Free Republic

A super PAC supporting the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) launched television ads Tuesday, the start of a seven-figure, nationwide ad blitz for the candidate. One of four super PACs supporting Cruz will spend millions this year on television, digital and radio ads both nationwide and in early primary and caucus states. The super PAC, Keep the Promise I, received $11 million from Robert Mercer, a New York hedge fund magnate. It also received $5,000 from William Lee Hanley Jr. of the Lexington Management Group, which franchises hotels. "Ted Cruz has proven that he won't back down from fighting...

So many people want to see presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz next week, he had to find a bigger place to meet. Chattanooga Tea Party President Mark West said Wednesday, the U.S. Senator from Texas will be visiting with Southeast Tennessee residents at GraceWorks Church, 6445 Lee Highway in Chattanooga. Cruz is visiting Chattanooga at 8:30 a.m. Monday to meet with residents and share his vision for the nation. There will also be biscuits and gravy served. The venue change was due to "a higher than expected response" West said in an email.

Republican presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has made clear he’s not afraid to lose friends and alienate people. There is one man, however, who’s unlikely to find himself on Cruz’s bad side anytime soon: An enigmatic hedge funder by the name of Robert Mercer, one of only a handful of billionaires who together have lifted Cruz out of the typically out-financed “base-candidate” category into his current status as a top-tier competitor. Federal Election Commission filings released last week showed that the 68-year-old Mercer, who earns his fortune as co-CEO of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, donated more than...

How does Ted Cruz, a champion debater at Princeton University, attorney who argued before the Supreme Court and now Republican White House aspirant, prepare for Thursday's presidential debate? By spending two days holed up in a townhouse on Capitol Hill, discussing strategy and how to break through in a field of 10 candidates while still staying on message. "Our focus is simply conveying the same core message that we convey in every forum," Cruz, who rarely has problems staying on message, said in an interview with The Washington Post. "Which is that we’ve seen far too many campaign conservatives who...

CHEYENNE, Wyoming — Presidential candidate Ted Cruz is making a stop in Cheyenne, where he's scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a Republican-hosted fundraiser. KGAB-AM reports (http://bit.ly/1IESrSe) donations to attend the first annual Chairman's Reception on Aug. 20 start at $50 and reach as high as $1,500....

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is visiting Las Vegas later this month. The Texas senator is scheduled to speak the evening of Aug. 14 at a public event organized by conservative group Americans for Prosperity. The discussion will be held at Red Rock casino....

On Friday morning, 24 July, our Texas Senator Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor and did something truly extraordinary: He excoriated the leadership of the U.S. Senate. No, it was not the Democrats he was after, even though Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) was properly mentioned. It was the Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) who was the object of a nineteen-minute indictment of corruption and dishonesty. The word “lie” is seldom heard in that chamber, being that the place is so genteel. But Friday was a seminal moment in U.S. legislative history, and Senator Cruz enunciated the...

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is in danger of missing the first Republican debate, kicked off a GOP cattle call of candidates in New Hampshire on Monday vowing to secure the border if he’s elected president. “The American people don’t trust Washington, D.C., to deal with this issue of immigration reform until we secure the border,” Perry said. “And I know something about securing the border.” Fourteen Republican candidates are participating in C-SPAN’s Voter’s First forum in New Hampshire on Monday. The style is different from the debate - one by one, the candidates will take the stage to...

Link only, due to copyright issues: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-03/ted-cruz-jeb-bush-shine-at-koch-brothers-event

When Ted Cruz and Donald Trump meet on Thursday, it will be their second one-on-one get-together since mid-July. The two are gaining in popularity according to the latest polls released this weekend. They both know Jed Bush is the man to beat for the Republican nomination for President. Also recognized, by penetrating the sacred, powerful and shady capitalist’s protected turf, the vicious fury of the GOP and Democratic leadership is about to be unleashed against them in the media. Bush, with the power of the Republican establishment in his corner, has raised about $104 million in campaign funds from super...

When the Republican candidates take stage in Cleveland for the first presidential debate, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry will likely be watching from his hotel room somewhere. The candidate who briefly dominated polling in the 2012 contest and began this campaign in the middle of the pack, looks to settle in 11th or 12th place when the debate cut-off is set. His relegation to the consolation stage hours before the main debate is largely a consequence of the ongoing Donald Trump boomlet. While almost all candidates have suffered in the polls as the real estate developer has surged to the...

DANA POINT, Calif. — Ted Cruz made the case Sunday that he can win the Republican nomination because of his strength in the South. The Texas senator was a crowd favorite at the Koch network donor summit here. He got the normally mild-mannered donors laughing and cheering with his red meat. But many worry privately whether he can win, and they’re desperate to take back the White House in 2016. Recognizing this, Cruz did more to stress his viability than any of the four other 2016 presidential candidates who got a chance to pitch the 450 mega donors who have...

Sen. Ted Cruz rained praise on primary rival Donald Trump Sunday, making a point to contrast himself with the many 2016 Republican presidential contenders who have been sharply critical of the real estate mogul. “Quite a few members of this field have attacked Donald Trump. A lot of folks in the media have asked me ‘Ted Cruz, will you do the same?’ I have been glad to praise Donald Trump for speaking out boldly and brashly and for focusing on illegal immigration,” Cruz said in an interview with POLITICO’s Mike Allen at the Koch brothers-funded Freedom Partners summer conference in...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will spend much of August on an eight-state “Cruz Country” bus tour through the South, as his team looks beyond the first four 2016 states to March’s delegate-heavy SEC Primary states, including Georgia and Texas. Cruz advisers say they’re not only vigorously competing in the early states, but already organizing the so-called SEC states (a nickname from college sports’ Southeastern Conference), with advertising planned through March 15. An adviser said the objective of the bus trip is “to ensure that by the time other candidates get to the March 1 voting states following early state voting,...

Donald Trump is surging in GOP presidential polls ahead of next week’s first Republican debate among the party’s presidential candidates, but the controversial businessman finished third in a sampling of conservative activists, according to a survey released Saturday by the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition. In email polling of 122 coalition members conducted July 26 through July 29, Texas Senator Ted Cruz came in first at 29 percent, followed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at 27 percent, with Trump at 19 percent. The rest of the crowded GOP field finished in single digits. You can see the entire poll here....

July 30 -- Mark Halperin and John Heilemann discuss former Texas governor Rick Perry’s latest stumble on “With All Due Respect.”

While perusing the articles and stories one can find on the computer (my wife says I spend way too much time on this thing), and the posted comments related to the articles, I came across a comment concerning Donald Trump (imagine that) and his lack of qualifications to be the next president. A poster had commented that Republicans can’t seem to get it right in their selection of candidates; notably, with Trump in the mix. Deciding to have a little fun with this person, I pointed out that the Democrats hadn’t done such a hot job picking a candidate in...

A group of zealous supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz’ (R-TX) 2016 presidential run is planning to launch a ‘Ted Cruz Air Force’ (TCAF) in the coming months prior to the Republican primaries that begin in less than a year. According to TCAF, “Ted Cruz clearly has the support of the grassroots. He will also have air support.” TCAF says its most prominent air feature will be the “Ted Cruz Blimp,” but it also plans on recruiting “antique aircraft, towed aerial banners, light sport aircraft … [and] parachutes.” Member of TCAF Jerry Collette says he’s going to do everything he can...

Tea Party champion and conservative firebrand Ted Cruz may be ready to embrace his libertarian side – and he may need to, if he hopes to find a path from Iowa to the White House. As it turns out, the death of the Liberty Movement in Iowa may have been greatly exaggerated. While an establishment resurgence in 2014 spearheaded by Governor Terry Branstad succeeded in purging the Ron Paul element from the leadership of the Republican Party of Iowa, members of the state’s robust and often-boisterous Liberty Movement are turning their attention to greater things – namely, the 2016 presidential...

Des Moines, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Texas Sen. Ted Cruz criticized former President Jimmy Carter's administration during a stump speech in Iowa, one day after Carter announced he was suffering from cancer that has spread to his brain. Speaking on a political soapbox at the Iowa State Fair Friday, Cruz said there were parallels between the Obama and Carter administrations. "I think the parallels between this administration and the Carter administration are uncanny. Same failed domestic policy, same misery, stagnation and malaise. Same feckless and naive foreign policy,"(continued)