Domenico Montanaro

On gay rights and immigration, Republicans running for president, like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, are trying to navigate a tricky course between their party and the country at-large.

This post was updated at 6:15 p.m. ET

Readiness to be president is a threshold question for many candidates. That's especially true when that candidate is 43 years old and a freshman senator.

No, not Barack Obama, but Marco Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida, who announced Monday that he's ...

At around the same time that Hillary Clinton's campaign team in Brooklyn, N.Y., was hitting "send" on the emails and tweets that officially launched Clinton's presidential campaign, the former first lady was hitting the road — in a van.

Clinton was scheduled to be in Iowa on Tuesday, but instead ...

Hillary Clinton officially announced her candidacy for president Sunday in a video posted on her website. Where candidates choose to announce give voters a first glimpse at how they will run.

The long will-she-or-won't-she charade is nearly over. A source with knowledge of Hillary Clinton's campaign plans tells NPR's Mara Liasson she will announce on Sunday that she's running for president.

But don't expect a big rally with thousands of cheering supporters. For her second run at the presidency, the former ...

This story was updated April 9 at 4 p.m. ET.

Sen. Tom Cotton accused President Obama of holding up a "false choice" between his framework deal on Iran's nuclear program and war. He also seemed to diminish what military action against Iran would entail.

"Even if military action were required, ...

As Hillary Clinton is expected to officially launch her presidential campaign in the next couple of weeks, her famous, former president husband talked to Town & Country magazine, which went along with him to Haiti in February.

Here are four takeaways from that interview:

1. The Clinton Foundation is ...

Ron Paul stood off to the side Tuesday as his son Rand announced he was running for president.

There was no speaking role for the elder Paul, 79. There was no ceremonial passing of the torch of "liberty."

There wasn't even a hearty thank you or nod to the father's ...

NPR's Audie Cornish talks to NPR's Domenico Montanaro about where Rand Paul fits in the Republican field of contenders for president in 2016 and the issues that bolster his appeal to young people.

Rand Paul is not like other potential presidential candidates.

The Kentucky senator, who announced his candidacy for the White House on Tuesday morning, doesn't fit neatly into the molds of either party.

Socially liberal on issues of crime and punishment — especially when it comes to drug sentencing — against ...

This post was updated at 10:30 a.m. E.T.

Anyone who thinks President Obama will shy away from presidential politics in 2016, think again.

Obama scoffed at Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's suggestion that he would, on Day 1, revoke any nuclear agreement with Iran if he is elected president.

"It ...

Every day is a birthday for Tom Cotton.

Cotton has a reputation for being a very serious man. The military veteran, Harvard Law graduate and freshman U.S. senator gained wide attention for being able to rally 46 of his Republican colleagues in the Senate to join in writing a letter ...

Every politician likes to tout what they believe the "American People" want.

As the debate over the Iran nuclear deal inevitably heads toward the meat grinder that is Congress, President Obama tried to preemptively frame that debate. And he claimed to have the "American people" on his side.

"If Congress ...

Thought exercise: What if the indictment of Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez ... could once again potentially place an appointment of a U.S. senator in the hands of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie?

To trigger this scenario, Menendez, who was indicted Wednesday on corruption charges, would first have to step down ...

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — not just a rank-and-file House member — alleged Tuesday that Hillary Clinton likely broke the law with her use of private emails as secretary of state.

"I think they all fall into one great big mistake she made," Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley ...

The culture wars are always percolating beneath the surface in presidential politics — until something or someone pushes them to the surface.

That something early in this cycle is Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Republican Gov. Mike Pence, who is considering a run for president in 2016, signed into ...

No one in politics today is hearing more calls from progressives to run than Elizabeth Warren, the popular and populist Massachusetts senator. Warren, though, denies any interest in the presidency and continued to do that Monday in an interview with Jeremy Hobson on WBUR's Here & Now.

"I'm out here ...

South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy's Benghazi Select Committee announced Friday in a statement that Hillary Clinton had wiped her private email server clean; the committee is getting no additional emails from her; it's leaving open the possibility of a third-party investigation; and Republicans are promising to bring Clinton in ...

Harry Reid, the wily Democratic Senate leader, was likely — once again — to be one of the most vulnerable incumbents up for re-election in 2016.

Few, though, would have bet the house against Reid — a sharp-elbowed campaigner — especially in a presidential year when demography will favor Democrats ...

Harry Reid's exit could have ignited a scramble to fill the power vacuum among Senate Democrats.

But the Nevada senator is doing his best to avoid what he called a "knock-down, drag-out fight" by endorsing Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat better known as Chuck, who has been Reid's top ...