Posted on 09/30/2014 6:16:56 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Part of Mitt Romney's success in securing the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 bore out of the fact that he benefited from the spoils of a divided faction on the right.
If Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich were ever able to consolidate the sum of their supporters around one of them, Romney's path to victory could have faced great peril.
This calculation is weighing heavy on the minds of social conservatives as they look for a horse to ride in 2016.
With an adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz telling National Journal Monday the Texas freshman is "90 percent" likely to run and Ben Carson saying last week that chances of a 2016 campaign are "reasonably good," the field of GOP candidates who will make a direct compelling appeal to social conservatives appears to once again be a large one.
Boasting an early polling lead in the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee let reporters know earlier this month he remains intrigued by another bid. As does Rick Santorum, the 2012 victor of the Hawkeye State caucuses.
That could mean at least four contenders battling for the hearts and minds of faith-driven voters, which remains an important constituency in Iowa, South Carolina and other early primary contests in the south and through Bible Belt.
“We may be the victims of our own success," says Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a group that holds some sway with early Republican primary voters.
In talks with allies in the social conservative movement, Perkins says there's a "great desire" this time to try to unite around a single candidate, in order to prevent a more moderate, establishment-oriented rival from again capitalizing on a divided right.
"I think people are eager to get behind one candidate as soon as possible … given the circumstances and the inability to do it the last two times," he says. “We always have far more solid conservative candidates than we do moderates, but as we’ve seen, all those conservative candidates slice up that conservative base and the moderate advances.”
Uniting a broad coalition, of course, is always easier said than done.
But it appears that the newer faces of Cruz and Carson have a leg up.
Cruz is coming off his second straight straw poll win at the annual Values Voter Summit. But his margin of victory shrunk in 2014, with Carson creeping up on his heels.
Straw polls, of course, are unscientific exercises. But they are useful to test the temperature of energy and excitement around a potential candidate.
Right now, Cruz and Carson seem more likely to run than not. The complicating factor for them will be if Huckabee decides to pull the trigger, given the former governor's widespread name recognition from his 2008 run and Fox News Channel television show.
Huckabee has already fired a warning shot that potential foes Cruz, Carson and Santorum wouldn't get his blessing, even if he chose against a campaign.
“If not me, I would be supportive of someone who has had executive experience and who has been a governor before somebody having only had legislative experience, which I think is fundamentally different in the manner in which one serves,” he said earlier this month, according to National Review.
That sounds like a contender not readily willing to cede his crown of the social conservative pack.
We all have our favorites. Mine, frequently posted, are Cruz, Palin, Santorum, Jindal, and Pence. What we really need is one of the good guys—any one of the good guys—to emerge on top. We can’t afford another round of the (ahem) moderate choice. See my tagline.
What we want is a ban on moderates in the GOP presidential debates period!
If a candidate doesn’t want infanticide criminalized, he shouldn’t be allowed to participate
If a candidate doesn’t oppose the sodomites, he shouldn’t be allowed to participate.
And if a candidate is not FULLY opposed to the vile hateful disgustingly arrogant diseased racist illegals swarming over our southern border bringing respiratory illnesses and flesh-eating maggots as well as headlice the size of small birds, THEN HE SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE!
Make border militarization a mandatory requirement. This way, its bye bye Jeb Bush. Its time for a full debate on artillery placements in Arizona without some moron doing the shamnesty shake!
Ted Cruz!
This time Cruz 2016.
Conservatives need a smoke-filled room, preferably in late 2014, where a decision is made for one person to run, and all the others rally around him—and those who don’t rally (e.g., Huckabee, if he keeps his promise) become shunned by the rest. We’ve got to stop trying to “follow the rules” via open primaries, just pick someone who will carry the conservative banner well, and build him up before the Dem politics-of-personal-destruction team tear him down.
We all have our favorites. Mine, frequently posted, are Cruz, Palin, Santorum, Jindal, and Pence.
Interesting but not bad......here is really what your list should be: Walker, Palin, Cruz, VP should be Sean Duffy........would be incredible for the future of our Republican Party.
I like it, but too bad we don’t live in a dictatorship where we can tell candidates they can’t run for President.......Come on Viennacon....love ya and all but that is just ridiculous.
Ted Cruz/Sean Duffy........The first Gen X ticket. Our generation is finally going to rid ourselves of the dirty nasty baby boomers.........Please God allow it to happen!
If the Hildabeast runs, she’ll likely have a unified party (and a sickeningly adoring MSM). With no real contest on the Democrat side, there will be states in the GOP primaries where Dems can cross over and mess around with our process.
Uniting early around one strong conservative candidate seems like our best chance to come out of the primaries in pretty strong shape.
Anyone can run for president of course, but under the party label, thats not a right, and to appear on a Republican debate stage is not a right. If a candidate despises the constitution, they should not be running as a Republican. They can run as a rat
I wish Gen X conservatives and Millennial Conservatives all the best. May your experiences and accomplishments match and exceed our best. Make sure to enjoy yourselves along the way. Thirty or forty years from now, may you have the opportunity to cite similar successes in advising as yet unnamed generations younger than your own.
I know that I am soooo very encouraged by Ted Cruz. Though I live only a couple of districts southwest of Duffy's district, I am not as familiar with him. Tell me why you like him. I only know he is from LaCrosse, WI, and used to be a prosecutor and is successfully holding the seat previously held since Adam and Eve died by annoying leftist David Obey. I won't hold it against Duffy but he bears a disturbing physical resemblance to my Illinois district's evil Congressthing Adam Kinzinger for whom I shall never vote.
For all the things that matter, carry on! And may God bless you and yours!
Obviously my parents are Baby Boomers so I don’t hate the generation, but my problem is the politics of Baby Boomers. They completely ruined our country with Clinton, Bush, Obama........I would be completely embarrassed to be a Boomer with that trio quite frankly. Anyway, I hope that my generation can clean up the mess those three stooges left us. It is not going to be easy but luckily we do have some great young politicians at the helm. We shall see.....as they say “time will tell”.
Duffy is a hard core conservative. Married to his wife since 1999 (only marriage), has 6 children.....lives in his office to save money. Obviously pro-life, pro traditional marriage, fiscally conservative. Not much not to like IMHO. However, he has not been put under the microscope so who knows. He needs to be vetted more than at a district level for sure.
Sean is the 10th child of 11 children to his parents.
So I think he has a pretty good future in the Republican Party.
Yeppers...totally agree. We may see Pence come on strong. Id hope we get a ton of RINOs in the mix therefore a conservative can score the nom. Hopefully “our” side will narrow the choice down enough to push the GOPe out.
Pence, Cruz are my top choices.
Ban the moderates? How do you propose to do that?
Is this still a free country where anyone can throw their hat in the ring?
Especially if they have money and a strong organization behind them?
Sounds like a wet dream to me. Wet dreams seldom come true.
Instead, what is possible, and can win the nomination in 2016 for conservatives is to be not selfish and unite behind one candidate. I must have posted here 52 times that only reason Romney won because Newt, Santorum, Cain, Bachmann split the votes. Mitt had no moderates running alongside to split the votes.
Stop whining about the GOPe nominating RINO’s. One RINO running against 3 or 4 or even 2 conservatives is the only path to victory for the RINO. We shall see if 2016 will bring unity among conservatives or not. May be they have not learned the lessons from 2012.
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