Rand Paul Tag

After finishing fifth in the Iowa caucus with less than 5% of the vote, Senator Rand Paul has announced that he is suspending his presidential campaign in order to focus on his Senate campaign in Kentucky. CNN reports:

"It's been an incredible honor to run a principled campaign for the White House," Paul said in the statement. "Today, I will end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of Liberty."

After being relegated to the Republican presidential primary undercard debate last week, presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul decided not to attend. Mind you, debate stage rankings are based on national polling, but whatever. Childish? Perhaps. But nowhere near as cringe-worthy as this ad released not by an unaffiliated PAC, but by Paul's campaign. "Audit the Ted" takes aim at fellow Republican contender, Sen. Ted Cruz for his close ties to big banks. As evidence of this, the ad cites Cruz's Goldman Sachs loans. Two crudely animated characters with British accents (?) chat with one another about Cruz's "inside connections" and Paul's standing as the only liberty-oriented, good-haired candidate. Meanwhile, the voices are from a rudimentary talk and play program. The whole ordeal is terrible from beginning to end. Without further ado, "Audit the Ted."

According to polling rules set for Republican primary debates, Rand Paul may find himself demoted to the lower tier while Christie comes back to the main stage next Tuesday. Steven Shepard reports at Politico:

Rand Paul could be booted from main debate stage Rand Paul, once considered the main contender for the anti-establishment GOP vote, will likely be pushed off the debate stage next week when CNN announces the lineup for the fifth Republican forum. Chris Christie, however, has clawed back in the polling thanks to a rebound in New Hampshire, virtually ensuring he will be promoted to the main event in Las Vegas on Tuesday, according to POLITICO’s calculations...

Rand Paul's star has faded within the crowded Republican field, but his team is hoping that a novel digital effort will draw enough attention to Paul (and his policies) to turn things back in the right direction. Today, Rand Paul is livestreaming...everything. The stream will be available on Paul's Facebook page and Ustream channel, offering what the campaign has touted as unprecedented access into life on the campaign trail. Via Rare:

The Paul campaign’s Chief Digital Strategist Vincent Harris told Rare, “In an effort to continue his efforts to run the most digital savvy and transparent campaign on either side of the aisle, Senator Paul will be the first Presidential candidate to live-stream an entire day on the campaign trail.” The live stream, which will be viewable through the campaign’s Facebook and UStream.tv pages, will begin with Paul’s morning in Iowa and will last throughout the entire day. The coverage will wrap up Tuesday night with Paul reacting live to the Democratic debate—the first time Hillary Clinton will have to face Bernie Sanders and the rest of her competitors. Now that could be fun.

Paul announced the decision yesterday on Twitter:

Insider speculation pegged Paul as the next to drop out of the crowded Republican primary weeks ago. Today, one of three Paul-supporting SuperPACs has stopped raising money until they see, "the campaign correct its problems." Politico reports:

One of the three super PACs supporting Rand Paul’s presidential campaign has stopped raising money, dealing a damaging blow to an already cash-starved campaign. In a Tuesday telephone interview, Ed Crane, who oversees the group, PurplePAC, accused Paul of abandoning his libertarian views -- and suggested it was a primary reason the Kentucky senator had plummeted in the polls. “I have stopped raising money for him until I see the campaign correct its problems,” said Crane, who co-founded the Cato Institute think tank and serves as its president emeritus. “I wasn’t going to raise money to spend on a futile crusade.” “I don’t see the point in it right now,” he added. PurplePAC has been in existence for around two years, but over the summer Crane transformed it into a Paul-focused vehicle. It joined two other super PACs, America’s Liberty and Concerned American Voters, that were expressly designed to support Paul. In July, PurplePAC announced that it had raised around $1.2 million - the vast majority of it coming from Jeff Yass, a Philadelphia options trader. Crane said the organization currently had over $1 million cash on hand, but no longer wanted to ask for contributions. “I just don’t want to do that to my friends,” he said. The libertarian views that catapulted Paul to national prominence had “disappeared,” Crane said, leaving many of Paul's longtime backers miffed.

As we recently reported, Rand Paul has been dealing with the unique issue of running for president and his senate seat at the same time. Yesterday, his plans were approved. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post:

Rand Paul sells Kentucky GOP on presidential caucus Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) avoided a major headache Saturday after Kentucky Republican Party approved a rule change that would allow him to run for president while seeking reelection to his Senate seat. "I applaud the Republican Party of Kentucky on their decision to hold a caucus in the upcoming Republican presidential cycle," Paul said in a statement. "The people of Kentucky deserve a voice as the GOP chooses their next nominee, and holding a caucus will ensure that Kentucky is relevant and participates early in the process." The party's central committee approved Kentucky's first-ever presidential caucus for March 5, 2016. The vote was 111 to 36, a stronger showing than expected, after a drama that took most of the day -- ending just 20 minutes before the meeting had to end. Two-third of the central committee were needed to approve the caucus.