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The hardest shot yet at Trump from a fellow candidate. “Donald Trump continues to demonstrate his fundamental misunderstanding of border security. Make no mistake – border security is a federal responsibility, but when I met with President Obama last year and it became clear he would not act, I told him if he would not secure the border, Texas would. Rather than thanking Texas for stepping into a gap it shouldn’t have to fill, Mr. Trump has made clear that he believes the states should fend for themselves on border security. Not only is this wrong, it perpetuates the...

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) warned Monday that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s dissonance with his wife on same-sex marriage could cause him to be less “active” in his opposition. “Spouses matter,” Santorum said in an editorial meeting with The Daily Caller. “When your spouse is not in-sync with you — particularly on cultural issues, moral issues — [you] tend not to be as active on those issues." Walker panned last month’s Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide as a “grave mistake” where “five unelected judges [took] it upon themselves to redefine the institution of marriage.” But while those views...

The latest Monmouth University Poll of Republican voters nationwide found significant bumps, both in the vote choice question and candidate favorability, for Jeb Bush and Donald Trump since they threw their hats into the rings. Bobby Jindal has made no headway since he entered the race, and Chris Christie may actually be losing ground since his announcement. Despite Trump’s surge, the poll also found that many GOP voters are not taking his candidacy seriously. When Republicans are asked who they would support for the GOP nomination for president, Jeb Bush nominally leads the pack with 15%, followed by Donald Trump...

The latest Monmouth University Poll of Republican voters nationwide found significant bumps, both in the vote choice question and candidate favorability, for Jeb Bush and Donald Trump since they threw their hats into the rings. Bobby Jindal has made no headway since he entered the race, and Chris Christie may actually be losing ground since his announcement. Despite Trump’s surge, the poll also found that many GOP voters are not taking his candidacy seriously. When Republicans are asked who they would support for the GOP nomination for president, Jeb Bush nominally leads the pack with 15%, followed by Donald Trump...

As candidates are gearing up for the 2016 election cycle, many members of Congress have officially endorsed their favorites.Roll Call has compiled a list of the current public endorsements from sitting members of Congress among the Republican candidates.While some have racked up more endorsements than others (most candidates have none), we decided to filter the nearly 25 endorsements based on their different scores from three of the biggest conservative advocacy groups: The Heritage Foundation, the American Conservative Union, and FreedomWorks.Here are the three 2016 Republican candidates who have received the lion’s share of endorsements, matched with the average ratings from...

Some parents are preparing to transition their children from one gender to the other as early as pre-school. National Public Radio interviews one Oakland, Calif. family with a young child who started life out as “Jack” but became “Jackie” by age four.

Republican 2016 presidential hopefuls Scott Walker and Rick Santorum are suggesting a potentially controversial way to boost Americans' job prospects: admit fewer legal immigrants into the United States. The notion, absent from presidential politics for at least 20 years, could help them tap into the frustrations of working-class voters who have struggled with stagnant wages and reduced job opportunities since the economic crisis of 2007-2009. It could also complicate prospects for a comprehensive fix to the nation's outdated immigration system and tar the Republican Party as anti-immigrant at a time when it needs to broaden its support base of Hispanics...

Rick Santorum said he didn't like Donald Trump's "verbiage" when he called Mexican immigrants "rapists" in his presidential announcement speech, but said he was raising an important point by bringing up the effect that illegal immigration has on American workers. "While I don't like the verbiage he's used, I like the fact that he is focused on a very important issue for American workers and particularly, legal immigrants in this country," Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and presidential candidate said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "People who are coming illegally, obviously, are coming with a bad intent, let's just...

For many opponents of same-sex marriage, the fight has just started. While supporters of marriage equality celebrate the supreme court’s historic decision in Obergefell v Hodges, advocates for traditional marriage have redoubled their efforts to influence policymakers. But the fight takes place in an unfamiliar political landscape, one where gay marriage has become the law of the land and one of the traditional benchmarks of the social conservative cause has been rendered meaningless. No matter how ardently Republican candidates for president in 2016 proclaim that they believe marriage is between one man and one woman, the supreme court has ruled...

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum admonished his competitors Thursday for their reactions to the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, saying as president he would fight to repeal the ruling and implement a law protecting religious freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment. “Many are moving on,” Santorum said of Republican reactions to the court ruling. “Well, not me. This will not stand.” The former Pennsylvania senator gave the keynote speech at a gala for the National Organization for Marriage – a conservative organization that defines marriage as between a man and a woman – Thursday in Washington.

I heard this "theory" from a friend, and decided to throw it out to Free Republic. My friend (no proof) said that he believes Donald Trump is a Trojan Horse.... Trump's is only there to pull people away from the other campaigns of Cruz, Walker, Paul, etc.... in order to eliminate them. Then once it's down to Trump and Bush in the Primaries, then he will step down. Leaving us with Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton will easily defeat Jeb Bush, and she will be the next President. Hopefully this nightmare scenario will never come to pass. Thoughts,...

DENVER -- Ben Carson, the famed surgeon turned presidential candidate, rode his outsider message to victory on Sunday at the Western Conservative Summit straw poll sponsored by the Washington Examiner, edging out former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Taken together, the results point to the resonance of the anti-Washington message among conservative audiences, as all three candidates argued in different ways that they would shake up the DC status quo. Carson garnered 26 percent of the 871 votes cast; Fiorina got 23 percent; Walker was at 22 percent; and Ted Cruz, at 11 percent, was the...

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told conservatives Saturday that the Supreme Court tried to “unwrite the laws of nature and the laws of nature’s God” when it legalized gay marriage across the nation. […] Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry derided the ruling but didn’t suggest a next step. “These decisions need to be made in the states,” said Perry, who noted that his states’ rights plank extends even to Colorado legalizing recreational marijuana in defiance of federal drug law. […] On Friday, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said the gay marriage ruling was “based on a lie” that gay-marriage opponents...

With the Supreme Court’s historic ruling that effectively legalizes same-sex marriage in all 50 states, the 2016 presidential candidates really have no choice today but to comment on the decision from one angle of another. Here’s what they had to say. Hillary Clinton was quick out of the gate with a personal statement, followed by a rebranding of her campaign logo that has already been retweeted more than 20,000 times:

On Tuesday, after the entire Republican primary field - including Donald Trump and George Pataki - had taken a position on the Confederate flag, and after the Republican governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, had asked for its removal from the state capitol grounds, Chris Christie seemed to calculate that it was politically safe to do the same. The New Jersey governor said in a statement that Haley had "demonstrated what it means to be a leader" and that he commended her decision. ... Every Republican presidential candidate, including the not-yet announced ones, had said something, even if it was,...

Washington (CNN)—The first black Republican woman elected to Congress is returning $1,000 in donations from Earl Holt, the alleged white supremacist whose writings have reportedly inspired Charleston shooter Dylann Roof. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mia Love said Monday that she would be returning the three donations Holt made to her campaign immediately, after being contacted by CNN. Love made history last November when Utah residents selected her as the first black Republican woman to serve in Congress. Holt, who is president Council of Conservative Citizens, donated thousands of dollars to Republican candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum...

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the funding arm of the political network backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, wants a lot more hard information from the crowded field of presidential contenders before deciding what to do with its considerable resources. The group is pressing every 2016 candidate to detail on the record their plans for economic growth, deficit reduction, entitlement reform, criminal justice and even foreign policy. The tax-exempt entity, a key node in a constellation of conservative entities that aims to spend $889 million before the next White House election, distributed a detailed survey Thursday to...

<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tensions are building inside and outside the white marble facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building as the nine justices prepare to issue major rulings on gay marriage and President Barack Obama's healthcare law by the end of the month.</p>

Ted Cruz dominated, Rick Santorum flopped and Bobby Jindal found his niche. At the latest GOP cattle call, about a dozen presidential contenders rolled through a Washington, D.C. ballroom over a three-day period to tout their socially conservative bona fides at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference. Most of the 2016 hopefuls managed to impress evangelical and other conservative Christian voters by championing religious freedom, highlighting support for traditional marriage and stressing the importance of family and family values.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis., won 25.3 percent of the Northeast Republican Leadership Conference straw poll, which was emailed to those who attended this year's conference in Philadelphia. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie came in second place with 11.6 percent of the vote, followed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 11 percent. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tied at 9.6 percent. These results show a strong preference for regional candidates as well as governors, and differ greatly from the latest RealClearPolitics totals. Candidates Walker, Christie and former New York Gov. George Pataki were all...