trying to lock down a state director for his White House run.DES MOINES -- Ted Cruz's presidential campaign​ in Iowa is unofficially underway. The Texas senator and his lieutenants have been making calls to top Iowa activists and consultants for the past two weeks, multiple Republican sources told National Journal, hoping to lock down a state director for his White House campaign. Cruz has not yet made that critical hire, the sources said. But he's making other moves in this first nominating state. At the end of a fiery speech here Saturday to...

Ted Cruz unveiled a possible new theme for a 2016 presidential campaign — “reigniting the miracle of America” — as he wooed the Iowa conservative activists critical to a victory in the Republican caucuses next year. “It is the most important cause that unifies us together, and Iowa believes in the miracle of America,” he said Saturday. Appearing at the Iowa Freedom Summit, the unofficial kickoff of the race to win the Iowa caucuses, Texas’ junior senator appealed to the evangelical voters who could cast about half of the votes in February. Cruz spoke thoroughly about both Mayor Annise Parker’s...

Ted Cruz wows Iowans with sermon-style political speech and corny Islam jokes: Those 9/11 hijackers 'weren't a bunch of ticked off Presbyterians'  At the Iowa Freedom Summit, he boomed a Reaganesque sermon complete with scripture references and an altar call – just send a text messageCruz had spent all week in Washington, he told a Des moines crowd, 'So it's great to be back in America'He said the US should close the IRS and post all 110,000 employees on its southern border – an army of tax agents to scare illegal immigrantsHis biggest applause line was a call to strip U.S....

p>The summit, which Ed is covering live, is breaking all sorts of news. One interesting item to come out this weekend is a new proposal from Steve King in the House and Ted Cruz in the Senate which would strip the US citizenship of any persons who sign on to fight with ISIS or other terrorist groups. Two arch-conservatives unveiled legislation on Friday to revoke the U.S. citizenship of anyone who seeks to join a group designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.The Expatriate Terrorist Act, offered by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX),...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Texas' junior senator is challenging early caucus state voters to back only presidential candidates with a proven conservative track record. Sen. Ted Cruz tells conservatives gathered at the Iowa Freedom Summit that the standard should be, "Don't talk, show me." The Republican was among several would-be presidential candidates appearing Saturday at the forum.

Des Moines, Iowa – The love affair between the Iowa voters and Ted Cruz is going strong. The Texas senator, pacing across the stage at the Iowa Freedom Summit in a tan blazer and slacks, praised the state’s “unique and special role in the political process.” Iowa voters, he said, have a responsibility ”to scrutinize every candidate for national office, to look them in the eyes and to hold them to account.” The tea-party darling urged them to be discerning when presidential contenders begin streaming through the state vaunting their conservative credentials. It helps, of course, that nobody can out-conservative Ted Cruz. “Every candidate is...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) delivered a fiery speech in Iowa on Saturday, wowing the conservative crowd with a passionate argument for small government and his own lengthy resume.

AN FRANCISCO — Jeb Bush previewed the ideas at the heart of his likely presidential campaign, delivering a sweeping address here Friday about the economy, foreign affairs and energy exploration, and challenging the country to question “every aspect of how government works.”

DES MOINES -- As the Freedom Summit marks the unofficial start of the 2016 Republican presidential campaign here in Iowa, the race is already too sprawling, with too many characters and too many crosscurrents, to have a single theme. But here are a dozen keys to understand what is happening now:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is adding a veteran GOP strategist and Iowa expert to his political team as the Wisconsin Republican considers a possible 2016 presidential bid. The addition of David Polyansky gives Walker's team a big dose of Iowa experience. The strategist helped engineer former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's win in the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses and also served as deputy campaign manager for former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who won the 2011 Iowa straw poll.

GOP elites want Americans to think the party's boring and safe again. Maybe someone should notify the Tea Party. If you’re understandably perplexed by the Republican Party’s apparent decision to enter the post-Obama era by nominating either another member of the Bush dynasty, or another version of Mitt Romney, there’s at least one way to think about it that might help explain the seemingly inexplicable. Put simply, the leaders of the GOP, the people who tend to be referred to as “the establishment,” fervently believe that in order to win in 2016, Republicans will have to convince voters that the...

Other than being an elderly, unaccomplished crone, I mean. If you are wondering who the delectable young things are that Bill Clinton has latched onto like a lamprey eel, let me introduce you to “Barbie Girl” and “Ava Adora.” What do they do for a living? Barbie Girl starred in an HBO reality series called “Cathouse,” filmed at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Nevada where she and Ava Adora are employees. How does this matter? Britain’s Prince Andrew is embroiled in a sex scandal. He has been accused of paying to have sex with a 17 year old girl (Thank...

"..........While all politicians endure scrutiny and efforts by the other side to define them, the attacks on Mrs. Clinton often take on a personal tone, which her defenders say is driven by an electorate still coming to terms with the possibility of a female president. ......A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, Kirsten Kukowski, said it is not an “either/or” question of whether to point out scandals from Mrs. Clinton’s early years or her current record and finances. Internal polling has shown, she said, that attacks on Mrs. Clinton’s more recent years resonate more effectively with voters. (The R.N.C. is...

The GOP establishment can’t make Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel go away. On Friday, McDaniel will be announcing—he told Breitbart News exclusively—a new Political Action Committee (PAC) designed to help conservatives across Mississippi, and the nation, get elected to political office, replacing GOP establishment politicians. The PAC, titled the United Conservatives Fund will focus on “electing conservatives and holding Republicans accountable while messaging conservatism in a way that secures conservatives get a chance to be elected even over some of those in the establishment,” McDaniel tells Breitbart.

Just before she heads to Iowa for the first major conservative showcase of the 2016 election cycle, Sarah Palin said “of course” she’s interested in the 2016 presidential election. “Yeah, I mean, of course, when you have a servant’s heart, when you know that there is opportunity to do all you can to put yourself forward in the name of offering service, anybody would be interested,” Palin told ABC News' Neal Karlinsky while serving wild boar chili to the homeless in Las Vegas Thursday. When asked again if she could be “possibly” interested in a presidential campaign, she answered, “We...

If this is the best liberals can do to disparage Ted Cruz, the Texas Senator has a great chance of being our next President. Adam Estes at Gizmodo.com fired off a salvo that simply begs a little asterisking.** Estes writes: “Even though Cruz is from Houston, home of Johnson Space Center, there’s reason to believe that he’ll continue his pursuit of trying to deflate the space agency. Heck, just look at all the dumb things he’s said about science in recent years.” “Net Neutrality’ is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.” –...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Friday announced the reintroduction of legislation that would prevent any American from returning home to the U.S. if they leave the country to fight with a terrorist organization.His legislation, the Expatriate Terrorist Act, is a response to some instances in which Americans have left to support these groups, and then were allowed to return home. Cruz and other Republicans pushed for similar legislation last year, but the Republican-led House and Senate gives the bill a much better chance of passing Congress this year.Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other Republicans want to keep Americans who leave...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today introduced the Operation United Assistance Tax Exclusion Act, which provides that service members deployed to combat the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa be entitled to the same tax benefits as those serving in a combat zone.The bill is cosponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The benefit shall only apply to service members who are required to undergo a 21-day quarantine. Fort Hood deployed about 500 troops for this mission. About 80 have returned and are currently in isolation at North Fort Hood."While we take...

Sarah Palin is “of course” interested in running for president in 2016, she said in an interview released Friday, and hopes to see a woman in the Oval Office. “Yeah, I mean, of course, when you have a servant’s heart, when you know that there is opportunity to do all you can to put yourself forward in the name of offering service, anybody would be interested,” Palin told ABC News in the interview, which was conducted on Thursday in Las Vegas. And, hinting at her own interest in potentially joining the race, she suggested that gender might drive her involvement....

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) today agreed to be the lead sponsor of a Senate bill to ban abortion after an unborn child is 20 weeks old. A similar measure passed the House last month and a state version is now being debated in the Texas legislature, where it is likely to be approved. Marco Antonio Rubio With Rubio’s presence, the bill is certain to gain enormous media attention and thus more national visibility for the issue of limiting late term abortions. Right-to-life groups have urged Rubio to take the lead on the issue, believing he would be the strongest possible...