The second Republican contender for the presidential nomination, Rand Paul, announced he is suspending his campaign. Paul follows former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in folding after relatively poor showings in the Iowa caucus.
Paul announced that he was withdrawing from the race, despite finishing slightly better in Iowa than anticipated.
Although Paul finished ahead of Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina and John Kasich, he was not likely to do as well in New Hampshire, according to recent polls.
“Across the country thousands upon thousands of young people flocked to our message of limited government, privacy, criminal justice reform and a reasonable foreign policy. Brushfires of Liberty were ignited, and those will carry on, as will I,” Paul said.
“Although, today I will suspend my campaign for President, the fight is far from over. 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.”
Paul will now turn his attention to his race for re-election as U.S. senator from Kentucky, where he has a serious Democratic challenger, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray.
Martin O’Malley, a Democrat and former governor of Maryland, also pulled out of the presidential race after a poor showing in Iowa.
All the candidates who withdrew pointed to Donald Trump as a major factor in preventing them from running the kind of race they hoped to run. Paul’s isolationist position on foreign policy was also seen as a tough sell in an era of ISIS and other jihadist terrorism rising worldwide.