Republican Party

By Al Jazeera Staff in Americas on January 26th, 2012
Four Republican presidential candidates are facing off in their 19th debate [EPA]

Our producer in Florida, Roza Kazan, keeps you up to date with the latest from the debate and ensuing reactions.

11:25pm: Jennifer S Korn, the Executive Director of the Hispanic Leadership Network told Al Jazeera that she too thinks the economy remains very important to Latino voters. “It's the number one issue, whether you are Hispanic or not,” Korn said. 

She said illegal immigration is a “huge problem” for the US and won't just go away. But the way to solve it, she said, is to solve the problems of legal immigration in order to “eliminate” illegal immigration. “Most people would love to come to work here in a legal way, but right now it practically does not exist," Korn said. 

By Alan Fisher in Americas on January 18th, 2012
Photo by AFP

Some presidential election campaigns will end here in South Carolina.

The candidate or candidates will come to the realisation that they cannot win the Republican nomination, that their vision of America has not been accepted by the majority, and that despite the hopes and dreams, the hands shaken and the interviews given, that it is finally over.

Jon Huntsman has already left the field, lacking money and supporters, his “ticket out of New Hampshire" not even good for a week.

To accept the thinking of the Mitt Romney campaign, then the contest is over.

He has done what no other Republican challenger has, and that's win the first two nomination contests, in Iowa and New Hampshire. And they argue, victory in South Carolina on Saturday - which has picked the winner in every contest since 1980 - will make him the presumptive nominee for his party. They are attempting to build an aura of inevitability.

The conservatives in his party don't like him.

By Alan Fisher in Americas on January 6th, 2012
AFP photo

Rick Santorum won't win in New Hampshire.

The latest polls suggest the best he will do is finish third - but for a man voters struggled to identify just a few weeks ago, he has, through hard work and dogged campaigning, elbowed his way into the top tier of challengers for the Republican party nomination.

He spent a lot of time in Iowa.

By Alan Fisher in Americas on January 5th, 2012
AFP photo

It was just before two in the morning when the head of Iowa's Republican Party walked onto the stage in front of the thinning ranks of journalists in the Polk Convention Centre in Des Moines to announce the result of the state's caucus.
 
After a record turnout of more than 122, 000, the former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, topped the poll by just eight votes.

But even though he finished first, the big winner on the night was the new standard bearer for the right of Republican Party, former Pennsylvania senator, Rick Santorum.
 
And that perhaps is an indication of the battle America's Grand Old Party has been having with itself over the past two years.

It believes Barack Obama is vulnerable and they could easily consign him to the history books as a one-term president, but they don't know what face to present to the wider American public.

By Alan Fisher in Americas on December 26th, 2011
Photo by Reuters

Eight days away from the first true test of the Republican presidential hopefuls brings a new poll with a new leader.

By Alan Fisher in Americas on November 4th, 2011
Photo by Reuters

Flying across Iowa, the flat fields of corn stretch way into the distance until the handful of tower blocks which mark the centre of Des Moines suddenly loom into view.

In just two months, the Midwest state will, for a short time, become the most important one in the union.

Just three days after the New Year begins, the state's Republicans will gather in caucus to decide who they would like to see challenge Barack Obama for the presidency of the United States.

Yet two months out - what is happening here reflects the state of the Republican party nationally.

There is no clear frontrunner, no obvious winner from a wide and determined field.

The most recent opinion poll - conducted by the respected local paper, the Des Moines Register puts two candidates clearly in front, Herman Cain and Mitt Romney.

By Al Jazeera Staff in Americas on November 2nd, 2010
Tea party supporters rally in Connecticut the day before the election. [AFP]

21:39 GMT: A witty (and vulgar) website - "What the f___ has Obama done so far?" - is going viral on Facebook, with more than 53,000 fans. It presents a long list of various achievements in Obama's two years in office, and seems aimed at refuting Republican arguments that Obama has failed to bring his promised "hope and change".

21:21 GMT: BBC World News interviewed Democratic political consultant Peter Fenn just now. Fenn said that he expects Obama will act pragmatically and extend an "olive branch" to Republicans after the election and noted that Obama's approval rating is higher now than Clinton's in 1994, when Republicans won a huge midterm victory. Clinton was re-elected in 1996. 

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on September 15th, 2010
Picture from AFP

 

 

The insurgent Tea Party movement has snuck up and scored another major victory against the Republican Party.  They're proving public anger is directed towards more than just the party in power.  It's directed at anyone associated with the political establishment.

By Cath Turner in Americas on February 5th, 2010
Tami and Robert Kilmarx, who say they quit Tea Party Nation in disgust

The Tea Party movement is driven by two powerful emotions: anger and fear.

The groups are angry about big government, big spending, big taxes and progressive policies under the Obama administration.  And they're fearful of losing their values, their freedom and their rights.

Dozens of Tea Party groups have popped up across the United States, and you can see their strength in numbers when they co-ordinate mass rallies and protests.  And now we're starting to see their power on the political scene.  Once they decide to throw their weight behind a candidate, the Tea Partiers have proven they're capable of influencing an election outcome.

Most Tea Partiers want to stay politically separate from both the Republicans and the Democrats but their values and beliefs naturally align them more to the Republicans.

By Rob Reynolds in Americas on August 22nd, 2009

August is the steamiest of months and normally a somnolent time in the US.

Vacations, county fairs, trips to the beach, days by the lake, grilling hot dogs on a stick - these are the happy trifles that Americans have come to expect at summer's end.
 
But this year August has been the month of rage.
 
In made-for-television "town hall meetings" across the country, grey-haired white men and women in t-shirts stand and hurl abuse at their Congress members and senators, snarling and shouting - their eyes popping apoplectically and choking with anger.

People have waved signs depicting Barack Obama, the US president, as Adolf Hitler with a toothbrush moustache, or with a hammer and sickle on his forehead.

Al Jazeera Live

What's Hot


Recent Comments

This work is licensed under Creative Commons. Please read our attribution policy.