Free Republic

Drawing a parallel between the long-term efforts of her husband's supporters and the fight to end slavery, Heidi Cruz said Tuesday that it took "a lot longer than four years" for the latter fight to be successful.

The best hope for what’s left of a serious conservative movement in America is the election in November of a Democratic president, held in check by a Republican Congress. Conservatives can survive liberal administrations, especially those whose predictable failures lead to healthy restorations—think Carter, then Reagan. What isn’t survivable is a Republican president who is part Know Nothing, part Smoot-Hawley and part John Birch. The stain of a Trump administration would cripple the conservative cause for a generation.

Top Republican political leaders aren’t the only ones shunning their party’s presidential nominee — a vast number of highly skilled managers and policy experts, veterans of recent GOP administrations who would normally be expected to fill key positions for a new White House, are also vowing to sit out a Donald Trump presidency. And while the failure of the two Presidents Bush or House Speaker Paul Ryan to endorse the presumptive nominee carries political consequences, the absence of policy veterans in a new administration would have a substantive effect on the running of government.ok

Pastor Gary Fuller planned a Sunday service focused on involving Christians in the political process and featuring a speech by the pastor father of Sen. Ted Cruz. But after a week in which Cruz abruptly dropped out of the race, his father scrapped his appearance here and Donald Trump became the Republican Party’s standard-bearer, a dismayed Fuller kept the political portion short.

I have always voted for the Republican presidential candidate. From Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford to Ronald Reagan (twice) and George H. W. Bush (twice) and Bob Dole, from George W. Bush (twice) to John McCain and Mitt Romney—I've checked the box next to those eight names on all 11 occasions I've had the chance. About half the time, I've voted for someone else in the primary. But even in those cases I never hesitated before supporting the Republican nominee in the general election.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Friday said he would not vote for Donald Trump. Graham, who was slated to appear on CNN at 2 p.m. to discuss his decision, is the highest GOP office holder so far to rule out voting for Trump.

Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, said at a dinner in Washington on Thursday night that he had no intention of supporting presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and said he was "dismayed" by what he saw as a drift toward "demagoguery and populism" in both parties.

Former Bush (41) Administration official and Editor of The Weekly Standard is working with other establishment Republicans in Washington DC to identify a viable, third party candidate for president. Kristol dropped the bombshell on “Mornings on the Mall,” the morning talk show I co-host with Brian Wilson on WMAL in Washington DC.

It’s over. Donald Trump, a man utterly unfit for the position by temperament, values and policy preferences, will be the Republican nominee for president. He will run against Hillary Clinton, who is easily the lesser evil but is trailed by clouds of scandal and misconduct and whose party’s left wing poses its own threats to liberties of speech, religion, enterprise and association. It is time for a third candidate, and probably for a third party.

In 1990, former KKK leader David Duke ran for the United States Senate in Louisiana as a Republican. The Republican Party officially opposed David Duke and, when it became apparent Duke could be the Republican nominee, the Republican Party abandoned the race to the incumbent Democratic senator, J. Bennett Johnston.

The first hint that reality had finally caught up with Ohio Governor John Kasich was an announcement that he had canceled his campaign appearances today. Moments afterward came news that Kasich planned an announcement for 5 ET today: ....................................................... NBC's @mitchellreports that Gov. Kasich will announce that he is suspending his campaign today. Donald Trump will be the presumptive nominee

I remember grassroots conservatives celebrating when he was elected two years ago because it meant adding another Republican to the Senate who takes his principles seriously. Now here’s Sasse last night reiterating that he takes his principles seriously enough not to vote for a big-government liberal just because he’s the party’s nominee and he’ll be excoriated for it. Oh well. The principled choice is rarely the popular one.

Columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that the GOP is “being led by a non-conservative populist” and that from what he’s seen so far, “I don’t think I’d be capable of voting for Donald Trump” on Tuesday’s “O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel.

After calling for a fast as Indiana headed to the polls, Glenn Beck has finally weighed in on the news that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has canceled his campaign after losing the Indiana primary to Donald Trump. Beck, an ardent supporter of Cruz, campaigned tirelessly for the Texas senator throughout the primary season, starting first in Iowa and concluding in Indiana yesterday.

Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor admitted Tuesday that he underestimated Donald Trump as a presidential candidate. “I was predicting way back when that Donald Trump had no chance. I think many of us were,” Cantor said on Tuesday in an interview with CNBC. “I’ve stopped the business of predicting.”

Pastor Rafael Cruz, father of Ted Cruz, asked members of the Body of Christ to vote Cruz: “I implore every member of the Body of Christ to vote according to the word of God. And vote for the candidate that stands for the word of God and the Constitution of the United States of America… The alternative could be the destruction of America.”

BECK: FAST AND PRAY FOR 24HRS

"We don't need a white man telling us that he's gonna build a wall in our land...we want him out!"

A reflective Jeb Bush said he had no regrets Thursday about his failed presidential bid, saying in his first interview since leaving the race that Donald Trump could still lose the nomination fight. "There's a possibility that he won't get 50% on the first ballot," Bush told CNN's Jamie Gangel, giving his first television interview exclusively to CNN after dropping out of the presidential race in February. "And if he doesn't do that, there are a whole lot of people who don't believe he's the proper guy."

Ted Cruz got crushed in Virginia on primary day, but even Donald Trump’s forces believe he’s about to stuff the state’s national convention delegation full of supporters anyway. Virginia GOP insiders with knowledge of the state’s delegate selection process expect Cruz backers to overrun this Saturday’s state convention and use their numbers to guarantee that the 13 statewide delegates to the national convention lean Cruz.