Free Republic

Republican support for U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz rose this week as voters keyed in on the senator from Texas as the top alternative to Donald Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Friday.Cruz had the support of 17 percent of likely Republican voters, behind Donald Trump, who remained the front runner with support of 31 percent of respondents in the five-day rolling poll.Last week, Cruz had the support of 10 percent of likely Republican voters and was relatively even with Ben Carson and Marco Rubio.Cruz has been gaining momentum nationally this month after polls showed him overtaking Trump in...

GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz speaks with the media before addressing the Family Foundation of Virginia's 30th annual gala at the Greater Richmond Convention Center Saturday, November 14, 2015. (Alexa Welch Edlund) Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in Richmond to boost his presidential bid in the commonwealth, said Saturday that the terrorist attacks in Paris underscore the threat the Islamic State poses to the United States."I want to express solidarity with the people of France, with the people of Paris - all across America, Americans are lifting them up in our prayers, we are standing with our friends and...

Hillary Clinton's infamous use of a private, home-based email server as secretary of state was illegal and practically no different from Gen. David Petraeus's criminal mishandling of secret government documents, a top Republican official argued Sunday in a national op-ed. Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican former attorney general of Virginia, wrote in the New York Post that the Democratic presidential front-runner is 'already in just as bad - or worse - of a legal situation than Petraeus faced' because of the private emails. Petraeus pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified intelligence, fined $100,000 and sentenced to...

[Cuccinelli] believes GOP leaders could be much tougher... "Make the Democrats stand up there for hour after hour and defend Iran. Defending Iran! Can you believe we're saying this? Make them do it. Where's the guts on this and, frankly, where are the brains?" .... Republican leaders dismiss Cuccinelli's approach, saying the party will badly lose the public relations battle if there is a government shutdown and President Obama will never back down on issues... Cuccinelli said the strategy should be much more aggressive. "If it were me and I sent him a budget that defunded Planned Parenthood and he...

Amid mounting concerns about Donald Trump’s candidacy from the GOP establishment, Republican leaders in at least two states have found a way to make life a lot harder for him. The Virginia and North Carolina parties are in discussions about implementing a new requirement for candidates to qualify for their primary ballots: that they pledge to support the Republican presidential nominee — and not run as a third-party candidate — in the general election. … The Virginia proposal has earned the support of Ken Cuccinelli, the state’s former attorney general and 2013 gubernatorial nominee, who has been promoting the idea...

Principled limited government constitutional conservative Ken Cuccinelli, Chairman of Liberty Now PAC, issued a powerful appeal for Virginians to demand their Representatives in Congress support Rep. Mark Meadows' motion to vacate the Chair and oust John Boehner as Speaker of the House. Cuccinelli writes: An amazing thing happened the other day, although it hasn’t gotten much attention… yet! On Tuesday, North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows courageously submitted a “Motion to Vacate the Chair.” The “Chair” in this case is Speaker Boehner. If successful, Congressman Meadows’ motion would remove Congressman Boehner as Speaker of the House, and allow for a vote...

Ken Cuccinelli Senate Conservatives Fund President Ken Cuccinelli calls Senate Republicans’ decision to push Homeland Security funding that includes money for President Obama’s amnesty a “total surrender” that proves GOP leaders “really don’t have any backbone.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., decided earlier in the week to stop pushing a Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, appropriations bill that strictly forbids funding for Obama administration executive action on immigration in 2012 and 2014. With Democrats blocking debate, McConnell agreed to bring a “clean” bill forward in exchange for Democrat promises to vote on a separate bill to defund...

Earlier this week, my website Right Wing News put out a report called 50 Million Down The Tubes: How 17 Conservative PACs Are Spending Their Money. That report was based on 170 pages of research I had commissioned into how conservative PACs are spending their money and the numbers of the 10 groups on the bottom were so bad that I was genuinely shocked, which doesn’t happen very often. Just in case you’re wondering, those bottom 10 PACs you’re looking at spent $54,318,498, but only $3,621,896 of that money went to candidates via direct contributions or independent expenditures on their...

It takes a fair amount of audacity for a pair of political bloggers to call a group of lawyers that includes professors from Princeton and Georgetown Law School, two former Supreme Court law clerks, a White House Counsel, a law school dean, an attorney with actual Article V litigation experience and a former attorney general of Virginia “a posse of supposed conservative constitutional scholars.” What could merit this kind of sneering vilification from the local political bloggers? We merely contend that the states should use the explicit text of Article V of the Constitution to stop the abuse of power...

One of the most unique and important discussions among constitutional conservatives is taking place right now in Virginia’s General Assembly. It is the debate about whether the states (including Virginia) should exercise their rights to call an Article V Convention of States. Principled limited government constitutional conservative former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has come out in favor of two bills currently before the Virginia legislature calling for a constitutional convention of the states. Speaking through his e-newsletter “The Cuccinelli Compass” Cuccinelli argued in favor of a position shared – and opposed – by many principled limited government constitutional conservatives....

In April, the House Ways and Means Committee referred Lois Lerner to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. Nothing has come of it. Given the politicization and lawlessness of the DOJ under Attorney General Eric Holder, nothing likely will. The House should move to impeach Lerner instead, and other IRS officials who have broken the law. Federal bureaucrats need to be sent a message that lawbreaking is not part of their job descriptions, and that notwithstanding our recalcitrant Justice Department, our constitutional system provides this remedy against executive branch officials gone rogue under the law. More importantly, Americans deserve...

Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia attorney general, said states along the Southern border not only have the legal right to secure their properties by dispatching the National Guard — but they pretty much also have a constitutionally based responsibility. “When [illegals are] coming across your border, Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution [gives border states the right to] deal with this themselves,” he said during an interview on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” Breitbart reported. Mr. Cuccinelli advised, too, that states could task their law enforcement to the borders, too. He also said the federal government couldn’t really prevent states from...

Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is the new president of the Senate Conservatives Fund. "One of Virginia's strongest grass-roots conservatives is joining our team," Matt Hoskins, the organization's executive director, said in a statement Wednesday on its website. Hoskins also referenced House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's loss in the state's Republican primary on Tuesday, calling it "a major victor for freedom" for "the grass-roots in Virginia." Cantor, 51, who resigned his leadership post Wednesday, lost to little-known college professor David Brat, 49, a political newcomer who was backed by the tea party. It was one of the biggest political...

Last night I posted what I thought was a very balanced comment on the 7th district congressional election. I expressed my personal disappointment that Eric Cantor lost, congratulated David Brat on his victory, and expressed concern over the deep divisions that currently exist in our party. I encourage you to read the comments that were made in response. The negativity and vitriol of these comments (dare I say the hate in some of them) reflects what is wrong in our party right now. We have to learn to disagree without being disagreeable, and we have to learn to respect the...

Fellow Conservatives: We have very exciting news to share with you. Not only did the grassroots in Virginia score a major victory for freedom last night by defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary, but one of Virginia's strongest grassroots conservatives is joining our team. Starting today, Ken Cuccinelli, the former Attorney General of Virginia, will serve as the president of the Senate Conservatives Fund! If you don’t know Ken, he’s a principled fighter who is respected by the grassroots and is passionate about electing the next generation of conservative leaders. Throughout his time in public service,...

ERICA YOON | The Roanoke Times Delegates cheer candidate Ed Gillespie during his introduction at the state Republican convention Saturday in Roanoke. Less than 90 minutes after voting began at the convention, Gillespie’s nearest rival, Shak Hill, conceded the nomination to Gillespie. The low attendance — 4,200 delegates had registered but about 2,700 came to Roanoke — may have expedited the balloting. Ed Gillespie, a fixture in national Republican politics, easily won his party’s nomination Saturday to take on Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., setting up a marquee fight with control of the Senate at stake. At 2:50 p.m., less than...

Newly minted Virginia Republican chairman Shaun Kenney said that immigration reform is the right thing to do, and criticized people opposed to amnesty as being uncomfortable with “the Other.” Kennedy made the remarks in a meeting this month with amnesty advocates, video footage of which was obtained by The Daily Caller. The meeting is believed to have included Eliseo Medina, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who previously argued that immigration reform will help Democratic electoral chances.

Rand Paul Suing President Obama February 11, 2014 - 1:24 pm Rand Paul’s political action committee just announced that the Kentucky senator is suing President Obama. Paul will file his lawsuit on Wednesday morning at the U.S. District Court in D.C., joined by former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe. The class-action lawsuit will be filed against Obama, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Director of the National Security Agency Keith Alexander and FBI Director James Comey. The complaint? “I am filing a lawsuit against President Barack Obama because he has publicly refused to stop a...

The gay marriage fight arrived in a Southern courtroom Tuesday, as opponents of a Virginia law banning same-sex unions told a federal judge it was just like the Jim Crow-era prohibition against interracial marriage. Supporters maintained there was no fundamental right to gay marriage and the ban exists as part of the state’s interest in responsible procreation. “We have marriage laws in society because we have children, not because we have adults,” said attorney David Nimocks, of the religious group Alliance Defending Freedom. The case is being closely watched because it could give the gay marriage movement its first foothold...

In the U.S.A., Republican voters and grassroots are sharply divided in political culture from the Republican establishment and politicos. But one culture clash in particular is urgent and important: Does it really matter if Republicans win elections? Republican politicos furiously insist yes. Republican voters answer a lukewarm maybe. The Republican Party is driving the United States over the cliff at 70 miles per hour, while the Democrat Party is driving the U.S.A. over the cliff at 120 miles per hour. Yet Republican leaders passionately try to convince us that it matters that Republicans must be driving as the car careens...