10 Down

Rand Paul was the second of the 22 major party candidates to get into the 2016 presidential sweepstakes last year and on Wednesday became 10th to exit after 303 (seemingly joyless) days on the campaign trail. That is a far cry from the duration of his father’s two GOP White House bids. In 2008 Ron Paul’s campaign lasted 459 days (March 12, 2007 to June 12, 2008) and in 2012 he did not officially end his bid until the Republican National Convention after a 474-day run (May 13, 2011 to August 28, 2012, although the congressman stopped actively campaigning on May 14th of that year). The younger Paul failed to connect with any segment of the GOP electorate in 2016 and as such managed to garner only a fraction of the support as his father in the polls or at the ballot box. More to the point, the Kentucky U.S. Senator decided he could ill afford to risk losing both the presidency and his U.S. Senate seat this cycle and now will seek to save the latter in the remaining 280 days before the November election.