Recent News
USA TODAY GOP Power Rankings: Rubio up, but Paris dominates
The Paris terrorist attacks are likely to mark a fundamental turning point in the GOP presidential nominating contest, but thus far our political experts say it is unclear which candidate will benefit from that.
Read More >>Second-tier GOP Candidates in Florida Find Familiar Struggle for Attention
The Republican presidential candidates already pushed to the edges of the televised debates found a similar second-class reception in Florida Saturday, with smaller crowds and less media coverage.
Read More >>Iowa, New Hampshire battles heat up for Republican field
The Republican White House field is sprinting toward the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary — in two distinct groups.
Several contenders are putting all of their chips on New Hampshire, where the Feb. 9 primary looks to be a make-or-break affair for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Read More >>Bush Makes a Comeback in Debate
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush may not have “won” the GOP debate last night (most are giving that victory to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio), but the consensus view seems to be that he turned in a good performance and was significantly improved from the first three debates. Bush came in tied for second, according to Politico’s survey of insiders:
Insiders: Rubio wins, Kasich bombs
The runner-ups for best performance, according to the survey, were Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina with 12 percent ... Read More >>
GOP candidates fight to survive in ‘undercard’ debate
Four Republican presidential candidates lagging in national polls squared off in a lively preliminary debate Tuesday night, fighting to move into the top tier of White House GOP hopefuls.
Read More >>Anticipating Tonight’s GOP Debate
Most of the Republican presidential candidates will appear in their fourth debate of the nomination process tonight. The main stage will feature a slimmed-down group, as two participants in previous debates, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, failed to qualify and will instead be relegated to the early event for lower-polling candidates.
The earlier debate will remain at four participants, however, as South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former New York Gov. George Pataki didn’t make ... Read More >>
USA TODAY GOP Power Rankings: SNL bumps Trump back up
Call it the Saturday Night Live effect: Donald Trump uses his appearance on the wheezing comedy show to vault back into first place in our weekly power rankings.
Our panel of political experts was pretty unanimous: show bad, Trump good.
Read More >>