Margaret Hoover

The rise of Ben Carson is a fascinating case study in grassroots cultivation that's resulted in strong support among evangelicals and women, reflected in the most robust small donor base in the 2016 race.

I have to object to this notion that children form their sexuality and their sexual identity from their parents. The truth is that scientists, biologists, we don't know how sexuality is formed in people. And to suggest that people are going to be gay if they're raised by gay parents is just scientifically unfounded.

Hoover also loved new media the way Millennials do now. He was the first person to ever appear on television. As commerce secretary, he standardized the radio industry so businesses could harness its commercial value. He didn't e-mail my great-grandmother a marriage proposal - but he did cable her one, all the way from Australia.

Bill O'Reilly's firing is a welcome step by Fox News and its parent company, 21st Century Fox, by a new generation of leadership trying to modernize the country's conservative media flagship and change its culture. But it is just a step.

The decision to have an abortion is a deeply personal decision between a woman, her family, her doctor, her God; not her government, and not the public at large.

Conservative faith traditions argue rightly for strict religious protections in the law so that churches, synagogues and mosques aren't forced to perform ceremonies inconsistent with their religious teachings.

While increasing acceptance of gays marks my generational experience - Ellen DeGeneres is welcomed into the living rooms of millions of Americans daily, an impossibility in even my childhood - many who are older than me fear that if gays and lesbians can marry, what's next?

From his lifetime of experience as a turnaround expert in private equity to his experience with the turnaround mission of the Olympics to his successful term as a blue state GOP governor, Romney can point to a record of bipartisan leadership and achievement that Obama can only talk about.

The conservative values of limited government and freedom for all coincide with the movement for full freedom and equality for LGBT Americans.