Free Republic

GOP candidate Ted Cruz may not be popular among his fellow senators, but a growing number of House conservatives who have been dubbed as the "Cruz Caucus" are backing the controversial Texan's campaign, and Rep. Louie Gohmert said Thursday that's because they want a true conservative in the White House. "I didn't endorse anybody in 2012 and we ended up with the only Republican nominee who could not criticize Obamacare because they really did model it after Romneycare," the Texas Republican told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "This time, I thought early on I need to get behind whoever...

It’s a question that will prove crucial next year when Mitch McConnell takes the reins of a new Senate: Just how big is the Ted Cruz caucus? Three votes on the “cromnibus” late Saturday night suggest it could be as large as 22 senators — a dangerously high number for McConnell — or as few as a handful. Let’s break down the three votes — on filibustering the $1.1 trillion package, on Cruz’s point of order aimed at targeting the president’s immigration action, and final passage. The high-water mark for the Texas Republican came on his point of order vote,...

Sen. Ted Cruz held another closed-door meeting with House conservatives Tuesday night, sitting down with insurgents over pizza in his office for a free-flowing discussion about immigration, leadership elections, the IRS and recent changes at the Republican Study Committee. Over the course of about an hour and a half, 14 of the most conservative members of the House piled into Cruz’s Dirksen office for what was described in an email as an off-the-record gathering of “discussion and fellowship.” The attendees were, in the order in which they first arrived: Doug Lamborn of Colorado, Trent Franks of Arizona, Mo Brooks of...