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Rand Paul May Quit Race for GOP Presidential Nomination
Saturday, December 12, 2015 11:05 PM
By: Todd Beamon
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul hinted Saturday that he might drop out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination if he did not make the cut for Tuesday's main stage debate in Las Vegas.
"We will make an announcement, on that, on Tuesday," Paul told The Boston Globe at a campaign stop in Concord, N.H.
But Matt Chisholm, the New Hampshire communications director for the Paul campaign, told the Globe later Saturday that the senator was in the race to win. Paul's comment referred to whether he would participate in the undercard debate if he did not make the primary event at the Venetian Hotel.
CNN, a co-sponsor of the debate with the Republican National Committee, has not yet announced the line-up for the fifth debate. The network is requiring candidates to have a national polling average of at least 3.5 percent or at least 4 percent in one of the early-voting states of Iowa or New Hampshire to qualify for the main debate.
The polls would have to be conducted between Oct. 29 and Sunday. Those falling under the threshold will be invited to the earlier debate, the Globe reports.
A Bloomberg analysis on Friday showed that Paul falls short on all three criteria, but comes closest in Iowa, where he currently averages 3.5 percent support. If only one additional poll is released in each category by Sunday, Paul would need a relatively ambitious 6 percent in Iowa, 8 percent in New Hampshire or 10.5 percent nationally to qualify, according to Bloomberg.
In the Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll released Saturday, Paul finished with 3 percent. That could knock him out of the main debate on Tuesday.
Rival Carly Fiorina has also come close to being left out of the main
