Recent News

Five ‘Lanes’ in GOP Nomination Contest?

Phillip Bump has an intriguing analysis of the 2016 GOP nomination battle over at the Washington Post, arguing there are basically five ‘lanes’ in the contest that the different candidates are competing in. Huckabee and Santorum, for example, are seen as the two candidates expected to challenge each other for dominance in the ‘Evangelical’ lane (although others will certainly try to grab some of that vote as well).

The 2016 GOP presidential race, broken down into 5 ‘lanes’

Ted Cruz, we argued ... Read More >>

Less than a day since Sen. Ted Cruz jumped head first into the 2016 GOP presidential race, conservatives are fighting over his electability, with Fox News analyst Charles Krauthammer’s rip that “we already tried a first-term senator” taking fire from the right.

Even Krauthammer’s fans took to Twitter and Facebook to criticize him for being too quick to write the Texas senator off before his campaign even got going and the early primary and caucus states had a chance to hear his message.

Rand Paul, reacting to Ted Cruz, talks ‘winnability’

Rand Paul on Monday, in his first extensive comments since Ted Cruz officially announced his presidential candidacy, made the case that he’s the electable Republican candidate.

The Kentucky senator, hours after his Senate colleague jumped into the presidential race, suggested his more inclusive vision for the Republican Party makes him a more appealing general-election candidate.

“Ted Cruz is a conservative. But it also goes to winnability,” Paul said on Fox News’ “The Kelly File.”

Ted Cruz: Hillary’s wrecking ball

Hillary Clinton’s embattled pre-campaign team breathed a sigh of relief Monday as a central player in their grand strategy to win the White House strode boldly onto the 2016 battlefield.

His name? Rafael Edward Cruz, the Republican junior senator from Texas.

Democrats from both inside and outside the Clinton camp have groused for months that the all-but-certain candidate was moving too slowly in formulating and projecting a rationale for running for the White House outside of her gender and the dreaded “it’s my time” argument. She was relying too much on a platform of inevitability, they said — the same platform that doomed her bid in 2008. But those closest to the former secretary of state have counseled patience, arguing that a core element of Clinton’s plan was to get out of the way and let the dueling wings of the Republican Party savage each other while she floats above it all.

Cruz, they say, is Hillary’s wrecking ball…

Texas Senator Ted Cruz will be the first candidate to formally declare his candidacy for president in 2016, with an announcement scheduled for today, March 23. The Houston Chronicle reports:

Ted Cruz to announce presidential bid Monday

Sen. Ted Cruz plans to announce Monday that he will run for president of the United States, accelerating his already rapid three-year rise from a tea party insurgent in Texas into a divisive political force in Washington.

Cruz will launch a presidential bid outright rather than ... Read More >>

Senator Ted Cruz has staked out and held firm on conservative views during his time in office, making him a favorite of many Republicans. He’s also stepped on some toes along the way, and CBS News has an interesting piece on what that may mean for a Cruz campaign in 2016:

Will grassroots support be enough for Sen. Ted Cruz in 2016?

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, doesn’t have a lot of friends in Washington, and he’s proud of it.

“Politics, it ain’t beanbag,” ... Read More >>

Cruz Hones Pitch as He Visits Rural New Hampshire Voters

He is promising to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and scrap the Education Department. He vows to curtail federal regulators, likening to locusts that deserve to be killed. And his standard campaign-style speech includes a zinger about the Second Amendment.