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Don’t Bury Cruz Just Yet

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) (photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

“Et tu, Schweppe?”

A Shakespeare you may be, but a Michael Barone not so much.

Without a doubt, Donald Trump had a stellar Tuesday night and drew closer to the nomination. But don’t get out the “Make America Great Again!” party horns just yet. Trump is still almost 281 delegates away from securing the nomination and the hill will be steeper than you think.

“These are not margins that can be explained away by geography or demographics. These margins are a symptom of a campaign that has now concluded.”

I’d agree except that these margins were similar to Trump’s margins in other states in the Northeast: Massachussetts (+31), New York (+35), and New Hampshire (+20).

Also, you’re from the Midwest. You had an opportunity to turn the tables on all those elitists from the Northeast that can’t tell the difference between Illinois and Ohio, and instead you give them the benefit of the doubt?

All five of these states are very similar in demographics and voting trends. Don’t believe me? Tell me the last time that Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, or Rhode Island voted for the Republican nominee in November.

Concluded? There are 583 delegates left. You know where almost 30 percent of them are located? In California, where Carly Fiorina — Cruz’s pick for VP who garnered 4.2 million votes there in 2010 — is from. You don’t think that will have an effect on the outcome there?

If Trump underperforms in California, Indiana, and West Virginia, he will not reach the 1,237 threshold. Continue Reading

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There Is Only One Choice for Vice President: Carly Fiorina

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (photo credit: Peter Stevens via Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

The roller coaster that is the Republican presidential race this year shows little sign of stopping before July’s nominating convention in Cleveland.

None of the three remaining candidates has a definitive path to securing the 1,237 delegates needed to win on the first ballot. A contested convention seems increasingly likely.

No one can predict who will emerge from that contest as the Republican nominee — Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or someone else. What is crystal clear, however, is that the best vice-presidential choice for any candidate is Carly Fiorina.

In her own presidential campaign, Fiorina emerged as a smart and tough leader with an impressive command of the issues. She demonstrated an in-depth knowledge of foreign and domestic policy that was firmly rooted in principle, and her classy campaign earned the respect of her supporters and opponents alike. The party and the nation would have been fortunate to have someone of her experience and character as our standard bearer. But even though her campaign ended, her service to the nation has only begun.

[…]

Read the full article at TheBlaze.com.

Marjorie Dannenfelser is the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a national pro-life organization dedicated to electing leaders and advancing legislation to reduce and ultimately end abortion. Continue Reading

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Why Carly Voted for Ted Cruz

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

An email from Carly Fiorina just showed up in my inbox:

[…]

Last Tuesday, Virginia had a primary—and even though my own name was on the ballot, I checked the box for Ted Cruz.

When Republicans lost the last Presidential election, the Republican establishment thought it knew just what to do. Pass comprehensive immigration reform. Stop talking about “social issues.” Go along and get along. Don’t rock the boat. Rather than fight for real change, stand by as government grows increasingly incompetent and corrupt.

But they didn’t count on Ted Cruz.

Ted Cruz is a true constitutional conservative. A real reformer, and a strong leader. And he can and will unite our party, and fix the festering problems in Washington—whether it’s our broken immigration system or the IRS. Ted Cruz is that conservative.

And here’s something I’ve learned throughout my career: if you are a real leader, you absolutely must challenge the status quo. And when you challenge the status quo, you make enemies. It’s the price of leadership. And that price is one too many people aren’t willing to pay, and so they don’t lead.

Ted Cruz has made enemies by taking on the political class. They’re scared we found our guy.

I ran for President because I believe it is time to take our country back—and I still believe that. I still believe we need a candidate who will stand for conservative principles. A nominee who will never settle for the status quo, and who will unite us as Republicans.

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Breaking: Cruz Picks Up Endorsement from Fiorina

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

While campaigning in Florida this morning, Ted Cruz announced a surprise, new endorsement from a former GOP rival in the 2016 race: Carly Fiorina.

In her remarks, Fiorina urged conservatives to unite behind Cruz in order to defeat Donald Trump:

Mrs. Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO, told a crowd at a Cruz rally that she voted for the Texas senator during Virginia’s March 1 primary and urged Republicans to rally behind him.

“We’re going to have to beat Donald Trump at the ballot box,” Mrs. Fiorina said. “And the only guy who can beat Donald Trump is Ted Cruz.”

Mrs. Fiorina stressed Mr. Cruz’s electability, saying he “won, over and over and over again,” Mrs. Fiorina said.

She added: “It is time to unite behind Ted Cruz.”

Mrs. Fiorina hinted that she will serve as a Cruz surrogate attacking Mr. Trump, with whom she tangled in a Republican debate last September.

“The truth is that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin,” she said. “They’re not going to reform the system, they are the system.”

Fiorina becomes the second former 2016 candidate to endorse Cruz, joining former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Paul Dupont is the managing editor for ThePulse2016.com. Continue Reading

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Farewell Carly and Thank You

Carly Fiorina just announced this afternoon that she will be suspending her campaign:

Fiorina is not going to be president this time. But she earned the gratitude of millions of conservative women for her strength, her grace under pressure, her dignified stand against Trump’s bully tactics, her intelligence, and her principles.

That goes double-ditto for pro-life women. She has made herself a hero for life, an achievement she can take with her, head held high.

Maggie Gallagher is a senior fellow at the American Principles Project. Continue Reading

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After New Hampshire: Donald Trump vs. Ted Cruz

I want to take a look at each of the candidates in the Republican presidential field following Donald Trump’s rout in the First in the Nation primary state of New Hampshire. In a nutshell, I believe the race effectively comes down to a Donald Trump vs. Ted Cruz race. Cruz moving forward may be the only candidate down the stretch with the finances, organization and grassroots support to be able to stop Trump after the first two contests.

Disclaimer: The results listed below reflect the results at 12:45a with 88.3% of precincts reporting in. I’ll update with final results later today.

1 . Donald Trump – 35.1% (92,203 votes)

Congratulations to Donald Trump for a convincing win in New Hampshire. He won convincingly. I have no doubt he would have won, but I wonder if the margin would have been the same if 40 percent of the Republican primary electorate wasn’t independent. I can only wonder because I haven’t seen exit polling that breaks that out. I thought he would win, but I didn’t expect he would win by double digits.

In any case, he will again be the center of attention in the media leading up to South Carolina. He is in a strong position. He had little organization in New Hampshire and still pulled out an overwhelming win.

Exit polling showed that half of the voters in the Republican primary wanted an outsider, and he won 57 percent of that vote. Also, four in ten said they were angry at the Obama administration, and he led that group with 39 percent. Continue Reading

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The Forgotten Story: How Common Core Changed the Race in Iowa

Photo via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0 BR)

Now that Iowa caucus-goers have spoken, lost in the discussion of Donald Trump’s underperformance, Ted Cruz’s ground game and Marco Rubio’s surge is an acknowledgement of one issue that separated the top Iowa finishers from (as Trump would say) the “losers.” That issue is Common Core.

Cruz and Rubio have long been on record as opposing the national standards. Trump has relentlessly raised the issue ever since he entered the race. As the Iowa campaign came down to the wire, Trump released a Common Core-specific ad, and Rubio began devoting more and more time in his stump speech to the issue (although his record on child privacy is problematic, something on which other candidates have not honed in). Apparently, these gentlemen recognized what the base was upset about — and Common Core is high on the list. All three garnered significantly more votes than the winner in the 2012 contest. (See the 2012 results and the 2016 results.) They each received over 40,000 votes. The winner in 2012 received 29,839 votes.

The voters overwhelmingly rejected Common Core proponents. Jeb Bush and John Kasich received 5,238 and 3,474 votes, respectively. Bush, of course, was appropriately branded as pro-Common Core from Day One and wasn’t salvageable even by his bulging war chest. Kasich still loves Common Core and drips with disdain for anyone who disagrees.

Next up are those candidates who once supported Common Core but then had campaign conversions. They were never able to justify why they had so blindly supported such a bad product. Continue Reading

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Here’s How Iowa Will Play Out…

Wow. It’s already here. The Iowa Caucus is tomorrow.

Here’s a candidate-by-candidate review of what could happen, what should happen, and what will happen after the votes are tallied:

Donald Trump

  • Best-case scenario: A strong 1st place finish (35 percent+)
  • Worst-case scenario: Losing to Ted Cruz and finishing second.

Trump currently leads the polls in Iowa, but will polls translate to the ballot box? We honestly have no clue, but we should certainly have a better idea after Tuesday.

Regardless of what happens in Iowa, Trump is here to stay. Losing Iowa will not end his candidacy — not when he’s leading literally everywhere else.

  • PREDICTION: Donald Trump wins Iowa by a slim margin over Ted Cruz.

Ted Cruz

  • Best-case scenario: A strong 1st place finish (35 percent+)
  • Worst-case scenario: Losing to Donald Trump and finishing second.

Ted Cruz is in a very different position than Donald Trump. While Trump would like to win Iowa, it’s not as crucial for him — even if Cruz wins Iowa, Trump will still be seen as the de facto front runner. But Cruz needs Iowa to help him breakout as a viable candidate. If he fails to win Iowa, it’s hard to see his path to victory — could he win New Hampshire? South Carolina? Seems unlikely.

  • PREDICTION: Cruz finishes a close second, spins it as a victory, and stays in the race.

Marco Rubio

  • Best-case scenario: A strong 3rd place finish (20 percent+)
  • Worst-case scenario: Finishing 4th or worse, especially behind Christie or Bush.
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Carly Fiorina Takes on Planned Parenthood, Common Core in Iowa (VIDEO)

Carly Fiorina made a campaign stop in Oskaloosa, Iowa, yesterday, where she held a 30-minute town hall covering a host of issues. While taking questions, Fiorina was asked if she wanted to see David Daleiden, the project lead with Center for Medical Progress who was recently indicted by a grand jury in Texas, apologize to her for “tricking” her with the videos released this summer that implicated Planned Parenthood in the sale of fetal body parts:

Fiorina answered:

No, because I wasn’t tricked. Look, here are the facts. Yes, amazingly investigative journalists were indicted in Houston, but here are the facts. Planned Parenthood engages in late term abortions, partial birth abortions, and alters those abortion techniques to sell body parts and that’s a fact. I will never sit down and be quiet about that. And it is also a fact that Planned Parenthood is a political operation. Taxpayers are funding a political operation that pours millions of dollars into pro-abortion candidates political coffers every single year. Forget about abortion for a second, forget about whether or not you’re disgusted by the sale of body parts of unborn children. I am. I think most Americans are, but just set that aside. Is it fair for taxpayers to be funding a political organization? They don’t fund any other political organizations. So, guess what? In a President Fiorina budget there will not be a single dime for Planned Parenthood, but there will be lots of money for women’s health.

Fiorina also had some tough words for federal involvement in education and Common Core:

And all these programs, some of them have come out under Republicans too – Common Core, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, they are all bad ideas.

Continue Reading