Free Republic

CRESCO, Iowa — When the surge of conservative populism started sweeping the Republican Party in the fall of 2015, Howard County Republican Party Chairman Neil Shaffer remained firmly behind Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) when he went to caucus in January 2016. Shaffer eventually warmed to Donald Trump and went on to vote for him in November of that year. It was a vote that made him part of a coalition that turned Howard County, which lies here in northern Iowa on the border with Minnesota and not that far from the Wisconsin state line, Republican for the first time since...

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be the only two Republican presidential candidates facing off in tonight's final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses kick off the 2024 nominating process on Monday. Former President Donald Trump also qualified, but plans to skip it and instead hold a televised town hall meeting at the same time. Two candidates — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — did not meet CNN's thresholds to qualify after appearing in December's debate. The debate gives Haley and DeSantis another opportunity in front of a national audience...

A Russian lawmaker called for Lithuania's independence to be repealed, submitting a draft bill claiming the Baltic republic illegally left the Soviet Union more than three decades ago. The proposed legislation was submitted to the Russian lower house, the Duma, on Wednesday by Yevgeny Fyodorov, a member of the ruling United Russia party. In March 1990, Lithuania became the first republic to announce it intended to restore its independence from the disintegrating USSR, under whose control it had been for five decades after the Soviet army occupied it in 1940.

SYCAMORE, Pa. — The one thing all the guys know about Sara Vance is she never cries. Which is why her co-workers — all men — dropped their tools when Vance suddenly broke down in a flood of tears after she failed to shovel coal into a conveyor belt. Pregnant with her first child and just weeks before the due date, she was 1,200 feet below the surface of the earth with no easy way out.

The race for the Senate is real in Minnesota. Former Rep. Jason Lewis, who lost his suburban House seat in the Democratic wave election cycle of 2018, has returned, this time for a Senate seat in Minnesota, challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Tina Smith. “When I started thinking about 2020, I knew 2018 was an outlier," Lewis told the Washington Examiner. "Those blue-collar Democrats, the working men and women who built this state and this country that helped almost give President Trump a victory here in 2016, did not vote with the same enthusiasm that they did in 2016." Lewis explained...

With President Donald Trump pumping up supporters ahead of Thursday’s primary, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty fended off a late surge by orthopedic surgeon Manny Sethi to win the Republican nomination to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander. Trump, who first endorsed Hagerty last year, reminded voters in a July 31 tweet of his “Complete and Total Endorsement!” and called Hagerty an “outstanding man and one of the best Ambassadors ever (Japan).”

A Senate poll released less than 24 hours before polls open Tuesday finds that former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore still has a substantial lead over U.S. Sen. Luther Strange in the Republican primary runoff. It also indicates that President Trump's visit to Huntsville for a campaign rally for Strange did not give the president's preferred candidate a noticeable boost in the eyes of voters.

Bulldogs take down UConn in game of the year!

With apologies to Islander7, but I haven't seen an “Occasional Birdy Thread” in awhile, so I thought that I would post one. My pictures aren't as great as those posted by Islander7 or fidelis, but it's kind of like singing. All that you really need to do is to sing (or take bird pictures) well enough to entertain yourself. Blue-winged Teal Greater Yellowlegs Greater Yellowlegs with Blue-winged Teal Greater Yellowlegs Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Osprey Eastern Phoebe Solitary Sandpiper

CASPER, Wyo. (Reuters) - Republican U.S. presidential hopeful Ted Cruz is expected to win most of the 14 delegates up for grabs on Saturday in Wyoming, likely besting rival Donald Trump, who made little effort to win the rural state, and further narrowing the gap in the race for the party's nomination. Cruz is trying to prevent Trump from obtaining the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination at the July convention in Cleveland. By continuing to rack up small wins, Cruz is gaining ground on the New York real estate mogul, who has thus far failed to shift...

The New York Sun announced it is endorsing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97% in the Republican primary Tuesday. According to the Sun: It hasn’t been our normal practice to endorse in the primaries, but this year the vote, set for Tuesday, will take on outsized importance as we career toward a contested convention. The junior senator from Texas has emerged from a crowded field by dint of his fidelity to principles — limited, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a strong foreign policy — that couldn’t be at higher premium. They are the true New York Values. Regardless of the...

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, March 31, 2016 – The Wisconsin Jesuit university that suspended a tenured professor after his blog post exposed a student’s apparent harassment by a graduate assistant for not supporting homosexual “marriage” has moved closer toward firing the instructor. Marquette University suspended Political Science Professor John McAdams without pay during Holy Week and said it intends to terminate him if he doesn’t apologize for the 2014 blog post. The suspension is effective April 1, extending through the fall 2016 semester.

Increasingly, I’ve had people ask me, both in person and in writing (via Facebook, primarily), what I will do if faced with a decision between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the general election. That question deserves a sober answer, and I will do my best today to achieve that. What I say won’t convince everyone, but it will be an honest response. In the manner of good writing, as I teach my students, I begin with my thesis: I will never vote for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in a general election. That stance will obviously raise genuine...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney thinks "Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud" and that he's "playing the American public for suckers," according to prepared remarks provided by Romney to CNN. Romney, the party’s nominee in 2012, will urge Americans "to make the right choices" and not support the GOP front runner during a speech he'll give today at 11:30 a.m. ET at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics Forum.

We love him because he's the fearless mouthpiece of our anger, the John Wayne of political incorrectness, galloping to our rescue with guns blazing against the PC -enforcers who are paralyzing our nation. But John Wayne stood for truth, justice, and the American Way. Donald Trump his entire life has stood for the very same self-serving pay-to-play corruption and influence peddling he now says he will eradicate from government.

Thanks for standing with me all of these years. Your steadfast support and commitment to fighting important conservative battles has meant so much to Karen and me. As you may have heard, I announced tonight that I will be ending my Presidential campaign. While the results were not what we had hoped, the experience of running for President was tremendously gratifying and something I won't soon forget. And as Karen and I discussed leaving the Presidential race, we also talked about who we should support now that I am stepping aside. There are many qualified, conservative candidates in the race...

As one listed as a potential delegate for Rick Santorum from Tennessee, I wanted to say a few words since there are reports that he will possibly be dropping out this evening (and I will be out of pocket for much of the evening, including the time of his supposed announcement). I have been a Rick Santorum supporter for years. I make absolutely no apology for that. Over the years he hasn't just talked the talk, but he has taken the arrows. He has had the courage of his convictions. He's taken the arrows from the left perhaps more than...

Rick Santorum has been saying the same things for 20 years on immigration, abortion, taxes, marriage, and every other issue; his is a record you can trust. Rick Santorum, the 2012 Iowa caucus winner, may be languishing in the polls, but he remains undaunted. While most of the GOP presidential candidates were hunkered down on Thursday doing debate preparation, the former Pennsylvania senator was still working the state hard. Santorum became a household name in Iowa in 2012 when he visited all 99 counties. He wowed social conservatives and still does with his unwavering conservative stances on social issues.(snip) He...

Frontrunner Donald Trump invited fellow GOP presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum to attend his fundraiser for veterans, after the two expressed interest in attending to support a good cause. Trump even brought them on stage with him to discuss issues involving veterans. Trump said he had got to know both Huckabee and Santorum "on the trail, as they say." "We have Mike Huckabee sitting right here." Trump said to the crowd asking Huckabee to stand, adding he's a "great guy." "Where's Rick?" Trump then questioned. "Come up here for a second." Trump then pointed to Mrs. Huckabee and...

Moderator Martha MacCallum twisted facts during the GOP undercard debate in Iowa when she turned to pro-life former Sen. Rick Santorum and asked, "Carly Fiorina was the only one of the GOP candidates to attend the March for Life in Washington last week. Where were you?" The premise of MacCallum's question was deceptive, at best. As Breitbart News reported, Fiorina was the only GOP presidential candidate invited to speak at the March for Life on January 22. The committee that organizes the march set the theme of "Pro-Life, Pro-Woman Go Hand-in-Hand" as a way to counter the "war on women"...