Rand Paul is dealing with some tricky rules as he tries to run for president and hold on to his senate seat at the same time. Chris Moody of CNN reports:
Rand Paul’s tough choiceRand Paul has a choice: Spend nearly half a million dollars to keep his increasingly longshot presidential ambitions alive in his home state or leave the Senate.For now, he’s choosing to pony up.Paul’s political future rests partially in the hands of nearly 350 Republican officials in Kentucky, who will decide Saturday whether to approve a costly plan that would allow him to run in Kentucky for president and the U.S. Senate simultaneously—and possibly salvage his chances of staying in electoral politics after 2016.The proposal, which acts as a work-around of a state law that forbids candidates in Kentucky from running for two federal offices at the same time, would establish a presidential caucus in early March in addition to the state primary scheduled two months later.If it’s approved, Paul would be allowed to run for president in Kentucky during the March caucus and also for his Senate seat in the May primary. But if it’s turned down, Paul would be forced to give up his Senate seat in exchange for a chance to win any presidential delegates from his home state.
Paul has one thing going for him: Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is in his corner.
Joseph Gerth of the Courier-Journal:
McConnell wants GOP to support Rand Paul caucusSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he still supports the idea of a caucus for Kentucky Republicans to choose their presidential nominee despite Sen. Rand Paul’s stalled campaign.Speaking to reporters after addressing the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce and Shelby County Farm Bureau, McConnell said he expects the Republican Party of Kentucky’s 334-member Central Committee to approve the caucus this weekend.“Look, all we cared about is giving Rand a chance in his presidential race,” McConnell said. “Because of the peculiarities of Kentucky law, all I asked of him was to defray the cost and he’s indicated he’s going to do that and so I think we’ll go ahead and do the nomination for president by caucus.”
Rand Paul has been in Haiti this week performing free eye surgery, but NBC News caught up with him and you can watch the video below.
Naturally, he was forced to answer a number of questions about Donald Trump, but he does speak about his campaign plans starting at the 3:35 mark:
Featured image via YouTube.
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