ROCK HILL, S.C. — As Winthrop University prepares to welcome the three Democratic presidential hopefuls Friday evening, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is on campus ensuring South Carolina voters hear his conservative message first.
A crowd of roughly 200 turned out to see the Republican candidate participate in a town hall meeting Friday alongside South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Congressman Trey Gowdy. The forum was the latest in a presidential series hosted by Scott in his home state.
Paul currently stands in the shadows in the GOP field. His low poll numbers and modest fundraising figures are dwarfed by fellow Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who both increased their momentum with strong performances in the third Republican debate.
Nevertheless, the Kentucky senator appeared confident Friday as he fielded questions on a handful of issues central to his campaign. Earlier Thursday evening, Fox Business announced that Paul had earned just enough in the polls to be included in the fourth prime-time debate next week. Two of his rivals — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — weren’t as lucky.
Unlike Rubio and Cruz, the notoriously dovish senator told voters he would not “tear up” the nuclear agreement with Iran on day one of his presidency if he makes it to the Oval Office.
“I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t have signed, and I voted against the Iranian agreement… but I would separate myself in not completely discounting negotiations with Iran,” he said.
Paul, who’s repeatedly called on Congress to “audit the Fed,” also told voters he would aim to strike a balance as president between regulation of the U.S. stock markets while reexamining the role of the Federal Reserve.
“There needs to be some sort of regulation, but I think the federal reserve has done a terrible job at that,” Paul told the crowd.
Paul Darcy, a resident of Indiantown, S.C., arrived at the town hall Friday as an undecided Republican voter, but walked away backing Paul.
“I think his foreign policy is common sense, he’s knows the difference between good and evil… and he understands that compromise in most cases is necessary to get anything done,” Darcy told the Washington Examiner.
Darcy’s son, a single-issue voter on privacy rights and just the type of millennial voter Paul’s campaign has sought to attract, said he was “very impressed” with the libertarian-leaning senator.
“The NSA is one of the biggest issues [and] it’s one not covered by the other candidates,” said the younger Darcy.
“The broad spectrum of government surveillance is actually terrible and makes us weaker as a country,” he added.
Asked who he would support should Paul fail to make it to the South Carolina primary, the young voter pointed to Cruz and, likely to the Kentucky senator’s disappointment, businessman Donald Trump.
