Free Republic

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, a conservative activist who ran unsuccessfully for governor, House and Senate, will be New Jersey chairman of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign. In a news release, Cruz called Lonegan “a tireless advocate for taxpayers” and said he knows New Jersey politics. Lonegan, a former state director for Americans for Prosperity, said his duties include raising money and putting together a slate of delegates who would run in the 2016 primary pledged to Cruz. He praised Cruz’s unsuccessful effort to force a repeal of the health insurance law commonly called Obamacare through a partial shutdown...

GREENVILLE, S.C. — If Chris Christie runs for president, there's little doubt people will see plenty of the town halls the New Jersey governor is known for. That anything-goes format is his comfort zone, and voters tend to like it. Christie spent hours answering questions at two town hall-style events during the past week in South Carolina — one planned, the other an impromptu session in the back room of a bar. He'll be doing the same in Iowa in the days ahead....

Gov. Chris Christie dropped to ninth place in the latest CNN/ORC International poll of potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates. That's important because both Fox News and CNN indicated that they would invite the top 10 Republican candidates in opinion polls to debate, though CNN said it also would have a separate session with those lower in the surveys. Christie is just two percentage points from 12th place in this latest survey. Here's how the candidates placed in the survey of adults who said they were Republicans or who leaned Republican: 1. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, 14 percent 2....

Kristen Martin recalls her time as an intern for Bernie Sanders, in a contribution to the left's discussion of Sanders' campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.TO THOSE who have spent any significant amount of time in Vermont, it is clear that Bernie Sanders is widely beloved by his constituents. The support for "Bernie," as his supporters fondly call him, was clear on May 26 as thousands flocked to Sanders' presidential campaign kickoff rally on the edge of Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont. The "People's Assembly," organized by a group including former Occupy Wall Street activists and environmentalists, spoke to a...

Former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole believes a governor, not a senator, will win the 2016 Republican nomination for president. “I think it’s going to be a governor,” Dole said Thursday after a commemorative event at Forbes Field. “I don’t know which one.” Two former governors have announced they will seek the Republican nomination: Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, and George Pataki, former governor of New York. Several other current and former governors are considering a presidential run, including Jeb Bush, of Florida; Rick Perry, of Texas; Scott Walker, of Wisconsin; Chris Christie, of New Jersey;...

Sometime between now and the Republican nomination, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will enjoy a rally in the polls — nationally, and maybe in New Hampshire. Maybe the first debates will provide the Christie boom. Maybe he'll master the town halls in the Granite State. There's also a decent chance the boom will be fleeting. But if you write off Christie after his fall from front-runner status in 2013, you're making a mistake. By no definition is Chris Christie the current Republican front-runner. He hasn't led in a poll since last July. His RealClearPolitics polling average puts him in 7th...

Why Chris Christie Will Be The Next POTUS A Super Tuesday Away From Double Digits The View From The U.S. Virgin IslandsThe eighteen Republicans running for president in 2016 are wise to try to make foreign policy the lead issue in the next POTUS election. Not because Hillary Clinton is especially vulnerable on Benghazi, but because what most people would consider to be her strong suit – foreign policy due to her four years as Secretary of State – is actually her biggest weakness. If you had to put one person from the United States in a locked room with...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The road to the White House goes through downtown Oklahoma City this week as hopefuls in the crowded Republican field audition on a stage ideally suited for their messages about military power, religious liberty and energy independence. Eleven Republicans with presidential aspirations — including some who have not officially declared their candidacy — will speak at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, which begins at the Cox Convention Center on Thursday and ends Saturday with the release of a straw poll. “This is a huge event for Oklahoma City,” said Gov. Mary Fallin, who will address the conference and introduce some...

The field for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is as flat as any in modern memory—pretty remarkable for a party that usually has a fight but almost invariably ends up nominating whoever's turn it is. While nomination trial-heat polling tells us very little this early, there are some poll questions that are better measurements of at least where these candidates are starting out, before the campaigning, debates, and advertising begin in earnest.An April 26 to April 30 NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll asked Republican primary voters whether they could or could not see themselves voting for each of 10 different...

The former governor of Florida, John (or as he prefers to be called, Juan) Ellis Bush, doesn't appear to have a lot of support among Republicans, as opposed to Republicans in Name Only (RINOs), who absolutely adore him. But Juan isn't sweating it. He's rolling in dough, and more importantly, he's rolling in opponents. Have you ever heard of a "straw" candidate? When you have a weak front-runner that can't reach 50 percent, often a third, or a fourth, or even a fifth candidate suddenly jumps into the race. If he has a name similar to that of the strongest...

One of the Senate’s leading liberals is borrowing a page from the playbook of Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is pushing to strike out language from the “cromnibus” spending bill unveiled Tuesday that would roll back restrictions on “swaps” transactions included in the 2010 financial regulatory overhaul known as Dodd-Frank. Repealing the “push-out” provision would mean that certain derivatives could again be held in bank units with federal deposit insurance. Using a strategy sometimes employed by Cruz for entirely different policy reasons, Warren said that with the $1.013 trillion spending package first being considered by the...

Hillary launches her campaign on Sunday – and, some Dems say, it’s about damn time.At long last, the campaign has a candidate. After playing one of the more tedious games of cat and mouse in recent American political history, Hillary Clinton stands now ready to admit that she is what she has been for the last two years: an actual contender for the Democratic nomination for president. The announcement comes as Democrats in DC have fretted that without an organized infrastructure Clinton has been a glutton for Republican attacks, and ill-equipped to respond to the news of the moment, whether...

Nearly a week since Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), igniting a nationwide debate about whether the controversial law invites discrimination based on sexual orientation, most potential Republican presidential candidates have taken the opportunity to bolster their conservative credentials. "Governor Pence has done the right thing," said former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Monday. “I want to commend Governor Mike Pence for his support of religious freedom, especially in the face of fierce opposition,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz said in a written statement. “Governor Pence is holding the line to protect religious liberty in the...

U.S. Senator Rand Paul is running for president … in fact, he announces his candidacy next week in Louisville, Kentucky. From there he travels to early voting Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina – including a big fundraiser in the Palmetto State the day after he announces. As we write this, money is being collected. Speeches are being vetted. He’s 100 percent in … and not only that, Paul is one of the few candidates in the race with (we believe) a path to victory. And one of the few candidates (we believe) to be worthy of real consideration. Is...

Thought exercise: What if the indictment of Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez ... could once again potentially place an appointment of a U.S. senator in the hands of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie? To trigger this scenario, Menendez, who was indicted Wednesday on corruption charges, would first have to step down or be convicted. Menendez has given no indication he's going anywhere. Then again, stranger things have happened. Consider why Christie might want to think about appointing himself IF a Senate seat were to be vacated: 1.He's term-limited as governor. He can't run again after serving two consecutive terms; and 2.His...

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence swatted a hornet’s nest when he signed a bill that detractors say would allow Hoosier State businesses to deny services to gay and lesbian couples. Amid threats to boycott Indiana businesses and cancel conventions, Pence is, according to news reports, “working with legislators to amend the law and ‘clarify’ that it does not promote discrimination.” Already, Salesforce.com said it would cancel its corporate travel there and hometown hero Bill Oesterle, the CEO of Angie’s List—a Republican who chaired Pence’s predecessor Mitch Daniels’ 2004 race— said that his crowd sourcing recommendation company will scuttle a deal with...

On March 18, gun control proponent Gabby Giffords met with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) to discuss new firearm confiscation laws for the state. In August, Breitbart News reported that Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS)—the gun control group founded by Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly—began pushing temporary confiscation as part of its bid to find something that would resonate with the American people and give the group some traction. At that time, the Arizona Republic reported that ARS was pushing for “Gun Violence Restraining Orders” which would “authorize law enforcement to remove access to guns, with court oversight...

A question I often am asked is: "Who would you bet on to win the presidency?" Personally, I don't bet on politics, but here's my current take on the 2016 presidential race—with, of course, the caveat that we don't know which campaigns will turn out the best in terms of organization, strategy, tactics, or execution, much less which candidates will step on land mines along the way. The Democratic nomination appears fairly straightforward. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now the prohibitive favorite. If her early stumbles during her book tour, or remarks like the one she made about...

Based on historical patterns, the next president is likely to be a GenXer. This is not good news for the many baby boomers running, or thinking about running, in 2016. When voters decide it is time to move the presidency on to the next generation, they keep electing presidents in that next generation, or they go on to the one that follows. They do not go back. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were from the baby boomer generation. Barack Obama is from the Gen X generation (those born 1961 to 1981). If the pattern holds, the next president will...

Peter King running for president in order to prevent other Republicans from winning the 2016 election. In numerous interviews, Congressman Peter King from New York has confirmed that his main reason for entering the presidential race is to serve as an obstacle to conservatives like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.Peter King running for president not because he thinks he can make it to the White House, but because he wants to stop several Republicans from becoming the most powerful leader in the world. For over two years now, Mr Peter Thomas King, who is the U.S. Representative for...