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Ted Cruz hauled in more than $4 million during his first nine days as a formal presidential candidate—with help from a handful of Rick Perry's top donors. Five members of Perry's leadership PAC advisory board contributed to Cruz's presidential campaign in late March, a National Journal review of Federal Election Commission records found. San Antonio auto dealer Red McCombs, Austin oil executive Ben "Bud" Brigham, Houston chemical company executive Steven P. Mach, retired Houston technology executive Holloway Frost, and Houston Republican Kathaleen Wall each wrote four-figure checks to Cruz's campaign in late March. Those five donors were also among the...

On March 23rd, Ted Cruz became the first to throw in his name to run for the Republican presidential nomination. On Tuesday, March 31st, enthusiasts from all over the state came to the Grand Opening of his presidential headquarters in Houston, Texas. It was a ‘joyous’ occasion. Americans are hungry for a ‘change’ from doom and gloom to a new dawn. His presidential campaign logo signifies this very premise, "Reigniting the Promise of America." Cruz is a dynamic courageous conservative that will energize the many angry, restless and hurting Americans into a positive force against progressivism. The response to his...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) HOUSTON (KTRK) -- In the center of Ted Cruz's national campaign headquarters in a southwest Houston high-rise is a group of staffers you may not know -- but who may know a lot about you. They are the data and analytics team, led by researcher Chris Wilson. "There is nothing we're doing that is magical or is in a black box," explained Wilson, whose company, WPA Opinion Research, also worked for Texas Governor Greg Abbott's successful campaign in 2014. "The difference between what we're doing and what other people are doing is the commitment to it. I think what...

I just love it when a Republican candidate who is currently serving in Congress explains why Republican policies fail. Lindsey Graham did it twice on CNN's State of the Union this morning. First, when asked about Ted Cruz, Graham criticized his decision to shut down the government over Obamacare, saying it "hurt our party." He also intimated that Cruz doesn't have the temperament or experience to bring about consensus on policy issues. He begins by blaming Hillary for everything that's wrong in the Middle East, as though she was a puppetmaster while serving as Secretary of State. When he gets...

One of the U.S. Senate’s most outspoken conservative leaders, Sen. Ted Cruz, officially confirmed today for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference (SRLC) in Oklahoma City in May. Cruz is the ninth national leader and 2016 presidential candidate to confirm for the conference behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former Sen. Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Dr. Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump and Ambassador John Bolton. OKGOP Chairman Dave Weston noted, "Sen. Cruz’s recent announcement for president has created quite a buzz among Republican voters. We’re excited he’ll be joining us for the SRLC, as...

It’s never been a secret that the politically regressive “progressives” on the New York Times editorial board hate freedom. And so, in last Sunday’s lead editorial, they came out full square for a totalitarian state under the iron boot of Supreme Leader Barack Obama. The Times is concerned that, as the failed Obama presidency heads into the final stretch and his policies become a greater concern to voting Americans, frightened citizens, especially those that have never voted before, will continue replacing tangential establishment Republicans in Congress with robust conservative-libertarian-tea partiers. That is why the Times finds the return of a...

The National Rifle Association’s annual leadership conference is always a treasure trove of GOP smack-talk and an all-out constitutional liturgy — and if Friday night’s viral talking points are any indication, this year’s celebration ranks further right on the political spectrum than usual. Not that that’s surprising: it is the run-up year to a presidential election cycle, which means that the Republican machine was churning out even more harsh allegations than usual. Of course, one of the biggest showboats of the night was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who told political opponent Hillary Clinton to “come and take” away his guns,...

Hillary launches her campaign on Sunday – and, some Dems say, it’s about damn time.At long last, the campaign has a candidate. After playing one of the more tedious games of cat and mouse in recent American political history, Hillary Clinton stands now ready to admit that she is what she has been for the last two years: an actual contender for the Democratic nomination for president. The announcement comes as Democrats in DC have fretted that without an organized infrastructure Clinton has been a glutton for Republican attacks, and ill-equipped to respond to the news of the moment, whether...

The other night as my wife Kelsey and I were getting ready for bed, we were talking about the 2016 presidential race and discussing how things would shape up for the first-in-the-nation caucus state – our home state – of Iowa. We had both heard that Ted Cruz was set to announce his candidacy at midnight, and were keeping a finger on the pulse of the reaction within our liberty-heavy political circles. My wife’s phone buzzed, and then I heard her groan. Another of our friends had asked her who we would be supporting for president in the state where...

Walker 15 Bush 12 Carson 11 Cruz 10 Huckabee 10 Paul 9 Rubio 8 Christie 4 Perry 3 Santorum 2 Jindal 2 Kasich 1

The latest North Carolina survey from Public Policy Polling suggests that conservative U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz entering the race is stunting Scott Walker's momentum in North Carolina. The PPP poll released on April 10 shows Jeb Bush now leads the GOP field in North Carolina with 19 percent to 16 percent for Walker, with Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio each at 11 percent, Ben Carson at 9 percent, Chris Christie at 7 percent, Rand Paul at 6 percent and Rick Perry at 2 percent. Cruz is up 8 points from his 3 percent standing a month ago, while Walker...

According to a Wednesday story in Bloomberg, the Ted Cruz for President Campaign has let it be known that a group of super PACs associated with the campaign expects to have $31 million in the bank by Friday. This feat is impressive considering that the Cruz campaign is not even two weeks old, and the super PACs in question were formed just this week. In the political fundraising game, this is what is called shock and awe. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is likely to be the champion fund raiser on the Republican side. But the news of Cruz’s feat,...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-07/rand-paul-s-first-challenge-defeat-ted-cruz

Here's "Blessing," Sen. Ted Cruz's first campaign video as an official candidate for the GOP presidential nomination:(VIDEO-AT-LINK)And here's Sen. Rand Paul's first entry into the same category. Paul will announce his run for the White House tomorrow:(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The differences go far beyond the formats imposed by a 30-second TV spot and a longer online video—and they're indicative, I assume, of different emphases by the candidate. Where Cruz, who announced his bid at Liberty University, the world's largest religious college, is clearly driving hard toward evangelicals, Paul is stressing a larger, more-inclusive vision of the GOP. He talks about being "a different...

The wealthiest Americans don’t care about inequality, and our presidential candidates are following their lead. That’s not to say they aren’t talking about inequality. They are, for anyone who will listen. As Noam Scheiber notes for the New York Times, Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio broached the issue in January, while Hillary Clinton discussed it at the Center for American Progress last week. But none of them have ideas for tackling the problem. Neither Cruz nor Paul nor Rubio was willing to say “the government should intervene to solve it,” while Clinton would rather retreat to platitudes—“We...

He prepares to make his formal announcement Tuesday, Paul is a candidate who has turned fuzzy, having trimmed his positions and rhetoric so much that it’s unclear what kind of Republican he will present himself as when he takes the stage. “He’s going to get his moment in the sun,” said David Adams, who served as campaign chairman for Paul’s insurgent 2010 Senate campaign. “What he does with it from there will have bearing on the Republican Party.”

Texas Senator Ted Cruz announced his 2016 presidential campaign last month, making him the only current official Republican candidate — for now. All of that is expected to change next week as Marco Rubio and Rand Paul make their own announcements, and likely push Cruz into the presidential background. But it’s not just me who believes that Ted Cruz has no shot of being the party nominee, much less the eventual President in 2016. Here are four pretty persuasive groups who also say that President Cruz is never going to happen. 1. His fellow Texas politicians It’s pretty hard to...

Nearly a week since Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), igniting a nationwide debate about whether the controversial law invites discrimination based on sexual orientation, most potential Republican presidential candidates have taken the opportunity to bolster their conservative credentials. "Governor Pence has done the right thing," said former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Monday. “I want to commend Governor Mike Pence for his support of religious freedom, especially in the face of fierce opposition,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz said in a written statement. “Governor Pence is holding the line to protect religious liberty in the...

U.S. Senator Rand Paul is running for president … in fact, he announces his candidacy next week in Louisville, Kentucky. From there he travels to early voting Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina – including a big fundraiser in the Palmetto State the day after he announces. As we write this, money is being collected. Speeches are being vetted. He’s 100 percent in … and not only that, Paul is one of the few candidates in the race with (we believe) a path to victory. And one of the few candidates (we believe) to be worthy of real consideration. Is...

No one can have a doubt about where Ted Cruz stands on the controversy swirling around Indiana’s Restoration of Religious Freedom Act. He made it crystal clear Wednesday night.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)And in the process the Texas senator called out Republican politicians and the executives of Fortune 500 companies that he said have been running scared from the issue of religious freedom in the face of relentless attacks from the left under the guise of gay rights. “Religious liberty is not some fringe view. It is the basis of this country,” Cruz said during a town hall meeting in Sioux City, Iowa, a...