Republican, 2012 Presidential Election | featured news

GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul is airing two new campaign ads in the early voting states, going after rivals Mitt Romney, Herman Cain and Rick Perry in a multimillion dollar blitz for the next two weeks.

Many Republican strategists see recent remarks having a potentially negative impact in swing states with many Hispanic voters.

Tuesday night was fight night in Las Vegas. Seven Republican presidential candidates clashed sharply over issues such as illegal immigration, taxes and health care at a presidential debate in Nevada sponsored by CNN and the Western Republican Leadership Conference. But it was the three Republican frontrunners -- former Godfather's Pizza executive Herman Cain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov Rick Perry -- who came under frequent attack.

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation’s capital. But Cain’s economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry tapped his home-state base of deep-pocketed donors to leap ahead of the Republican field in fundraising during the third quarter. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, used his sizeable warchest to build an infrastructure for the campaign fight ahead, new finance reports show.

A stark financial divide is opening up between two groups of Republican candidates for president, with the top candidates together bringing in tens of millions of dollars in their bids for the presidency and a second tier struggling to attract major donors and in some cases even crack the million-dollar mark.

Mitt Romney raised more than $14 million over the past three months for his Republican presidential campaign.

Republican candidates have been test-driving themes and previewing attack lines online for months, foreshadowing the TV ad war that's all but certain to start soon in Iowa, New Hampshire and other early voting states.

Mitt Romney leads the field vying for the Republican presidential nomination, but fewer than one in four of the party's voters back him as a surging Herman Cain gains ground, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.

New Hampshire is considering moving up its Republican presidential primary to as early as December 6 as states vie for more influence in picking the party's nominee, a senior state official said on Wednesday.