His departure leaves a great many voters, especially among America’s youth, without a home in the two “major” parties.
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“He was the Trump of the party, but he got trumped by Trump as did a lot of people”, said Jack Richardson, a Paul supporter and member of the Kentucky GOP Executive Committee.
Mr Paul failed to win over significant support other than from a small group of libertarian Republicans who had previously backed the White House bids made by his father, Ron Paul.
“It’s been an incredible honour to run a principled campaign for the White House”.
The freshman senator was once considered a potentially strong presidential contender, mainly based on his father’s popularity with the libertarian segment of the Republican Party. We take 9th? After New Hampshire, South Carolina – that was always going to be a disaster state no matter what position the campaign was in. Paul didn’t say whether he would endorse any of the other candidates.
Attention now switches to the state level, where Paul must mount a defense against his chief Democratic rival, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray. Voters elected Paul to the Senate in 2010.
While that marathon speech won him support from many opposed to US military operations, it did not translate into support in the Republican presidential campaign, where his opponents regularly have called for heightened military action against Islamic State terrorists beyond the aerial bombardment Obama is carrying out.
After discussing the decision with his staff on Wednesday, Paul sent out a statement to announce that he would be dropping out of the Republican presidential primary.
The 53-year-old senator, once described by Time magazine as “the most interesting man in politics” finished fifth in the first electoral contest of the campaign, with 4.5% of the vote. Ted Cruz with eight delegates, Donald Trump with seven, Florida Sen.
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“We decided that we wanted to find a candidate that really espoused the values that we believed in, someone who really focused their campaign on trying to help … those who are struggling on the margins”, Santorum said. Paul even donated $250,000 to pay for the caucus himself.
