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Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is clarifying — but not stepping back from — surprising comments this weekend in support of former Olympian Bruce Jenner's decision to come out as a transgender woman. "If he says he's a woman, then he's a woman," Santorum told BuzzFeed during a roundtable discussion in South Carolina on Saturday. Santorum continued: "My responsibility as a human being is to love and accept everybody. Not to criticize people for who they are."

“If he says he’s a woman, then he’s a woman,” Santorum, the former GOP senator from Pennsylvania, said about Jenner in South Carolina... Santorum, who is considering a second straight bid for the Republican nomination... Santorum did add that “these are tough issues” for both businesses and society, including the question of whether Jenner could use a women’s bathroom.

Gather together 1,000 S.C. Republicans in a room these days, and a few 2016 presidential prospects will come calling. The S.C. GOP’s annual Silver Elephant fundraising dinner on Friday attracted three out-of-state White House hopefuls and a fourth homegrown prospect who made their pitches to hardcore party supporters. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz started his speech by bashing Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. He said she appointed a director of email security – a joke about her use of a private computer server while she was U.S. Secretary of State. “I’m pretty sure Saudi Arabia is not paying for the speakers tonight,”...

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is putting a lot of emphasis on Iowa in his presidential campaign, is continuing to notch endorsements from some well-known activists in the state. Former Secretary of State Matt Schultz told the Quad-City Times on Wednesday he is endorsing Cruz for president. "I’m looking for somebody who’s going to stand up and fight for our country, and he gives me hope we can turn things around," said Schultz, who is now the Madison County Attorney. "He's not going to back down from a fight." In a letter to two dozen members of the Cruz...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has chosen former Secretary of State Matt Schultz to chair his Iowa campaign in his bid for the Republican Party's nomination for president. Schultz, who currently serves as the Madison County attorney, supported Sen. Rick Santorum in his failed 2012 presidential campaign, though he won the Republican Iowa caucuses. "He is a consistent conservative who cares about liberty and won't back down from a fight,"(continued)

“The Evangelical voting bloc is a dead thing,” Iowa Republican activist Tom Stockebrand says, a glint of mischief in his eye. A top state party official nods in agreement. “If you didn’t see it tonight, it’s 2015 now. Those days are gone.” He’s speaking as attendees stream noisily out of a packed auditorium in Waukee, Iowa, at Point of Grace church, the site of this year’s Faith and Freedom Coalition summit in the state. It’s nearly 10:00 p.m., and for the past five hours around 1,000 conservative Evangelicals have sat on raised bleachers, listening to nine potential White House contenders...

Here’s one name you haven’t seen here at Hot Gas quite so much this election cycle… at least so far: Rick Santorum. After a somewhat shocking start to the 2012 election trail, followed by a gritty, “outlast everyone else” campaign against Mitt Romney, Santorum seemed to have cemented a place as a serious contender in national GOP politics. Further more, he’s made no secret that he’s interested in another grab at the brass ring this time. But where is the splash for him this year? One reason for the lack of media coverage is that the former Pennsylvania Senator hasn’t...

For Christian evangelical voters in Iowa this election cycle is an embarrassment of riches. They're having a hard time picking a candidate because, for the first time many can remember, they have several options to choose from. Nine Republican presidential hopefuls spoke Saturday at an event hosted by the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, a successor to the the now-defunct Christian Coalition. They hoped to win over supporters for the state's presidential caucus, the first major event in the presidential primary. The Iowans could not agree on who did best. "I'd like to elect all of them," said Doug Brown,...

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 20, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Are you now, or were you ever, willing to attend a same-sex “wedding”? That seems to be the question lighting up the Republican presidential field, as GOP hopefuls who may one day have their finger on the nuclear button are asked the query over and over again.So far, the Republican hopefuls' answers are yes, no, I have (sort of), and...unclear.The media began by asking Florida's U.S. senator, Marco Rubio, if he would attend a homosexual 'wedding' ceremony, especially if he were invited by a relative or close friend.“If there’s somebody that I love...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-13/the-7-gop-long-shots-who-still-have-a-chance

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) after a Town Hall Panel Discussion hosted by Steve Deace at the NICHE Homeschool Iowa Capitol Day at the Holiday Inn Des Moines-Airport/Conference Center in Des Moines on Thursday, Apr. 9, 2015.DES MOINES — The debate over religious liberty in Indiana spilled over into Iowa Thursday as four presidential hopefuls pledged to defend the rights of parents who home-school their children to worship as they choose and educate their children as they wish. Religious liberty is the “civil rights issue of...

One candidate flew to Des Moines on a Boeing 757, a $100 million private jet with gold plated seat-belt buckles. The other took a cab from O’Hare airport in Chicago to Midway to catch a Southwest flight to make it to Des Moines for his planned appearances. Donald Trump and Rick Santorum both spent the better part of the day in central Iowa yesterday, but their visits couldn’t have been more different. Trump was treated like the celebrity that he is, with people he came in contact with stopping to get their “selfie” taken with him, and yes, that even...

Politico reports on Ted Cruz’s plan to become a factional candidate: The Texas Republican senator’s strategic play for Christian conservatives comes into even sharper focus this weekend as he rolls out the first television ad of the 2016 race. Titled “Blessing,” the commercial is aimed directly at evangelical and social conservative voters in early voting states, timed for Easter weekend and slated to air during popular Christian-themed programming. It’s an exercise in narrowcasting that telegraphs exactly how Cruz intends to win the GOP nomination against better-funded and better-known rivals. Cruz is well-suited to being this kind of candidate, but typically...

Already, we have the greatest video of the 2016 presidential election cycle. Rick Santorum -- And have I mentioned recently what a colossal dick Rick Santorum is? -- was down in the home office of American Sedition for one of those mock "summits" designed to lift the wallets of terrified caucasian separatists. A lady got up in the audience, opened her mouth to speak, and huge bats flew out. Why is the Congress rolling over and letting this Communist dictator destroy my country? Y'all know what he is and I know what he is. I want him out of the...

A veritable bevy of Republican presidential hopefuls have already hired staff, wooed deep-pocketed contributors and made speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire, proving what we already know: The 2016 nomination preseason is well underway. Fundraising, organization, the size of the field and the calendar all will play a significant role in affecting how the race unfolds. The outcome is uncertain. The current conventional wisdom is, in spite of changes intended to shorten the nominating process, the race for the GOP nomination could be more of a marathon than a sprint. The last two Republican presidential nominating fights — with John...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas WASHINGTON – Some of the top minds and leaders in the nation are asking for the help of ordinary citizens to protect America. Conservative stars such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., want to spread word among the grassroots about the greatest dangers America faces and what people can do to effect solutions on a local level. The South Carolina National Security Action Summit is open to the public and will be held Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Brookland Baptist Banquet and Conference Center at 1066 Sunset Blvd.,...

The reality show clan backed Mike Huckabee in '08 and Rick Santorum in '12. Now, they may face a real tough choice. It may be that the fastest-growing demographic in the Republican Party is pro-life, telegenic, homeschooled, and mostly under the age of 27—you know, the Duggars. As in the stars of the TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting. In the past couple election cycles, this birth-control-shunning family has emerged as a political player on the right. And now it looks likely that they will face a tough decision when it comes to which social conservative GOPer to back...

If Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee run for president, their Iowa supporters could have a choice between the head or the heart. Or vote for someone else. Santorum and Huckabee won remarkable victories in the Iowa caucuses, galvanizing social conservatives to pull off unlikely upsets against amazing odds. But while the two had very different paths to victory in Iowa, they achieved it with similar coalitions of social conservatives and evangelical leaders.

Santorums’ New Book Reveals How Faith And Love Are Tested By A Daughter’s Disability By Karen Tumulty and Colby Itkowitz February 7 Over and over, Rick Santorum has watched the old video of himself at a presidential candidate forum in Iowa. He can read in his strained expression the struggle that was going on in his mind as he tried to figure out how to answer a challenge put to the Republican contenders: “Bare your soul.” The shadow on Santorum’s soul was the memory of a time when he hadn’t loved his own child as a father should. Could there...

The 2016 presidential election cycle is already underway. Whether you are delighted or horrified at the prospect, the race is indeed now on. While it might seem impossibly far in the future, consider that the Iowa caucuses are only a year away. So we're going to take a very early look at the Republican field, which seems to be getting larger every week. The 2016 election will be rather unique, since it is a wide-open presidential election on both sides. No incumbent will be running, in other words, but the truly notable aspect of the race is that the parties...