The massive gains made by Republicans in the midterm elections are not just a reflection of a national anti-President Obama sentiment, Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday, but also of qualms with Hillary Clinton.
Clinton, who is likely to stage a second bid for president in 2016, was a familiar face on the campaign trail on behalf of Democratic candidates toward the end of the election cycle. This included for Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky, a close family friend of the Clintons who even used her rallies with Bill and Hillary Clinton in television ads.
Grimes lost her race to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell by 15 points, a stunning margin that exceeded most public polling estimates.
“I think this election was basically a repudiation of the president, but also Hillary Clinton,” Paul said in an interview with NBC News.
Grimes “ran and she wouldn’t admit that she voted for President Obama. She was very specific, ‘I am a Clinton Democrat,’ ” Paul continued. “The Clintons, both of them came often to Kentucky, they came often to Arkansas. I think what you are seeing is not much difference between Clinton Democrats and Obama Democrats or really the cache of the Clintons isn’t what people think it is.”
Paul, a Kentucky Republican, has been a fierce and vocal critic of Hillary Clinton, in no small part because he is also planning to run for president in 2016. Now that voting in the midterm elections has concluded, Paul was swiftly pivoting to his messaging for the next two years — and he didn’t waste any time.
