Free Republic

Rick Perry may be out of the race for president, but the Republican field is still brimming with Texans. One of them is Carly Fiorina, who has surged into the top tier of candidates, behind only Donald Trump and Ben Carson in recent polls. Born Cara Carleton Sneed in Austin in September 1954 to Joseph Tyree Sneed III, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and his wife, Madelon, her Texas residency was fleeting. She departed at age 2

Many have predicted that the 2016 race for president would be the year of the super-PAC. The thinking goes: Candidates don't need money — they need a sugar daddy to fund a super-PAC. Not so fast, my friend. Already two formidable and impressive Republican candidates, former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, have bowed out of the presidential race due to slow campaign fundraising. Perry raised under $300,000 in the third quarter and Walker has $1 million in debt. Both possessed super-PACs that were flush with millions in cash. Why does hard money fundraising matter?...

THE SUPREME COURT may soon take up a challenge to a Texas abortion law mandating safety standards so strict that abortion providers claim it will force all but a handful of the state's remaining clinics to close. The case, Whole Woman's Health v. Cole, could lead to the court's first significant abortion ruling since 2007. Under the controversial law, signed by Governor Rick Perry two years ago, abortion practitioners must have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, and abortion clinics must meet the same building and equipment specifications as outpatient surgical centers. Advocates challenging the law argue that such restrictions...

Rand Paul’s on the departure list too, insiders predict. Bobby Jindal and George Pataki are the next two quitters in the Republican field. That’s the assessment of Republicans in the POLITICO Caucus, our weekly bipartisan survey of the top activists, operatives and strategists in Iowa and New Hampshire. . A quarter of Iowa Republicans say it’s Jindal, a frequent visitor to their state, who is on his way out. "He's become desperate," an Iowa Republican said. "He's taken to attacking Trump (we know how that worked out for Perry and Walker) and has nothing going on here in Iowa." Added...

Jack Riley, the No. 2 at the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), signaled support for Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the Southern border in a recent interview centered on hunting down Mexican drug cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. In an exclusive interview with Yahoo News, the acting deputy administrator at the Obama administration’s DEA agency, discussed why the U.S. government is invested in hunting escaped convict El Chapo, the leader of Mexico’s brutal Sinaloa cartel. Riley explained why El Chapo and his murderous criminal empire are a threat to the United States. The Sinaloa cartel has been...

Last week, National Review’s Jim Geraghty published what may be the most insightful essay yet [1] on the difference between the conservative movement and Donald Trump and his followers. Geraghty has noticed a telling reticence on Trump’s part to utter such words as “freedom” or “liberty.” By contrast, Geraghty notes that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker used the word “freedom” six times in the 179-word announcement of his plan to replace ObamaCare, and Ted Cruz used “freedom” twice and “liberty” eleven times in his announcement speech at Liberty University, not counting references to the university itself.The reason for this lack of...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/texas-news/2015/09/11/perry-supporters-fmr-governor-saw-writing-on-the-wall/72115838/

Fivethirtyeight.com founder Nate Silver said that GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson have a “maybe about 5%” chance of winning the nomination on Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360.” Silver put Trump’s and Carson’s chances of winning the nomination at “maybe about 5% each, somewhere around there.” Silver explained, “there are a of couple things to think about. One is that if you look back at history, you’ve never seen candidates like Donald Trump certainly, or Ben Carson win a party nomination, and secondly, if you look at the polling a lot of times, a candidate leading the...

Like someone looking for the first robin of Spring, this NewsBuster has been on the prowl for the first media person to suggest that Hillary Clinton is going to have to quit the race. Joe Scarborough didn't go quite that far, but let's just say his shirtfront was taking on a distinctly robin-red hue on today's Morning Joe. After lambasting her "dismal" performance on the stump, Scarborough--quoting an unidentified panel member--said that Hillary is "getting into Rick Perry 2012 territory right now." View the video here.

Former Texas governor Rick Perry exited the presidential race on Friday in the same manner in which he conducted his second presidential race, with maturity, largeness of spirit and devotion to conservative policies that improve the lives of all Americans.

Rick Perry dropping out of the 2016 presidential race is a damn shame. It's an indictment of Republican voters, who express a preference for entertainers and oddities, of the Republican Party apparatus that allowed Perry to languish at a "kid's table" debate, and the media institutions that spent more time talking about Donald Trump's hat than the success of governors.

With Rick Perry Out, the Culling of the GOP Herd Begins—Here’s Who’s Next By Liz Peek September 13, 2015 5:15 AM /snip Those two are easy to dismiss. Others who should withdraw will likely take more convincing. On the basis of today’s polling, Lindsay Graham is facing ultra-long odds. (A prominent London bookmaker places his chance of winning the nomination at 66 to 1, only slightly worse than John McCain, who isn’t running). A recent survey of GOP primary voters in his home state of South Carolina showed that 78 percent think Graham should drop out of the race –...

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump poked at rival Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Twitter on Saturday, calling him a “lightweight” who shouldn’t be allowed in Wednesday’s CNN presidential debate. Trump needled Paul in a series of tweets: (see below) Trump’s shots came hours after Paul joked about the GOP frontrunner in an interview with Politico. “I think I was a little too easy on Donald Trump last time,” Paul said in the interview, referencing a heated exchange the two had in an August Fox News presidential debate. “That’s given in jest," he added. Later in the interview, Paul unfavorably compared...

It would be an exaggeration for me to say Rick Perry is my friend, but I can say we are friendly acquaintances. I liked him and I have reason to believe he liked me from the first time we met, when he invited me, the late Andrew Breitbart and others to go shooting with him in Austin back in 2009. (Yes, Perry was one of the first major politicians into new media.) Later, I joined him at the NASCAR races at the Texas Motor Speedway, which was rather like going to the Grand Ole Opry with Johnny Cash.By this time...

Rick Perry needed a second chance. “America is a great place for second chances,” he hinted to late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in March, before Perry had officially launched his second bid for president. After his spectacular implosion as a candidate in 2012, Perry needed to run a disciplined presidential campaign free from gaffes, less frenzied and slapdash than his last. He needed to show Republicans, to persuade them, that this time could be different. Perry did all that. But he never got that second chance, because no one was watching.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry suddenly announced he was suspending his presidential campaign Friday. As he did so, he made it abundantly clear that he's still not a fan of real-estate mogul Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner in the race with whom he has often feuded. Speaking at an event in St. Louis, Missouri, Perry repeatedly jabbed at Trump's campaign-trail controversies without using his name. "Demeaning people of Hispanic heritage is not just ignorant, it betrays the example of Christ," Perry said, according to his prepared remarks. "We can enforce our laws and our borders, and we can love all...

My buddy John alerted me to Rick Perry’s exit from the race today. He speculated that now Kasich’s numbers might “take off a little, if not big.” In his text was a quip about the remaining candidates: “good-bye before hello.” For me, I never got a chance to say hello to Perry. Donald Trump was immediately more interesting than all of the other candidates put together. He didn’t have to use self-justifying rhetoric to establish his conservative bona fides. He just said amazing true things, bluntly and spontaneously, that we have long wished all rightwing politicians would say. Trump’s remarks...

CRUZ: We wish Governor Perry, Anita, Griffin, and Sydney the very best in what is certain to be decades of continued service to our Nation HOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today released the following statement in response to the announcement that former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has suspended his campaign for President:“Gov. Rick Perry is a friend and a remarkable public servant. He is a proud veteran who bravely served our nation, and he was an extraordinary governor of Texas. As Texas Solicitor General, it was an honor to serve under him.“Because of his principled leadership as...

One of the most knowledgeable and respected political analysts in the country has changed his mind about Donald Trump, now believing the real estate tycoon is for real and is in it for the long haul. Stuart Rothenberg first thought that “once Iowa Republicans start to see the caucuses as an opportunity to select the next president, rather than an opportunity to express their frustration and anger, they will turn away from Trump (and other outsiders) and toward politically experienced, mainstream contenders.” But with the recent rise in Trump’s favorable rating, and after speaking with GOP strategists in Iowa, Rothenberg...

BREAKING: AP sources: Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to drop out of 2016 Republican presidential race.