Free Republic

CEDAR RAPIDS | Conservative U.S. Rep. Steve King’s endorsement of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the GOP presidential sweepstakes was no bombshell, but that didn’t stop it from reverberating around the Iowa political echo chamber Monday, a day on which no Republican candidates were campaigning in the state. Not only had King and Cruz recently shot pheasants at the western Iowa congressman’s fundraiser, but his son, Jeff King, has been working for a Cruz super PAC. Still, King’s endorsement is seen as a conservative seal of approval. “It certainly helps Cruz, given King’s solid conservative credentials,” said Steffen Schmidt, Iowa...

State Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney will challenge U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna in a Republican primary in 2016, setting up a rematch of her failed bid last year in the 22nd Congressional District. Tenney, R-New Hartford, a conservative Tea Party favorite, announced her decision this morning in a news conference at the Broome County Courthouse in Binghamton. Tenney lost the election to Hanna, R-Barneveld, 54 to 46 percent, in the GOP primary last year for a district that covers all or parts of eight counties to the north, east and south of Syracuse. Hanna's primary victory assured his re-election to a third...

Have any of you taken notice that Obama doesn't plan to send the refugees to Ohio,Pennsylvania,Florida,Colorado and the rest of the swing states? Need to wonder why? Obviously that would assure Carson Or Trump an easy win come 2016. But for now, Obama only wants to send them to red states. Why not send them to Maryland,Delaware and New England, where the liberals there will welcome the Syrians with open arms !!

ABC News(DES MOINE, Iowa) — Congressman Steve King has endorsed Ted Cruz for President — saying Cruz is the "answer to my prayers" and that Ben Carson and Donald Trump's lack of Washington, D.C., experience makes the job "harder" for them. "I do believe that Ted Cruz is the full package, the constitutional conservative that can restore the soul of America," King told reporters in a conference room at the Des Moines Marriott. King is an influential voice in Iowa politics who was courted by many conservative Republicans, including Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee. He said he made...

Congressman Steve King (R-IA) notified the media this afternoon that he will be making a major Iowa Caucus announcement on Monday morning. I think it’s safe to say that he will be making an endorsement. If he decided not to endorse he wouldn’t schedule a press conference to say that. I suspect that U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) will get the nod as he and King have been friends, and King’s son Jeff works for a PAC that backs Cruz. I also wouldn’t be surprised by an endorsement of Donald Trump since he and King are aligned on immigration which...

State Senator Lloyd Smucker is running for Congress. Sen. Smucker will be seeking the seat in PA’s 16th district, which Congressman Joe Pitts has represented since 1997. Rep. Pitts announced his impending retirement last week. Smucker has represented Pennsylvania’s 13th Senate district since 2009. “Today, I am excited to announce that I am running for Congress,” Smucker stated. “As a small business owner who understands what it takes to make a budget, I promise to be an effective problem solver who will go to Washington, D.C. to build consensus on issues that will benefit the residents of the 16th Congressional...

Republican state Senator Tom Casperson says he is running for Representative Dan Benishek's seat. Casperson has served almost 11 years in legislature. He is the first Republican to announce his bid for the seat. Lon Johnson and retired Army National Guard Major General Jerry Cannon are two Democrats who've said they are running. Benishek already announced he will not seek re-election next year after his term is up.

Congressman Seth Moulton, D-MA, has added his voice to the 2016 presidential race, endorsing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "Everyone in the race has strengths and weaknesses, and I don't agree with any of them on every issue," Moulton wrote in a letter to supporters Sunday. "But none of those differences are big enough or deep enough to risk losing the presidency to the likes of Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. "It comes down to this: who will fight hardest for working people, defend and expand the middle class, and protect our freedoms?" Moulton wrote. "The answer, for me,...

From TedCruz.org: Monday, the Cruz for President campaign announced the endorsement of Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks, who is also running as a delegate in support of Cruz for the Alabama GOP primary, which will be held on March 1. Congressman Brooks will serve as chairman of the Cruz campaign’s Alabama leadership team. Last week, Heidi Cruz submitted paperwork on behalf of the Cruz for President campaign to be on the GOP primary ballot in Alabama – Ted Cruz was one of only four presidential candidates to submit a full slate of delegates. “America needs a president with both a keen...

TheJIM!gram© is a publication of Jim Jatras, the only announced prospect for the 2016 GOP Vice Presidential nod, addressing the daunting challenges facing our great country. Reposting and redistribution with attribution is permitted and encouraged. October 12, 2015 No. 1 In this inaugural issue of TheJIM!gram© I suggest: “IT’S THE CLOTURE, STUPID! BRING BACK THE FILIBUSTER TO RESTORE ‘POWER OF THE PURSE’” The chaos surrounding selection of a replacement for House Speaker John Boehner is a symptom of the ongoing civil war tearing the GOP apart. On the one side, we have Tea Partiers and other conservatives who want Republicans...

You can't put lipstick on a pig but you sure can clean it up.

State Rep. Pam Tucker has filed an exploratory committee to consider a run for the Republican nomination for the 1st District Congressional seat. Tucker is the third Republican to express interest in the seat, along with incumbent U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta and former UNH Paul Business School Dean Dan Innis, who ran in 2014. “New Hampshire families continue to suffer from a dysfunctional Washington, D.C. and its politicians who kick the can down the road,” said Tucker in a press release announcing the committee. “New Hampshire deserves a new voice to solve Washington’s old problems.” Tucker is serving her fourth...

Minnesota businessman Stewart Mills announced his second challenge to 8th District Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan Tuesday morning. “In 2014, I decided it was time to stop talking about the problems facing our country and start doing something to solve them,” Mills said in a statement. “I intend to finish what I started, and look forward to working for the people of the 8th District.” Mills lost to Nolan by less than 2 points in 2014. He has been mulling a rematch for months and formed an exploratory committee last month. Nolan has been expecting the Republican to challenge him again,...

Sen. Bernie Sanders will get a pre-debate boost from Rep. Keith Ellison, the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who will become the second member of Congress to endorse Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaign Monday, he told MSNBC. “I’m endorsing Bernie because he is talking about the issues that are important to American families,” Ellison told MSNBC in an email via his spokesperson. “His candidacy is important for many reasons, but I believe the most important part of his candidacy is that it has the ability to create a renaissance in voter participation, which was at its lowest in decades this...

American Conservative Union (ACU) Ratings of potential candidates for Speaker of House: Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) at 97% Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN 92% Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) 88% Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) 82% Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) 79% Rep. C McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) 77%

The problem with labels is they shut down thought. According to Webster’s, a conservative is someone who embraces “the value of established or traditional practices”. It is hard to find a worse description...

The approximately 40-member House Freedom Caucus is at the center of turmoil within the Republican Party over who will be the party's effective leader in the House ahead of the 2016 presidential election. A group of hard-line conservative Republicans would "look favorably" on Paul Ryan if he ran to be speaker of the House of Representatives, the group's leader said on Sunday.

Los Angeles (AFP) - President Barack Obama said the Republican Party has "gone off the deep end" with its messy failure to elect a new speaker of the House of Representatives. The Republican-controlled House was left in shock and disarray this week when Kevin McCarthy, the frontrunner to replace John Boehner, who has announced his resignation, suddenly withdrew from the race because of a revolt by conservatives. The challenge now is to find a consensus candidate who can soothe wounds and unite a fractious caucus. Obama addressed the drama at an expensive fundraiser at a private home in Los Angeles....

If House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wasn’t convinced before, he now knows to a 100 percent degree of certainty that the extreme right wing of the Republican caucus would burn down the U.S. Capitol before they would let him keep the gavel in his hands. They are joined by a nationwide crowd of prominent conservatives, including GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who cheered Boehner’s announcement of his resignation from Congress. All conclusive proof that there’s nothing that Boehner can do, even if he was inclined to try, to get back in the far right’s good...

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said Friday the reason why the mainstream media is not visibly celebrating Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)’s decision to drop his bid for House Speaker and the ensuing Republican Party implosion is because the perception is that conservatives have won a victory over Washington insider establishment individuals like McCarthy. Limbaugh told listeners: What it should tell you is that McCarthy obviously is a Washington insider, and his fall from grace as future Speaker obviously is bad news to the insiders or the establishment in Washington, both parties. And the reason for that is it is perceived...