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Iowa Claims Another Candidate: Rand Paul Drops Out Of Presidential Race, Focuses On Keeping Senate Seat

By Tara West
Published on: 04:55 PST, Feb 3, 2016

Iowa has claimed another GOP presidential candidate. Senator Rand Paul has suspended his campaign following a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses. However, Paul is far from done campaigning, as he now focuses efforts on retaining his Kentucky Senate seat in the upcoming November Senate elections. Paul says it has been “an incredible honor” to campaign and that the “fight for liberty” will go on.

The Daily Mail reports that Senator Rand Paul has suspended his presidential campaign after failing to garner a significant amount of votes in the Iowa caucuses. The Kentucky Senator is the second casualty in the GOP following the Iowa vote. Prior to Paul suspending his campaign, politician Mike Huckabee announced that he would be suspending his campaign.

Rand Paul announced the suspension of his campaign in a minute and a half long speech after only receiving 4.5 percent of the votes during the Iowa caucuses. During his speech, Paul thanked all of his supporters and said that the “fight for liberty” would continue and that is was an “incredible honor” to meet Iowa voters.

Following the suspension of his campaign, Paul posted a variety of videos to his Twitter account in which he reminisced on highlights moments from his campaign and continued to tweet that he will not give up on defending the personal liberties of all Americans.

Although Senator Rand Paul is no longer in the race for the White House, he still has lots of campaigning to do as he attempts to retain his seat as the senator from Kentucky in the November elections. With his efforts no longer on the presidential race, we will likely see Paul move his campaigning back to Kentucky in a bid to prepare for the November Senate elections in the state. If re-elected, it will be Paul’s second term as senator.

CNN Politics notes that Rand Paul’s poor showing may be a result of his more “isolationist” approach to foreign policy. Paul has been vocal about being less involved in foreign affairs while focusing more on problems here on the home front. However, this move came at a time that “failed to connect with GOP voters at a time of growing national security fears.” With fear surrounding these national security issues, it appears that the GOP wasn’t ready for a candidate with a less aggressive national security approach. However, Paul says that those wanting to maintain personal liberties and freedom should continue to fight despite the suspension of his candidacy.

With Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul dropping out of the presidential race, we are still left with 10 GOP candidates. Interestingly, six of those candidates did worse than Paul in the Iowa caucuses but still have not suspended their campaigns. Jim Gilmore, Rick Santorum, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, and Jeb Bush all came in behind Paul but have yet to suspend their campaigns. However, at least one of these candidates, John Kasich, has confirmed to NPR that if he does poorly in the New Hampshire caucuses, he will drop out of the race.

“If I get snuffed out, I go home – end of story.”

What do you think about the narrowing GOP race for the White House? Do you think New Hampshire will claim a few more of the presidential candidates?

[Photo by Nati Harnik/AP Photo]

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