Republican Rand Paul Suspends 2016 White House Campaign

@reuters
Republican Rand Paul Suspends 2016 White House Campaign

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Republican Rand Paul suspended his 2016 presidential bid on Wednesday after his small-government campaign failed to gain traction with voters.

The U.S. senator from Kentucky was the second Republican candidate, behind former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, to drop out of the race since Monday’s night’s Iowa caucuses. That contest launched the parties’ process to nominate candidates for the November election.

“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.

In the Republican race, the libertarian-leaning Paul finished in fifth place in Iowa with 4.5 percent of the vote. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz finished first in Iowa, putting a dent in real estate tycoon Donald Trump’s standing as front-runner to be his party’s nominee.

Paul, who is also focused on winning another U.S. Senate term, said he would continue fighting for limited government, criminal justice reform and “reasonable” foreign policy.

The heir apparent to the libertarian-minded voters who helped his father gain a standing in the last two presidential elections, Paul struggled to attract support in a crowded Republican field.

His withdrawal leaves 10 Republican candidates in the 2016 White House race.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Frances Kerry)

Photo: U.S. Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Rand Paul speaks at the New Hampshire GOP’s FITN Presidential town hall in Nashua, New Hampshire in this January 23, 2016 file photo. REUTERS/Mary Schwalm/Files

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Richard Grenell

Richard Grenell

Ever since he sullenly departed from the White House in January 2021, a portion of Donald Trump’s supporters have maintained that he is actually still in charge of the “real” government and running the military while President Joe Biden is left with a fake government and a ”bad military.” That view may be deep into the land of deplorable delusions, but in a way, Trump really has been running his own government.

Keep reading...Show less
GOP Oversight Chair Refuses To Probe Kushner's Mideast 'Influence Peddling'

Jared Kushner at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Photo by Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS

Last year House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer acknowledged former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House advisor Jared Kushner had “crossed the line” when he accepted $2 billion in foreign investment funds from the government of Saudi Arabia as he started up a private investment firm just months after leaving the White House.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}