Faced with the likelihood of an embarrassing exclusion from a CNN debate Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul hinted he might drop out of the presidential race within days.
“We will make an announcement, on that, on Tuesday,” Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said when asked if he will continue his campaign if low polling numbers relegate him to the second tier debate Tuesday, the Boston Globe reported.
Paul’s campaign has floundered in a crowded conservative field, with the libertarian-leaning lawmaker failing to win the groundswell of support from young and free-market Republicans he hoped to attract by improving on the campaigns of his father, former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas.
Outshone by fellow GOP senators Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and dogged by attacks over his relatively dovish national security views, Paul has hardly made a dent in the GOP field.
Paul pleaded Saturday for CNN to adjust its rules to let him participate in the prime time debate, saying he deserves “equal treatment” with Carly Fiorina, who successfully argued for inclusion in an earlier CNN debate.
CNN has limited its main debate Tuesday to GOP candidates with a national polling average of at least 3.5 percent or at least 4 percent in one of the early-voting states of New Hampshire or Iowa.
Paul averages 2.2 percent nationally, 2.7 percent in New Hampshire, and 4 percent in Iowa, according to RealClearPolitics.
“We’re hoping that they will give the same and equal and fair treatment that they gave to Carly Fiorina the last time,” Paul said at a campaign appearance at New England College’s Concord branch.
Members of Paul’s campaign staff on Saturday night denied his remark referred to dropping out. Paul meant only that he would make an announcement Tuesday about his possible exclusion from the main debate, his campaign said.
