Kentucky’s March Republican presidential caucus won’t feature an active candidate from the Bluegrass State.
Senator Rand Paulannounced Wednesdaythat he is ending his run for the White House.
The move came two days after Paul’s fifth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
“Although, today I will suspend my campaign for President, the fight is far from over,” Paul said in statement released to the media Wednesday morning. “I will continue to carry the torch for Liberty in the United States Senate and I look forward to earning the privilege to represent the people of Kentucky for another term."
The Paul campaign helped convince the Kentucky Republican Party to hold a presidential caucus in March instead of its normal May primary, so that Paul could run for both the White House and re-election to the U.S. Senate.
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Paul’s exit from presidential contest a month before the Kentucky caucus will likely raise questions about the maneuver.
But Warren County Republican Party Chairman Scott Lasley said Paul’s simultaneous campaigns weren’t the only factors behind the change.
“What was more compelling was an opportunity to move our say in the nomination process from May 17, where we’ve not had any impact in the last decade or two, to a March 5 date, which is fairly early in that process.
Lasley, a political science professor at Western Kentucky University, admits some Kentucky Republicans may be less likely to attend next month’s caucus because Paul dropped out of the race.
But he thinks the caucus still has a good chance of being considered a success.
“If turnout ends up at eight percent, then it probably wasn’t worth it,” Lasley said. “By the same token, if we get turnout between 15 and 25 percent, I think there’s a powerful argument that this is a model that could work in the future.”
Lasley said he hopes the Republican presidential contest will still be competitive by March 5. If it is, he thinks the state has a chance of being visited by at least a few GOP contenders.
