Free Republic

The reality show clan backed Mike Huckabee in '08 and Rick Santorum in '12. Now, they may face a real tough choice. It may be that the fastest-growing demographic in the Republican Party is pro-life, telegenic, homeschooled, and mostly under the age of 27—you know, the Duggars. As in the stars of the TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting. In the past couple election cycles, this birth-control-shunning family has emerged as a political player on the right. And now it looks likely that they will face a tough decision when it comes to which social conservative GOPer to back...

Starting Saturday at 10 a.m. ET, the Iowa Freedom Summit will be livestreamed in its entirety. Speakers include: Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT), former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Steve King (R-IA), real estate mogul Donald Trump, former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and many others.

Josh Duggar released a video with his “Thanksgiving” message, but it quickly turned very political, leaving some believing that he is becoming politically ambitious, and others thinking he’s just weird. Josh, the eldest of the Duggar brood from the popular TLC show 19 Kids and Counting, does begin the video by extending his Thanksgiving wishes to everyone, but quickly launches into his role as the executive director of the Family Research Council Action in Washington, D.C. The FRC is listed as a certified hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC justifies their position on their website.

The one thing cropping up faster than children for the Duggar family is controversy. A petition on Change.org urging TLC to cancel the family's reality show, "19 Kids and Counting," is gaining momentum. "End LGBTQ fear mongering by the Duggars," a letter posted on petition page reads. "The Duggars have been using their fame to promote discrimination, hate, and fear-mongering against gays and transgendered people. You need to take a stand on the side of justice and cancel their show." The petition currently has over 12,500 signatures. Last week, the couple posted a Facebook photo of them kissing and encouraged...

Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre pitches his support for Sen. Thad Cochran in a new TV ad paid for by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It's the latest in a string of celebrity endorsements in a hard-fought and often bizarre race... ---snip--- Former GOP presidential candidates Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul have been to Mississippi to campaign for McDaniel, as have the parents from the reality show ''19 Kids and Counting,'' Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, and their oldest son, Josh Duggar, director of the lobbying arm of the conservative Family Research Council....

Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-Miss.) primary challenger, Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel, is leading the incumbent by 8 points in a new internal poll of the competitive runoff. The survey, conducted by WPA Research for McDaniel’s campaign, shows him with 49 percent support to Cochran’s 41 percent support among likely GOP primary voters. McDaniel’s also got a more solid base of support, with 43 percent of his supporters saying they’ll “definitely” vote for him in the runoff, while 38 percent say the same of Cochran. Ten percent of respondents said they were undecided. The results align with two other surveys of...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 17, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Josh Duggar has starred on TLC's 19 Kids and Counting for 11 years, but soon he'll have a new role: at the helm of a pro-life, pro-family legislative action group in the nation's capital.Josh Duggar, the oldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, will take over as executive director of FRC Action starting next week. That group is the 501(c)4 affiliate of the Family Research Council. "I'm very excited about joining FRC Action and working to promote the values that have always been close to my heart and my family," Duggar...

Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar had an announcement to make on The Today Show this morning, which is that Michelle was pregnant with their 20th baby. I found myself getting prickly on their behalf watching the response and somewhat annoying questions by Ann Curry… What a witness this couple and family are. I just love them. See what I mean by this clip posted at People. And this clip just up on the TLC website… “We are so excited,” says Michelle, 45, who is now about 3-1/2 months into her pregnancy and due in April. “I feel good. I am...

Joshua Duggar, of TLC's "19 Kids and Counting" family, is being hailed as a hero after helping to save a little girl's life following a car accident outside of his car dealership in Springdale, Ark. Joshua - the oldest of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar's brood -- was at work on January 28 when three cars rear-ended each other outside his workplace, according to local news station 40/29 TV. "I thought, 'Oh, fender bender. No big deal,'" Joshua told the local news station. "It happens quite often here actually. [Then] I realized there was a little girl." Joshua rushed outside...

The supersize Duggar clan just got a tiny bit bigger. The reality TV family has welcomed its first grandchild, Mackynzie Renee Duggar, People.com reports. Her 17 aunts and uncles and paternal grandparents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, are doubtless thrilled about the latest branch on the family tree. Josh Duggar - the oldest of Jim Bob and Michelle's brood of 18 - and his wife, Anna, had Mackynzie at home with a midwife and a doula in attendance. As the big brother to 17 siblings, Josh is no stranger to babies, and he was a very involved and attentive dad...

SPRINGDALE, Arkansas, September 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar told US news service MSNBC they are delighted to discover the impending arrival of their 19th child. Described by the Today program as "glowing," Michelle Duggar said, "I'm feeling sick and tired, which is a good way to be feeling about right now." "I always tell myself that's a good way to be because that means good things are happening."The baby is due to arrive around March 18, 2010.The family stars in the reality TV show "18 Kids and Counting" airing on TLC. The family are members of...

Sometimes, 18 kids is simply not enough, so Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar of Tonitown, Ark., are expecting a new addition to their household this spring. That's right, at that point they will have five more children than Nadya "Octomom" Suleman and 11 more children than Jon and Kate Gosselin. Wow. "We are so thrilled," says Michelle, 42. "We just can't believe it is happening." You can't, Michelle? Not after the previous 18 times you were pregnant? Her husband, Jim Bob Duggar, 44, agrees: "I never gets old. We are so grateful for each child. We look forward to our...

ROGERS, Ark. – An Arkansas woman has given birth to her 18th child. Michelle Duggar delivered the baby girl by Caesarean section Thursday at Mercy Medical Center in Rogers. The baby, named Jordyn-Grace Makiya Duggar, weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 inches long. "The ultimate Christmas gift from God," said Jim Bob Duggar, the father of the 18 children. "She's just absolutely beautiful, like her mom and her sisters." The Duggars now have 10 sons and eight daughters. Jim Bob Duggar said Michelle started having contractions Wednesday night. She needed the C-section, her third, because the baby was...

A day after Josh Duggar apologized amid allegations that he molested several underage girls while he was a teenager, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee criticized “those who have enjoyed revealing this long ago sins.” “Josh’s actions when he was an underage teen are as he described them himself, ‘inexcusable,’ but that doesn’t mean ‘unforgivable,’ ” Huckabee said in a statement posted on Facebook Friday. “He and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities. No purpose whatsoever is served by those who are now trying to discredit Josh or his...

Mystifying. But then this is the same guy who decided to pick a culture-war fight with Beyonce despite knowing that he’d have to break out of his niche as a social-con warrior to have any chance at the GOP nomination. Not being too judge-y about youthful intra-family child molestation seems like a smart hill for the GOP to fight on in 2016.

But the curriculum he developed is still in place. To begin with, the lessons seem to remove blame from the perpetrator and instead shift it onto the victim, as well as the parents. In one example, where a boy molests his younger sisters, the sisters are condemned for dressing immodestly, and the parents are also shamed for “exposing the boy to temptation” through the act of having him change his sister’s diapers. “Modesty was a factor. It was not at the level it should have been in my family. It was not uncommon for my younger siblings to come out...

“This year’s Presidential race outcome will set the course of America for the next several years!” said Michelle Duggar in a statement. “Santorum is a pro-life, Christian conservative with the family values and common sense business perspective that we need to get our nation back on track, to create jobs and to stand for what is right! Rick has a proven track record as a leader in the US Senate he fought to end partial birth abortion, he has stood for defining marriage as between a man and a woman.” Duggar said that the family also appreciated Santorum’s support for...

(NewsCore) - Jim Bob Duggar, from TLC's "19 Kids and Counting," was in Iowa Monday campaigning for Rick Santorum in advance of the state's Jan. 3 caucuses. The Duggar family patriarch traveled with 12 of his children to the Hawkeye State from their home in Arkansas -- with the message that voters with "conservative family values have to get behind Rick Santorum for President." Jim Bob and his wife Michelle are strong evangelicals, known for their ever-expanding brood, as is chronicled on their reality show that just wrapped up its eighth season.

You guessed it -- Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were just thrilled to announce that they're expecting their 19th child. As usual, Viera just oohed and ahhed over the fantastic news, which comes only a few months after the eldest Duggar kid, Josh, announced that his new wife Anna is expecting their first child.

TONTITOWN, Ark. — Arkansas' best-known big family will be getting bigger in the fall. Michelle Duggar and her husband, former state Rep. Jim Bob Duggar, say they're expecting their 16th child. Michelle Duggar was honored in April 2004 with the state's Young Mother award. At the time, she was pregnant with young Duggar No. 15, a boy named Jackson born May 23, 2004. The next child, a girl, is expected in October. "We love children," Jim Bob Duggar says. "We consider each one a blessing from the Lord and we would both love to have some more." Michelle adds, "They're...