Free Republic

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - In finishing the Republican presidential race well ahead of Donald Trump's other rivals, Ted Cruz is likely to be a leading GOP voice for the foreseeable future. Less clear is whether Cruz harnesses that clout to help Trump win the White House or whether he simply solidifies his place as a champion of conservative causes, Senate troublemaker and star of Texas politics. Cruz is being talked about as a leader of the national conservative movement, and he has an unmatched organization in Texas....

Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would consider making Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) his running mate. “I respect Ted,” he told host Bill O’Reilly on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor." "He was a very strong competitor. He really competed hard and tough." “He’s certainly a capable guy,” the presumptive GOP presidential nominee added. "It’s something we can think about.” Trump defeated Cruz in Tuesday’s Indiana GOP presidential primary, making him the presumptive nominee. Cruz suspended his Oval Office bid shortly afterward, saying that his results in the Hoosier State “foreclose” his path to the Republican presidential nomination. Trump on...

<p>INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – For the past week, Carly Fiorina was one of the most talked about people in politics. Ted Cruz formally named Fiorina as his vice presidential running mate last Wednesday, and she spent the week campaigning with the Texas senator all across Indiana.</p>

Ben Carson has a plan for Ted Cruz now that the Texas senator has dropped out of the GOP presidential race: attorney general, then Supreme Court justice under a Trump administration. When Fox News Radio’s John Gibson asked Carson on Wednesday whether it would be “smart” for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump to offer Cruz a position on the Supreme Court, he said yes. “I think he would be terrific on the Supreme Court, or I think he would be a terrific attorney general. Or he could be both,” Carson said. “He could be attorney general first, you know, go...

“Our target date is June 7, but our goal is in the middle of May to be the presumptive nominee,” Paul Manafort, Trump’s newly installed convention manager, who has been given broad authority to shape the campaign, said in a wide-ranging interview here.

With the news that Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) will suspend his fruitless campaign for president Wednesday at 5PM it’s worth asking the obvious question: Why now? Kasich lost every single caucus and primary over the past several months except for his home state of Ohio. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has more delegates for the nomination than Kasich and he’s been out of the race for weeks. So why stay in as long as he did just to drop out when the race finally comes down to just two candidates? Let’s focus on a few key moments of the past several...

He stood by yesterday’s comments not just in his interview with Stephanopoulos, as you’ll see below, but in the Today show interview that Ed blogged earlier. (Skip to 2:50 of the first clip here.) I don’t know if there’s anything more to say than what Kevin Williamson said to Republican voters last night about the race to come: “Remember, you asked for this.”I’ll say something. First, Cruz did deny Trump’s insinuation about his dad and Oswald. He called it “nuts.” Second, Trump probably cares less about alienating Cruz and his fan base than about preserving the Enquirer’s reputation as...

If you listened much to Ted Cruz over these last furious months, you heard him talk frequently about “the abyss,” as in what this country was teetering on the edge of. If you listened to him over these last furious hours, you heard him mention the “yawning cavern of insecurity” that motivates Donald Trump and other bullies. Cruz should take up spelunking. He’s obviously fascinated by unfathomable depths, and with his loss in Indiana on Tuesday, his candidacy for the presidency is finished, giving him a whole lot of extra time. A new hobby is definitely in order.

Last night and then again this morning I was watching clips of Ted Cruz's speech where he announced he was leaving the Republican Campaign. Upon reflection listening to this thing I was struck by how Cruz seemed to have lifted parts of Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth's St. Crispin's Day Speech and made it about him. It was kind of funny when I thought about it.

I for one do not like the result of this primary race, but who would after they put their heart and soul into wanting to win. It was a classic battle, but Trump won. Just like military academies teach the logistics of histories greatest battles of war, so too will this epic battle be taught for generations to come by Political Science instructors. The lessons learned will effect the way politicians run their campaigns for decades. Both sides got down and dirty, as they obliterated the detente that made everyone speculate about why the they refused to attack each other...

As predicted in this space yesterday, Donald Trump rolled to a big win in Indiana and Ted Cruz dropped out of the GOP presidential race. Trump is now on track to hit the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination on the first ballot in Cleveland in July. The focus now shifts to how Republicans will deal with the fact that Trump — who is neither a fiscal nor a social conservative — is their standard bearer. Some began on Tuesday to line up behind the Manhattan-based brand manager. The RNC officially acknowledged Trump as the victor. But there...

I found it curious that THIS is what the Blaze has on its front page the day after Indiana. If anyone was wondering Glenn Beck's next move... Link only.

Millions of us are strangers in our own party. No, this is not because of Donald Trump’s victories over the past few months, although it is certainly a reflection of them. It is because the media has succeeded in helping reelect every single RINO incumbent in every election cycle and most open races, including in this much-vaunted year of the outsider. The system is rigged, but not in the way Donald Trump claims; he is the recipient of the rigged system. It is rigged because anyone who is truly a smart and principled conservative will be destroyed in a primary...

Thanks to @tedcruz for making a fight for conservatism, American leadership and freedom.

After calling for a fast as Indiana headed to the polls, Glenn Beck has finally weighed in on the news that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has canceled his campaign after losing the Indiana primary to Donald Trump. Beck, an ardent supporter of Cruz, campaigned tirelessly for the Texas senator throughout the primary season, starting first in Iowa and concluding in Indiana yesterday.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, abruptly suspending his Republican presidential campaign Tuesday night after another crushing primary defeat to Donald Trump, assured emotional supporters in Indiana that they helped grow an “extraordinary” movement – declaring his team “left it all on the field” in their final push. ADVERTISEMENT "It appears that path [to victory] has been foreclosed," Cruz told supporters in Indianapolis. "Together, we left it all on the field of Indiana. We gave it everything we've got, but the voters chose another path, and so with a heavy heart but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation,...

What happened to Ted Cruz? A month ago, he won the Wisconsin primary in a landslide and was poised to combat Donald Trump with a fresh burst of enthusiasm. Now he's out of the race and Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Things happened in two cycles, some in recent weeks and others that plagued his campaign from the beginning. As Trump said last night, Cruz is tough and smart. But he made big mistakes as a presidential candidate.

WASHINGTON -- The National Enquirer has published what it says is conclusive evidence that Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael B. Cruz, is the man photographed next to JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald distributing pro-Castro leaflets in 1963 in New Orleans. The Cruz presidential campaign fired back unequivocally. “This is another garbage story in a tabloid full of garbage,” communications director Alice Stewart told McClatchy. “The story is false; that is not Rafael in the picture.” The explosive suggestion that Cruz’s father would have had any affiliation with Oswald is not corroborated in any other way. Cuban-born Rafael Cruz is now a...

Back in March after the 2nd Super Tuesday, I posted my predictions for the upcoming primaries here on FR. Here's the update.

Tomorrow is a big day, folks. For individual citizens, largely nothing changes. We all still have our own personal responsibilities. Regardless of who ends up being president, we are responsible for holding them accountable to the people — to the Constitution. We still owe each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. Civilizations and societies go through waves of belief in Individual Liberty versus belief in Government. So, for now, we’re in the minority. Weather the storm. Believe in our nation’s founding principles, believe in our rights, believe in God, and we will ultimately prevail. No matter who...