Ron Paul is 3 for 3 in his endorsements in the last two weeks. Paul endorsed Kurt Bills, and Bills is now the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota. Paul endorsed Thomas Massie, and Massie is now the GOP nominee in Kentucky’s 4th congressional district race. Paul endorsed Ted Cruz, and as of last night Cruz will now go head-to-head with Lt. Governor David Dewhurst in a Texas runoff for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.
Coincidence? Not according to Buzzfeed’s Rosie Gray who says Ron and Rand Paul are building a “machine:”
Ron Paul, still, if barely, a presidential candidate, suffered another landslide defeat in the Kentucky primary last week. But the Pauls won anyway:
Their hand-picked candidate Thomas Massie, backed by Kentucky senator
Rand Paul and funded by a wealthy 21-year-old Texan Paul acolyte with a
super PAC, won his hotly-contested House primary by a decisive margin.
Quietly, from the remnants of two failed presidential campaigns and the formidable online Paul organizations, a political machine is being born. The Paul agenda of extremely limited government, suspicion of economic elites, and their true outsider street cred have broad appeal in their party’s politics… The Republican Senate nominees in Wisconsin and Minnesota this cycle owe their nomination in part to the Paul influence. A Paul acolyte, Ted Cruz, is on the cusp of an upset victory over the establishment favorite in Texas Republican Senate primary. And Paul’s son Rand, the junior senator from Kentucky, is now mentioned seriously as a prospect for the 2016 Republican nomination should Mitt Romney fall short in November.
This new attention to state races is, a Paul advisor said, a matter of strategy.
“As Ron Paul moves on to a different phase, there will be other leaders who are in a position to emerge,” said the Republican strategist close to the Paul campaign. “Obviously the more people who are sympathetic to their issues, a host of those is a positive thing for the bigger movement. That’s part of the objectives.”
Of the major strategic goals that Paul’s camp is focusing on now — picking up delegates, getting issues onto the platform at the convention, and getting libertarians included in the mainstream Republican party — the last is “critical,” the strategist said:“You’ve got a bunch of other people who can go and lead and build off our infrastructures…”
Quietly, from the remnants of two failed presidential campaigns and the formidable online Paul organizations, a political machine is being born. The Paul agenda of extremely limited government, suspicion of economic elites, and their true outsider street cred have broad appeal in their party’s politics… The Republican Senate nominees in Wisconsin and Minnesota this cycle owe their nomination in part to the Paul influence. A Paul acolyte, Ted Cruz, is on the cusp of an upset victory over the establishment favorite in Texas Republican Senate primary. And Paul’s son Rand, the junior senator from Kentucky, is now mentioned seriously as a prospect for the 2016 Republican nomination should Mitt Romney fall short in November.
This new attention to state races is, a Paul advisor said, a matter of strategy.
“As Ron Paul moves on to a different phase, there will be other leaders who are in a position to emerge,” said the Republican strategist close to the Paul campaign. “Obviously the more people who are sympathetic to their issues, a host of those is a positive thing for the bigger movement. That’s part of the objectives.”
Of the major strategic goals that Paul’s camp is focusing on now — picking up delegates, getting issues onto the platform at the convention, and getting libertarians included in the mainstream Republican party — the last is “critical,” the strategist said:“You’ve got a bunch of other people who can go and lead and build off our infrastructures…”
“Congressman and Senator Paul are both deeply dedicated to
helping elect principled Constitutionalists to office and are both
working directly and indirectly with dozens of candidates across the
country,” said Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton.
A few high-profile candidates, like Ted Cruz in Texas, have been particularly successful at profiting from the Paul anointment. Father and son appeared with him at a rally in Texas and conducted a moneybomb for him. And recent polling suggests Cruz will make it into a runoff with Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst in July, a scenario many believes favors the outsider.
Kurt Bills, a Minnesota congressman who recently won his primary to face off against Sen. Amy Klobuchar, also benefited from an unusually strong Paulite apparatus in that state, one that also took over the states convention. Bills benefited, too, from Paul himself campaigning and fundraising with him, and sending out fundraising emails on his behalf.
An email on Paul’s Bills endorsement from the end of March: “If elected to the U.S. Senate, Kurt will join my son, Rand, in leading the fight for fiscal responsibility, individual liberty, and constitutional principles in Washington, D.C…”
A few high-profile candidates, like Ted Cruz in Texas, have been particularly successful at profiting from the Paul anointment. Father and son appeared with him at a rally in Texas and conducted a moneybomb for him. And recent polling suggests Cruz will make it into a runoff with Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst in July, a scenario many believes favors the outsider.
Kurt Bills, a Minnesota congressman who recently won his primary to face off against Sen. Amy Klobuchar, also benefited from an unusually strong Paulite apparatus in that state, one that also took over the states convention. Bills benefited, too, from Paul himself campaigning and fundraising with him, and sending out fundraising emails on his behalf.
An email on Paul’s Bills endorsement from the end of March: “If elected to the U.S. Senate, Kurt will join my son, Rand, in leading the fight for fiscal responsibility, individual liberty, and constitutional principles in Washington, D.C…”
“These congressmen and state officials and new federal officials are
lining up with us because we have the soldiers,” said Paul adviser Doug
Wead. “If you want to run for office, you have to have them. They are the activist base of the Republican Party now…”
