Recent News

Small Rhode Island Suddenly Has Big Role in Presidential Primaries

Most years, the presidential primary here is a drive-by affair, with candidates racing past the state like motorists taking the shortest route from Boston to New York. But this unpredictable election season has turned even Rhode Island’s late primary and paltry pile of delegates into a valued prize, putting this small state into the primary spotlight before its vote Tuesday.

In a move that may be too little too late, Donald Trump’s two remaining opponents for the Republican presidential nomination, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, have cut a deal to play in certain states and avoid others in an effort to stop dividing the anti-Trump vote.

The agreement, which was announced Sunday night in nearly simultaneous statements from the campaigns of the Texas senator and Ohio governor, could feed into Trump’s criticisms of the party’s nominating process, which he’s blasted as “rigged.”

Cruz urges Indiana to stop Trump

Ted Cruz appealed Thursday to social conservatives in Indiana, telling them their state could be the Stop Trump movement’s best chance to deny the GOP front-runner an outright win.

“Indiana’s voice, Indiana’s megaphone to the country will decide what path this party goes down, what path this country goes down,” Cruz said at the state GOP’s annual dinner here.

Donald Trump’s investment in his White House bid tops $36 million

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is outraising Hillary Clinton in their battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, but she started this month with more money reserved in her bank accounts than Sanders did for April’s expensive primary fights.

Among Republicans, Sen. Ted Cruz’s fundraising hit a new high in March, but the Texan is racing through big sums in his quest to challenge Donald Trump’s status as the GOP front-runner.

At the Republican National Committee meeting in Hollywood, Florida, this week, the GOP’s Rules Committee, charged with determining the party’s governing procedures, has been the focus of most of the attention.

Meanwhile, the secretive Contests Committee met behind closed doors. The party won’t even release the names of its members yet. But come mid-June, when skirmishing in advance of a possible contested convention will be at its height, the nine-member body will be at the center of the battle.

How much the candidates raised and spent in March

The remaining presidential candidates provided a glimpse into their finances on Wednesday as the Federal Election Commission posted filings on their fundraising, spending and cash positions during the month of March.

The document trove included money snapshots of both the candidates’ campaigns and their affiliated super PACs during a crucial period of time when millions of voters weighed in through primaries and caucuses.

Cruz’s high spending rate intensifies his need to find new donors

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is burning through money nearly as fast as he is raising it, intensifying the pressure on his campaign to expand its donor base.

As he makes a final, urgent push to close the gap with GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, Cruz has kept up a frenetic spending pace. In March, he raced through $11.8 million out of the $12.5 million that his campaign collected — a burn rate of 94 percent, new Federal Election Commission filings show. He headed into April and the expensive New York primary with $8.8 million in the bank.