Free Republic

CLEVELAND — It is nearing time for the dump-Trump forces to put up or shut up, as they prepare for a final showdown this week on trying to free delegates to the Republican Convention to vote against presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. Party leaders, and a growing number of rank-and-file delegates, say the renegades’ effort is going nowhere: Mr. Trump has solidified his support, struck the right balance with the party’s platform and is in little danger of being ousted. “Now is the time to stand united as Republicans,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told delegates Wednesday as he kicked off...

Anti-Donald Trump forces are within striking distance of getting a vote on a measure aimed at challenging his nomination at the GOP convention next week. An NBC News whip count of convention Rules Committee delegates finds that the Free the Delegates movement -- a grassroots group of delegates pushing a rules change to allow bound delegates to vote their "conscience" -- can count on at least 16 delegates open to the change based on delegates' public statements, backgrounds and social media profiles. That's more than halfway to the 28 votes Trump detractors would need to produce a minority report on...

In a remarkable interview with Business Insider, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake argued that Congress should pass President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement despite the American people’s overwhelming objection to it. BI writes: Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake told Business Insider during a Wednesday interview that Congress is going to have to “suck up” and ratify the agreement because it simply must be done, even in the face of hostile opposition to trade along the campaign trail… ‘I do still think there are enough people that realize we’ve got to do it,’ the Arizona Republican said. ‘Some of those things you just...

Sen. Mike Lee on Wednesday cited Donald Trump's use of a baseless tabloid report that Ted Cruz's father helped conspire to kill President John F. Kennedy as a reason he has yet to endorse the presumptive Republican nominee in a heated exchange.

Two transgender women — both named Misty — won Democratic nominations for Congress on Tuesday, becoming the first transgender politicians to ever win major-party nominations. Utah grocery store cashier Misty Snow will take on incumbent Sen. Mike Lee in November, while IT consultant Misty Plowright is set to challenge US Rep. Doug Lamborn in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District. Snow, a liberal Bernie Sanders supporter, defeated marriage therapist Jonathan Swinton, a moderate Democrat who campaigned for limitations on abortion rights.

The U.S. may soon see its first transgender senator and member of Congress, as two transgender women are running for Congress as Democrats. In Utah, Misty Snow, a 30-year-old Salt Lake City native, will run against incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee after defeating Jonathan Swinton in the Democratic primary by nearly 19 percent. "While I'm not running on the basis of being a trans woman, my experiences as a trans woman have given me the empathy to understand the struggles of groups that feel that the American Dream is out of reach. I'm running to give a voice to...

The Lee Amendment to defund President Obama’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation failed in the Senate yesterday because not enough Republicans backed it. The Amendment was tabled by a vote of 60-37. Jeremy Carl aptly describes this vote as a defeat for conservatism, community control, and common sense. It is a victory, as Carl says, for turning the federal government into a National Zoning board, forcing high density housing on unwilling cities and towns, and letting bureaucrats decide the racial, ethnic and income balance of local communities.

Utahns aren't feeling the Bern so much anymore as it looks like they're starting to line up behind the presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. One month after a poll showing Bernie Sanders would beat Donald Trump head-to-head in Utah, Trump has opened a lead over Sanders. He also leads Hillary Clinton after that same poll showed him tied with the likely Democratic nominee. Trump leads Sanders 43-37%, which is a significant reversal from April when Sanders led Trump 49-34%. 20% are undecided between the two. In April, Trump was tied with Hillary Clinton at 38% apiece. Now, Trump leads Clinton...

Mike Lee(R-Utah) said Wednesday that he is not ready to endorse presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump "I have not supported Donald Trump up to this point, I have not endorsed him," Lee said, according to The Washington Examiner. "I have some concerns with him. He scares me to death; so does Hillary Clinton . There is no easy choice right now." Lee had previously endorsed Ted Cruz , before the Texas senator ended his presidential bid earlier this month. At the time, he said Cruz had a "proven record of fighting for our conservative values and for the issues that...

It reads like a cast of characters for a detective film noir: powerful politicians, shady businessmen, high-ranking law officers and an idealistic, persistent prosecutor. The plot includes allegations of corruption, cover-ups and the naked exercise of power. Let's title this movie "Rogue Runner" — only this story is not fiction. It's the code name Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings has given the sprawling probe he has spun off from the investigation that ensnared former Utah Attorneys General Mark Shurtleff and John Swallow. And now, in a dramatic twist, Rawlings wants a state grand jury this summer to hear the evidence...

Utah Sen. Mike Lee said he believes Ted Cruz would be the GOP presidential nominee if the convention is contested. "On successive ballots, I think victory is more likely to go to Ted Cruz," Lee, who is a backer of the Texas senator, said during a radio interview Wednesday. "We have to remember that most Republicans around the country have voted for someone other than Donald Trump." A convention would become contested if no candidate gets 1,237 delegates beforehand. On the first ballot, delegates are typically bound to the candidates their state picked in the primaries or caucuses. On subsequent...

Ted Cruz’s campaign has been exploring the possibility of forming a unity ticket with ex-rival Marco Rubio — going so far as to conduct polling looking into how the two would perform in upcoming primary states. The motivation, hashed out in conversations among Cruz’s top aides and donors: to find a way to halt Donald Trump’s march to the Republican nomination. It’s unclear whether Cruz’s campaign brass views a partnership with Rubio as realistic or quixotic. In Rubio’s orbit, according to three sources, it’s seen as an outright nonstarter — with Rubio telling his team that he isn’t interested. Yet...

SALT LAKE CITY — If Donald Trump becomes the Republican Party's nominee, Utahns would vote for a Democrat for president in November for the first time in more than 50 years, according to a new Deseret News/KSL poll. ... While Clinton was only slightly ahead of Trump — 38 percent to 36 percent — Sanders, a self-declared Democratic socialist, holds a substantial lead — 48 percent to 37 percent over the billionaire businessman and reality TV star among likely Utah voters. Read More

SALT LAKE CITY — If Donald Trump becomes the Republican Party's nominee, Utahns would vote for a Democrat for president in November for the first time in more than 50 years, according to a new Deseret News/KSL poll. "I believe Donald Trump could lose Utah. If you lose Utah as a Republican, there is no hope," said former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, a top campaign adviser to the GOP's 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney. he poll found that may well be true. Utah voters said they would reject Trump, the GOP frontrunner, whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Vermont...

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, campaigning in Utah, called Donald Trump's attacks on Mitt Romney Mormon affiliation "sad" and "disgraceful.'' "It was sad yesterday to see Donald Trump stand up in Utah and call into question Mitt Romney's faith," the Texas senator told reporters on Saturday after a rally in Draper ahead of the state's Republican nominating contest on March 22.

Ted Cruz is summoning his top fundraisers to an exclusive retreat in Las Vegas next month. The Texas senator's aides on Friday called their top bundlers to gather between April 8 and 10, according to an invitation obtained by CNN. The candidate and his wife, Heidi, will be on hand. The retreat for national finance committee members comes at a time when Cruz's fundraising team is taking on more moneymen in order to wage a long, expensive national campaign, in order to prevent Republican front-runner Donald Trump from locking up the delegates needed to win the nomination. Current fundraisers must...

Hundreds of activists chanted "Dump Trump" and "Mr Hate out of our state" as riot police blocked the entrance to the rally in Salt Lake City last night. Others waved banners reading "Trump is Hitler" and "Trump makes America hate again" before tearing down a security tent, according to media reports. And some eyewitness claimed rocks were thrown at Trump supporters leaving the venue, the Infinity Event Centre, at around 9pm local time....

“I want to speak to you about something that may be controversial. And it’s not something that I have said when I have been out for Ted [Cruz] and now Mike [Lee]. But it’s something that this crowd needs to hear – that Utah needs to hear. The body of the priesthood is known to stand up when the Constitution hangs by a thread,” Beck said. ... “I joined many times. What held me through was the prophesy that the Constitution will hang by a thread, and this People would remember what our Founders did. It is our responsibility to...

The conservative Judicial Crisis Network, which plans to spend at least $2 million on an advertising campaign to oppose Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination, says the nominee “has a very liberal view of gun rights.” JCN chief counsel Carrie Severino said in a blog post that Judge Merrick’s record on the bench since 1997 “leads to the conclusion that he would vote to reverse one of Justice Scalia’s most important opinions, D.C. vs. Heller, which affirmed that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to keep and bear arms.” In 2007, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled against the...