Free Republic

The FBI just carried out a raid on the Annapolis office of a Republican party fundraising firm called Strategic Campaign Group, leading to widespread questions about what connection the raid might have to the FBI’s ongoing investigation of the Donald Trump campaign. Palmer Report’s research team determined that the firm in question is in fact connected to Trump campaign advisers Paul Manafort and Roger Stone.

(RNS) More than 50 conservative Catholic activists and political leaders have come out in support of Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz in an effort to shore up Catholic backing for Cruz as an alternative to Donald Trump. Among them is a priest from South Carolina who may be skirting the edges of his own church’s policies against clerics becoming involved in politics. Trump is currently leading the three-man GOP field and has drawn strong primary support from Catholic voters despite his controversial rhetoric and past stands on key issues like abortion rights, which he once supported. The Catholics endorsing Cruz,...

The Republican National Committee (RNC) got the dividend it was hoping for this past week when a criminal gave other criminals the right to vote in Virginia. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a man involved in so many crooked deals he can rightfully be called a “not yet convicted felon,” has given other felons in Virginia the right to vote. Using a Barack Obama stunt, Virginia’s Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe issued an “executive order” giving the dregs of society – murderers, rapists, arsonists and robbers who have finished their sentences and parole/probation requirements--the right to vote. In a blah blah blah...

Chris Hayes can assert that Planned Parenthood's sales of baby body parts were not illegal. But for him to claim, as he did on his MSNBC show tonight, that PP did not sell baby parts is . . . choose your synonym for dishonest. As the videos revealed, not only was PP selling body parts, one of its officials joked [we have to hope] that she wanted to get as much money as possible so she could buy a Lamborghini. To support his absurd claim, Hayes relied on the Orwellian decision of a Houston grand jury today to indict not...

E.W. Jackson, the Republican Party of Virginia's 2013 nominee for lieutenant governor, has endorsed Ted Cruz for president. Jackson joins Ken Cuccinelli, the 2013 GOP nominee for governor, in backing the Texas senator. Cuccinelli, Virginia's former attorney general, endorsed Cruz during the Texas senator's Dec. 18 rally in Hanover County. "Senator Cruz knows that 'central planning' by Washington elites will never match the ingenuity and effectiveness of free-market capitalism working hand-in-hand with people of faith to restore cultural values and bring prosperity to the most needy people in our country," Jackson said in a statement....

HOUSTON, Texas – Presidential candidate Ted Cruz today announced the endorsement of Ken Cuccinelli, former Attorney General of Virginia and Republican candidate for Governor in 2013. Throughout his career Cuccinelli has been a tireless advocate and strong leader in the fight to advance conservative principles by standing up to the Washington Cartel to protect life and marriage, stop tax increases, and defend the Constitution.“I’m pleased to endorse Ted Cruz for President. Not only does he have a proven track record for standing up for conservative values, but he has also demonstrated a willingness to fight back against both the Democrats...

GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz speaks with the media before addressing the Family Foundation of Virginia's 30th annual gala at the Greater Richmond Convention Center Saturday, November 14, 2015. (Alexa Welch Edlund) Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in Richmond to boost his presidential bid in the commonwealth, said Saturday that the terrorist attacks in Paris underscore the threat the Islamic State poses to the United States."I want to express solidarity with the people of France, with the people of Paris - all across America, Americans are lifting them up in our prayers, we are standing with our friends and...

Principled limited government constitutional conservative Ken Cuccinelli, Chairman of Liberty Now PAC, issued a powerful appeal for Virginians to demand their Representatives in Congress support Rep. Mark Meadows' motion to vacate the Chair and oust John Boehner as Speaker of the House. Cuccinelli writes: An amazing thing happened the other day, although it hasn’t gotten much attention… yet! On Tuesday, North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows courageously submitted a “Motion to Vacate the Chair.” The “Chair” in this case is Speaker Boehner. If successful, Congressman Meadows’ motion would remove Congressman Boehner as Speaker of the House, and allow for a vote...

In a move that could shake up the conservative-outside-group-world, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is suing a conservative political action committee called Conservative StrikeForce PAC for allegedly raising millions of dollars for his campaign, and spending only a small fraction of that on his race. According to a report on the lawsuit: “(A) substantial proportion of the approximately $2.2 million that defendants raised through political fundraising in 2013 was directly attributable to solicitations invoking Ken Cuccinelli, as Virginia’s gubernatorial election was the marquee contested race of American politics in 2013,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants, however, have admitted that they...

Democrat Terry McAuliffe is projected to win the Virginia gubernatorial race, defeating Republican nominee Ken Cuccinelli in a surprisingly close victory. Fox News projected McAuliffe as the winner Tuesday night. The closely watched raced pitted a Tea Party-backed Republican and an establishment Democrat locked in an expensive, ideological battle whose outcome is expected to set a course for the 2014 and 2016 elections -- in large part forcing the GOP to consider whether a strong conservative candidate is the party’s best pick to win a national election. Cuccinelli, trailing late by single digits, tried unsuccessfully to use voter dissatisfaction with...

It is not the libertarians’ fault when a conservative candidate loses. As conservatives, we should avoid blaming others when we don’t succeed. That’s what liberals do. That, plus shred the Constitution and shovel our money to deadbeats. Libertarians are not conservatives, and we don’t have a right to their votes. But sometimes we share the same goals, and some of them are gettable voters for conservative candidates. We just need to understand that there is no one kind of libertarian any more than there is one kind of Republican. In the GOP, you have social conservatives, the moderate/RINO wing, the...

<p>RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Sen. Mark Obenshain says he's going to outline his next steps in the nearly knotted race for attorney general.</p> <p>The Harrisonburg Republican has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday in Richmond. Unofficial state election results show Democratic Sen. Mark Herring with a narrow lead over Obenshain.</p>

Despite what the hysterical media will tell you, those distant blasts you heard last week rolling from New York City to Richmond were not cannon fire from the ongoing civil war within the Republican Party. They were the first shots fired in the civil war that is about to break wide open within the Democratic Party. The hyperventilating media have gone from simply jaundiced sideline observers to outright cheerleaders, breathlessly fanning the flames of discord within the GOP at every turn. Who knew The New York Times cares so much about Republican politicians from Texas and Utah? Of course, they...

Democrat Mark R. Herring widened his lead Tuesday over Republican Mark R. Obenshain in Virginia’s nail-biting race for attorney generalWith Herring up by 163 votes over Obenshain, the Democrat declared himself the victor, while Obenshain refused to concede. He said he will wait for the State Board of Elections to certify the Virginia-wide vote on Nov. 25. “Voters in Virginia have spoken, their voices have been heard and I am honored to have won their votes and their trust to become Virginia’s next attorney general,” Herring said in a statement. While the vote was close, he said, “Virginians have chosen...

The dust has settled (mostly) from last week’s elections, so I thought it time to present a very different assessment of what happened in Virginia than the snapshot I’ve seen from others. For example, Democracy Corps and Women’s Voices, Women Vote Action Fund distributed a wholly self-serving and unconvincing memo titled “Unmarried Women Cast Deciding Votes in Virginia Election.” It’s unconvincing, of course, because Republicans always lose unmarried women, regardless of an election’s outcome. Unmarried women are more liberal than most voters and are not part of any winning Republican coalition. NBC’s Domenico Montanaro and The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart...

Richmond, VA–Merely hours after the close of a bitter and divisive Governor’s race in Virginia that saw Democrat Terry McAuliffe pull out a win over Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, irregularities in voting data have emerged. According to mainstream media outlets McAuliffe supposedly defeated Cuccinelli in a razor-thin 47-46 percent victory to become the next Governor of the great state of Virginia. Immediately following the announcement, Cuccinelli’s office opened a full investigation into the legitimacy of the vote and quickly turned up surprising results. In 13 districts, multiple instances of intimidation at the polls were reported. Large black men wearing...

Virginia Republicans may have a strong candidate for the 2014 US Senate seat in Ken Cuccinelli. As reported in the Daily Caller, conservative writer and Congressional candidate Quin Hillyer gives voice to a movement to draft Ken to run against incumbent Democrat U.S. Senator Mark Warner. Yet it would be a problem for the 2013 campaigner Ken Cuccinelli to run for U.S. Senate, from what we saw in Ken's unsuccessful campaign for governor. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Ken Cuccinelli as a potential senator. Yet Ken will fail badly unless he fires his 2013 campaign strategists, consultants, and leaders,...

Politics is in the eye of the beholder. Post-mortems about the Virginia gubernatorial race are gushing forth about why Republican Ken Cuccinelli lost to Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a business-as-usual political retread from the Clinton crowd. They tell us more about who produces this punditry than about the reality of the situation. We're hearing that tea party activists killed Cuccinelli's candidacy with the government shutdown (according to The Wall Street Journal editorial page, they "stabbed him in the back") and that, once again, a socially conservative Republican candidate has shown he can't win women's votes. What I see is very different....

In an attorney general’s race that remains too close to call, Republican Mark D. Obenshain began today with a 17-vote edge over Democrat Mark R. Herring. But by afternoon, the pendulum had swung the other way when the numbers in four Richmond precincts were updated, putting Herring ahead by 115 votes out of more than 2 million cast statewide.

The pro-life movement has an opportunity to re-capture the Senate from abortion activists next year, but pro-life Republican candidates who are looking to win Senate seat in the mid-term elections need to be prepared for continued phony attacks accusing them of engaging in a so-called War on Women.During the Virginia gubernatorial election, the Planned Parenthood abortion business threw $1 million in false attacks on pro-life candidate Ken Cuccinelli at Virginia voters. They flooded their mailboxes with propaganda aimed at making Cuccinelli’s mainstream pro-life views look out of touch by falsely characterizing him as opposing birth control and contraception. Terry McAuliffe’s...