Rand Paul’s debate hopes may rest on rounding

The campaign insists there will be no shakeups or changes in strategy, that Paul will continue his campaign schedule in the early states and regions off the beaten track, and that it has enough resources to carry the candidate through at least the first four primaries.

Reflecting what the campaign had said in its note to supporters, Levin said that despite the low third-quarter haul, Paul is nowhere close to dropping out because he doesn’t have a big operation – as Walker did – and doesn’t need as much money to stick it out. If the campaign now has only $2 million in the bank, even with $2.5 million in new money over the last three months, that means the campaign still spent $4.6 million since July 1. Paul pushed the Kentucky GOP to host a caucus instead of a primary, which would allow him to run for both offices-and he footed the $250,000 bill.

But the campaign doesn’t see it that way and instead points to signs of life: in the two weeks after the second Republican debate, it raised $750,000.

Frayda Levin, a major GOP donor and Paul backer, said Paul’s third-quarter haul doesn’t fully reflect his current standing because the Kentucky Republican’s fundraising didn’t really kick in until after the second debate in the last few weeks of the quarter. A Paul campaign spokesman said that the PACs that were set up to help the candidate “remain active and ongoing”.

Whether Paul’s campaign is bringing in enough money to stay the distance is an open question, but Gor is adamant that his candidate would not go the way of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who dropped out of the race last month.

Paul said his presidential hopes wouldn’t be undermined by Bevin’s pro-Carson comment during the debate. Still, if Paul’s fundraising doesn’t improve, and fast, Trump’s prediction might prove right.

But Trump isn’t the only one undermining Paul’s campaign.

Rand Paul was likely thankful for the concept of rounding this week when CNBC released the criteria it will use to determine the candidates who will participate in its October. 28 debate among leading Republican candidates for president. If he’s all in for the presidential race, why did he toss a quarter-million dollars to Kentucky to protect his path to re-election to the Senate? Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who is running for the Republican nomination, raised more than $20 million, mostly in small donations, his campaigns said. “He has been more careful about that”, she said.

With $2 million cash on hand, “we’re not going anywhere”, Gor said. So far, though, the results in terms of fundraising have been disappointing.

Another PAC, Concerned American Voters, which is focused on organizational efforts in the early states, says it’s still raising money. Reason’s Brian Doherty, the long-time sympathetic chronicler of the Paul movement, argued that “if voters are paying attention, Paul has distinguished himself from the GOP pack on foreign policy and criminal justice”. “I don’t know that they were all on payroll, all of these people”. “They want to hear those libertarian values to distinguish Rand”.