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Southern Republicans bunch in third place in New Hampshire primary
Cruz, Bush and Rubio finish within a percentage point of each other, behind Trump and Kasich
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CFP) — The three Southern Republicans in the presidential race all bunched together in a battle for third place in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas came in at 11.6 percent in the February 9 vote, while former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was at 11.1 percent and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida at 10.5 percent, with just 3,200 votes separating Cruz and Rubio.
Donald Trump won the night with 35.3 percent, while Ohio Governor John Kasich had a surprising second place showing at 15.8 percent.
New Hampshire was redemption for Bush, who was given up for dead after a weak showing in the Iowa caucus. But is was a bad night for Rubio, who could not maintain his momentum from a third-place finish in Iowa after a rough debate performance on the Saturday before the primary.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio
“Our disappointment tonight is not on you. It’s on me,” Rubio told supporters in Manchester. “I did not do well on Saturday night. So listen to this–that will never happen again.”
Bush–who entered the race as the favorite, only to see his campaign eclipsed by Trump’s surge–was clearly jubilant after a New Hampshire result that put him back in the race as it heads to South Carolina, a state where his family has deep political roots.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush
“They said that the race was now a three-person race between two freshman senators and a reality TV star,” Bush said in a speech to supporters in Manchester, referring to Trump, Cruz and Rubio. “And while the reality TV star is still doing well, it looks like you all have reset the race.”
But Cruz, who won Iowa but wasn’t expected to do well in New Hampshire, claimed a moral victory after “a result that all of us were told was impossible.”
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz
“Once again the talking heads and the Washington insiders were confident that our wave of support would break against the rock of the Granite State,” he told supporters in Hollis. “Tonight, the men and women here and across this great state proved them wrong.”
After Iowa and New Hampshire, Trump leads in the delegate count with 17, followed by Cruz, 10; Rubio, 7; Bush, 3; and Kasich, 3. A candidate needs 1,237 delegates to win the GOP nomination.
The next contest for Republicans is the South Carolina primary on February 20.
U.S. Senator Rand Paul drops out of presidential race to concentrate on Senate re-election
Paul’s decision comes two days after he finished fifth in the Iowa GOP caucus
LOUISVILLE (CFP) — U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has ended his quest for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and will now concentrate on winning a second term in the Senate.
U.S. Senator Rand Paul
“Today, I end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of liberty,” Paul said in a statement announcing his departure. “Brushfires of liberty were ignited, and those will carry on, as will I.”
Paul’s decision came just two days after he finished in fifth place in the Iowa presidential caucus, winning just 4.5 percent of the vote. He will now turn to his re-election race in Kentucky, which he was pursuing simultaneously with his presidential bid.
Paul, 53, ran a campaign appealing to the GOP’s libertarian wing, differing from many of his competitors by calling for less international intervention and opposing counterterrorism surveillance programs that he believed threatened civil liberties.
Considered a potential frontrunner early in the campaign, Paul’s campaign failed to catch fire and became mired in single digits in national polls.
The Kentucky GOP changed its presidential nominating contest to a caucus to facilitate Paul’s political double-dipping. But he had been under increasing pressure from within his party to abandon his floundering White House quest and focus on the Senate race, which intensified after he drew a high-profile Democratic challenger, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray.
Paul, an eye surgeon from Bowling Green, won election to the Senate in 2010 with Tea Party support. He is the son of former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who made three unsuccessful tries for the White House.
Paul’s departure leaves three Southern Republicans in the presidential race — U.S. senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush,
Ted Cruz wins Iowa GOP caucus; Marco Rubio comes in a strong third
Cruz defies late polls and beats Trump, while Rubio does better than expected
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com
DES MOINES, Iowa (CFP) — U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has won the Republican presidential caucus in Iowa, defeating billionaire businessman Donald Trump in a record-setting turnout.
But the surprise of the night was the late surge of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who took more than 23 percent of the vote and nearly knocked off Trump, who led most of the late pre-caucus polls.
Iowa was the end of the line for one of the Southern Republican candidates in the race, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who announced he was dropping out after garnering less than 2 percent of the vote in the February 1 contest.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz
Cruz won with 27.6 percent of the vote to 24.3 percent for Trump and 23.1 percent for Rubio. The four other Southern Republicans in the race all trailed in single digits.
Nearly 187,000 Republicans turned out in Iowa, shattering previous turnout records in the Hawkeye State.
Speaking to supporters after the returns came in, Cruz called the result “a victory for the grassroots.”
“Iowa has served notice that the Republican nominee and the next president of the United States will not be chosen by the media, will not be chosen by the Washington establishment, will not be chosen by the lobbyists, but will be chosen by the most incredible, powerful force in which all sovereignty resides in our nation–by we the people,” he said.
Despite coming in third, Rubio was clearly jubilant after finishing more than eight points above his standing in the last pre-election poll and setting himself up as the establishment alternative to Cruz and Trump.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio
“This is the moment they said would never happen,” Rubio told supporters. “The people of this great state have sent a very clear message–after seven years of Barack Obama, we are not waiting any longer to take our country back.”
Among the other Southern Republicans, U.S. Senator Rand Paul came in fifth, ahead of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who was sixth. Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucus when he ran in 2008, finished ninth and announced on Twitter that he was ending his campaign.
In a letter to his supporters posted on his campaign website, Huckabee shot down rumors that he was about to endorse one of the other GOP contenders
“Those rumors are totally untrue. While I may eventually support one of the candidates, right now I have a lot of things to do in wrapping up the loose ends of the campaign, trying to figure out my next chapter of life, and spending some time with my dogs who probably wonder if I had abandoned them,” he said.
The presidential race now turns to New Hampshire, which votes February 9.
U.S. Senator Rand Paul gets well-heeled challenger in Kentucky
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray’s entry into race may increase pressure on Paul to drop presidential bid
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
FRANKFORT, Kentucky (CFP) — As he battles to keep his presidential hopes alive, U.S. Senator Rand Paul has drawn a high-profile, independently wealthy Democratic challenger in his Senate re-election challenge back home in Kentucky.
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, chairman of his family’s international construction company, announced January 26 that he would challenge Paul, a first-term Republican who is simultaneously seeking the GOP presidential nomination and re-election to the Senate.
“Washington offers dysfunction and gridlock, and Senator Paul confuses talking with getting results,” Gray said in a video announcing his campaign. “He offers ideas that will weaken our country at home and abroad, and he puts himself and his own ambitions above Kentucky.
In 2014, Gray, 62, was elected to his second term as mayor of Lexington, the commonwealth’s second-largest city. He is one of seven Democrats who filed to run against Paul and–given his political profile and ability to self-fund his campaign–is the prohibitive favorite to be Paul’s opponent in November.
However, Gray is also openly gay, a probable complication in a state where Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis became a cause celebre after she want to jail last year for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Democrats have not won a Senate race in Kentucky since 1992. But Paul’s decision to run for two offices at once has put the Bluegrass State on the Democrats’ radar.
U.S. Senator Rand Paul
While the Kentucky GOP changed its presidential nominating contest to a caucus to facilitate Paul’s political double-dipping, he has been under increasing pressure from within his party to abandon his White House quest and focus on the Senate race–pressure that is likely to intensify now that he has a potentially formidable Democratic challenger.
The latest national polls in the Republican presidential contest show Paul mired in single digits.
Paul, 53, an eye surgeon from Bowling Green, won election to the Senate in 2010 with Tea Party support, besting a candidate backed by Kentucky’s Republican establishment. He is the son of former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who made three unsuccessful tries for the White House.
On The Trail: Ted Cruz takes small government message to New Hampshire
Texas senator is in a close race for second place in the Granite State’s GOP primary
♦By Patrick Scanlan, Chickenfriedpolitics.com contributor
NORTH CONWAY, New Hampshire (CFP) — U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has been braving the cold New Hampshire weather in hopes of scoring support for his presidential bid from those fed up with the federal government and “establishment politics.”
In North Conway, Cruz met with about 100 supporters packed into historic Zeb’s General Store on January 19. Outside the store, supporters braving the cold held signs that read, “Join the NH Rebellion, Stop the Corruption,” and “Secure Our Border.”
Ted Cruz campaigns in New Hampshire
“We are here because our constitutional rights are threatened every day,” Cruz said, citing what he called infringements on First and Second Amendment rights. He also lamented the size of the current federal government, including “the alphabet soup of agencies that have been killing small business.”
Cruz promised to “repeal every word of Obamacare,” and “keep the government from getting between us and our doctors,” while also pursuing an investigation into Planned Parenthood.
The group, which is the nation’s largest abortion provider, came under fire from Cruz and other conservatives after uncover videos emerged showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing procurement of fetal tissue.
Though Cruz called for decreases in government healthcare regulation, he stressed the importance of “honoring the commitments made to every soldier, sailor and marine.”
While speaking about foreign policy issues, Cruz pledged that during his first day in office he will “rip to shreds the catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal,” so that “under no circumstances will Iran be able to acquire nuclear weapons.” He also spent time addressing the threat of ISIS to the United States.
“We need a commander-in-chief who will say to the world, ‘We will defeat radical Islamic terrorism. We will destroy ISIS.’ If we stand as one and defend freedom and Judeo-Christian values, we will restore the last best hope for mankind.”
While making his case to the New Hampshire voters, Cruz also embraced his role as a outsider who is disliked by the Washington establishment.
“If you see a candidate that Washington embraces, run and hide,” he said.
Recent polling in New Hampshire shows Cruz battling for second place with U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and Ohio Governor John Kasich, well behind Donald Trump.
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