Supporters of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul infiltrated Thursday night’s GOP presidential debate in South Carolina, and chanted “We want Rand!” a few times in protest of Paul’s failure to make the cut.
When Fox Business Network moderator Neil Cavuto began reading a question for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Paul’s supporters began repeatedly chanting, “We want Rand, we want Rand.” But it quickly died down, and Kasich responded by noting the color of Cavuto’s tie.
After his exclusion from the primetime stage, Paul chose not to attend the undercard debate, and instead used Twitter to interact directly with Republican voters tuning into the main debate.
Paul’s move may have paid off, in a debate that focused largely on exchanges between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio and Cruz. Paul gained the second-most number of followers, behind Trump, since the beginning of the main GOP presidential debate, according to Twitter’s government and elections division.
The Kentucky senator’s strategy let him hit an expected seven million people during his 48-hour media blitz, CNN noted.
Paul ranks ninth in the Washington Examiner‘s GOP presidential power rankings.
