Free Republic

North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-NC), the frontrunner in the North Carolina GOP Senate primary, told a crowd two and half years ago that we must "divide and conquer" people on government assistance. Tillis proposed pitting those who are legitimately in need against those who made bad choices. Tillis made the comments in October 2011 in Asheville, North Carolina. They were reported by local press at the time and are being circulated now by the campaign of Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) whom Tillis is vying to unseat. They were highlighted on MSNBC"s Hardball Monday. "What we have to do...

The two Republican lieutenant governor candidates, David Dewhurst and Dan Patrick, faced off Friday night in a runoff debate. The debate took place at the studios of Houston Public Media. The runoff is May 27. The latest polls show Dewhurst, the current lieutenant governor, far behind Patrick, a state senator. Here’s a look at the race from KUHF, Houston’s public radio station: It's unusual for the incumbent to be unseated, but Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is as many as 20 points behind state Sen. Dan Patrick in the polls.

A new television ad in the lieutenant governors race has a charity demanding an apology. The ad from the David Dewhurst campaign show a series of pictures of Dan Patrick with a tie but no shirt looking as if he’s at a wild party, but a written statement from the Be an Angel Fund reveals that Patrick was literally selling the shirt off his back at a fundraiser to help special needs children.

And yet just when the news is getting good, Rove is calling Silver's whole methodology into doubt. On Wednesday, he tweeted a link to a National Journal column titled "Why I Don't Agree With Nate Silver: Number-crunching Senate prediction models are fun to follow but are not very useful." "Smart piece: may disagree w/ some specifics, but major point is correct," Rove wrote. The major point is that the methodology behind Silver's projections is flawed: "Unlike baseball, where the sample size runs in the thousands of at-bats or innings pitched, these models overemphasize a handful of early polls at the...

SANFORD For months, Republican Thom Tillis’ Senate campaign touted his accomplishments and focused his attacks on Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan, acting like a frontrunner with his eye on November. Now, in the final days before the May 6 primary, Tillis is changing his strategy. Last week, he mailed a flier to voters that attacked his top GOP rival for not paying his property taxes on time. He also debuted a TV ad that trumpets his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. Tillis hit the social conservative issues Saturday in his speech at the 2nd Congressional District GOP convention in Sanford....

VIDEO AT LINK On Fox News Channel's "America's Newsroom" on Tuesday, former adviser to President George W. Bush Karl Rove reacted to remarks from former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) that called certain types of illegal immigration an "act of love"...

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Grover Norquist, the influential conservative who serves as president of Americans for Tax Reform, thinks there are only six Republicans who can win the 2016 Republican nomination for president. His list, which he told Business Insider in an approximately hour-long interview Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. "There are only six people who can credibly run start-to-finish, and any of them could conceivably win the presidency," Norquist said....

If 2016 brings another Bush-Clinton matchup, not all famous last names are equal at the start. The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll makes clear why it’s better to be associated with the 42nd president than the 43rd and 41st, at least for now. The poll has plenty of good news for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Two-thirds of Americans say they’d consider voting for Clinton in 2016, and a full 25 percent say they will definitely support her. Again, among all Americans – not just Democrats, or Democrats and independents – one in four say they are fully on board for Hillary...

Sen. John Cornyn (R.-Tx.) loves to heap praise for his buddy, Karl Rove, a GOP Establishment political operative, who is calling for Republicans to play nice with Hillary Clinton. Cornyn has described Rove as "my friend for a long time." The Texas Tribune reports that, "Once the Texas GOP's go-to campaign strategist, Karl Rove has become something of a boogeyman for campaigns on both sides of the ballot in the 2014 election cycle." Rove explained that Sen. Cornyn is a true friend of the liberal elite in Washington D.C. Rove is quoted as saying that, “His colleagues like him a...

"JOHN CORNYN RALLY," read the LED billboard outside the Maude Cobb convention center. "NEAL MCCOY CONCERT." After 3 p.m., around a thousand local Republican activists started lining up for all of it. For $25, they could watch a local hero country singer perform a full show, collect all the GOP swag they wanted (in Cornyn tote bags), crack open free peanuts and sodas -- oh, yes, and to meet Texas's senior senator. If they parted with four figures, they could talk to Cornyn and Karl Rove at a private reception before the show. -snip- At the Longview rally, Karl Rove...

The senior senator from Texas predicted little movement in Congress for the rest of the year on immigration reform, or much of anything, during a campaign stop in Longview Sunday. “I think this is going to be about mitigating the policies of the president,” Republican Sen. John Cornyn said, noting the GOP needs a net six-seat gain to win control of the Senate. “We’ll be in strategic position to mitigate some of the harm of some of those policies.” Cornyn brushed off a recent, milder push-back on Obamacare to “mend it, don’t end it.” “You can’t actually update the policies...

Peanuts were cracking and boots were stomping Sunday at a Longview rally for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. More than 1,000 people attended the event at Maude Cobb Convention Center — which featured a performance by Longview resident and country music singer Neal McCoy. Karl Rove, former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush, delivered a short speech to introduce Cornyn. With a large American flag as a backdrop, McCoy led the crowd in a rendition of “the Star-Spangled Banner.” Rick Hulburt, a Hallsville resident, said he and his wife, Mary, decided to attend the event...

Former Bush administration adviser Karl Rove on Sunday cautioned Republicans against a 2016 presidential election strategy that focuses too much on the political history of potential Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. Rove told “Fox News Sunday” he was uncertain whether revisiting Clinton and husband Bill Clinton’s years in the White House would help Republicans win the presidency. “It may,” said Rove, now a “Fox News” contributor. “But the trouble for Republicans is it’s easier to say what you’re against than what you are for.” Republicans have tried to knock down a Clinton candidacy essentially since she resigned from her post in...

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is returning to Longview for a fundraiser that aims low at the wallet but high on attendance. “What we’re trying to do with this event is something I don’t think, typically, has been done before,” said John Coppedge, a Longview doctor. “We wanted to have an event that was fun and afforded the opportunity for a lot more people to participate in the process.” Political fundraisers, particularly for national office candidates, tend to be those $1,000-a-plate soirées that most people just hear about. Coppedge said the one planned for Feb. 16 is designed to draw as...

There was an unexpected visitor to a conference on immigration in Tyler Tuesday: President Bush's right-hand-man for years, Karl Rove. One of the most polarizing figures in politics says most Americans have the facts of illegal immigration all wrong. The former Deputy Chief of Staff joined Senator John Cornyn and Congressman Ralph Hall to debate the broader and the finer points of immigration with more than 100 East Texas business leaders. Rove directly took on the issue of the deportation of illegal immigrants. "We can't just root them out and not have some economic damage done to our country. Let's...

One incumbent U.S. senator has decided to campaign a little differently before the Republican Party primary this year. He’s still shaking hands, making speeches and raising funds, of course, but he’ll also be grooving to the beat of hometown country crooner Neal McCoy at a rally and concert from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday at Maude Cobb Convention Center. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, “wanted a fun, affordable opportunity for a lot more people to participate in the election process,” said Longview physician John R. Coppedge, treasurer of the Texas Bipartisan Justice Committee, one group supporting Cornyn’s re-election campaign. Cornyn,...

He said this during a segment on Fox News in which he also insisted that Chris Christie’s presidential hopes are still very much alive. Because of course he did.I did not realize that a few jabs at the Clenis aimed at parrying the left’s endless “war on women” attacks 32 months out from the next election might matter in deciding the presidency. Now I know better. Way to go, Rand. Karl Rove took a shot at Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday for attacking Bill Clinton over his “predatory” behavior toward Monica Lewinsky, saying that it’s not good strategy for...

Karl Rove took a shot at Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday for attacking Bill Clinton over his “predatory” behavior toward Monica Lewinsky, saying that it’s not good strategy for running for president. “Frankly, Rand Paul spending a lot of time talking about the mistakes of Bill Clinton does not look like a big agenda for the future of the country,” Rove said on Fox’s “America’s Newsroom.” Rove said that candidates for the presidency need to do two things in 2014: make their campaigns about something larger their personal ambitions and strengthen their skills. “I’m not certain, again, that beating...

Second-term U.S. Senator John Cornyn’s influence as Minority Whip is key for Texas and for the Republican Party, says a longtime friend and fundraiser. Longview’s Dr. John Coppedge has known the former Texas Attorney General for more than two decades and is once again sounding the fundraising call as Cornyn seeks a third term in office in November – partnering with other East Texas politicos, he’s putting together a Feb. 16 rally featuring the Texas senator alongside renowned GOP strategist and political pundit Karl Rove and country music star Neal McCoy.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is returning to Longview for a fundraiser that aims low at the wallet but high on attendance. “What we’re trying to do with this event is something I don’t think, typically, has been done before,” said John Coppedge, a Longview doctor. “We wanted to have an event that was fun and afforded the opportunity for a lot more people to participate in the process.” Political fundraisers, particularly for national office candidates, tend to be those $1,000-a-plate soirées that most people just hear about. Coppedge said the one planned for Feb. 16 is designed to draw as...