Ted Cruz

The possible takeaways from Beto O'Rourke's performance.

And what's next.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

It's not really about Beautiful Ted and Beto. It's about the future.

Draft legislation from Ted Cruz would require the administration to penalize a key financial cooperative if it doesn’t cut off Iranian banks.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

An object lesson in Trumpism.

Staffers opened an envelope containing a white powdery substance.

He’s still the favorite, but it’s not risk-free.

Are you Trumpy enough?

Both parties have had some good polls. Here's how you should digest the results.

Second verse, same as the first.

Legislation names Hezbollah, Hamas, the Islamic State, and Boko Haram as examples.

Plus, are the #CAPS going to win it all?

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

“Politically, it would be a disaster."

It's a foot in the final frontier that America should keep.

Senate committee approves amendment requiring the reporting in annual defense authorization bill.

What sort of nuclear cooperation has been taking place under the auspices of the deal?

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday reiterated support for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in his address to the U.S. Congress. His remarks drew cheers from Democrats but a chilly reception from Iran hawks who want to withdraw from the deal.

Don’t stress about just one poll – fundamentals still favor Republicans in Texas

President Trump’s controversial plan to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum is about to become a reality, as Trump reportedly wants to sign the order establishing the new policy as early as Thursday afternoon.

In his first public indictment of 2018, special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday announced charges against 13 Russian nationals and three organizations for conspiring in secret to destabilize America’s political institutions.

Texas is the Democratic white whale. Every election cycle, some enterprising statewide (or national) Democratic candidate tries to flip the state by winning the governorship, a senate seat, or the state’s electoral college votes. And recently, they haven’t had much success. Texas has elected…

“Breaking: Trump’s ENTIRE wall just got paid for by ONE person & you won’t believe who!”

Texas senator Ted Cruz on Thursday suggested that President Donald Trump buck members of the foreign policy establishment who are “desperately” trying to save the 2015 nuclear deal and not waive sanctions lifted under the agreement ahead of a series of related deadlines.

There are good arguments and bad arguments, valid arguments and invalid arguments. And then, in another category, there are sadistic arguments. Unfortunately, we’ve witnessed a few of those this week on the subject of tax reform.

Mike Flynn's RNC speech didn't age well! Vic Berger helps us remember a simpler time, when rhetoric was rhetoric and you didn't have to worry about the pesky special counsel.

Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., would be more likable were it not for the fact they’re craven opportunists.

Because it looks increasingly and unfortunately likely that we’re going to have to hear the phrase “Senator Roy Moore” before too long, journalists have moved on to the next question: Will the U.S. Senate make good on its threats, and perhaps refuse to seat the twice-booted judge, who has been…

The resignation of Lebanon’s prime minister over the weekend is heightening congressional scrutiny of Hezbollah's wide-ranging influence in the country, with a top lawmaker calling on the Trump administration to reassess military assistance.

The United Nations is earmarking millions of dollars for Palestinian efforts to pursue international legal action against Israel over the next four years, triggering outrage on and off Capitol Hill and fueling calls to re-examine U.S. funding of the U.N.

The Afternoon Links are back! Where have they been, you ask? Regular readers of other TWS newsletters (JVL, Kristol Clear) know: I'm now a proud father of twin girls. They are a handful, but the dog has taken to them! If only he could hold a bottle ... So, fret not, the Afternoon Links are back,…

A “hypocrite,” in modern political parlance, is someone who holds two opinions thought by political opponents to be incompatible. And so, since political views are always colored by circumstances and rarely align with each other with perfect philosophical consistency, the word has become a kind of…

There’s not much more that can be said about President Trump’s insufficient and equivocal statement on Saturday in response to a rally of white nationalists and neo-Nazis in Virginia that turned violent. Our editor-in-chief, Stephen Hayes, demonstrated that Trump has a recent history of being…

Texas senator Ted Cruz dubbed the Trump administration’s certification that Iran is fully implementing the 2015 nuclear deal a “serious mistake” Wednesday.

When Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, endorsed the latest draft of the Senate healthcare bill after it included a tweaked version of a proposal he had pushed, many observers expected his longtime ally and original co-author, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to quickly follow.

Leave sausage out of this. The ever-evolving Republican health care bills demonstrate how rancid legislative livermush gets made: a pudding of policy innards blended and baked with haste because the ingredients were up against their expiration date, or in this case the August recess. The concoction…

The Associated Press reported Sunday some accurate, if incomplete information about Sen. Ted Cruz’s health reform proposal. “Cruz’s plan,” the story reads, “… aims to lower premiums for healthy people.” The article provided no additional details, either specifics or their presumed consequences,…

Today on the Daily Standard podcast, senior writer John McCormack talks with host Eric Felten about Ted Cruz’s efforts to amend the Senate GOP’s floundering (okay, foundering) healthcare legislation.

After a frenzied week of healthcare negotiations, the Senate recessed for the Fourth of July holiday not with a bang, but a whimper.

Senate Republicans unveiled a 142-page bill to partially repeal and replace Obamacare on Thursday. The bill can only lose two GOP votes and still pass the Senate, but several Republicans expressed opposition or concerns about the bill in its current form. In a joint statement, conservative senators…

Iranian officials are slamming a freshly approved crop of congressional sanctions as a breach of the 2015 nuclear deal and have vowed to take reciprocal measures. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are underscoring the need for penalties on Tehran and dismissing the recent rhetoric as par for…

It was two years ago Friday when Donald Trump descended an escalator inside Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for president. Did he drag the country's political conduct with him? "Any debate about civility in politics begins with Trump," New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush tweeted on Thursday.…

The Republican chairmen of foreign relations panels in the House and Senate on Thursday advised the Trump administration to work with Congress on its Syria strategy going forward, after the administration launched a military strike on a Syrian airfield.

President Donald Trump emerged from a meeting with House Republicans Tuesday morning confident that their health care bill would pass the lower chamber this week, even as conservatives continued to express doubts about the legislation's new and arguably improved substance.

Texas senator Ted Cruz, one of the leading critics of the congressional GOP's health reform plan, revealed Sunday that he and two of his colleagues met White House officials at Mar-a-Lago this weekend to discuss changes to the American Health Care Act.

One of the conservative sticking points in judging the House GOP's health plan has been the measure's treatment of "non-budget"-related items. Under the legislative mechanism Republicans are using to move the American Health Care Act, the bill's particulars must have an impact on spending and…

The leaks that led to the resignation of former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn were politically motivated, a top Republican senator said Thursday, joining a House Republican who has suggested the same.

The Obama administration structured the Iran nuclear deal to cover up Iranian violations, which may make it impossible to rigorously enforce the landmark agreement as Trump administration officials have suggested, according to a top Republican senator.

Congressional leaders are moving to respond to a last-minute transfer of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority by the Obama administration with a range of measures, including a possible total freeze of funds to the PA, according to senators and other sources who spoke to THE WEEKLY…

Republican senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham are joining forces to propose legislation that will cut off American taxpayer funding of the United Nations until the international body reverses its December 24 Security Council resolution on Israel.

Texas senator Ted Cruz petitioned the Smithsonian Institution Monday to correct what he called its "mistake [of] omitting the enormous legacy and impact of Justice Thomas" at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act passed the Senate in a late-night session Friday, rolling through with unanimous support. A bipartisan bill from its inception, the HEAR Act will likely become federal law and institute a universal reset of the statutes of limitation for Holocaust-era art…

Some conservatives have criticized the deal the incoming Trump administration struck with Carrier to keep several hundred manufacturing jobs in Indiana as "crony capitalism," but Texas senator Ted Cruz had nothing but praise for Trump when asked about the deal on Tuesday.

U.S. lawmakers are urging members of the United Nations' cultural body to oppose a resolution that will effectively sever Jewish and Christian ties to holy sites in Jerusalem, only a week after the body passed a similar, controversial measure.

A top senator is condemning the United Nations’ cultural organ for approving a draft resolution Thursday that effectively denies Jewish and Christian connections to holy sites in Jerusalem, after more than two-dozen countries, including U.S. allies, abstained from voting on the measure.

Hempstead, N.Y.

Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and one of Donald Trump's main rivals in the Republican presidential primary, has endorsed the Republican nominee in a lengthy Facebook post. "After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I…

As the 2016 Republican National Convention began, GOP chairman Reince Priebus spoke with confidence about the coming transformation of presumptive nominee Donald Trump. "He knows the pivot is important," Priebus said. "He has been better and I think he's going to be great moving forward." Priebus…

In a congressional race in which Ted Cruz clashed with House Republican leaders, the former mayor of West Point, Georgia, captured the GOP primary Tuesday and is all but certain of winning the general election in November.

Cleveland

Politics is a team sport. Ronald Reagan understood that. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell treat politics as a team effort. Ted Cruz isn’t a team player.

There was a remarkable moment on CNN July 21, the morning after Senator Ted Cruz’s speech to the Republican National Convention. Representative Peter King, a Trump enthusiast, had called Cruz an "a—hole," and when CNN hosts asked Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer about King's…

Cleveland

Ted Cruz's speech Wednesday night was an impressive endorsement of conservatism, the Constitution, and liberty—and an equally impressive non-endorsement of Donald Trump. It was, in other words, a conservative version of Ted Kennedy's "Dream Will Never Die" speech, given at the 1980 Democratic…

Byron York has an interesting piece Thursday about the Trump team's bizarre eagerness to get into a fight with John Kasich. You should read the whole thing, but the short version is this: Kasich, either out of pique or self-interest or principle, didn't want to participate in the convention in his…

Something is missing from the Republican National Convention YouTube page. The page includes Monday's live stream, and a link to Thursday's live stream, but not Tuesday's or Wednesday's.

Cleveland

Cleveland

Cleveland

Cleveland

Cleveland

CLEVELAND — As Mike Pence accepted the Republican Party's nomination for vice president, I witnessed a supporter of Donald Trump and a Ted Cruz backer in a nearly chest-to-chest shouting match in the back of the convention floor, fighting over Cruz's non-endorsement.

Cleveland

It's two weeks from the start of the GOP convention in Cleveland, a time in which a traditional party nominee would be consolidating his base of support and seeking to broaden his appeal. So, what's Donald Trump doing? Attacking the GOP-friendly Chamber of Commerce; boasting about the…

June 7 was big day for Ted Cruz. For one thing, he got back in the saddle: That morning, Cruz spoke on the Senate floor—about national security and flooding in Texas—for the first time since suspending his presidential campaign in May. And that very afternoon, when the Senate Judiciary Committee…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor William Kristol on the Trump win in Indiana, and the news that Cruz and Kasich are dropping out.

What happened to Ted Cruz? A month ago, he won the Wisconsin primary in a landslide and was poised to combat Donald Trump with a fresh burst of enthusiasm. Now he's out of the race and Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Indianapolis

Donald Trump's national poll numbers continued to ascend as he concluded an incautious week that began with him embracing "tough guy" and convicted rapist Mike Tyson and concluded with him tying Ted Cruz's father to the JFK assassination.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with deputy online editor Chris Deaton reporting from the campaign trail in Indiana.

Senator Ted Cruz was met with a line of hostile Donald Trump supporters at a campaign event in Indiana Monday, a day before the state's primary.

Madison, Ind.

South Bend, Ind. --

Indiana governor Mike Pence said Friday that he will vote for Ted Cruz in the upcoming Hoosier primary, qualifying his support with compliments of John Kasich and especially Donald Trump.

Bill Kristol reacted Thursday to the personal criticism of Ted Cruz among his congressional colleagues.

Differences between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump go beyond their personalities and opinions. One sprang up when Cruz last week named Carly Fiorina his vice presidential running mate, should he win the Republican presidential nomination. He couldn’t wait until the California primary in June, though…

When Ted Cruz is standing on the debate stage, does he ever reflect on the words of Michael Corleone? "Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment." After all, the Texas senator and presidential contender did recently admit The Godfather Part III is one of his favorite movies.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer John McCormack on Donald Trump's foreign policy speech, and Carly Fiorina's acceptance speech.

Knightstown, Ind.

Bill Kristol joined Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC today to discuss the efforts to stop Donald Trump's bid to become the Republican nominee, whether Ted Cruz might announce Carly Fiorina as his VP pick, and the likelihood of a third-party alternative to Trump-Clinton.

Here is the bulk of an April 24 memorandum from Rich Danker, a bright young conservative operative who ran the Lone Star Committee, an independent expenditure effort on behalf of Ted Cruz. Danker's insights go beyond his analysis of the 2016 Republican race, and are a helpful guide to any…

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," an ancient proverb goes. So it is for Ted Cruz and John Kasich in the upcoming Indiana, New Mexico, and Oregon primaries, where spokesmen said the weakest of the two challengers to Donald Trump will stop competing in the hopes of taking out the New York…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on the Ted Cruz-John Kasich non-aggression pact to stop Donald Trump, and whether it will hold.

The presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced Sunday night that they will get out of each other's way in a select batch of upcoming primary states, attempting to bolster the strongest challenger to Donald Trump on voting day.

On April 19, 1775, first at sunrise in Lexington and then at midmorning a few miles away at the North Bridge in Concord, the war for American independence began:

In recent weeks, John Kasich’s most important support has come from the Wall Street Journal editorial board. The Journal's opinion pages have published perhaps a handful or two of pro-Kasich pieces—roughly as many as the number of counties that Kasich has won to date outside of Ohio. It is…

There is no denying the dominance of Donald Trump’s performance in his home state of New York, in which he got 60 percent of the vote. Still, it is perhaps interesting to note that, with more than 99 percent of the vote counted in the Empire State, Ted Cruz got more votes in Wisconsin (a state with…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with staff writer Jay Cost on the scramble for the remaining delegates in the race for the GOP nomination.

Towson, Md.

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz spoke at length about the American economy Friday morning, making a case that a return to robust growth would help alleviate myriad problems troubling the country's fiscal health.

Remember the new birtherism? That Ted Cruz might not be eligible to become president under the constitutional definition of "natural born citizen"? Ha. Of course you don't. In 2016, it's only news if it happened in the last couple of seconds.

Ted Cruz fired away at Donald Trump's criticism of the primary process on Glenn Beck's radio program Tuesday, needling the GOP front-runner for his lack of knowledge of the delegate selection process in various states.

With the growing likelihood of a brokered convention, lots of ink and pixels has been spilled on what might happen if there isn't a first ballot winner in Cleveland.

There will be plenty of time, likely seven months' worth, to predict the electoral consequences of each major party nominating a historically unpopular candidate for president. But as a starting point, it's worth noting the relative standings of Hillary Clinton (unliked), Donald Trump (unpalatable)…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor Bill Kristol on Ted Cruz's efforts to capture as many delegates as possible in New York.

Ted Cruz said Thursday that he has no plans to make up with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, calling the intrigue about their relationship the sort of inside baseball that makes voters "so frustrated with Washington". But the public acrimony between Cruz and the Senate's rank-and-file…

After Ted Cruz won every delegate up for grabs at the Colorado Republican convention, Donald Trump began complaining that the process at such conventions is unfair. His claim is that party insiders should not be making these choices, but rather that the power should be vested with the voters. As a…

Ted Cruz, we are told, has a fondness for American popular music. We therefore trust he knows by heart and can belt out on demand Frank Sinatra’s "New York, New York."

Bronx, New York

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with staff writer Michael Warren on the Cruz v. Trump cage match in New York.

Exit polling from the Wisconsin primary shed some light on which of the three remaining GOP candidates might have the best chance of uniting the Republican party going into November. Voters were asked about their "feelings" if Donald Trump, John Kasich, or Ted Cruz were elected as president.

Ted Cruz accused Donald Trump of saying “anything to try to get elected" and that "truth is not a barrier for him." In an interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Cruz said the Trump campaign's claim that the Texas senator illegally coordinated with a super PAC was untrue, adding that it fit a pattern…

On CNN's Out Front with Erin Burnett last night, the boss challenged Donald Trump's senior aide Ed Brookover on charges the Trump campaign made in the wake of its humiliating loss to Ted Cruz in Wisconsin on Tuesday. Joining them was Kellyanne Conway, who heads Ted Cruz's super PAC.

The boss joined former Vermont governor Howard Dean this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe to discuss Ted Cruz's win last night in Wisconsin. What impressed him was Wisconsin coalescing behind Cruz, despite the evidence suggesting he wasn't necessarily Wisconsin's first choice.

In an error-riddled statement released Tuesday night, the Donald Trump campaign claimed Ted Cruz was "coordinating with his own Super PACs (which is illegal), who totally control him." That's more than just campaign bluster; the charge of illegal coordination between a federal candidate and a super…

There would seem to be three possible outcomes for the Republican nominating process. Each has (more or less) a historical precedent.

With his win in Tuesday’s open primary in the blue state of Wisconsin, Ted Cruz has now beaten Donald Trump in 11 of 21 states that have been contested to date outside of the South. Cruz has now beaten Trump in three Midwestern states (Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota—with Cruz having finished second…

Ted Cruz's victory in the Wisconsin primary was a turning point in the Republican presidential race in more ways than one.

Ted Cruz's speech in Wisconsin Tuesday night—one of the best of his presidential campaign—only briefly mentioned his top rival for the GOP nomination, Donald Trump. Instead, the Texas Republican, reinvigorated by a series of recent primary wins capped off by the double-digit victory in Wisconsin,…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor William Kristol on Trump's big loss in the Wisconsin primary.

Milwaukee

For a candidate who has popularity issues of her own, it's perhaps a bit of surprise that #NeverHillary has not sprung up beside #NeverTrump.

First he came for the airtime, then he just came for the air. Donald Trump has taken all the oxygen from his Republican rivals and used it to saturate the media with his every word, exclamation, explanation and exhortation to help him make America great again.

Donald Trump has a big lead in New York, according to a new poll. In fact, the leading Republican presidential candidate is 36 points ahead of his nearest competitor.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on why Gov. Scott Walker's Cruz endorsement matters.

Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump for president in January, but in a clear sign that Trump isn't unifying the GOP, Sarah Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, sent out a fundraising email today that doesn't mention Trump. Instead, the fundraising plea asks for money to help "elect new…

Scott Walker is endorsing Ted Cruz for president of the United States.

On Monday, Newt Gingrich called Donald Trump's notorious retweet insulting Heidi Cruz's appearance "utterly stupid," and talked about how "one of the dumbest weeks in presidential politics that I can remember" distracts people from Hillary Clinton's scandals.

Who started it? The question recalls juvenile disputes between siblings or classmates, but at the moment it's the issue at the center of the increasingly puerile Republican presidential primary. Did Donald Trump or Ted Cruz start the fight over each other's wives? One thing is for sure: Cruz has…

The latest Washington Free Beacon Wisconsin poll finds Ted Cruz with a slight lead over Donald Trump. Lachlan Markay reports:

Several Fox News employees have linked Ted Cruz to an anti-Donald Trump ad featuring the billionaire businessman's third wife, Melania, but it was produced by a political action committee that is in no way affiliated with the Texas senator's campaign.

John Kasich is now 0-for-30 in races outside of his home state of Ohio, and he has managed to finish second in just four of those states. Ted Cruz, meanwhile, has eight wins and thirteen runner-up finishes, not counting the win in his home state of Texas. One would think there would no longer be…

Many Republicans likely went to bed last night with Donald Trump dominating in Arizona, on his way to 58 electoral votes there. But on the night, Trump once again failed to get 50 percent of the vote. In fact, based on the 99 percent of precincts that have ‎reported (as of 3:30 PM EST) in Arizona…

Donald Trump's victory Tuesday in Arizona's Republican primary delivered to him all 58 of the state's delegates, but even as his win there pulls him closer to the nomination, there are signs the GOP frontrunner remains weak. Meanwhile Trump's rival Ted Cruz pulled nearly 70 percent of the vote to…

Jeb Bush is endorsing Texas senator Ted Cruz for president of the United States.

Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday that President Obama's trip to Cuba indicates that the world has abandoned political prisoners held under the country's communist regime.

Mitt Romney is not endorsing Ted Cruz, but he will vote for him.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer John McCormack on the state of the GOP race and this summer's RNC Convention in Cleveland.

At the Washington Examiner, Michael Barone offers an excellent analysis of why John Kasich’s continued presence in the Republican presidential race enables Donald Trump, even as many Republicans and Republican-leaning pundits try to avoid facing up to this reality. In a piece entitled, "Only Ted…

Lindsey Graham might never be caught hugging Ted Cruz, but he's hugged the cactus in choosing to back his fellow lawmaker's presidential bid.

A poll of Arizona Republicans conducted last week but released today shows Donald Trump leading Ted Cruz 31 percent to 19 percent, with John Kasich and Marco Rubio tied at 10 percent.

The wide swath of Washington and New York Republicans and Republican-leaning pundits who really don’t want a Ted Cruz or Donald Trump presidency are moving deeper into denial. Their latest fantasy is that John Kasich can still become the GOP nominee. Never mind that Kasich has already been…

With the March 15 slate of Republican primaries in the books, 29 of the 50 states have now voted. Donald Trump, the leader, not only hasn't won half of the votes to date (and hasn't even won half of the votes in a single state), but he hasn't even won three-eighths of them. Rather, Trump has won 37…

Ted Cruz said that he won't humble himself before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to smooth over the rough relationship he has developed with colleagues.

We shouldn’t be surprised the Republican presidential race has come down to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. This is a party in which half or more of its voters feel they've been betrayed by their leaders. Who else would they favor except the two candidates most at odds with the GOP brass?

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer John McCormack on Thursday's CNN GOP Debate.

Last July, Ted Cruz told Sean Hannity of Fox News that Donald Trump was "bold and brash, and he's willing to speak the truth. And he's taking on the Washington cartel."

At tonight's state dinner with Canada, President Obama took a swipe at Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who was born in Canada.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor William Kristol on the state of the 2016 GOP race leading into Florida and Ohio.

A Super PAC backing Ted Cruz is trying to KO Marco Rubio in his home state of Florida, releasing a torrent of ads ahead of the state's March 15 primary that attack the candidate from any and all angles.

This past Tuesday, Bill Kristol showed how it is in the self-interest of Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich to focus their efforts strategically to maximize the chances of Rubio winning Florida and Kasich winning Ohio, thus denying Trump the delegates from these winner-take-all primaries on…

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting in Saturday’s four GOP presidential contests, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were separated by only 234 votes (out of a total of 622,579 cast), as Trump got 230,443 votes to Cruz's 230,209. The candidates' respective percentages of the vote on "Super Saturday"…

“A recent article somewhere said Donald Trump is a world-class businessman who goes out and he does get along with everybody," said Donald Trump early in Thursday's Republican debate in Detroit. The only "recent article somewhere" I can find where this is true is a December 29 Washington Post…

In Thursday’s Republican presidential debate, Ted Cruz called Obamacare "the biggest job-killer in America." Chris Wallace had asked Cruz what he would do to bring manufacturing jobs back to Detroit (the site of the debate) and the rest of the country, and the Texas senator replied, "The way you…

In theory, Ted Cruz’s best states are behind him. But at the Detroit debate, Cruz was clearly the class of the field and it's clear that no one should count him out as the delegate race moves into its next phase.

With Super Tuesday now behind us, 15 of the 50 states have voted. If this were the Indianapolis 500, only 150 of the 500 miles would now be completed. Donald Trump has won won a plurality of the vote in 10 of the first 15 states—while Ted Cruz has won a plurality in 4 and Marco Rubio in 1—but the…

There’s a classic scene in First Blood where John Rambo declares, "Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off!"

Over the course of the last 48 hours, the Rubio campaign pulled one of the great head-fakes in recent political history by telegraphing that they weren’t at all interested in attacking Donald Trump at tonight's debate.

In his indispensible newsletter, the Transom, Ben Domenech makes a profound observation about tonight’s debate: The best way to become the "Not Trump," is to beat Trump. And the way to beat him isn't to argue that he's a meanie or detail his ideological inconsistencies. It's to go full-alpha and…

The notion of Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee, once widely thought to be an impossibility, is now widely being described—in respectable circles, nonetheless—as a near-inevitability. Generally sensible and level-headed people are starting to concoct all sorts of crazy plans to…

Last night at Ted Cruz's election night party in Nevada, following the news that he placed third there, his well known surrogate Glenn Beck assured supporters that Cruz is "not a liar."

GOP voters are in a fighting mood. They aren't much interested in business-as-usual, political niceties, or even conservative purity. They want someone who will take it to Washington—someone who will go there and fight for change.

As Donald Trump tries to notch his third win in a row in Tuesday's Nevada caucuses, his two chief challengers for the Republican nomination appear to be more concerned with fighting it out for second place.

There seem to me to be two dominant scenarios for what happens next in the Republican presidential race. For now I'll just sketch them out, in the interest of stimulating thought and commentary rather than asserting a conclusion.

In his speech following the South Carolina Republican primary, Ted Cruz said that “we are the only campaign that has beaten, and can beat, Donald Trump." The second part of that (the "can beat" part) is certainly debatable—Marco Rubio would beg to differ, and perhaps neither one of them can beat…

As Jeb Bush exits the presidential race and Donald Trump marches on as the Republican frontrunner, it’s worth considering a counterfactual: Without Bush, would Trump's candidacy have even gotten off the ground?

Donald Trump looks to be cruising to a solid victory in the South Carolina primary, but there is evidence that his debate performance might have hurt him—at least on the margins. Seven pollsters* have conducted surveys that were in the field mostly after the debate, and the average result is:

A former Georgia congressman supporting Ted Cruz for president called Donald Trump’s recent comments about George W. Bush and the September 11 attacks "ridiculous."

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio need a pep talk from Herm Edwards: “You play to win the game. You play to win the game."

Donald Trump elaborated on his opinion of waterboarding and enhanced interrogation of terrorist suspects Wednesday by saying, flat-out, "Torture works."

In the South Carolina Republican debate, Ted Cruz said of fellow Republican senator Marco Rubio, “Marco went on Univision in Spanish and said he would not rescind President Obama's illegal executive amnesty on his first day in office." Rubio replied, "I don't know how he knows what I said on…

Texas senator Ted Cruz put his opposition to the president's pending Supreme Court nominee in the starkest terms yet, saying he would filibuster any name the White House submitted.

Ronald Reagan’s "eleventh commandment"—"thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican"—may be an unnecessarily strict standard, but the Republican presidential field could at least try to observe a twelfth commandment: Thou shalt avoid calling one's fellow Republican a liar.

Donald Trump told supporters in Louisiana Thursday night he wouldn't use a curse word to describe the "political hacks" negotiating America's trade deals. It led to a pledge that he'd swear off the habit for good.

Among the two candidates whose results look at all like those of an eventual GOP presidential nominee, polling suggests that Ted Cruz would do significantly better than Donald Trump in the general election. According to the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls, Cruz would fare 5 points…

One of the most striking things about the New Hampshire primary, on the GOP side, was how none of the Republican candidates (other than Donald Trump) played to win. Stuart Stevens wrote about this earlier in the week and it's completely true: Trump took a commanding-but hardly unassailable…

With more than 90 percent of the New Hampshire returns having come in, here are a few thoughts:

Peterborough, N.H.

There was a bit of a dust-up between the Cruz and Carson campaigns in Iowa. On caucus night, Cruz's campaign sent out a message to supporters telling them that "CNN is reporting Ben Carson will stop campaigning after Iowa" and urging them to tell other caucusgoers this news, and it soon spread from…

Saturday Night Live did not just take aim at Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. The NBC comedy show also mocked his daughter, Catherine.

Ted Cruz put on a show when he won the Iowa caucuses. The impression was that of a rookie football player dancing in the end zone after scoring a touchdown. In the NFL, teammates stop an exuberant player from celebrating too long and being penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct. The stage at his…

Des Moines, Iowa

Jeb Bush has been trying to jab Donald Trump for weeks; in debates, on the stump, in ads, and on billboards. If there's a kitchen sink somewhere, it probably has a "Jeb!" sticker on it. And he'd almost certainly fling it the Donald's way if he could.

In the aftermath of the 2012 election, conservatives/Republicans generally split into two camps about where the movement or party needed to head next. One camp thought the key was to do a better job of making the case for conservative principles and policies (and to do a better job of developing…

For nearly three decades, politicians, pollsters, and pundits have considered support for ethanol a litmus test for legitimacy in Iowa presidential politics. Former Vice President Al Gore, who won the Iowa Democratic caucuses in 2000, famously explained the strategizing over ethanol policies that…

Winners and losers from Iowa, ranked:

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor William Kristol on the results of tonight's Iowa caucuses.

Donald Trump has owned the polls, scientific or otherwise: polls about debate performance, polls measuring support in primary states, even "entrance" polls of Iowa caucus goers before they cast a vote Monday night. But Trump fell short in the nation's first primary state, with Texas senator Ted…

Des Moines

Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio need a last-minute charge to compete in Monday's Iowa Republican Caucus. Recent precedent shows that Cruz could overtake Donald Trump to capture first place. Rubio would need an historic surge to win — but he could at least be in the mix by making up ground similar…

The Ted Cruz campaign bus got stuck in Iowa mud and needed to be towed.

Des Moines

Emmetsburg, Iowa

Des Moines

Watching the Republican debate tonight, I couldn't help but think,

With Donald Trump skipping the debate to consort with Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum (because he cares so very much about veterans), Ted Cruz had a golden opportunity to make a strong closing pitch to Iowa voters. He missed it.

The Republican presidential primaries have been chaotic thus far. And the chaos could continue.

There's one Republican candidate clearly ahead in New Hampshire, according to a new poll. And there are a lot of them slugging it out for second.