Free Republic

Tuesday, Rick Perry's campaign announced it could no longer pay his staffers around the country and released them to find other work. His fundraising had dried up. It's potentially an ignominious end to a noteworthy political career that spanned more than 30 years. Fundraising acumen was considered one of Perry's strong points four years ago when he belatedly announced his run for the White House and raised $17 million in the first seven weeks of his campaign. In 2015, it's a different story. His campaign is on the ropes and out of money. Not even Texas is solidly behind the...

Memphis, Tennessee (CNN)—Ted Cruz said Tuesday that he expects to voluntarily disclose the names of people raising money for his presidential bid, reversing his campaign's previous position. The Texas Republican senator, who boasts in nearly every speech of his campaign's ability to raise cash, told CNN in an interview on his campaign bus that he would release the names of "bundlers" who collect checks from their networks and funnel them to the campaign. "We generally opt toward disclosure," Cruz said when asked why he previously had no plans to release the names. "The names of our bundlers are not terribly...

Sen. Ted Cruz has raised $1.1 million since Thursday, figures his presidential campaign is pointing to as a surge in support following the first televised presidential debate. The Texas Republican on Monday issued a press release touting the fundraising and social media activity, and also appeared to tweak front-runner Donald Trump's "make America great again" campaign slogan. The Cruz campaign said it had received more than 10,000 contributions online averaging $54.77 each, with campaign web page views at 296,000; impressions from Facebook posts at 20.5 million and impressions from tweets at 12.3 million. "The wave of grassroots support is growing....

DANA POINT, Calif. — Ted Cruz made the case Sunday that he can win the Republican nomination because of his strength in the South. The Texas senator was a crowd favorite at the Koch network donor summit here. He got the normally mild-mannered donors laughing and cheering with his red meat. But many worry privately whether he can win, and they’re desperate to take back the White House in 2016. Recognizing this, Cruz did more to stress his viability than any of the four other 2016 presidential candidates who got a chance to pitch the 450 mega donors who have...

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is a very smart accomplished guy. That does not mean he will ever be elected president, the office he currently seeks. His views are well to the right of most Americans, and that includes Republicans. Cruz also has a penchant for losing the filter that exists between his very capable brain and his mouth. Slamming one of your party’s leaders on the Senate floor isn’t normally a good idea. In national polls, Cruz gets about 5 percent of the Republican vote. Among the early voting states, he does a little better in Iowa and South Carolina...

Toby Neugebauer, the son of a U.S. Texas congressman, donated almost a third of the funds raised by Super PACs supporting presidential hopeful U.S. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, according to campaign finance reports filed Friday. Neugebauer, son of Lubbock Republican Randy Neugebauer, donated $10 million to "Keep the Promise II," one of four PACs for Cruz of the same name. Neugebauer is the co-founder of Quantum Energy Partners, a Houston-based private equity firm in the energy industry. According to Bloomberg, the firm has managed more than $7 billion in commitments since 1998. Neugebauer is heavily involved in the energy industry,...

Warning: Graphic Video: Disney World is supposed to be the "Happiest Place on Earth," but that didn't stop three women from coming to blows while waiting in line at Epcot over the weekend. Channel 9 obtained cellphone video that shows the women fighting in line at the Test Track ride Saturday night. WFTV's Deneige Broom is working to gather more details about what led to the brawl, but so far there has been no comment from the Sheriff's Office or Disney. A guest captured the fight on video, which appears to show a verbal spat that started between a young...

Ted Cruz is way behind in polls about the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. But he’s killing it when it comes to fundraising. The Texas senator is in eighth place among the GOP White House hopefuls, according to the latest average of polls from RealClearPolitics. But Cruz places third in the money race, when counting his own campaign and affiliated super PACs, behind fellow Republican Jeb Bush and Democrat Hillary Clinton. On Wednesday, the public got a look at how the campaigns are raising and spending money through the end of the second quarter. As The Wall Street Journal points out,...

Beating Hillary Clinton requires a Republican nominee who will energize all elements of the Republican Party: fiscal conservatives, national security conservatives, values voters, and constitutional conservatives. Nominating a milquetoast Republican who fails to gain the support of the whole party will cripple Republican enthusiasm and shrink turnout just as it has in previous elections. Since the media is going to chastise Republicans for rejecting the liberal agenda, let’s nominate a solid conservative, energize the Republican Party, and win. At a time when judicial activism and DC’s perverse incentives are concentrating power in Washington, we need a tested candidate who has...

Presidential campaigns from across the political field are releasing fundraising reports on Wednesday, but supporters of Ted Cruz already celebrated this past weekend. A week after announcing they had raised $52 million, the Texas senator met in Colorado Springs with about 45 of his top bundlers this weekend at The Broadmoor, a luxury resort at the foot of the Cheyenne Mountains, to celebrate the haul. Thanks to a mix of grassroots donors and a few billionaires, Cruz's supporters boast a position few anticipated: Second place in the crowded and competitive GOP fundraising race. In between expeditions of fly fishing and...

Jeb Bush's fundraising totals for the first half of 2015 were eye-popping: $114 million raised ($103 million of which came through his Right to Rise super PAC) with a stunning $98 million in the bank. But, as amazing as Bush's haul was, it's Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's fundraising totals that stood out to me as the most important money number from the June reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Cruz raised $14 million through his campaign committee and another $37 million through a constellation of super PACs set up to aid his campaign. That total of $51 million raised...

Clearing the field. (VIDEO-AT-LINK) Appearing on the “Greg Gutfeld Show” Sunday night, Gavin McInnes made a bold prediction about GOP candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. But first, he explained the reason Trump is so popular. McInnes said, “He’s proud to be an American. He’s sick of pretending that illegals are wonderful people. And that’s a good thing because it’s sort of rattling modern America and getting non-voters out to the polls.” But he said that Trump will eventually move out to make way for the eventual Republican nominee — and future POTUS: “Now don’t be scared,” McInnes said. “[Trump's]...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday gave what one attendee described as a quintessential Trump speech before a group of Hollywood conservatives — brash, self assured, and plenty of humor. Trump’s appearance before Friends of Abe — a fellowship of showbiz right-of-center professionals — was met with protests outside the Luxe Hotel in Brentwood over remarks he has made about Mexican immigrants. Chanting “Donald Trump has got to go” in English and Spanish, the protesters drew occasional honks from passing cars on Sunset Boulevard, with a heavy presence of Los Angeles Police Department officers on watch. But Trump told...

Jeb Bush has won the first primary of the 2016 campaign – the money primary. In just 16 days as a candidate, he brought in $11.4 million, while his Super Pac, for which he raised money before entering, netted $103 million. The total – $114 million – is more than double that raised by the next closest competitor, Ted Cruz. One long-time GOP fundraiser tells me he has never seen it so easy to raise money for a candidate. The reason is clear. In a campaign so far dominated by Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, Bush is the candidate for...

Texas senator Ted Cruz is summoning the biggest donors to his presidential campaign to Colorado Springs in mid-July. Cruz and his top bundlers — those who, according to a top campaign aide, “have met or exceeded their finance goals” by raising a minimum of $100,000 — will convene at The Broadmoor, the five-star resort owned by the conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz. The Colorado event, which will run from July 10-12, will serve as an opportunity for the campaign to update its top donors on the state of the race and to ask them to redouble their efforts on Cruz’s behalf....

He's got $50 million behind him, a fervent following in Iowa, and a brand that he's worked hard to never muddy, but Ted Cruz has yet to have a breakout moment. Is that about to change? The Texas senator may remain mired in the middle of the seemingly endless Republican pack, but his allies say he is poised to make his move. Doing just well enough nationally to make the debate stage and showing enough promise in early-primary to have a shot next winter, Cruz and his allies are unperturbed by surveys that show him sitting stagnant. He is bracketed...

Abby Wambach, Wife Sarah Huffman Share Kiss After U.S. World Cup Win By Wilfred Chan, CNN July 6, 2015 So when her squad's memorable 5-2 triumph over Japan was sealed, she chose an unforgettable way to celebrate. With the crowd roaring, as cameras flashed, Wambach -- one of the greatest players in the history of women's soccer -- ran to the stadium's edge and leapt into the stands to kiss her wife, Sarah Huffman.

In a little more than three months, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz‘s presidential campaign has raised more than $14.2 million from over 175,000 contributors. Combined with the $37 million raised by a political action committee backing Cruz, the Texas lawmaker’s presidential aspirations will be supported by a $51 million war chest. “The grassroots energy and support we are seeing is overwhelming,” Cruz said in a statement. “In Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina – and all across the country – we are seeing courageous conservatives coming together for real change. We’re reassembling the (Ronald) Reagan coalition – from conservatives to libertarians...

Republican Senator Ted Cruz and the outside groups supporting his presidential bid have raised more than $51 million in the three months since he launched his campaign for president, according to a statement from his campaign on Sunday. Cruz, who announced his candidacy on March 23 in a speech at the conservative school Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, has raised far less in donations directly to his campaign than his supporters have collected for the four outside spending groups supporting him. The statement said there were 175,000 individual donations to the campaign with an average contribution of $81. About $10...

So the nation’s birthday is coming up. What better time than to raise a cool million or two in the name of 2016? That appears to be the plan for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign this week, which features five major fundraisers in four states in the days leading up to July 4. The Founding Fathers might have puzzled over the wealth and scope of Hillary for America events in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and finally New Hampshire on Friday, the eve of the patriotic holiday. The events follow the “conversation with Hillary” template — $2,700 per person as...