Ted Cruz

Where is Marco Rubio, and why?

Featured image Rich Lowry asks a question that has been on my mind: “Where the hell is Marco Rubio.” As I noted a week and a half ago, “for at least a week there have be reports that Rubio is ‘nearing’ and/or ‘edging towards’ a decision to endorse Cruz.” I added: I don’t know what he’s waiting for. There isn’t much substantive difference between the two Senators and no one has made »

Poll: Cruz has surged past Trump in Wisconsin

Featured image A poll by Marquette Law School finds Ted Cruz well ahead of Donald Trump in Wisconsin’s Republican primary among likely voters. According to the poll, Cruz is at 39.6 percent; Trump at 30.4 percent; and John Kasich at 21.4 percent. The survey was conducted before Scott Walker endorsed Ted Cruz. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton 49.2 to 44.9. And in the Senate race, Russ Feingold has »

Scott Walker endorses Ted Cruz [UPDATED]

Featured image With the Wisconsin primary fast approaching, Gov. Scott Walker yesterday endorsed Ted Cruz. He will campaign for, and with, Cruz in the coming days. Endorsements of non-Trump candidates by leading state figures haven’t tended to slow Donald Trump in the past. In South Carolina, for example, endorsements by Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott boosted Marco Rubio in relation to the other also-rans, but failed to prevent Trump from »

Romney will back Cruz; so should we all

Featured image Mitt Romney has announced that he will support Ted Cruz in next week’s Utah caucuses. Romney explained that supporting Cruz is the only effective way to prevent Donald Trump from winning the nomination: The only path that remains to nominate a Republican rather than Mr. Trump is to have an open convention. At this stage, the only way we can reach an open convention is for Senator Cruz to be »

What Does It All Mean?

Featured image Sanders’ upset in Michigan reminds me of the old story (which you can find Russ Roberts re-tell fully here) about the dog food company that went to all kinds of trouble to advertise a new dog food, yet somehow the marketing effort failed utterly. After reviewing all the messages and ad gimmicks, someone finally said, “Maybe the dogs don’t like it.” Once again the Democratic establishment has cleared the field »

Nine days that will shape the GOP race [corrected]

Featured image The latest installment of How the GOP Race Turns features two worthwhile articles, both of which suggest some level of optimism that Donald Trump can be stopped. Jay Cost of the Weekly Standard presents the current delegate count — which shows Trump having collected 43 percent of the delegates awarded so far via caucuses and primaries — but points out that a 103 delegates will be going to Cleveland uncommitted. »

Who is right about Rubio — Trump or Cruz?

Featured image After Marco Rubio’s poor showing yesterday, Donald Trump called on the Florida Senator to drop out of the race. Meanwhile, as Eliana Johnson reports, Ted Cruz seems to be ramping up his campaign in Florida, where polls show him to be a distant third. His efforts seem likely to help Trump win and thus to drive Rubio out of the race. Apparently, Trump and Cruz both believe they will benefit »

Is Ted Cruz Nixon’s Long-Lost Son? [with comment by Paul]

Featured image Richard Nixon was an American original. Since he left public life, I don’t think we have seen anyone like him. Until now. Ted Cruz strikes me as the son that Richard Nixon never had. Like Nixon, he is a tireless worker and very, very smart, almost always a step ahead of his contemporaries. He shares Nixon’s straightforward patriotism and his willingness to suffer the scorn of the ill-informed and the »

Cruz surges; Trump may be stalling

Featured image Ted Cruz and Donald Trump split the four states that voted today, with Trump winning the only primary. Trump was victorious in Louisiana (primary) and Kentucky (caucus). Cruz won caucuses in Maine and Kentucky. Cruz’s victories were resounding. He defeated Trump 48-23 in Kansas, picking up 24 delegates compared to 9 for Trump, 6 for Marco Rubio, and 1 for John Kasich. In Maine, where apparently fewer than 20,000 people »

Saturday Caucus Results: Cruzing to Victory? (Updated Periodically)

Featured image The caucuses have concluded in Kansas (2 pm local time) and the votes are starting to come in. Cruz has an early large lead, and given his campaign’s emphasis on organizing in caucus states I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win big there. There’s one report in Twitter that someone has called it for Cruz already, but I can’t seem to confirm this elsewhere. Here’s one local news link »

The stop Trump imperative isn’t about immigration

Featured image Michael Gerson writes: The GOP is not facing a debate over policy, but rather a hostile takeover by a pernicious force. . .A significant group of Republicans — look at #NeverTrump on Twitter — cannot support Trump. This is not, as in 1964 or 1980, a clash over ideology. It is a moral objection to the return of nativism, religious prejudice and misogyny to the center stage of American politics. »

After last night

Featured image The Super Tuesday primaries are imminent. Which candidate do Republicans prefer to face Hillary Clinton in the November election? Whom do they want to represent them? That’s the question. Paul Mirengoff recaps and assesses last night’s CNN debate among the remaining GOP presidential candidates in Houston in “Trump battered, but is he bruised?” Herewith my impressions of the CNN event. Given the needs of Senators Cruz and Rubio to take »

A disappointing season for libertarians and “movement” conservatives

Featured image I’m guessing that few sentient conservatives are happy with the way this election season is going. Two brands of conservatives will be particularly disappointed: libertarians and hard-core (or “movement”) conservatism. The libertarian movement has been pushing to break through for years. This cycle, it seemed to have the ideal candidate to make a run at the presidency — Rand Paul, dubbed “the most interesting man in politics” by Time Magazine. »

Can the GOP field be reduced, in time, to two?

Featured image David French at NRO looks at polling data for upcoming GOP presidential races. He finds the numbers “great for Trump [and] terrible for everyone else.” There’s a paradox at work here, however. If the numbers are terrible for two of the three candidates in the credible non-Trump field (Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich) and merely bad for the third candidate, then that’s not so good for Trump. Here’s why. For Trump »

Cruz Fires Communications Director Over Rubio Smear

Featured image An unseemly aura of dirty tricks hangs over the Ted Cruz campaign. We wrote about his two Iowa deceptions here. Unfortunately, they didn’t end when the campaign moved on. Today, Cruz was forced to fire his communications director, Rick Tyler, after Tyler distributed a video that falsely accused Marco Rubio of denigrating the Bible. Let’s pause on that for a moment. Does any sane person think that Rubio, casually walking »

The GOP race, two scenarios [UPDATED]

Featured image Earlier today, John laid out a plausible and optimistic scenario for how the Republican presidential race will play out. He suggested that even if Ben Carson and John Kasich do not drop out of the race, their voters will start to fall away and most of them will gravitate towards Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz (probably more to Rubio than Cruz). In this scenario, the race will become effectively a »

Robert Reich Endorses Ted Cruz

Featured image Of course he hasn’t—Reich is foursquare behind Bernie Sanders. But this two-minute video making the case for why Cruz is more “dangerous” than Trump presents the best case for Cruz that I can think of. Cruz “believes the 2nd Amendment guarantees the right to a gun.” Heavens to Mergatroid! In his telling, it sounds like Cruz is the second coming of the Third Rei. . . oh forget it—that’s too »