Recent News

As first votes approach, it’s not just the Republican contenders that face the ultimate test, but their competing campaign strategies.

Voters don’t vote for strategy. But the competitive, unpredictable 2016 contest has put a premium on organization, voter turnout and political positioning.

Santorum and Huckabee, dragging in polls, take shots at Cruz

Both of them were underfunded. Both started in single digits and went on to win the Iowa caucuses over the same man, Mitt Romney. And with less than one month before Republican voters here make a decision, both former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum are in the doldrums and begging Republican voters to reject the new candidates who dominate headlines. The chief target is the man who kicks off a six-day, 36-county bus tour Monday morning: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.)

Less than four weeks before Iowans kick off the 2016 presidential contest with their Feb. 1 caucuses, the early road to the White House appears to be shaping up as a slippery and uncharted one for the Republican Party.

Ad Campaigns Set to Ramp Up

With only four weeks until the Iowa caucuses, the ad wars are escalating. Recent reporting gives us an idea of which issues candidates think will resonate the most with their voters, and which candidates they see as their main rivals – or at least the ones they think need to be taken down a notch. Several candidates lagging in the polls are using this strategy, hoping to break through in either Iowa or New Hampshire.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s new ad ... Read More >>

Race Heats Up in the Crowded ‘Establishment’ Lane

Although outside candidates have attracted a great deal of attention in the Republican nomination contest – candidates promising to upend Washington, D.C. – there are still a substantial number of voters who are more readily classified as establishment-friendly, or at least not anti-establishment. It seems likely that someone will claim the establishment mantle, and several press reports this morning and yesterday suggest the battle for these voters is beginning to heat up. From The Washington Post:

Iowa emerges as a free-for-all among GOP’s establishment ... Read More >>