We’re waking up to the news that Rand Paul has tapped out of the 2016 presidential race:
“Rand Paul on Wednesday dropped out of the race for president, saying he will now focus on his reelection to the U.S. Senate.
“It’s been an incredible honor to run a principled campaign for the White House. Today, I will end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of Liberty,” Paul said in a statement.
“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.” …
Paul, a freshman senator and the son of former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, has a large libertarian following but failed to gain traction in the presidential race. He had become an increasingly marginal figure in the still-sprawling GOP field. He finished fifth in Iowa, with less than 5 percent of the vote, but was projected to do much worse in next week’s New Hampshire primary, with recent polls showing him in ninth place.”
In Iowa, Rand Paul won 8,481 votes, 4.5 percent of the total. In 2012, Ron Paul won 26,036 votes, which was 21.43 percent of the total. In 2016, Republican turnout was 186,874, which was up 50 percent from 122,255 in 2012.
Did the Liberty vote show up for Rand Paul? The NBC exit polls show that Rand Paul only won 13 percent of 17 to 24 years olds and 9 percent of 30 to 44 year olds. In 2012, Ron Paul won 50 percent of voters 17 to 27, 45 percent of voters 25 to 29, and 34 percent of voters 30 to 39. Rand lost to Cruz and Trump in every age group.
No one running for the Republican presidential nomination pandered harder to non-Whites than Rand Paul. Among other things, he called himself a “Detroit Republican,” courted Al Sharpton, ran on a platform of criminal justice reform, demonized the militarized police in Ferguson, attacked Cruz for backing away from amnesty in the last debate, celebrated the life of Nelson Mandela, and took a highly publicized break from the campaign trail to perform eye surgery on poor Haitians.
On the morning of the Iowa caucuses, Rand Paul went on MSNBC to publicly attack Trump yet again for chasing away non-Whites and turning the GOP into “a lily white party.” The NBC exit polls show that Rand Paul won 5 percent of the non-White vote in Iowa compared to Cruz who won 28 percent, Trump who won 24 percent, Rubio who won 23 percent, and Carson who won 9 percent.
Goodbye, Rand Paul. As the archetype of the goofy libertarian, you ran for president, wrecked the Liberty movement, and all you have to show for your ridiculous pandering is this certificate as White Renegade of the Year.
Note: It could have been worse. Your underling Jack Hunter was publicly stripped of his manhood. Talk about taking one for the team!