Rand Paul drops out of presidential race
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul dropped out of the Republican presidential race Wednesday, two days after his disappointing finish in the Iowa Caucus.
"It's been an incredible honor to run a principled campaign for the White House," Paul said in a statement. "Today, I will end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of liberty."
Paul's White House bid struggled to get traction, and pressure was mounting on him to give up and focus on his re-election to the Senate in Kentucky, especially after Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, a Democrat and wealthy construction company executive, jumped into that race.
Gray responded to the announcement, saying that "Kentuckians deserve a full-time Senator."
"Paul spent years preparing for his presidential campaign and then took even more time away from Kentucky to pursue his personal ambitions. Now that he’s failed to catch fire with voters in other states, he’s coming back. Well, we deserve to be more than just a fallback plan. And we certainly deserve a senator whose focus is on Kentucky, not one focused on planning his next run for president," Gray said in a statement.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell complimented Paul on his race and attempted to turn attention back to his Senate re-election.
"Sen. Paul is a uniquely talented conservative with an important message and an irrepressible will. He made an important contribution to the presidential campaign trail, and he brings that same spirit to his ongoing Senate race. Kentuckians need Rand Paul’s voice in Washington," he said in a statement.
Paul, who just 16 months ago was named by Time Magazine as "The Most Interesting Man in Politics," finished fifth in Iowa on Monday, gaining just 4.5 percent of the vote and winning just one delegate – almost exactly where polls suggested he would finish.
Paul had placed an emphasis on Iowa, where his father, former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, won 21.5 percent of the vote in the 2012 presidential race. The younger Paul had acknowledged on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that he would have to do much better than expected.
"There are a lot of candidates out there, but, no, we have to exceed expectations and we have to do very well in Iowa," he said. "But you know, we're already moving up. We're fifth in the Des Moines Register Poll consistently. But we think we might get twice as much as what's in there or three times as much. We think we can do much better than expected. We think we even have a chance of winning."
He actually came in half a percentage point below the Des Moines Register projections.
Meanwhile, a University of Massachusetts poll released Wednesday ranked Paul in ninth place in New Hampshire's Feb. 9 primary with just 2 percent of the vote. He also was in ninth in South Carolina's Feb. 20 primary, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll that found him with just 1 percent.
Paul also was running out of money. His most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission showed that at the end of 2015, he had less than $1.3 million in his presidential campaign fund.
Paul may have been hurt by the rise of the Islamic State because his message of keeping troops at home and avoiding involvement in wars seemed to be at odds with Republican voters' thinking.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who won the Iowa Caucus and appeals to some of the same libertarian-leaning Republicans as Paul, could benefit from the Kentuckian's withdrawal.
But Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of the nonpartisan Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report, said Paul's slice of the electorate may be too small to really matter.
"Paul has a unique voice on some issues, and I wonder if it will be difficult for some of his supporters to be energized by any of the remaining candidates," he said.
But other candidates began to line up to woo his supporters. Speaking in New Hampshire, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio made a plea for Paul supporters to back him: "We'd love to have anybody's support and obviously would work hard to earn some of the support of some of the people that were helping him. ... We've had some policy disagreements on foreign policy, but by and large, one thing that I respect about Rand is he's a true and real believer in what he stands for."
Rand Paul finishes 5th in Iowa Caucus
And speaking with NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, Ohio Gov. John Kasich noted that he agrees with Paul on some issues.
"I think Rand Paul's had some good things to say about it," Kasich said. "You know, when it comes to the use of military force, I don’t want to be policeman of the world. That's not where I come from. I don’t want to be in the middle of civil wars."
In his statement announcing that he was suspending the campaign, Paul promised to continue his fight for to reduce the size and scope of government.
"Across the country thousands upon thousands of young people flocked to our message of limited government, privacy, criminal justice reform and a reasonable foreign policy. Brushfires of liberty were ignited, and those will carry on, as will I," he said.
"Although, today I will suspend my campaign for president, the fight is far from over. I will continue to carry the torch for liberty in the United States Senate and I look forward to earning the privilege to represent the people of Kentucky for another term."
Paul was the third candidate to drop out of the race after poor performances on Monday in Iowa. Former Democratic Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee exited the race after the caucuses ended that night. CNN reported Wednesday afternoon that former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, also planned to drop out.
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray challenges Rand Paul
The Libertarian Party lamented Paul's decision to pull out of the race.
"We applaud Rand Paul for his principled stance on the Fourth Amendment and criminal justice reforms," Nicholas Sarwark, chairman of the Libertarian National Committee, said in a statement. “We hope he will continue to fight for these and other liberty causes in the Senate."
The Club for Growth pivoted with Paul and reiterated that it backs his re-election to the Senate.
“Rand Paul is a strong, consistent and leading voice in the battle for economic liberty, and his pro-growth vision will carry on as he runs for re-election in Kentucky," club president David McIntosh said in a statement.
Paul's exit now means he won't be around for Kentucky's March 5 Republican presidential caucus, which party leaders instituted at his behest to allow him to circumvent a law that prohibits candidates from appearing twice on a primary or general election ballot in most situations.
Paul agreed to pay the estimated $500,000 cost to hold the caucus.
Mike Biagi, executive director of the Republican Party, said that Paul has raised $250,000 for the caucus. The party is currently working on updated cost estimates for it, he said, and it is confident Paul will raise whatever is needed.
Rand Paul files for presidential caucus
Marcus Carey, a Northern Kentucky Republican who opposed the caucus because he worries that it will confuse and disenfranchise voters accustomed to voting for presidential nominees in the May primary, said Paul's withdrawal underscores why it was wrong to approve the caucus in an effort to appease Paul.
"I'm sorry his bid for the president seems to have come up short, but I think that this always had to at least have been recognized as a real possibility from the beginning," he said. "Now that it has come to fruition, we're stuck with this process that disenfranchises people."
Scott Lasley, a political science professor at Western Kentucky University who headed the committee that advised party leaders on the caucus, said that whether the caucus is a success or failure will be decided by voter turnout and whether candidates come into Kentucky to campaign, which he said was at the forefront of the minds of some who supported the caucus.
Lasley said that Paul's withdrawal could even help the Kentucky caucus lure candidates to the state, saying "there is ironically an inverse relationship" between Paul's success and participation by others. "If he was a front-runner coming into Kentucky, he'd clean house easily. The fact that he was not able to do better, I think it made Kentucky more attractive to the other candidates."
Reporter Joseph Gerth can be reached at (502) 582-4702 or jgerth@courier-journal.com.