Roll Call Politics is tracking the 2012 presidential candidates, their campaign staffers and their activity in the early nominating states. Bookmark this page for the latest on the GOP field and President Barack Obama’s re-election effort, and keep up with Member endorsements in the GOP presidential race with Roll Call's Endorsement Watch.
Jonathan Strong
Instead of an eye for an eye, it’s an aide for an aide.
Humberto Sanchez
In their latest play for female voters, Senate Democrats have begun laying the groundwork for a legislative fight over equal pay next month.
Steven T. Dennis
Democrats and the White House defended attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital on Tuesday, calling them “fair game” and dismissing party infighting over the issue.
Steven T. Dennis
The White House will continue to attack Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital and his record as governor of Massachusetts as part of a larger narrative aimed at middle-class voters, senior administration officials said today.
Steven T. Dennis
President Barack Obama doubled down on attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital at a press conference at the NATO summit in Chicago today.
Shira Toeplitz
If Mitt Romney wins the presidency, J.T. Jezierski will be the most connected man in the 16 blocks between the White House and Capitol Hill.
Stuart Rothenberg
The discussion on Monday morning’s “Daily Rundown” on MSNBC has already occurred hundreds of times this cycle and will occur again and again between now and November. Who is Mitt Romney?
Stuart Rothenberg
I never include the Keystone State in my list of presidential swing states for November. Am I making a mistake? Possibly.
Steven T. Dennis, Joshua Miller
President Barack Obama came out in support of gay marriage Wednesday afternoon, ending a frenzy of speculation about his long “evolving” position and taking a major risk in his close re-election fight with presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
Stuart Rothenberg
Little did I know that what I figured was a relatively innocuous column about the Democrats’ problems in North Carolina, where the party will hold its national convention in early September, would generate such a flood of angry attacks.
Eliza Newlin Carney
For Democratic super PACs struggling to catch up with their cash-flush GOP counterparts, the news that financier George Soros will soon give $2 million to a couple of progressive groups comes as small consolation.
Steven T. Dennis
Week after week, month after month, reporters ask White House Press Secretary Jay Carney the same question: When will the president finally tell us what he really thinks about gay marriage?
Meredith Shiner
David Axelrod, chief campaign strategist for President Barack Obama, said today that the Chicago-based operation is preparing to roll out an "extensive" advertising blitz this week defending the president's first-term record.
Meredith Shiner
Former GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) had a piece of advice for current presumptive nominee Mitt Romney: Make sure you pick a vice president who can do the job.
Meredith Shiner
Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) won't say whether he would accept a place on the national GOP ticket, but he's already assumed the attack-dog-in-chief mantle, the quintessential role of a modern vice presidential nominee.
Kyle Trygstad
The winner of the South Carolina Republican presidential primary has gone on to win his party’s nomination in every election since 1980 — until now.
Eliza Newlin Carney
When Democratic strategist Bill Burton went looking for a partner to help his super PAC launch a $1 million ad campaign announced last week, he had more than one reason to knock on the door of the League of Conservation Voters.
David M. Drucker, Steven T. Dennis
Not all recent college graduates are cash-poor and taking refuge in their parents’ basements.
Stuart Rothenberg
If national Democratic strategists chose Charlotte, N.C., for the party’s national convention because they liked the facilities, the hotel accommodations or the weather in early September, then I guess I can’t yet quibble with the choice.
Steven T. Dennis
President Barack Obama’s campaign announced today that he will kick off his re-election bid with first lady Michelle Obama with campaign rallies in Ohio and Virginia on May 5 and will eagerly contrast his vision to Mitt Romney’s.
Stuart Rothenberg
I’ve written a couple of columns about presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s potential running mates. Start with some biography, add a dash of analysis and you’ve got an entertaining piece. But I’m not merely a columnist, I’m a political analyst. And the political analyst in me tells me that all of the chatter about Romney’s running mate is a lot of hot air.
Stuart Rothenberg
It’s really amazing how some people with years of political experience change their opinions about the political landscape to match the latest poll. It’s not that poll results shouldn’t affect our understanding of politics. It’s that too often people behave as if the most recent poll they encounter has enormous predictive value.
Steven T. Dennis
Democratic and Republican women on Capitol Hill are increasingly squaring off as surrogates as the battle for women’s votes rages on the presidential campaign trail.
Emily Cadei
Sen. Marco Rubio was not one of the leaders of Western Hemisphere nations meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, last weekend. But the Cuban-American lawmaker from Florida — who traveled to the sixth annual Summit of the Americas independently — was certainly treated like one.
Morton M. Kondracke
With Republicans moving ever further to the right and Democrats to the left — though not so far as Republicans are to the right — there really is a crying need for a centrist alternative.
Stuart Rothenberg
Three months ago, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney had a very clear message: President Barack Obama had failed to turn the economy around or create jobs. More recently, the Romney message morphed into one much more about competing visions for the future, about what kind of country this is and will be.
Jonathan Strong
Republicans say Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) has a bright future in the House. An able messenger who brings diversity to the party’s public face, she has a good shot at becoming Conference chairwoman in the next Congress. But behind the scenes, her supporters are pushing for something bigger: the vice presidency.
David M. Drucker
Mitt Romney and Congressional Republicans moved last week to jump-start the coordination of political and policy messaging after Rick Santorum’s exit from the GOP presidential primary crowned the former Massachusetts governor the presumptive GOP nominee.
Steven T. Dennis
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney sought to brush aside the furor over Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s comments about stay-at-home mom Ann Romney and pivot back to policy today.
Steven T. Dennis
After renaming the "Buffett Rule" the "eagan Rule," the White House is now taking aim at the "Romney Rule."
Steven T. Dennis
At a Boca Raton, Fla., event ostensibly touting the Buffett Rule on Tuesday, President Barack Obama appeared to be putting the finishing touches on his stump speech as his re-election campaign gears up to take on Mitt Romney in the fall.
Eliza Newlin Carney
Now that Rick Santorum has suspended his campaign, Mitt Romney is reaching out to conservative activists. But his reception so far has ranged from tepid to downright hostile.
Stuart Rothenberg
I have found over the years that when a narrative works its way into the collective wisdom, there is no way of changing it. So my goal here is quite modest: to get at least a handful of people to pause, take a deep breath and simply chew over the data a bit before using it to draw unshakable conclusions.
Meredith Shiner
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) would not definitively say today whether he thought Mitt Romney could win the Buckeye State in November if the former Massachusetts governor is the GOP presidential nominee.
Meredith Shiner
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) said today that GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney is “conservative enough” to be the party’s nominee, blaming opposing perceptions on a lack of conservative chops on the former Massachusetts governor’s staff.
Humberto Sanchez
Former Sen. Rick Santorum’s (Pa.) support for a troubled Clinton administration judicial nominee is drawing fresh scrutiny from conservatives as the GOP presidential candidate struggles to regain his footing against presumptive nominee Mitt Romney.
Meredith Shiner
With the general election just beginning to heat up and a seemingly insatiable news cycle to match, a question is emerging from Washington: Who in Congress will be the “Obama talkers?”
David M. Drucker
The “veepstakes” have hit Capitol Hill, and staffers to the top-tier contenders for the GOP nominee’s vice presidential nod are working to promote and protect their bosses during the selection process.
Daniel Newhauser
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney inched his way closer to the GOP presidential nomination this week with help from top Congressional endorsements, and though Speaker John Boehner has not shown his hand publicly, the Ohio Republican is thought to be silently cheering Romney from the sidelines.
Stuart Rothenberg
Despite all of Mitt Romney's conservative rhetoric, conservatives believe that he is simply pandering to them because he knows that is what he needs to do to lock up the GOP nomination. What’s interesting is that despite his conservative rhetoric, moderates and country club conservatives continue to support his candidacy.
Ryan Teague Beckwith
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he believes Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential nominee, but he stopped short of endorsing him today.
Stuart Rothenberg
It’s only March, but it seems as if the GOP race for president has been going on for an eternity. Now, however, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has won his party’s nomination and the right to take on President Barack Obama in the fall.
David M. Drucker
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued today that the 2010 health care law would be “off the table” in the fall campaign if Mitt Romney wins the Republican presidential nomination.
David M. Drucker
Even as Rick Santorum steps up his attacks on Mitt Romney over health care, Senate Republicans are expressing confidence in the GOP presidential frontrunner and his ability to lead their party on this crucial issue come November.
Eliza Newlin Carney
Mitt Romney’s campaign remains driven by large donors over small donors, according to an analysis released today by the Campaign Finance Institute, but the former Massachusetts governor is at least tapping some new funding sources.
Stuart Rothenberg
Mr. Irrelevant is the term given to the last player selected in the NFL draft, a reflection of the long odds he faces in making an NFL roster. Increasingly, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) has become the Mr. Irrelevant in the GOP race for the presidential nomination.
Jessica Brady
Sen. John McCain said today that Republicans need to pivot from debating the issue of contraception and get back to jobs and the economy as the party looks to make gains in the 2012 elections.
Jessica Brady
Conservative presidential candidate Rick Santorum said his endorsement of then-Sen. Arlen Specter’s 1996 campaign for the White House was “a mistake” today.
Stuart Rothenberg
Driving into work on Wednesday morning, listening to parts of “Morning Joe” and “The Daily Rundown” on MSNBC on my radio, I was struck by how much I disagreed with all of the post-primary analysis.
Ryan Teague Beckwith
Rick Santorum has won the Alabama and Mississippi Republican primaries, according to projections by the Associated Press. The former Pennsylvania Senator’s pair of wins will help cement him as the top challenger to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Ryan Teague Beckwith
Rick Santorum has won the Alabama Republican presidential primary, according to the Associated Press, although the results in the Mississippi primary remain too close to call.
David M. Drucker
Waiting until the late August convention in Tampa to select a GOP presidential nominee would essentially hand a second term to President Barack Obama, prominent Senate Republicans said Tuesday.
David M. Drucker
The extended Republican presidential primary has left many GOP donors paralyzed — unsure of whether to invest in the upcoming battle against President Barack Obama or focus on Congressional races.
Eliza Newlin Carney
GOP presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum today trumpeted their chances of winning upcoming primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, but both face a basic delegate math problem to catch up to frontrunner Mitt Romney.
Eliza Newlin Carney
Investment fund manager Foster Friess probably did not strike audience members as someone special as he smiled behind GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum at his victory speech in Missouri after its Feb. 7 primary. But Friess is at the center of a growing controversy over unregulated money and alleged campaign finance violations in the 2012 campaign.
Stuart Rothenberg
More than two months after the race for the Republican nomination began in Iowa, the contest remains stuck. That’s both good and bad news for the leader in the Republican race.
Steven T. Dennis
Obama campaign manager Jim Messina and adviser David Axelrod downplayed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s Super Tuesday wins in a conference call today, suggesting that the GOP frontrunner is limping to victories while continuing to pile up baggage for the general election.
Eliza Newlin Carney
Super PACs backing the presidential candidates made hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of last-minute expenditures on TV and radio ads, direct mail and phone banks on the eve of Super Tuesday.
Steven T. Dennis
President Barack Obama is sharpening his rhetoric on Iran’s nuclear program but hopes to put off a possible war — and with it the potential for soaring gas prices and massive political fallout — until after his re-election.
Shira Toeplitz
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) backed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign today, marking the highest-ranking GOP House Member to pick sides in the presidential race.
Ambreen Ali
In the steamy world of Spanish soap operas, a plot about the U.S. Census may seem out of place. But that’s just the sort of programming Hispanic media companies hope will drive millions of Latinos to the polls this fall. While their English counterparts shy away from direct advocacy, Spanish-language media executives say it is central to their mission.
Stuart Rothenberg
Has the Republican race reached a tipping point, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney re-establishing himself as the solid favorite for the Republican nomination and former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) slipping awfully close to the “long shot” category? Probably.
Ryan Teague Beckwith
Mitt Romney’s campaign says that he supports a Senate Republican effort to allow employers to opt out of paying for insurance coverage they find morally objectionable.
Ryan Teague Beckwith
Mitt Romney won the Michigan and Arizona primaries tonight, giving a much-needed boost to his struggling campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.
Ryan Teague Beckwith
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has won the Arizona primary, according to multiple projections, but the crucial state of Michigan remains too close to call.
Janie Lorber
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum tore into President Barack Obama today for apologizing for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base in Afghanistan.
Janie Lorber
Sen. Lindsey Graham has not officially endorsed any of the GOP presidential nominees, but today the South Carolina Republican seemed to be rooting for Mitt Romney.
Kate Ackley
Republican lobbyist Ari Storch found himself in a conundrum common to practically everyone on K Street: What to do about the political conventions this summer?
David M. Drucker
As the volatile Republican primary drags on, party operatives are growing concerned that their presidential nominee could be woefully unprepared to wage a national campaign against President Barack Obama.
Daniel Newhauser
Rep. Jason Chaffetz has become one of Romney’s most high-profile surrogates on the presidential campaign trail, leading sources close to the Utahn to speculate that the fiercely ambitious firebrand might have a Romney administration post in his sights.
Eliza Newlin Carney
Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is drawing more scrutiny as his poll numbers rise, and so is the increasingly lucrative super PAC backing the former Pennsylvania Senator.
Janie Lorber
In a private meeting of House conservatives last week, a lobbyist describing himself as Capitol Hill's point man for the Santorum campaign made a pitch for the White House candidate. The political moment made observers uncomfortable and revealed just how worried Rick Santorum is about his spotty reputation on Capitol Hill and K Street.
Stuart Rothenberg
Politics, for all of the focus on issues, symbols and ideology, is a deeply personal business. So the obvious distaste that former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) feels for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney isn’t unusual in politics, possibly except for its ferociousness.
Stuart Rothenberg
For all the hoopla over former Sen. Rick Santorum’s (Pa.) Tuesday sweep of Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, the dynamics of the Republican presidential race have changed little. While former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney seems unable to actually win the nomination, it is still awfully difficult to see him losing it.
Kyle Trygstad
As the American Conservative Union’s gathering of grass-roots activists kicks off again today in Washington, D.C., Mitt Romney finds himself the uneasy frontrunner in a Republican nomination fight that remains hotly contested.
Ryan Teague Beckwith
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum notched two symbolic wins in Missouri and Minnesota nominating contests tonight.
Ryan Teague Beckwith
Thanks to the absence of former Speaker Newt Gingrich on the ballot and a dose of local campaigning, ex-Sen. Rick Santorum put together a large margin of victory tonight in Missouri’s Republican primary.
Ambreen Ali
A new federal mandate on birth control and the growing outcry against it might actually help President Barack Obama in the upcoming election.
Steven T. Dennis, Eliza Newlin Carney
President Barack Obama’s decision to embrace his super PAC is only the latest example of the president setting his ideals aside and resigning himself to pragmatic political realities.
Steven T. Dennis
In a switch, President Barack Obama is backing a super PAC — and directing senior government officials to appear at its fundraisers — over fears his re-election campaign could be derailed by an "avalanche" of money flowing into Republican super PACs.
Eliza Newlin Carney
Democratic super PAC organizers are putting a brave face on recent disclosures that show GOP-friendly super PACs have outraised them by more than 3-to-1.
Ryan Teague Beckwith
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had more than twice as many votes in Nevada’s caucuses than the closest runner-up, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.).
Kyle Trygstad
Mitt Romney won the Nevada caucuses easily today, solidifying his status as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.
Janie Lorber
A handful of wealthy former donors to President Barack Obama contributed last year to the super PAC supporting Mitt Romney’s quest for the GOP presidential nomination, according to campaign filings made public this week.
Stuart Rothenberg
The conventional wisdom now is that, even with the Republican nomination slipping further and further away, former Speaker Newt Gingrich will fight tooth and nail all the way to Tampa, making life miserable for the party’s likely nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
David M. Drucker
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said today that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney needs to “backtrack” and reframe comments in which the former Massachusetts governor said he was worried about the middle class and “not concerned about the very poor.”
Shira Toeplitz
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the Florida Republican primary tonight, crushing former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) by a double-digit margin, according to the Associated Press.
David M. Drucker
Sen. Marco Rubio's star was already on the rise, but the brawl for Florida between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney solidified Rubio's status as a national figure in the 2012 presidential contest and as heir to the Republican crown in the Sunshine State.
Eliza Newlin Carney
Super PACs backing Newt Gingrich have dominated media coverage of the GOP Florida primary that will be decided Tuesday, but their effect is starting to look less than super.
Meredith Shiner, Steven T. Dennis
President Barack Obama may be pushing a new plan to “bring manufacturing back” as a way to boost his own re-election case in key Midwestern swing states, but vulnerable Democratic Senators in the Rust Belt hope it will bolster their electoral chances, too.
Ambreen Ali
Muslim Americans, particularly conservatives, say they feel slighted this election cycle. Rather than court Muslims, Republican candidates have been competing for the toughest stance on national security and openly discussing whether Muslims should be allowed to serve in their administrations.
Eliza Newlin Carney
As Newt Gingrich and his allies scramble to raise enough money to compete with Mitt Romney in Florida’s costly GOP primary, they’re relying on political players who carry almost as much ethics baggage as the former Speaker himself.
Stuart Rothenberg
As Republican insiders of various ideological bent watch the presidential nominating process with increasing alarm, there is more than a whiff of talk about a white knight who could rescue his party from defeat by jumping into the presidential race late and riding away with the GOP nomination.
Steven T. Dennis
Despite a second surge that has put Newt Gingrich back atop national polls, Democrats are having a hard time envisioning the former Speaker somehow besting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination.
Shira Toeplitz
The early Capitol Hill relationship between former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) has been described several ways: friendship, mentorship, rivalry — even frenemies.
Steven T. Dennis, Meredith Shiner
President Barack Obama delivered a populist, election-year poke at a dysfunctional Congress in a State of the Union address Tuesday night filled with policy proposals and urgent rhetoric aimed at aiding the middle class.
David M. Drucker
Republicans focused on House and Senate races are growing anxious that former Speaker Newt Gingrich might win the GOP presidential nomination.
Eliza Newlin Carney, Kate Ackley
The lawyer who a decade ago advised Newt Gingrich on how to engage in advocacy without officially becoming a “lobbyist” is now working to close the loopholes that enable the former Speaker and other Members to avoid public disclosure.
David M. Drucker
As Newt Gingrich surges again, Congressional Republicans remain fearful that the former Speaker would lose to President Barack Obama and sink the whole GOP ticket in the process if he were nominated.
Abby Livingston
The Florida Republican presidential primary kicked off in earnest Monday night with a quiet but tough debate.
