Free Republic

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Ted Cruz's campaign is trying to make the most of Gov. Nikki Haley's endorsement of Marco Rubio days ahead of the South Carolina primary: driving sky-high his political expectations here. "If he doesn't finish first, this is a massive loss," Jason Miller, a senior Cruz adviser, said hours after news reports began circulating that Haley would endorse Rubio at a rally Wednesday evening. "Rubio has to win here." Earlier this week, Jeb Bush had called Haley's endorsement "the most powerful, meaningful one in the state." Haley's backing of Rubio comes on top of the support of Sen....

With the South Carolina primary just 18 days away, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has thrown his support behind colleague Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for the GOP presidential nomination. The buzz that Scott would endorse Rubio began before the last ballots were counted in Monday's Iowa caucuses. Scott announced his support in a campaign video filmed in front of his childhood home. "It's a long way from where I grew up to the U.S. Senate. I believe the best days of our country are ahead of her -- that 2016 may be the most important election," Scott said. "I am putting...

Everyone that reads this story has to realize the establishment is not going away just because we will it so. They are fighting for their own existence and candidate. GOP candidate Marco Rubio is the establishment candidate right now and everyone needs to settle down and watch how this plays out. Then I was given this information and was shocked to see that Gowdy earlier in the year, along with Senator Tim Scott had been given money from Jeb Bush super PAC. From Florida Politics (Jan 2015): The committee launched by the former Florida governor and prospective 2016 Republican presidential...

It’s time for a new approach to dealing with the scandal plagued offices of the Internal Revenue Service. It’s become obvious by this point that you can’t fire anyone. And until there’s a change in personnel at the highest levels in the Justice Department you can’t prosecute anyone either. Despite plenty of lip service by everyone from Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton, it would seem that it’s just going to be business as usual at the tax collector’s office and they can essentially thumb their noses at us.But perhaps there are some alterations which could be made from the...

Donald Trump held a town hall meeting hosted by Senator Tim Scott in Columbia, South Carolina.

Streets filled with parked cars, rally attendeesTed Cruz, Rick Perry, Tim Scott address crowd COLUMBIA, SC - Thousands of people are on hand at South Carolina’s State House for the We Stand with God, Pro-Family Rally. Former Texas governor Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott have addressed the crowd. Ted Cruz also spoke at Saturday’s event, which began at 11 a.m. Cruz said he would push for a constitutional amendment to protect states’ same-sex marriage bans. He also railed against the Planned Parenthood videos that allegedly show staffers talking about selling fetal tissue. He said on his first day...

In January 2015, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) has introduced the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Individuals and Communities through Education (CHOICE) Act, designed to make vouchers more widely available to the poor so they can go to private or charter schools. “This pilot program would cost $10 million, and we’ve already paid for it,” said the Republican senator, “For those states that already have options, we are not dictating or mandating anything on any state, we are saying, here is another weapon in your arsenal to help those kids who are especially vulnerable to not seeing their full potential realized.”...

Gowdy was in South Carolina at an event hosted by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and GOP presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee. “I wouldn’t just limit it to what one presidential candidate said,” Gowdy explained. He went on to say: I don’t know if you saw what happened to San Francisco over the weekend, but someone who has been evicted from the country multiple times came back in and killed a totally innocent person who was simply walking… so anyone who thinks that the border is not porous, anyone who thinks the internal security is adequate, anyone frankly who wants to...

It took just a few days after the stunning defeat of Obama's attempt to fast-track the Trans Pacific Partnership bill in the Senate at the hands of his own Democratic party, before everything returned back to normal and the TPP fast-track was promptly passed. Why? The simple answer: money. Or rather, even more money. Because while the actual contents of the TPP may be highly confidential, and their public dissemination may lead to prison time for the "perpetrator" of such illegal transparency .... fast-tracking the TPP, meaning its passage through Congress without having its contents available for debate or amendments,...

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz will attend events in South Carolina Friday and Saturday along with state GOP leaders and former presidential candidates Rick Perry and Rick Santorum.All three men are expected to speak at the SC Republican Party's 48th Annual Silver Elephant Dinner in Columbia Friday night,Governor Nikki Haley and U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott are also expected to speak at the event.The dinner, which is advertised as the largest and most prestigious Republican gathering in South Carolina will be held in honor of the late Gov. Jim Edwards, who served as the 110th governor of South...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul split with senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to vote for a healthcare bill Tuesday night that will add about half a trillion dollars to the national debt over the next several decades.Paul sided with the overwhelming majority of senators and representatives who voted for the bill, in a decision almost certain to come up in the primary race, where he is currently joined by Cruz and Rubio.The “doc-fix” bill solves a recurring problem in the way Medicare payments are made to doctors, extends a children’s health insurance program, and requires higher-income seniors to pay higher...

In our federal system, states should be able to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Friday joined an amicus brief on behalf of 57 members of Congress in support of the right of states to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The brief was filed in four cases that the Supreme Court will jointly hear on April 28, 2015, in which same-sex couples challenge the marriage laws of Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan, and Kentucky, all of which were upheld by the U.S....

Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke says that Senator Dick Durbin should explain his own previous opposition to the nominations of black women before accusing Senate Republicans of racial motivations for not confirming attorney-general nominee Loretta Lynch. Last week, after Republicans said they would only hold a confirmation vote for Lynch if Democrats approve language barring taxpayer funding for abortions in a human-trafficking bill, Durbin took to the Senate floor and invoked Rosa Parks, accusing Republicans of making Lynch “sit in the back of the bus.” But as Clarke points out, Durbin voted against the nominations of black women on more...

olitics: Sen. Dick Durbin, who says Republicans have shoved attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch to the "back of the bus," once filibustered and opposed the GOP nominations of black and Latino appeals court judges. Last week, Durbin accused Republicans of forcing Lynch, President Obama's African-American nominee to replace Eric Holder, to "sit in the back of the bus" until a vote on a controversial sex trafficking bill could be held. That thinly veiled reference to the moment in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to move from her seat in a Montgomery, Ala., bus was meant to paint Senate Republicans as...

The conservative Club For Growth released its annual scorecard for 2013 on Monday, bestowing two Republican U.S. senators — Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah — and four GOP congressmen with 100 percent ratings for their voting records “based on issues relating to limited government and economic growth.”The four congressmen with perfect ratings for 2013 are Republican Reps. Matt Salmon, Trent Franks and David Schweikert of Arizona and Tom McClintock of California. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan got a 99 percent rating in 2013 “but because of rounding has a 100 percent LifeScore,” the group said.“2013 saw...

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...

The Talk Shows March 8th, 2015 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. ; former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Lewis.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Tim Scott, R-S.C.; Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.; Benjamin Crump, lawyer for the family of Michael Brown, the unarmed black 18-year-old shot to death by a white police officer in Ferguson.THIS WEEK (ABC): Mayor James Knowles of Ferguson, Missouri;...

Tim Scott drives liberals crazy. The black senator from South Carolina doesn’t fit the left’s narrative about what a conservative should look like, and the mainstream media often try to criticize or trip up the lawmaker. That’s exactly what happened on MSNBC, where host Thomas Roberts tried to imply that Scott doesn’t care about the poor. “You say you’re concerned about kids that are growing up in the wrong zip code and, like yourself, had a tough start on the way out,” said Roberts. “But if we look at agencies that are following some of your voting records, they have...

Waiting lists are one sign of the desirability of school choice. Graduation rates are another, and they seem to rise in tandem. In Washington, D.C., the “waiting list for students in the DC area for charter schools was 20,000 students,” first-term U.S. Senator Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, pointed out in some brief remarks to kick off National School Choice Week at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He compared D.C. public schools to charter schools in the nation’s capital: “About 56% of students graduate [from DCPS]. When you go to an Opportunity Scholarship Program [OSP, also known as a charter school]...

It’s a question that will prove crucial next year when Mitch McConnell takes the reins of a new Senate: Just how big is the Ted Cruz caucus? Three votes on the “cromnibus” late Saturday night suggest it could be as large as 22 senators — a dangerously high number for McConnell — or as few as a handful. Let’s break down the three votes — on filibustering the $1.1 trillion package, on Cruz’s point of order aimed at targeting the president’s immigration action, and final passage. The high-water mark for the Texas Republican came on his point of order vote,...