Free Republic

Chuck Laudner is Donald Trump’s Iowa campaign director. He is a Marine and a fighter who wants Trump to win and is not looking for a position in the Trump Administration. While other campaign staffs sleep with dreams of Pennsylvania Avenue dancing in their head, Laudner says when the Caucuses are over he’ll just go back to his ordinary life in a town so small it doesn’t have a diner. Trump first spoke to Laudner last December because he goes into every contest well prepared. We have heard about surveys in Iowa and how the caucuses are now a race...

Texas Senator Ted Cruz might only be in the first year of his first term in U.S. Senate, but he is already igniting the imaginations of Iowa Republicans who view him as strong presidential candidate in 2016 should he choose to run. Cruz was in Des Moines on Friday to address the Iowa Renewal Project, an annual weekend gathering of Iowa pastors and religious leaders. Cruz also attended a picnic fundraiser for the Republican Party of Iowa, and met with Republican activists and operatives during his first foray into Iowa. Cruz downplayed the significance of his trip to Iowa in...

Sarah Palin appears to be designing her impending visit to Iowa to be as low-key as possible. The former Alaska governor is slated to arrive in the small Iowa town of Pella on Tuesday to attend the premiere of "The Undefeated" -- a flattering documentary that highlights her accomplishments in office and bangs the drum for a potential insurgent campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Though she is never lacking for attention, Palin's trip figures to be scrutinized especially closely, since it will mark her first appearance this year in the nation's first voting state. Politico reported on Monday that...