Free Republic

With less than two weeks until the Iowa caucuses, a new super PAC has formed with the intention of taking down Donald Trump. The group, which is called Our Principles PAC, is founded by Katie Packer, a veteran Republican strategist who served as deputy campaign manager on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

A Hillary Clinton supporter attended Sunday’s Fox News’ “America’s Town Hall” with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and asked the senator what his plan was to run against Clinton.

He won’t be alone. There is preliminary talk of Cruz assembling a high-profile team of GOP surrogates and bringing them to Indiana, according to sources familiar with the Cruz campaign’s internal deliberations. The goal would be to project unprecedented party unity against Trump with a roster of supporters that, in addition to familiar faces such as Walker and Carly Fiorina, could include Jeb Bush or even Mitt Romney. Is that what last night’s surprisingly upbeat Cruz speech was about? Sounding more like a traditional general-election candidate in order to encourage establishment Republicans to unite with him now? In any case,...

After Donald Trump began racking up big victories deep into the Republican primary election, there was a widespread call for his remaining challengers to clear the field and let one person consolidate the anti-Trump vote. Those calls intensified briefly when the field was whittled down to its current three, with more than a little anger Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who hadn’t won anywhere but his home state. Those calls have been muted recently though, as the GOP seemed to accept that Kasich was in it for the duration, regardless of his mathematical elimination from the race for the 1,237 delegates...

In a stamp of approval that likely has Mitt Romney gnashing his teeth, his niece has declared her support for Donald Trump. And Ronna Romney McDaniel, appearing on Fox News' "The Kelly File," said she's sure her uncle won't take the news litely. What's more, McDaniel joked, she wouldn't be surprised if she's cut out of the family fortune for supporting a candidate the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee labelled a "con man" and a "fake." McDaniel, who serves as chair of the Michigan Republican Party, told Megyn Kelly that as a GOP delegate in The Wolverine...

Gov. Charlie Baker won’t be attending the Republican National Convention in Ohio this July, breaking a string of Massachusetts governors with prominent speaking roles at the party’s convention. Baker, who was elected to office and has governed as a moderate Republican, has taken issue with the party’s leading presidential candidates this election cycle. He has criticized Donald Trump’s “reprehensible” comments about Muslims and women and said Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz have not shown an ability to collaborate with others. Other moderate Republicans, including New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, have also said they do...

And then there’s this other guy named Paul Ryan. Over on Capitol Hill, far from the madding crowd of rallies and racehorses, the newest speaker of the House of Representatives has been quietly reinventing the Republican Party by creating a new governing template. snip With a jaundiced eye, one notes that Ryan’s pro-people template seems rather well-timed for a contested convention and perhaps for unifying the party given the divisiveness and repulsion posed by Trump and, almost equally, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). Plainly, it would be dicey for party leaders to bypass Cruz or Kasich, but Cruz will lose in...

In an interview Monday by "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth on Newsmax TV, Ronna Romney McDaniel, chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, praised Preibus' leadership of the Republican National Committee. "I think Reince has revolutionized the Republican Party," she said. "He has put together a field program that we have never seen before…. He has put us in a place in 2016 where we can win the White House because of the infrastructure that he has so effectively built."

But even if an almost best-case scenario shakes out for Cruz, this is a suicide mission whether he realizes it or not. Because a brokered convention needs two — not just one — sacrificial lambs. Coming within 100-150 delegates of Trump will do a lot to convince any remaining delegates not that Cruz is the answer but that Trump really doesn't have any chance of getting enough Republican support to even remotely challenge Hillary Clinton in the general election. . . . Ryan's chances of winning are a different discussion, as is the crucial decision of who would be his...

There’s a race in the Republican Party happening far away from the hot media glare, one that doesn’t involve a candidate named Trump or Twitter fights or violent protests. In fact, you’ve probably never heard of most of the possible leading contenders. It’s the race to succeed Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who’s expected to step down in January 2017 after a record six years. If Donald Trump or another Republican is elected president this fall, the chairman’s contest will probably be a moot point. It’s tradition for the president to handpick the chairman of his own party. and...

A Watergate-type 'Deep Throat' has come forward to claim that despite all the talk of a contested Republican Convention, the GOP nominee will be former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a deal, said the shadowy source who has direct knowledge of the situation, was sealed months ago by the Republican National Committee (RNC). "All this hoopla about Trump splitting the Party if he doesn't get the nomination – even if he gets only a majority of the needed delegates – is hogwash," insisted the well-placed source who claims direct knowledge of talks held between Romney and GOP executives. . . ....

Mitt Romney's national favorability rating is even lower than Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's, according to a new poll. The 2012 GOP presidential nominee is viewed favorably by 23 percent of registered voters, according to the left-leaning Public Policy Polling survey released Thursday, while 65 percent view him unfavorably. Trump is viewed favorably by 29 percent, while 63 percent hold an unfavorable view. Romney denounced Trump during a major speech earlier this month, calling him a "fraud." He's since campaigned against the businessman. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) also faces stark numbers, with 37 percent of those polled approving of his...

Stutzman — who has worked for actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mitt Romney — says California’s June 7 primary could be the last line of defense to halt Trump’s drive toward the presidential nomination. Stutzman says the prospect of the billionaire businessman in the White House is a concern for the nation and the world. The group, which also includes Sacramento-based partners Richard Temple and Ray McNally, is hoping to raise money to reach out to voters. Temple says the group intends “to utilize every tool we have” to stop Trump.

The only question for Republicans is: Which candidate can win states that Mitt Romney lost? Start with the fact that, before any vote is cast on Election Day, the Democrats have already won between 90 and 98 percent of the black vote and 60 to 75 percent of the Hispanic and Asian vote. Unless Republicans run the table on the white vote, they lose. If there’s still hope, it lies with Trump and only Trump. Donald Trump will do better with black and Hispanic voters than any other Republican. But it’s with white voters that he really opens up...

Mitt Romney's reemergence this election cycle as a harsh critic of Donald Trump has been crippling for his favorability among Republican voters, a new poll shows. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, is seen as favorable by just 28 percent of Republican primary voters, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday. A startling 62 percent of Republican primary voters view him unfavorably, the poll found, and 10 percent said they were not sure. That net favorability of minus-34 percentage points is a dramatic drop from polling conducted prior to 2016. In January 2015, for example, Romney was seen...

If the election for President was being held today, and the candidates were Donald Trump and Mitt Romney, for whom would you vote?" We asked the question this way to make it more generic rather than get in to the complexities of an open national Republican convention. 50% of Republicans chose Donald Trump while 37% chose Mitt Romney, and 13% indicated they were unsure. Trump clearly won with males 56/33%. With females, his margin was closer 44/42%. He also carried retired Republicans 59/32%, and won in every age group from 18-65+, including among parents 53/36%. Trump lost among those Republicans...

Republicans have assumed this entire elections season that a candidate must have won at least 8 state primaries or caucuses to be eligible for the GOP nomination, but apparently that is not the case and apparently a rule change hasn’t technically occurred, but that’s not the way it seems. Even Ted Cruz said just last night that John Kasich wasn’t eligible because he hadn’t won enough states, so even he was mislead. Insiders now say rule 40(b) only applied to the republican convention in 2012 and was never intended to be used in future elections. From Washington Examiner: Party officials...

Weaver said that while both campaigns have reached out to each other to ensure that Trump is denied the requisite 1,237 delegates to win the nomination, only the Kasich campaign has held up its end of the bargain . . . Even Mitt has urged Cruz to work with us! To no avail," Weaver lamented. "As usual they want it both ways, appearance of attempt to work together/victim, but no action. To question [John Kasich's] motivation is underhanded, and opposite of what they say in private. Facts are JK best positioned in most states moving forward & in general election....

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker said Thursday that in the event of a contested convention, the Republican nominee will likely be someone who is "not currently running." "I think if it's an open convention, it's very likely it would be someone who's not currently running," Walker said. "I mean, who knows. The one thing I qualify -- it's like the qualifications you see on those ads you see for car dealerships. I think any of us who comment on this election have to qualify that almost every prediction's been off, so it's hard to predict anything," Walker added. Walker's own run...

For those hoping to block Mr Trump, Mr Cruz's triumph in Utah is a rare fillip. He had been expected to win the state; it was unclear that he would pass the 50% threshold required to take all its delegates—in particular because of uncertainty over the effect of Mr Kasich in splitting the anti-Trump vote. The trouble for Mr Cruz, who has now won eight states to Mr Trump's 21, is that he only seems able to win in places, such as Utah, with rare concentrations of evangelicals, Mormons or the otherwise ultraconservative. And there are not many such places...