DES MOINES – Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said his goal is to “exceed expectations” when Iowa Republicans meet next Tuesday to choose the candidates they want to be the party’s presidential nominee in 2012. “My feeling is we have to exceed expectations and the expectations ...

URBANDALE — The influential Family Leader social conservative group in Iowa announced today it will not make an endorsement in the GOP presidential race just ahead of thousands of Iowa Republicans participating in the state’s first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses next month. However, Bob Vander Plaats, president and ...

  ELKADER – Barnstorming across northeast Iowa, Rick Perry scored points with his campaign for a return to traditional values, smaller government and secure borders. However, after his “Faith, Jobs and Values” campaign bus rolled on down the road many of the likely Republican caucusgoers who came ...

  You want coffee with that: To join The Gazette Editorial Board for a visit with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum at 8 a.m. today, click here. Wanna bet: Mitt Romney’s $10,000 challenge to Rick Perry during the Saturday night GOP candidates’ debate is the gift that ...

  Get ready for Round 2. After what was arguably the best debate of the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination Saturday night, the candidates will tee it up again in Iowa Dec. 15. Although it may be remembered for Mitt Romney’s “bet,” with Rick Perry, Michele ...

  JOHNSTON – Texas Gov. Rick Perry – no stranger to debate gaffes – moved Sunday to capitalize on a self-inflicted wound that GOP rival Mitt Romney incurred with his “over the top” $10,000 bet during a high-stakes clash over health-care mandates during Saturday night’s nationally ...

  UPDATED WITH COMMENTS FROM DEMOCRATIC CHAIRWOMAN SUE DVORSY: CEDAR RAPIDS – Making his first campaign appearance in Linn County in more than six months, Mitt Romney said he is the candidate with “the best ideas for the nation” and is the Republican best able to defeat ...

Business mogul Donald Trump said Friday he might scrub a presidential debate that so far has drawn only Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Trump, the reality television star who has not ruled out an independent White House bid, had hoped for all of the Republican candidates ...

  CEDAR RAPIDS — As the “one, true conservative” in the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said she’s best positioned to challenge President Obama. “I am the best candidate to take on Barack Obama because I will defeat him,” Bachmann said ...

Newt Gingrich won the highest grade from the Iowa Corn Growers Association in its ranking of Republican presidential candidates on agriculture issues. Herman Cain and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, were at the bottom of the list. The association, in releasing its rankings Wednesday, said it is not ...