As Republicans officially nominate Trump, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul still on the sidelines
When Donald Trump named JD Vance his running mate on Monday, Rand Paul showered praise on the selection.
“It’s great to have an opponent of endless wars and more aid to Ukraine on the ticket,” Paul posted.
Yet, among Trump allies and discerning political watchers, Paul’s praise immediately underlined the fact that he has not yet wholly endorsed the top of the ticket.
On the day that Trump is set to be formally re-nominated as the party’s White House standard-bearer for the third consecutive time, Paul noticeably remains officially neutral in the 2024 presidential campaign.
Paul’s political adviser first told the Herald-Leader in May that Paul wanted to hear Trump embrace issues of personal liberty more specifically before he would formally bestow his blessing.
“He’s going to have to be more vocal on things like the lockdowns that I opposed, like the civil liberty abuses that I opposed, like the debt, which frankly has been bad under Republicans and Democrats,” Paul told Spectrum News in June.
Doug Stafford, who runs Paul’s political operation, did not respond to an inquiry on whether Trump had shown any progress on those subjects.
But Paul’s recalcitrance hasn’t sat well with the upper echelons of the Trump campaign, some who now view the senator’s support as an afterthought.
Paul, a former presidential candidate himself, is not attending the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week. But to Kentucky GOP delegates, Paul’s rebelliousness is no surprise.
“He’s just different,” said state Sen. Phillip Wheeler, a delegate participating in the floor proceedings in Milwaukee. “Seems like he has his quirks on occasion… He just does everything on his own schedule.”
In comparing Paul to U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie — a fellow libertarian who enjoys breaking from party orthodoxy — State Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer said Paul understands that he doesn’t “need to tell Kentuckians how to vote.”
“They don’t need to take their precious time to endorse Donald Trump. They’ve got so much other important work to do,” Frommeyer said of Paul and Massie, who attended the Libertarian National Convention in Washington but did not show up in Milwaukee for the RNC.
Still, Paul hasn’t been shy about doling out formal endorsements in a flurry of other races across the country.
Through his Protect Freedom PAC this year, Paul backed a Senate candidate in Oklahoma, as well as House candidates in South Carolina, Washington state, Virginia and Indiana. The PAC even ran a television ad on behalf of Massie ahead of the Kentucky primary prominently featuring Paul.
“Join me in supporting the true constitutional conservative, Thomas Massie,” Paul said direct-to-camera in the spot.
There’s some irony in that Paul was also heavily invested in the race of the newly crowned Republican vice presidential nominee.
In 2022, Paul cut a television ad for Mike Gibbons, a wealthy investment banker running for U.S. Senate in Ohio.
Gibbons ended up finishing in fourth place, capturing just 12% of the vote.
The ultimate victor carried a late endorsement from Trump.
His name? JD Vance.
