Free Republic

Farfield, Iowa (CNN)The stakes for Ted Cruz heading into the Iowa caucus are getting higher. Donald Trump's decision to skip Thursday's Fox News Channel Republican debate puts Cruz in the spotlight -- for better or worse. Should Cruz do well and end up winning Iowa, he'll have momentum heading into contests past New Hampshire. But should he lose, he may never be able to break through as GOP voters look elsewhere for an anti-Trump candidate. A growing number of Cruz's campaign donors, allies and associates are considering what the road ahead would look like should the Texas senator lose to...

Donald Trump has an excuse for funding Hillary Clinton's election to the U.S. Senate from New York: That's how crony socialism is done. You pay off elected officials to become their crony, then you get special consideration for your real estate deals. Please FReepers, explain to me how this isn't precisely what we are trying to STOP in Washington? Do you know what I don't hear coming from Trump? "I'm going to put an end to such games." Rather, it seems like he is proud of how he has played the game, considers it is how he rose to the...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was again confronted on his 2013 immigration position Friday, being grilled for nearly 10 minutes by Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren. In his lengthy “On the Record” interview, Cruz referenced an exchange on immigration he had with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) at Tuesday night’s GOP debate. In that exchange, Rubio confronted Cruz on stage and noted the Texas senator previously seemed to support for legalization of those in the U.S. illegally. Van Susteren followed up on this in her interview Friday. “You supported not citizenship, but giving essentially —,” she said. Cruz interjected, anticipating...

Watch the Cruz Christmas Classics (Video)Hope you're ready for a campy Ted Cruz Christmas parody meets infomercial meets sanctioned campaign ad. The Texas Senator and 2016 presidential candidate will play the above ad in crucial Iowa TV markets during this weekend's “Saturday Night Live” broadcast, according to Cruz Communications Director Catherine Frazier. Cruz is no stranger to non-traditional campaigning, he has cooked bacon on the end of a machine gun and performed full-throated “Princess Bride” impressions on the trail in 2016. The above video features Cruz reading to his two daughters, along with his wife, in a traditional Christmas setting....

The Ted Cruz campaign for president took a chance booking a venue as large as the Harriet Island Pavilion in St. Paul for a rally. Not to worry. Thursday night, 500-plus Cruz supporters packed the place, a testament to the Texas senator's increasing strength in the Republican field of presidential candidates. They cheered, hooted, and hollered at the candidate who spits out bites of his conservative philosophy with a Texas drawl and John Wayne simplicity. When he is president, he said, “We will have a president willing to utter the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’” When he is president, he said,...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) slammed a 2,009-page spending bill on Thursday, saying he will oppose the measure. "Typically in the Senate you have two votes, you can vote either yes or no. On this particular matter, my vote I intend to be hell no," Cruz, who is running for president, told the John Fredericks show. "This is what's wrong with the Washington Cartel."The comments come as the Senate is scheduled to vote Friday on the end-of-the-year legislation as well as a separate tax package after leadership got unanimous consent-which requires agreement from every senator-to speed up the votes.Cruz is the...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has a 14-point lead over his closest 2016 GOP rivals in the early state of New Hampshire, according to a new poll that also showed a bit of reshuffling among the rest of the pack. Mr. Trump was at 26 percent in the Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll taken from Dec. 13-17, followed by Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas at 12 percent apiece. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was at 11 percent, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 10 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 8 percent....

Florida Republican Primary voters continue to be fake as hell. They're letting the men they elected at one point to serve as our senator and governor linger in polls of their home state. In the first poll of Florida Republicans taking since this week's debate, it turns out that our state's GOP voters still have a thing for ol' Helmet Hair but now have a growing fondness for Texas-brand Rubio, Ted Cruz. The survey, conducted by Opinion Savvy and sponsored by the Jacksonville Times-Union and Fox 13 Tampa Bay, called up 555 registered Republicans in Florida on Wednesday. Here's the...

Ken Cuccinelli, president of the influential Senate Conservatives Fund, endorsed Ted Cruz for president in Virginia on Friday afternoon. Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general who lost the 2013 gubernatorial election by fewer than 3 percentage points, leads the Senate Conservatives Fund's efforts to install conservative insurgents in the U.S. Senate. Three senators running for president in 2016 earned SCF's endorsement during their Senate campaigns, namely Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. But Cuccinelli formally announced his decision to support Cruz on Friday. When Cuccinelli endorsed Cruz onstage, he said the 2016 election was of immense...

Ted Cruz is beginning to surge significantly in the polls in Iowa. Surely the evangelicals in Iowa are the key factor. Already, some of the political pundits are writing him off, likening him to Barry Goldwater, the libertarian-leaning firebrand, who was soundly defeated by Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Goldwater lost by a landslide. But, by the same token, Ronald Reagan won by landslides in 1980 and in 1984. And Reagan was perhaps more conservative than Goldwater. The question many are asking about Ted Cruz and his conservative values is: Will he be the new Goldwater or the new Reagan? Reagan...

Sen. Ted Cruz is proving to be a "disciplined" campaigner and "a leader with a real plan," but Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio lack "consistency" on the big issues including guns and immigration, GOP presidential primary dropout Rick Perry says. In a radio interview with conservative radio host Simon Conway in Iowa, the former Texas governor — who dropped his own White House bid in September — heaped praise on Cruz for his "wily" and "wise" performance in the fifth GOP presidential candidates' debate in Las Vegas. Audio of the interview was posted by Buzz Feed News. "I think...