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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a one-time rising star in the Republican Party now struggling to become one again, will announce Wednesday afternoon whether he intends to run for president in 2016. Jindal's appearance -- to be held in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner at 5 p.m. Eastern time -- does not seem much of a mystery. The 44-year-old two-term governor has given every indication that he will run. He has already traveled multiple times to early-primary states -- spending 45 percent of his days outside of Louisiana last year. And this year, some of Jindal's top state-government aides have...

Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) is nearing a decision on his presidential bid and could announce his decision as soon as next week, sources told Politico. Christie would likely be the 14th GOP candidate in a crowded primary if he decides to jump in—12 have already announced and Gov. Bobby Jindal (La.) is set to join later Wednesday. Christie, a no-nonsense Republican from a deep blue state, earned a legion of supporters for his willingness to, at times, buck party lines. His 2012 embrace of President Obama after Hurricane Sandy both endeared him to his supporters and repulsed his detractors. Once...

Many political experts will not take Donald Trump's quest for the Republican presidential nomination seriously, possibly for good reason. Trump, most notable for his vast real estate empire, wealth, bankruptcies, reality TV show, high profile divorces, and of late, his brash political statements, professes to be a Christian. As The Christian Post reported Tuesday, he even claims he would be "the greatest jobs president God ever created." While Trump might not be popular with a large segment of the Republican Party, many voters no longer feel connected to Washington or what they see as a professional and entrenched political class....

It’s no accident that Texas senator Ted Cruz sounds like a minister on the stump. His father, Rafael, is an evangelical pastor, after all. And as the Republican presidential candidate displayed before the faith-focused crowd at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference in Washington this week, his pastoral pedigree may be paying off. “The Word tells us,” Cruz said Wednesday afternoon, rounding back toward the podium like a preacher returning to the Bible during a sermon. “ ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh the morning.’ And I’ll tell you this.” Cruz’s voice became more...

Scott Walker continues to lead the field of Republican presidential candidates in Iowa, according to a poll of likely Republican Iowa caucus participants released on Thursday. The poll, commissioned by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, also found a 5-point drop in support for Sen. Rand Paul compared to a similar survey by the Des Moines Register late last month. Walker received 19 percent in the poll, followed by Ben Carson at 13 percent and Jeb Bush at 11 percent. Marco Rubio received 9 percent, followed by Rick Perry at 7 percent, Ted Cruz at 6 percent and Rand Paul at...

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is the clear favorite of conservative voters as he readies an expected bid for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2016, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Walker has gained little traction among the moderate voters who account for the majority of the party, the poll shows. But his strength on the right gives him a good base of support, analysts said. "It's never bad to be the most conservative guy in a Republican primary fight - he could win the nomination that way. The question is can he do so in a way that does not...

Ever get the feeling the candidate who is making other candidates worry the most is Marco Rubio? Your feeling is on the money. On Sunday, Hillary Rodham Clinton relaunched her campaign, trying to tag Republicans by saying they are singing the old Beatles song “Yesterday” — a deliberate effort to turn Rubio’s own stinging charge in April that she was a “leader from yesterday” who “began a campaign for president by promising to take us back to yesterday” back on him. Not to be outdone, on Monday, Jeb Bush officially began his run for the presidency with a passive-aggressive assault...

HOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, issued the following statement following Donald Trump’s announcement that he will seek the 2016 Republican nomination for President of the United States:“I’m pleased to welcome Donald Trump into the race for the 2016 Republican nomination for President of the United States. His experience as a successful businessman and job creator will prove crucial to ensuring the eventual GOP nominee is not only well-equipped to defeat Hillary Clinton in November, but also to make America great again.”

Jeb Bush is poised to make his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination official today. He will announce his intentions at Miami Dade College in a speech where, at least once, he is going to assure his listeners that he is a good conservative and can beat Hillary Clinton in the general election. The Bush fundraising steamroller is impressive. By the end of this month, his super-PAC, Right to Rise, will have raised close to $100 million, far and away the most of any declared or undeclared candidate. But he is currently the choice of only about 12% of the...

Republicans are increasingly worried that a Donald Trump presidential candidacy could drag down their strongest field in recent memory. “He’s an unwelcome distraction,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. “We already have so many candidates vying for attention, and he brings a sideshow element to the whole thing.”

The son of 41 and brother of 43 opened up a clear lead in a crowded GOP field, according to the June 2-3 Howie Carr Show/Gravis poll of 487 Republican Primary voters. Former Florida governor John E. “Ellis” Bush was the choice of 21 percent of respondents, who said they intended to vote in the Feb. 8 Republican New Hampshire Primary, said Doug Kaplan, the managing partner of Gravis Insights, the Florida-based company that conducted the poll. The poll carries a margin of error of 4 percent. “Jeb Bush has advantages going into the New Hampshire primary,” said Kaplan. “His...

Just one voter showed up to Rick Santorum's campaign stop at a restaurant in Hamlin, Iowa, on Monday, according to Politico. With a population of 300, Hamlin eventually saw four Iowans assembled around the 2016 Republican hopeful's table where they munched on breaded tenderloin and a side of onion rings, Politico reported. Santorum told The Des Moines Register he wasn't surprised by the low turnout — it was all part of the plan.

In my July-issue Editor's Note column released earlier today, I expressed some skepticism about National Review writer Charles C.W. Cooke's conservatarian project, partly on grounds that libertarians should be wary of a political party that keeps on coughing up government-growing Republicans with the last name "Bush." So it's only fair to point out that, according to the shrewd political Washington Examiner political columnist Byron York, Jeb Bush is floundering to the point of shaking up his campaign staff. The remedying began Monday with word that Bush has shaken up his campaign before the campaign has even been formally announced. The...

While seven GOP presidential contenders were in Boone, Iowa for Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) Roast and Ride over the weekend, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was in North Carolina organizing his campaign in the state and meeting with party leaders. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) wasn’t in Iowa either, as he had events in New Hampshire. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also skipped the Roast and Ride. According to the Raleigh News and Observer, Cruz needled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) from afar, saying they “don’t fit naturally into any bracket.” “Either or both could choose to...

Danny Diaz of FP1 Strategies, a Republican political consulting firm, will be former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s campaign manager if Bush, as expected, announces he’s running for president. It’s a big move by Bush’s team, and a clear sign he’s making efforts to win back conservative voters and make inroads party-wide rather than just winning the establishment side of the primaries. Diaz has a long-standing positive reputation with tons of top conservatives, and has been plugged in with not just establishment Republicans but conservatives Washington-wide for years. “Danny Diaz, a 39-year-old Washington, D.C., native who has worked for the past...

It comes as no surprise to me that Rand Paul does poorly with women. Most libertarians do. Pew polling shows us that “Libertarians are much more likely to be male (59%) and young (33% are under age 30) than are any of the other groups.” They tend to come across as unsympathetic, uncaring and rigid — like an ex-husband or stern boss. It also should come as no surprise that despite his ethnicity, Cruz is doing poorly with Hispanics. [C]ampaigns could help themselves if they took a look at GOP pollster Whit Ayres’s “2016 and Beyond: How Republicans Can Elect...

You wouldn’t know that the fawning New York Magazine piece on Jeb Bush was written by someone who “agrees with exactly nothing the governor says,” if they didn’t tell you. Clearly, Jeb is the choice of liberal Democrats. Perhaps they inherently sense that Hillary Clinton would make short work of him in a general election. Jennifer Senior writes for New York Magazine: Anyone who’s familiar with Jeb, though, doesn’t seem nearly as fixated on this episode as members of the national press corps. They know that freestyling is his natural political mode. As governor, Jeb genuinely enjoyed mixing it up...

this forum is becoming a mouthpiece for cruz.

America is in deep trouble. And it’s all Sean Hannity’s fault. So says newly minted GOP presidential candidate and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. Said Senator Graham in an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, as reported here in the Washington Examiner. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, thinks he knows why the country is increasingly divided on ideological lines, and it has a lot to do with MSNBC and Fox News. In an interview Tuesday with NBC, Graham said the current media environment makes it difficult for lawmakers to accomplish anything. He envisioned what...

Ohio Governor John Kasich said Thursday that he has been prodded toward a presidential bid by former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s failure to establish a commanding lead in the Republican primary. “Frankly, I thought that Jeb was going to just suck all the air out of the room. And it just hasn’t happened. No hit on Jeb,” Kasich said, explaining his consideration of a second run at the White House. The two-term governor and former US House member, who briefly ran for president in 2000, has failed to show much strength in early polling. But his leadership of a swing...