Ted Cruz has successfully courted Bob Vander Platts, Iowa’s main Christian powerbroker, winning his endorsement Thursday that was sought feverishly by about half the Republican field. Now, Cruz in closing in on winning the backing of another top social conservative networker: Tony Perkins.

“There’s clearly movement going toward Ted, and I think he’s making all the right moves,” Perkins told CNN Thursday. “But from a timing standpoint, I’m still watching, waiting.”

Perkins, who heads the Family Research Council, sits at the top of a pair of sprawling social conservative networks, the Conservative Action Project and the Council for National Policy, that are the hidden hub of the forces looking to push the Republican Party further right.… Continue Reading

Written by Ray Nothstine

Written by Frank Newport

Late in August New York Times columnist Frank Bruni expressed puzzlement over what he cited as Donald Trump‘s high level of support among evangelical Republicans. A piece this week in The Christian Post similarly, albeit from a different perspective, ponders why Trump is “receiving so much support from evangelicals.” CNN carried a recent report on the battle for evangelical voters between Trump and Ben Carson. A recent report in The Wall Street Journal indicatedthat Donald Trump plans on meeting with evangelical leaders later in September in his office.… Continue Reading

Written by David E. Smith

At a National Press Club event in Washington D.C. on Thrusday, Louisiana Governor and GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal took on billionaire and GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

Gov. Jindal began his statements saying, “I want to say what everyone is thinking about Donald Trump but is afraid to say.”  Jindal went on to say, “He is shallow, there is no substance. He doesn’t know anything about policy, he has no idea what he is talking about.… Continue Reading

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has made public the presidential candidates who signed their “Marriage Pledge,” which promises to support a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Four of the 17 Republican presidential hopefuls signed the pro-marriage, pro-child, and pro-family document:  Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson put their signatures to the pledge.… Continue Reading

Written by Ray Nothstine

By setting up a streaming loop of the now infamous undercover abortion videos outside the governor’s residence, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal challenged pro-Planned Parenthood protestors in an innovative way.

A half a dozen pro-Planned Parenthood protestors, many adorned in pink, showed up at the governor’s residence to decry Jindal’s actions to strip the popular abortion provider of state Medicaid funding in August.… Continue Reading

Written by Maggie Gallagher
On June 26, a narrow majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices struck down the traditional definition of marriage, ruling all 50 states must recognize same-sex unions as marriages.

The four dissenters included the usually mild-mannered Chief Justice John Roberts, who called the majority opinion “dangerous to the rule of law”: “The majority’s decision is an act of will, not legal judgment. The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this Court’s precedent.”… Continue Reading

Written by Michael Medved

All Republicans should feel relieved, if not jubilant. Lots of winners who helped themselves, and no disastrous losers.

Major gains for Marco Rubio who was lucid, passionate, self-assured, Kennedyesque – cementing his status as everyone’s second choice, which may win him the nomination, ultimately. John Kasich also moved his campaign forward: starting in tenth place (according to the polls) he looked and sounded like a folksy, credible, mainstream contender. Jeb Bush, who had to overcome a recent reputation for bumbling and gaffes, seemed strong, capable, sympathetic, and accessible.… Continue Reading

Written by Ray Nothstine

Lousiana Governor Bobby Jindal may not be near the top of the polls for the Republican presidential nomination race or even drawing the biggest crowds, but he may be the smartest candidate in the race.

After graduating from Brown University, Jindal was accepted into law school at Yale and medical school at Harvard, but chose to attend graduate work at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Jindal has served in the George W.… Continue Reading

Written by Diana Stancy

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal became the latest Republican to enter the 2016 presidential race, announcing yesterday that he will be making a run for the White House.

Here are 12 facts to know about Jindal:

1. Jindal was born with the name Piyush. As a child, though, he decided to go by Bobby after his favorite character, Bobby Brady, from “The Brady Bunch”. His name still legally remains Piyush.
2. Jindal is also the first Indian-American to become governor and Louisiana’s first non-white governor since Reconstruction.

Written by John Biver

Here’s a quote for you:

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardliness, it is conformity. — Rollo May

Here’s what courage sounds like:

Don’t waste your breath trying to bully me in Louisiana. It is absolutely constitutional to have religious liberty and economic freedoms. — Bobby Jindal

It’s also called leadership — you can’t have genuine leadership without courage.

What we’ve heard from most of the Republican candidates for president isn’t exactly inspirational when it comes to the issue of marriage.… Continue Reading

Jeb drops to 5% in latest Iowa poll.

Written by Michael Warren

A new Quinnipiac poll of likely Iowa Republican presidential caucusgoers finds Wisconsin’s Scott Walker in front of the GOP pack with 21 percent support and a 9-point advantage over his closest primary opponents. That’s down from 25 percent and a 12-point lead in Quinnipiac’s February poll, but Walker remains ahead of his Republican rivals, with senators Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, all huddled together behind the Wisconsin governor.… Continue Reading

Written by Maggie Gallagher

Rod Dreher is right: the rage of the powerful against Indiana for daring to pass a state RFRA without the consent of the LGBT community marks a dramatic cultural and political inflection point,as I have pointed out in National Review. For the first time, a vanilla religious liberty bill similar to those passed in 19 other states was deemed “antigay” per se, and powerful corporations rushed in to punish the people of Indiana economically for their moral views on liberty.… Continue Reading

Written by J. Matt Barber

“My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’” ~1 Corinthians 1:11-12

As Jesus warned, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand” (Mark 3:25). Nothing has borne out this reality in recent decades like that exasperating spectacle called the Republican presidential primary.… Continue Reading

Written by Frank Newport

Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, the 44-year-old Canadian-born Texan who is now just in his third year as a U.S. senator, announced during a speech earlier this week at Liberty University in Virginia that he is running for his party’s nomination for president. He thus has the distinction of being the first major candidate from either party to announce an official candidacy. Cruz said in his announcement today, “I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America, and that is why today I am announcing that I’m running for president of the United States.”… Continue Reading

Written by Wallace Henley

“The theocrats are coming!” shriek some sentinels of the contemporary political battlefield every time a Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, or Bobby Jindal clear their throats.

Paul Revere, having seen the lanterns in Boston’s Christ Church bell-tower, shouted out, “The British are coming!” Today’s harbingers of theocratic threat get their signals from the towers of secularity, some latticed with ivy, others in the form of broadcasting antennae, and still more in the shape of looming skyscrapers.… Continue Reading

Written by Chad Groening

Sandy Rios, director of governmental affairs at the American Family Association, says those “three legs” are social issues, national defense, and the economy.

Several potential Republican candidates are concentrating their efforts on Christian conservatives.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal hosted a prayer rally in his home state, sponsored by the American Family Association, in which he called for a national spiritual revival.

Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, spoke this past weekend at a Houston megachurch conference billed as an effort to “restore the soul of America.”… Continue Reading

Written by Thomas Sowell

The more optimistic among us may hope that the Republicans will nominate somebody who stands for something, rather than the bland leading the bland — the kind of candidates the Republican establishment seems to prefer, even if the voters don’t.

With 2015 just getting under way, the buzz of political activity makes it seem almost as if we are already in the midst of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton is honing her message to appeal to the mindset of the left wing of her party, whose support she will need in her second attempt to get the nomination as the Democrats’ presidential candidate in 2016.… Continue Reading

Written by Michael Medved

Hillary Clinton’s status as a wealthy celebrity will make it difficult for her to deploy the populist narrative that helped Democratic nominees win the popular vote in five out of the last six presidential elections. How can a woman who boasts a net worth of at least $21 million and hobnobs almost exclusively with well-heeled financial titans and movie stars, plausibly denounce Republicans as the party of the rapacious rich while portraying Democrats as defenders of the downtrodden?… Continue Reading

Written by Roger Aronoff

A new ad put out by the left-wing Advocacy Project seeks to link Republican budget cuts with the spread of the Ebola virus, a shameful fear tactic that could take hold among a populace rightfully concerned about this epidemic. While media organizations such as Time Magazine and Real Clear Politics have reported on the existence of the video, all they did was cite the ad, not challenge the veracity of its information.… Continue Reading

Written by Kelsey Harkness

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently accused the Obama administration of making energy more expensive with the goal of making Americans more dependent on government.

“The Left, they like to tell us they are the ones [who] are following science and we’re the science deniers,” Jindal said to a small group of reporters after delivering a speech at The Heritage Foundation to debut his energy jobs plan. “But I think overall, their approach to energy is telling.”… Continue Reading

Written by David E. Smith, IFA Executive Director

This past weekend, Pat Brady, Chairman of the Illinois Republican party, was interviewed on Fox 32 about his political activity to help Illinois Democrats pass radical Leftist legislation to redefine marriage and family.  This conflicts not only with the Illinois Republican Platform and the National Republican Platform but also with the views of the majority of voters in the state –specifically members of Brady’s own party.  (Watch the video HERE.)… Continue Reading