Univision’s Ilia Calderón to Serve as a Moderator for Next Republican Presidential Debate

Ilia Calderón is reporting for debate duty…

The 51-year-old Colombian Emmy-winning journalist, who currently works as the news anchor for Univision’s national evening newscast, and Fox News Media’s Stuart Varney and Dana Perino will serve as the moderators for the next Republican presidential debate, which is set for September 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA.

Ilia CalderónFox Business and Univision are the main networks telecasting the debate, which will air between 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET, but Fox News also will simulcast the event at the same time, and Fox Nation will livestream it for its subscribers.

Fox News’s coverage of the first GOP debate last week drew 12.8 million viewers on the network and its simulcast on Fox Business.

Plans have not yet been announced for the third presidential debate, but it’s expected to be held in October in Tuscaloosa, AL.

Donald Trump, the front-runner for the nomination, skipped the first debate and is not expected to attend the Reagan Library event, given his past comments about the chairman of the Reagan Foundation, Fred Ryan.

Candidates also have a higher threshold to qualify for the event. They need to have a minimum of 50,000 unique donors, as well as a minimum of 3 percent in two national polls or a combination of three national and state polls.

Ted Cruz to Meet with Alyssa Milano to Discuss Gun Reform

Ted Cruz is ready to talk gun laws…

The 48-year-old half-Cuban Texas GOP Senator is set to meet with actress and activist Alyssa Milano on Tuesday to talk about gun reform, after they had a set of exchanges on Twitter over what’s needed to be done in the aftermath of mass shootings in Odessa and El Paso.

Ted Cruz

The details of the meeting haven’t been announced, but Milano will be in Washington next week.

“We don’t agree on this issue. But if we can talk with mutual respect & humility, maybe all of us come together to effect positive change,” she wrote on Twitter on Wednesday evening.

Cruz wrote that he was “looking forward” to the meeting, and added that “if all of us can together have more positive, civil discussion & debate on the substantive issues of the day, that would go a long way to helping unite and heal our divided Nation.”

Milano had originally proposed the meeting be live-streamed “so the American people can hear your bullshit 1st hand.” On Tuesday, Cruz responded by saying he would agree to a meeting “about uniting to stop gun violence & about theConstitution.”

Over the weekend, following a mass shooting in Odessa that killed seven people and injured 22, Milano criticized a Texas Republican lawmaker, Matt Schaefer, who said that gun control solutions would not stop a person “with evil intent.”

Milano wrote, “Can someone cite which passage of the Bible God states it is a god-given right to own a gun? This guy is unbelievable and is clearly owned by the gun lobby.”

Cruz then responded that “it is of course not the right to a modern-day firearm that is God-given but rather the right to Life & the right to Liberty. Essential to that right is the right to DEFEND your life & your family.”

When the U.S. Senatereturns to session next week, Democrats are expected to press Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring legislation to the floor to expand background checks. In the aftermath of the El Paso and Dayton, Ohio mass shootings, President Donald Trumpinitially indicated that he favored such a proposal, but he has appeared to back away from that stance, following a reported conversation with a top National Rifle Association official.

Mathew Littman, the president of the group 97% Gun Reform, said that the meeting between Cruz and Milano “are the kinds of things that should be happening more often. We shouldn’t be talking past each other. We should be talking to each other.”

He credited Milano and Cruz for agreeing to the meeting, adding “that they are willing to talk to someone who completely disagrees with them is what we should be doing.”

Littman said he has met with Milano to talk about gun reform, and said that she “is about the smartest person I have talked to on the gun issue.” “I really appreciate that Alyssa is willing to do this, but that is what Alyssa does.”

Spokespersons for Cruz and Milano didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on further details of the meeting.

Cruz to Make First Appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Ted Cruz is heading to late night…

The 45-year-old half-Cuban American U.S. Senator from Texas and Republican presidential candidate will make his first appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, March 30.

Ted Cruz

His visit comes less than a week before Cruz, Donald Trump and John Kasich face off in Wisconsin in the state’s critical primary.

Cruz is the candidate best positioned to defeat current frontrunner Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump has 742 delegates to Cruz’s 462. A total of 1237 delegates are needed to win the nomination.

Jimmy Kimmel Live airs weeknights at 11:35 pm ET on ABC.

Rivera Considering Run for U.S. Senate

Will Mr. Rivera go to Washington?

Geraldo Rivera is considering a run for U.S. Senate.

Geraldo Rivera

The 69-year-old half-Puerto Rican talk show host recently announced that he’d contacted the local GOP in New Jersey, where he is considering a run in the next election cycle in 2014, during his radio show.

“I mentioned this only briefly to my wife … but I am and I’ve been in touch with some people in the Republican Party in New Jersey. I am truly contemplating running for Senate against Frank Lautenberg or Cory Booker,” said Rivera, according to The Hill.

“I’m not going to drill this out, because obviously I’ve got commitments to Fox and to here at the radio program and I’m really having a great time,” he said. “But I figure at my age, if I’m going to do it, I’ve got to do it.”

Rivera anchors Geraldo at Large on Fox News and hosts on Los Angeles radio station 790 KABC. If he decided to jump into the race, it could set up a showdown between two highly recognizable figures.

Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark and a prominent national Democrat, has already filed papers registering his Senate campaign after considering a run to challenge Republican Chris Christie in the race for governor in 2014.

Rivera also floated the notion of a potential run on his Twitter account this week, asking followers, “Wondering how folks feel about me running in N.J. under GOP banner against either Lautenberg or Booker for U.S. Senate?”

George P. Bush Debating a Run for State Office in Texas

It looks like George Prescott Bush may continue his family’s political legacy…

The 36-year-old half-Mexican American attorney says he’s close to settling on campaigning for the position of Texas Land Commissioner next year. He doesn’t believe he’ll make up his mind until he knows what Texas Governor Rick Perry, a fellow Republican, decides to do.

George P. Bush

“We for sure are running, the question is the office,” Bush told The Associated Press during the first interview about his political future since filing paperwork in November to seek elected office in Texas.

Bush’s father is former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, his grandfather is former President George H.W. Bush and his uncle is former President and Texas Governor George W. Bush. Perry has been governor since George W. left for the White House.

The land commissioner position has traditionally served as a steppingstone to higher office, but Bush said little about any plans to eventually become a national political force.

Instead, Bush spoke about how his past experience as an asset manager would help him manage the Permanent Schools Fund, which pays for public education and is managed by the land commissioner. He also said his perspective as an Afghanistan war veteran will help him use the post to become a leader in veterans’ affairs.

Bush said he would announce his final decision after the Texas Legislature adjourns in May but added that his choice will depend “where the governor’s thinking is.” Perry, who made an unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination in the race for president, remains popular in Texas, and he’s planning to reveal this summer if he’ll seek another term.

Some have speculated that Bush could challenge Perry for governor — and even if he doesn’t, what Perry decides will trigger political dominos falling.

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson plans to run for lieutenant governor next year, creating a vacancy in his office. But Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, may himself run for governor in 2014, meaning his post could be open too.

Bush suggested he’d be willing to wait his turn politically rather than immediately seeking top positions coveted by others in the state GOP.

“We’ve said that we want to be team players in the party, providing a younger, fresher vision for our values,” he said.

Bush speaks Spanish, and his mother Columba is from Mexico. Conservatives view George P. Bush on the ballot as a way to solidify support among Hispanics.

A Democrat hasn’t won statewide office in Texas since 1994, but Hispanics tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic and accounted for two-thirds of Texas’ population growth over the last decade. Bush noted: “We’ll be majority Hispanic in six years.”

“I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that having a candidate of Hispanic origin, or someone who can speak Spanish, can automatically obtain these votes,” Bush said of Hispanics. “Having said that, it’s important tactically to have candidates that understand issues of the community.”

Bush said of trying to stand out among his famous political family, “It’s always been the thing of my grandmother to say, ‘Go out and make a name for yourself’ and that’s something that I’ve followed.”

“But who better to ask for advice on politics than two former presidents and a former governor?” he said. “They’re not involved in the day-to-day operations. They’re not involved in formulating my ideology. It’s more of an informal advice.”

Bush said his grandfather inspired him to join the military, and he was deployed to Afghanistan as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He said that before enlisting, he knew politics was in his blood but felt he was too inexperienced to run for office.

It wasn’t until the last few months, however, that “I felt it was time for my generation to step forward in state politics,” Bush said.

Bush now spends his time crisscrossing Texas and the country, raising money and meeting with supporters. He was in Austin on Monday and posed for pictures outside the state Capitol before disappearing into meetings with legislators.

Cruz Makes History in U.S. Senate Race in Texas

Ted Cruz’s name will forever appear in history books in the Lone Star State…

The 41-year-old Cuban American GOP politician defeated Democratic challenger Paul Sadler on Tuesday night to become the first Latino to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.

Ted Cruz

Cruz, endorsed by the Tea Party Movement, earned a commanding victory over Sadler to win the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

The Texas Secretary of State’s office shows Cruz won the race with 56.63 percent of the vote. Sadler had 40.45 percent, while Libertarian John Jay Myers had 2 percent and Green Party candidate had 0.86 percent.

In his victory speech, Cruz called for a return to the “common sense conservative principles” of Ronald Reagan and pledged to be a champion for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

“It was morning in America,” when Reagan was elected president in 1980, Cruz told supporters, “and it can be again.”

He’ll be the second Latino Republican in the chamber, joining Florida’s Marco Rubio.

Rubio Tops List of Latino Speakers at the Republican National Convention

The 2012 Republican National Convention is officially underway in Tampa… And in its quest to woo more Hispanic voters, the GOP is shining a spotlight on the Republican Party’s rising Latino stars, including Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida.

Marco Rubio

Currently fewer than three in 10 Latino voters prefer Mitt Romney to President Barack Obama. If Romney can’t expand that number in the next two and a half months, he’ll have to run up a large percentage of the white vote to win the presidential election come November.

In 2004, President George W. Bush received more than 40% of the Hispanic vote, and won a narrow re-election. Four years later, Senator John McCain received less than a third of Latino voters, and lost the race.

So the RNC and an array of groups—the Hispanic Leadership Conference, the Latino Coalition, the Libre Initiative—are sponsoring several parties and events dedicated to Latino themes, with a never-before-seen level of attention being placed on Hispanic issues.

Only eight people will deliver primetime speeches that will be carried live on all three national networks on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Three of them will be Hispanics: Lucé Vela, the first lady of Puerto Rico; Susana Martinez, the governor of New Mexico; and Rubio.

Marco Rubio

Rubio, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba, has been given what could be considered the biggest assignment of all.

Rubio, who was named this spring as one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine, will speak right before Romney takes the stage to accept his party’s nomination. In announcing his high-profile appearance, Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoads praised Sen. Rubio as “the future of the Republican Party.”

Luce Vela

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico’s first lady Vela, a native of the island who attended college in Maryland, is scheduled to introduce Romney’s wife, Ann, at the convention on Tuesday night.

The high-profile post is a prime opportunity for Vela to introduce herself to Republicans — especially women and Hispanics — nationwide.

Susana Martinez

And finally, Martinez—the first Hispanic female governor in the U.S.—will take the stage before keynote speaker Gov. Chris Christie at the convention. The critical time slot, second only to that of the keynote speaker has been consistently reserved for the party’s up-and-coming talent – Mike Huckabee in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2004.

Other Latinos expected to speak at the convention include U.S. Senate nominee Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and Tea Party favorite, and Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño.