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No. 5 Iowa clinched its first Big Ten West title and a spot in the conference championship game with a 40-20 victory over Purdue at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday. No matter what happens at Nebraska on Black Friday, the Hawkeyes (11-0) will play in Indianapolis on Dec. 5. Nov 21, 2015 at 10:54 am THE SKINNY No. 5 Iowa clinched its first Big Ten West title and a spot in the conference championship game with a 40-20 victory over Purdue at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday. Complete coverage: - No. 5 Iowa 40, Purdue 20: Just wait on tossing the broken...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz takes questions after The Family Leader's Presidential Family Forum on Nov. 20, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Patrick Svitek) DES MOINES, Iowa — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday night offered a wide-ranging appeal to evangelicals in this key presidential proving ground, opting for humor, solemnity — and an unambiguous pitch for his viability as the GOP's presidential nominee. "If the body of Christ rises up as one and votes our values, we can turn this country around," Cruz said as he drive home his mantra that more Christians need to show up the polls...

Jennifer Harvey, a Professor of Religion at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, is calling on "white Christians" to repent for their forefathers' sins and their current privilege by paying reparations. Speaking at Drew Theological School, Dr. Harvey said that calling all races "equal" is "a morally incoherent paradigm" that cannot solve the racial injustices that are in the United States. Instead, white Christians need to "repent" by paying reparations to African Americans. "Reconciliation rests on the assumption that all of our differences can be similarly celebrated and embraced," she explained. "I can come to better love and appreciate your...

Worried about security, these voters are shifting toward Ted Cruz. SIOUX CITY, Iowa-Hours after terrorists attacked a hotel in Mali and a week after Islamic State fighters struck Paris, Ted Cruz took the floor here to deliver a harsh critique of President Obama's Middle East posture and pledge a hardline approach to Syrian Muslim refugees.It was exactly what this crowd of mostly conservative Christians wanted - and an ominous sign for Iowa's weakened frontrunner, Ben Carson.Across the state and at a major gathering of politically active evangelicals on Friday night, foreign policy was top-of-mind for the voters and state lawmakers...

Cruz for President today announced that longtime Iowa political activist, and well-respected Republican leader, Loras Schulte, has formally resigned from the Iowa GOP State Central Committee to publicly endorse and support Ted Cruz for President. “I’ve been actively involved in Republican politics for more than thirty years, serving in nearly every capacity one can be involved in; from local committee-man to County Chairman, to serving on the State Central Committee,” Schulte said. He also served as the State Director for Pat Buchanan’s Presidential Campaign in 1996 and for Gary Bauer in 2000. Leading up to this current election cycle, each...

Sen. Marco Rubio called out Sen. Ted Cruz by name Monday night for voting to "weaken U.S. intelligence programs," escalating their increasingly intense rivalry for the Republican presidential nomination. Calling it a distinctive issue in the campaign for the White House, the Florida senator said, "At least two of my colleagues in the Senate aspiring to the presidency, Sen. Cruz in particular, have voted to weaken the U.S. intelligence programs just in the last month and a half. And a weakening of our intelligence gathering capabilities leaves America vulnerable." Rubio, speaking before The Wall Street Journal CEO Council at the...

There will be a few empty seats around one Thanksgiving table this year: Donald Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are among those skipping Friday's Presidential Family Forum in Des Moines. The event is hosted by the conservative Christian group the Family Leader. President Bob Vander Plaats is seen as an evangelical kingmaker in Iowa. Discussions of politics and religion may be ill-advised at most holiday feasts, but not so here. Instead, Republican presidential hopefuls sit together around a table and answer open-ended questions that Vander Plaats says are designed to reveal their "character." Vander Plaats has a track...

HOUSTON, Texas - Cruz for President today announced that longtime Iowa political activist, and well-respected Republican leader, Loras Schulte, has formally resigned from the State Central Committee to publicly endorse and support Ted Cruz for President."I've been actively involved in Republican politics for more than thirty years, serving in nearly every capacity one can be involved in; from local committee-man to County Chairman, to serving on the State Central Committee," Schulte said. He also served as the State Director for Pat Buchanan's Presidential Campaign in 1996 and for Gary Bauer in 2000.Leading up to this current election cycle, each member...

Ted Cruz is back on the hunt for another big-name endorsement in Iowa. After securing the backing of U.S. Rep. Steve King on Monday, Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas, is entering the homestretch of his quest to win over social conservative kingmaker Bob Vander Plaats — an effort that comes to a critical juncture Friday night. That's when Cruz joins six other Republican presidential candidates for a roundtable discussion in Des Moines hosted by The Family Leader, an influential organization helmed by Vander Plaats. The Presidential Family Forum, as the event is called, could go a long way toward...

Town Hall Begins 4 pm; Rally starts after the Town Hall. Donald Trump Make America Great Again Rally in Newton, Iowa at DMACC Newton campus on Thursday, November 19, 2015.

In a stinging rebuke to President Barack Obama by Republicans and Democrats, the House ignored a veto threat Thursday and overwhelmingly approved GOP legislation erecting fresh hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees trying to enter the United States. Forty-seven Democrats joined all but two Republicans as the House passed the measure by a veto-proof 289-137 margin, a major setback to the lame duck president on an issue —the Islamic State group and the refugees fleeing it — that shows no signs of easing. The vote exceeded the two-thirds majority required to override a veto, and came despite a rushed, early...

CEDAR RAPIDS | Conservative U.S. Rep. Steve King’s endorsement of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the GOP presidential sweepstakes was no bombshell, but that didn’t stop it from reverberating around the Iowa political echo chamber Monday, a day on which no Republican candidates were campaigning in the state. Not only had King and Cruz recently shot pheasants at the western Iowa congressman’s fundraiser, but his son, Jeff King, has been working for a Cruz super PAC. Still, King’s endorsement is seen as a conservative seal of approval. “It certainly helps Cruz, given King’s solid conservative credentials,” said Steffen Schmidt, Iowa...

"Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values," [Obama] said.Six Republican governors have announced that Syrian refugees won't be allowed to resettle in their states in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued statements Sunday saying that they wanted to prioritize the safety of the residents in their states. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a GOP presidential candidate; Arkansas Gov. Gov. Asa Hutchinson; and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence joined them on Monday. "Michigan is a welcoming state and we are...

Influential Iowa Rep. Steve King has officially endorsed Ted Cruz for president, giving the GOP Texas senator a boost ahead of February’s Iowa caucuses. “Cruz has a proven record of standing up to both Democrats and Republicans to put the American people first, and I believe he is the only one who can unite conservatives around his campaign and build the organization needed to beat Hillary Clinton,” King said in a statement put out by the Cruz campaign. “With Ted Cruz, conservatives no longer have to accept a Republican nominee who doesn’t truly share our values.” King is a key...

There are about 76 days remaining until Iowa. The polls, overall, show Trump blowing it out and he depends on/lives by, being high in the polls. His "stump" speeches are all about where he is, compared to the other candidates, in the rankings. Iowa is a state that votes very conservative, very Christian. I contend the entire race has a different fact at the end of voting there, as I believe Cruz will win Iowa. At that point you'll see a seismic shift in the political ring, where Trump is no longer at the top. Part of it will be...

ABC News(DES MOINE, Iowa) — Congressman Steve King has endorsed Ted Cruz for President — saying Cruz is the "answer to my prayers" and that Ben Carson and Donald Trump's lack of Washington, D.C., experience makes the job "harder" for them. "I do believe that Ted Cruz is the full package, the constitutional conservative that can restore the soul of America," King told reporters in a conference room at the Des Moines Marriott. King is an influential voice in Iowa politics who was courted by many conservative Republicans, including Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee. He said he made...

Iowa representative Steve King will back Ted Cruz in the 2016 caucuses, handing Cruz an influential conservative endorsement in the crucial early-voting state. King, a firebrand who holds sway in social-conservative circles and in his western Iowa district, made the announcement Monday morning in Des Moines. "I believe Ted Cruz is the answer to my prayers: the candidate that god will use to restore the soul of America," he said at his press conference. The optics and organization of the press conference, announced late Sunday afternoon, were odd for King and Cruz, two politicians who have never shied away from...

Iowa representative Steve King, one of the loudest opponents of comprehensive immigration reform in Congress, says he is not troubled by an amendment Ted Cruz proposed during the 2013 debate over the Gang of Eight reform bill, which has been used this week by Cruz’s opponents to portray him as soft on the issue. Cruz, who has long painted himself as the ideological purist in the race, found himself in an odd position this week: under fire from Marco Rubio, a co-sponsor of the failed Gang of Eight bill, for being in favor of expanded immigration. The attack stems from...

DES MOINES | Voters who wish to pick a presidential candidate and at the same time support a federal renewable fuel program that benefits Iowa corn growers have at least nine options, according to an advocacy group’s new report. America’s Renewable Future, an Iowa advocacy group that promotes the federal rule that mandates a certain amount of corn-based ethanol be placed in the nation’s fuel supply, on Tuesday issued a midterm report card on the 2016 presidential candidates. Nine candidates — six Republicans and all three Democrats — earned the report’s top grade for their expressed support for the federal...

It occurred to me last night, as random strangers were tweeting this story at me, that I’ll be expected to commit ritual seppuku if Romney somehow ends up jumping into this clusterfark. Even though I have no influence over anyone, I took the joke too far. I planted the seed. And I watered it with the tears of thousands of bored readers who sat through post after post about it. All I want is a trial. I admit guilt. I just want to contest the sentence. The party establishment is paralyzed. Big money is still on the sidelines. No consensus...