Free Republic

Two peas in the tea party pod, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are actually looking to do opposite things as candidates for the presidency. Mr. Paul wants to expand the Republican brand, Mr. Cruz wants to narrow it.

HOUSTON, Texas — About six or seven hundred hardcore conservatives gathered outside the new Houston campaign headquarters for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) last Tuesday, an event at which he showed off his presidential prospects as the first declared candidate for 2016. Cruz, the true Washington outsider, has had a hugely successful first two weeks as the first declared candidate for the White House—raising millions of dollars, hiring key staff, and building a formidable operation, all while sticking true to his aggressive conservatism. Cruz has shaken up Washington, the political class, and the media establishment by essentially proving since his announcement...

Scandal: The Justice Department says Lois Lerner, who used her IRS office to target the Tea Party, didn't waive her Fifth Amendment rights before Congress and won't be prosecuted for contempt over her missing emails. Until former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is called to testify under oath before Congress about her multiple private email accounts on a personal server kept in her Chappaqua, N.Y., home, she won't get a chance to plead the Fifth Amendment as former IRS official Lois Lerner did in May 2013 before the House Oversight Committee regarding her division's targeting of Tea Party groups.

It looks like Rand Paul will be announcing a presidential run tomorrow according to his new campaign video that says on April 7 a different kind of Republican will take on Washington:   Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has told her staff to be ready at any moment for a presidential campaign announcement: THE HILL – Most staffers hired for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign have no idea when she’ll announce, according to a CNN report, but have been told that they must be ready to start their campaign roles at any moment — starting Monday. Until then, they are working out of...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Like many Iowa Republicans, bus driver Bill Jodeit yearns for another Ronald Reagan, a leader to unite the party’s many factions, deliver victory and restore America’s vigor and place in the world. And he may have found what he’s looking for in Ted Cruz. “What he represents, and what Reagan represented, was the shining city on the hill, the best of America. Reagan bombed Libya — he scared our enemies. Now we’ve got a president that’s scared to scare our enemies,” said Jodeit, 49. In week two of the Cruz presidential campaign, the 44-year-old Texas senator...

A federal judge has ordered the IRS to hand over a list of 298 Tea Party groups that were targeted by Obama the IRS for extra scrutiny in an effort to keep them from working against Obama in the 2012 election. This is an important development since the Tea Party groups are looking to be certified for a class action suit. That in itself is a big development for the groups but more importantly, once they are granted class action status, they can begin to ask for large quantities of emails, files and other evidence during the discovery phase.

Ted Cruz’s aggressive pursuit of the evangelical vote began with a deliberate choice of venue for his presidential announcement two weeks ago: Liberty University, which bills itself as the largest Christian university in the world. 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...

Lois Lerner didn’t care to speak when she was invited for tea before congressional committees, and it turns out that no charges will be filed against her over her shyness. But that may not be the end of the story for the IRS scandal. A judge in Ohio has consented to a request filed by representatives of several Tea Party groups which calls for the IRS to turn over the full list of conservative groups selected for extra special scrutiny when they filed for nonprofit status. A federal judge has ordered the Internal Revenue Service to hand over a...

Call me cra-cra . . . but I’m beginning to wonder if NFL Quarterback Cam Newton isn’t being deceived, duped, double-crossed, alas hoodwinked by Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson . . . . Might it be sportsfans the NFL owner’s round-table of fatcat aristocrats has determined the league doesn’t’ want this Black Superman as one of the premier faces of their gazillion dollar operation? Perhaps Jerry’s being “compensated” for more-or-less “tying” Cam’s hands . . . by giving him no legitimate hands to catch his strong-armed projectiles. Cam’s surrounded and protected by mediocrity and I wonder if that’s not by...

Frank Luntz points out from a Washington Post article that recent polling shows Ted Cruz has jumped over nearly the whole crowd of potential candidates, landing him in second place right now: That’s fantastic news. But it is still early so his complete campaign domination may still take a while to emerge.But for now, here’s a great clip of Ted Cruz in South Carolina from today. Listen to how he explains solving the border problem:

If I were to mirror the example of the delusional right-wing folks who have spent seven years creating apocalyptic fantasies about how Barack Obama is a communistic, Muslim Antichrist, I could probably manufacture some scary characterizations of the first announced candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Ted Cruz — but I won’t. Instead, I want to compare him favorably to his ideological soul mate, Sarah Palin, which may be even more scary.. Both the Texas senator and the former Alaska governor oppose abortion and same-sex marriage. They both want a smaller federal government and a more confrontational foreign policy....

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush continues to lead the pack of Republican presidential hopefuls, but one candidate is making moves. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the only GOP hopeful to formally announced his candidacy thus far, has shot up in the rankings in a new CBS News poll. Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed said that they would consider voting for Cruz in March, up 14 points from when the same question was asked a month ago. By comparison, 51 percent said they would vote for Bush, just two percent higher than did in February. *** Sen. Ted Cruz has raised $4...

Appearing before a room full of Democratic partisans in his first speech as a 2016 Senate candidate, Rep. Patrick Murphy compared Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to conservative firebrand Allen West, took jabs at the tea party and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and cheered the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency. Murphy, who announced his Senate candidacy last week, made a brief appearance at Thursday night’s Palm Beach County Democratic Party meeting in West Palm Beach. Murphy was elected in 2012 by presenting himself as a moderate alternative to outspoken conservative West, unseating the Republican in a district where the GOP...

A group of conservatives and libertarians in New Hampshire have come up with a plan they hope will block former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) from becoming the Republican party’s nominee for President. The idea is to hold their own presidential caucus in October and select a candidate behind whom they would all unite. The group is called the “603 Alliance,” named after the only area code in New Hampshire. According to a report by Politico, the plan was instigated by “years of simmering discontent within the state Republican party,” as conservative, libertarian, and Tea Party activists have grown increasingly frustrated...

HOUSTON, Texas — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tells Breitbart News that if he’s elected President, one of his first actions will be to undo all of President Barack Obama’s unconstitutional executive orders. “Absolutely,” Cruz replied when asked if one of the first things he would do if elected would be to undo all of Obama’s unconstitutional executive orders in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News in Houston. The next 20 months are going to be very dangerous because President Obama, unfortunately, seems to have decided to disregard the United States Congress and disregard the American people and instead is trying...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The IRS commissioner on Tuesday brushed aside GOP proposals to abolish his agency, insisting the U.S. would have to have a tax collector one way or another. “You can call them something other than the IRS if that made you feel better,” the agency’s chief, John Koskinen, said after a speech at the National Press Club. Republicans have heaped even more criticism upon the agency than usual over the last 22 months because of its improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) perhaps has made the most prominent calls to get rid of the IRS. While launching...

The blood is in the water. The game is afoot. And the Republicans are brawling. While Democrats are usually viewed as the undisciplined, fractious party, it is Republicans who sharpen their knives and slice each other up when the White House is at stake. The struggle is between two groups within the GOP. The establishment finally recognizes that the party must broaden its base. If the party appeals to only white, Christian conservatives, it will wind up as a regional party, capable of winning Senate and House seats but incapable of winning a national election. We must nominate a presidential...

Listen in to Dana Loesch interview with Presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz coming up next

Unlike Scott Walker and more emphatic than Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz enthusiastically supports Gov. Mike Pence and urges all Americans to do the same: HOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, issued the following statement today in support of Governor Mike Pence’s effort to defend religious liberty and protect against the government forcing individuals to violate their deeply held beliefs: “I want to commend Governor Mike Pence for his support of religious freedom, especially in the face of fierce opposition. There was a time, not too long ago, when defending religious liberty enjoyed strong bipartisan support. Alas, today we...

When Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas declared his candidacy for the 2016 presidential election last Monday, he became the first to do so officially. Here is a look at what he will need to do if he hopes to win. The coalition To win the Republican nomination, Cruz will have to bring together the party’s anti-establishment wing, which is made of separate but overlapping voter blocs, including Christian conservatives, libertarians and Tea Party voters angry with the leadership of both parties. His ultimate goal is to get into a one-on-one campaign against whoever emerges as the favorite of establishment Republicans....