Seth McLaughlin

Home field disadvantage: Romney’s winning map excludes Massachusetts

If Mitt Romney wins the White House this fall, he will in all likelihood do so while beating some very long historical odds.

May 27, 2012

Romney downplays value of small class size

Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney's plans for reshaping K-12 education has injected an old debate into the presidential race: Do smaller classroom sizes produce better students?

May 24, 2012

In campaign twist, Romney camp plays Clinton card against Obama

An unlikely battle for Bubba's legacy has broken out in the presidential race, with GOP candidate Mitt Romney praising Bill Clinton's presidency as a bank-shot way to argue that President Obama has "discarded" his Democratic predecessor's wisdom about the end of big government.

May 24, 2012

Tea-party target Hatch gets Palin’s endorsement

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch's re-election bid Wednesday, calling the onetime tea-party target a "lifelong conservative" who has fought for a balanced-budget amendment and for conservative Supreme Court justices.

May 23, 2012

Obama, Romney use states’ rights as they see fit

The 10th Amendment, the amendment supposedly reserving for the states all powers not explicitly granted to the federal government, gets a lot of rhetorical love on the campaign trail.

May 20, 2012

Ex-presidents factor into Romney’s campaign

Mitt Romney, campaigning in battleground state Iowa on Tuesday, scored a long-awaited — if not exactly surprising — endorsement in Washington from the last Republican occupant of the White House.

May 15, 2012

Paul aide: Don’t look for a Romney endorsement

Ron Paul's campaign conceded Tuesday he won't win enough delegates to be Republicans' presidential nominee, but says he will continue to try to win supporters to influence the GOP's platform and rules at the August convention.

May 15, 2012

Gay marriage gives Romney chance to fire up base

While many Republicans consider the sudden emergence of gay marriage as an issue in the 2012 presidential campaign an unhelpful distraction, social conservatives Sunday insisted the Obama administration has given presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney an opportunity.

May 13, 2012

Romney backs traditional marriage at Liberty University

Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney assured the thousands of conservative Christians gathered for the graduation ceremony at Liberty University, the school founded by evangelical icon Jerry Falwell, that he stands with them on traditional marriage.

May 12, 2012

Romney’s team starts to look like Bush’s

Mitt Romney's corps of advisers is heavily salted with figures who surrounded President George W. Bush as he watched over massive increases in federal spending, the creation of more government programs and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the nation-building efforts that followed.

May 10, 2012

‘Still deciding’ does damage to Romney’s Hispanic reach

The difficulties Mitt Romney faces in wooing Hispanic voters this year were underscored Tuesday when the Republicans' top Hispanic outreach official said the former Massachusetts governor is "still deciding" his position on immigration.

May 8, 2012

Obama denies presiding over ‘bloated government’

After presiding over three consecutive years of trillion-dollar deficits, President Obama told an audience in New York on Tuesday not to believe critics who accuse him of running a "bloated government."

May 8, 2012

GOP Hispanic outreach hits snag

Republicans underscored their difficulties in wooing Latino voters in this year's elections on Tuesday when the party's top Hispanic outreach official said it was unclear what likely presidential nominee Mitt Romney's stance would be on the critical issue of immigration.

May 8, 2012

Romney wins Santorum endorsement

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum endorsed Mitt Romney for president Monday night in an email to supporters, assuring them that he's convinced the former Massachusetts governor with fight for the issues important to social conservatives, tea party members and working families.

May 7, 2012

Romney hits at Obama on jobs

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Monday that the Obama administration is misleading the public into thinking that the dip in the national unemployment rate proves the Democrat's economic policies are working.

May 7, 2012

Romney needs to get small donors hooked

If Mitt Romney hopes to go toe-to-toe this fall with President Obama, the former Massachusetts governor needs to show he can fish for small-dollar donors as well as reeling in the big-cash catch.

May 6, 2012

Gingrich exits campaign, gives tepid nod to Romney

Vowing to stay involved in the national political conversation, an at-times-emotional Newt Gingrich closed the curtain on his Republican presidential bid Wednesday, ending an up-and-down campaign that saw the former House speaker re-establish himself on the national political stage and rack up millions of dollars in campaign debt along the way.

May 2, 2012