Free Republic

Senator Ted Cruz has often stated that Jesus Christ is central to his life. He talks about how his father had left his family but returned after receiving the gospel, how his mother turned to Christ, and how this changed his life: I was raised in the church.… When I was eight years old… [I] gave [my life] to Jesus. … [To] know that… I am redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, nothing is more important to me. I am a new creature in Christ, and it [is] central to who I am today. I couldn’t run for president...

Ted Cruz’s campaign manager is calling on GOP frontrunner Donald Trump to drop out of the race if he fails to clinch a majority in his home state primary later this month. “If he doesn’t get over 50 percent, he should probably consider dropping out, like everyone else has when they don’t win their home state in a dramatic fashion,” Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said in an interview on ABC News’ “Powerhouse Politics” podcast Thursday. While quipping that he doesn’t expect the GOP frontrunner to take his advice, Roe also acknowledged that Trump is the “huge favorite” headed into...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/opinion/2016/04/07/cruz-teavangelical-can-win/82711226/

Donald Trump, who previously claimed that nobody would ever work with Ted Cruz, lately complains that too many people are working with Ted Cruz. He also says Cruz is being used by the establishment for the sole purpose of stopping the Trump Train (a fitting nickname for something hurtling to such spectacular wreckage.) His supporters and surrogates love to float the names of those who will be swooped in at the convention to replace both himself and Cruz. One of those names is Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, about whom they’ve been particularly conspiratorial-minded the last few days, for obvious...

With his decisive victory in Wisconsin, Sen. Ted Cruz has not only shaken up the Republican presidential race, but heading into the homestretch, he has suddenly become the odds-on favorite to win the nomination in Ohio. With 16 primaries and caucuses remaining, Donald Trump has to win 70% of the delegates to secure the 1,237 needed to win a first ballot at the Republican convention. Several states are coming up that are more favorable territory for Trump than Cruz, especially New York and Pennsylvania where Trump still has significant leads. Even so, winning more than two thirds of the remaining...

We were destined to see a major “Trump in disarray!” piece from political media on a day when he’s looking at a loss in Wisconsin, just like we’re destined to see “Trump comeback!” pieces two weeks from now when he wipes the floor with Cruz in New York. Even so, the layoffs reported here are odd. What possible reason could a billionaire candidate have to slash staff at a moment when he’s desperate for people to help him organize his battle for delegates with Cruz? Even if he had the nomination locked up, why would he want to shed staffers...

For the first time in the Republican primary, Reuters’ tracking poll shows Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) leading Donald Trump among likely voters in the Republican primaries. This is also the first time Donald Trump hasn’t led the tracking poll in 2016. Cruz has the support of 39 percent of likely Republican voters nationwide, just ahead of Donald Trump, who has 37 percent support. Ohio Governor John Kasich is a distant third, with 23 percent support. In the broader survey of all Republicans, rather than likely voters, Trump still has a four-point lead. This, however, is sharply down from the...

With a varied cast of characters pursuing each party’s nomination for president, the subject of electability — the idea that some candidates are inherently better or worse general election candidates than others — keeps coming up. It’s come up in reference to Bernie Sanders, a Vermont socialist in a party that has seen multiple northern liberals lose the presidency. It’s come up in reference to Hillary Clinton, who would be the first woman to top a major party ticket and whose political career has been dogged by scandals. And electability questions have been raised perhaps most often on the Republican...

Ted Cruz is simply the best — by far — on our top two issues: Israel’s security and school choice. We send politicians and “Shtadlanim” (special pleaders/lobbyists) to Washington and state capitals with the hope that they will advocate on our behalf. We hope they can lobby the powers-that-be, to be sensitive to our community’s concerns. Imagine having a President that unapologetically advocates for our values… himself! Foreign policy: Israel The most concerning foreign policy issue to our community — and it’s not even close — is the safety and security of our brothers and sisters, “the six million Jews”...

They’ve duked it out in debates, over Twitter, and in hard-fought primary elections attracting millions of voters. But now as the remaining three Republicans running for president prepare for a possible contested nominating convention in July, a shadow campaign has begun for the hearts and minds of delegates who will fill the Cleveland convention hall. The stakes in this stealthy combat could wind up to be as important in determining the party’s nominee, or more so, than the actual primary elections. Here’s how it works: If front-runner Donald Trump fails to secure the 1,237 delegates necessary to clinch the nomination...

Brace yourselves, America, because this year's Republican National Convention is going to be a doozy As we crawl towards the halfway point of this execrable primary season — nope, we’re not quite halfway to the end yet! — there is one question that may come to haunt the Donald Trump campaign if he does not ultimately win the nomination: Is it already too late for him to seed state delegations with enough loyalists who will vote for him in the event the party convention in July requires multiple ballots to pick a nominee? Before we get to that, though, a...

Two groups of California voters — women and Latinos — have powered the Democratic Party’s ascent here and delivered a near-death knell to the state’s Republican Party. A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll released last week showed that the prominence of those groups also explains why the two hottest candidates this year aren’t running away with the state. Across the country, in the states contested so far, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have forwarded a similar message on the topic of the economy: that trade deals have decimated jobs in this country and that those making less money have been...

Friday on Fox New Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said if no candidate gets the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination by the Republican convention this summer than at a contested convention, the Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) delegates will come to him, not Donald Trump. Cruz said, “The only way to win the Republican nomination is to earn a majority of the delegates and that is what I believe we’re going to do, either in the states leading up to the convention, or if we get to the...

For the first time in a very long time, the very late June primary in California will actually matter. Moreover, thanks to the history of the California Republican Party, only Republicans can participate in the primary process in the nation’s largest state, and California has a winner-take-all-by-district system that may allow Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to mount a comeback against frontrunner Donald Trump. In 1998, Michael Schroeder was Chair of the State GOP. Schroeder was instrumental, as a member of the RNC’s Rules Committee, in securing language that was adopted into the official Rules of the party: Any state Republican...

The former Trump adviser says he’s planning protests and rallies in Cleveland — and street theater. Roger Stone, the longtime Republican political operative and current ally of Donald Trump, says he’s trying to organize protests at the Republican convention in Cleveland this summer to disrupt any effort by the party to “steal” the nomination from the frontrunner. Stone tweeted several times on Friday evening about his plans, announcing a “Stop the Steal March on Cleveland” and calling on supporters to get to Cleveland for the convention in July. Stone told BuzzFeed News over email that he is planning “#DaysofRage,” a...

What rich irony, if one of the most calculating politicians in modern American politics miscalculated the will of Wisconsin's Republican voters, something Democrats have done repeatedly since 2010. If Donald Trump loses Wisconsin's primary on Tuesday, it will not be because of the uproar over his comments about Ted Cruz's wife, Heidi. Or his reaction to the confrontation with a female reporter that led to an arrest summons for his campaign manager. Or even his suggestion that women who get abortions should face “some form of punishment” if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Instead, it will be his misunderstanding of...

GOP front-runner Donald Trump isn't very popular among New York City voters. Come one, come all, to the greatest show in town: New York's presidential primaries, competitive for both parties for the first time in memory. New Yorkers are in for a circus leading up to the April 19 elections. Hillary Clinton needs to win and win big in her adopted home state. She kicked off her primary rounds here in Harlem and then headed upstate, working her base of black voters, older women and moderates, while Mayor Bill de Blasio, who ran Clinton's first Senate campaign in 2000, was...

telling insight into yesterday's speculation-igniting, closed-door meeting between Donald Trump and top officials at the Republican National Committee -- via the New York Times: (GRAPHIC-AT-LINK) It's almost as if surrounding yourself with unsuccessful people actually isn't a wise way to run a presidential campaign, a realization that may belatedly be dawning on Trump. Turning to a new Politico report, is the Republican frontrunner aware of these realities? The math is difficult as it is -- particularly if he loses Wisconsin and especially if his South Carolina delegate haul is actually in some danger. And as we've discussed previously, Team Trump...

Over the past few months, the Republican race has morphed from a seventeen-headed gorgon into a more manageable monster with four faces. The first face belongs to front runner Donald Trump, who has run an idiosyncratic campaign, focused almost entirely on his own personality. He has no discernible platform, represents no clear faction of the GOP, and is running as Trump rather than as a Republican. The next two faces are recognizably Republican. Ted Cruz, a respectable second, is running as the strong constitutional conservative. He favors a smaller government; decentralization of authority; a foreign policy grounded in the national...

After several high profile incidents involving Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the candidate continued to stand by his man, insisting that he was in the right and wasn’t going anywhere. And true to his word, Lewandowski was not fired, remaining by his side at events and on the campaign plane. But in the days which followed, according to some sources, Corey may be on the scene but his role is slowly diminishing as others take over key duties. (Politico) In public, Donald Trump is standing behind embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as he faces battery charges for grabbing a reporter....