In early January, Rand Paul announced a bold strategy to shake up the Iowa caucus. His goal was to gain the support of 10,000 Iowa college students. Rand was no doubt hoping that the roughly 8,000 young liberty voters who caucused for his father in 2012 would help him reach that goal. On Sunday, Ron Paul took the stage with his son at the University of Iowa to help rally the support of young voters.
At the rally, Rand was interviewed by Fox News’ Megyn Kelly about the latest Des Moines Register poll, which placed him in fifth place with just five percent support. At the time, Rand suggested that the poll was less accurate than some were led to believe.
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“You might find something really surprising tomorrow night,” he said, with over a thousand students cheering his name behind him. “I think Cruz is actually faltering at the very end here,” he added. “We think we are going to see a rise here and a lot of student turnout.”
Just hours before the caucus on Monday, Rand held two more rallies at Iowa State University in Ames, and one earlier in the day in Des Moines. But, he still fell far short of his goal.
As the results pored in, it seemed that while Paul had over a thousand chanting fans behind him in Iowa City the night before the caucus, that was not enough to give him the boost he was counting on. Paul had been hoping for 10,000 Iowa students to vote for him at the caucus, but he received just over 8,000 total votes.
Furthermore, although Rand said he believed Cruz was losing traction in Iowa, Cruz took the lead in the caucus early on and won.
The poll that Megyn Kelly and Rand discussed the day before placed Rand in fifth place with five percent, and the caucus results placed Rand at the same mark. In Johnson County, where the University of Iowa is located, Paul reached fourth place with ten percent, taking the lead above Carson who came fourth in the caucus. In Story County, where Rand held his final rally before the caucus at Iowa State University, reports have Paul and Carson tied at eight percent with a mere three votes setting Carson ahead in fourth place.
“I think those who don’t do well in Iowa probably won’t go on,” Paul told Megyn Kelly before the caucus. “If you don’t do well in Iowa, you won’t do well in New Hampshire,” he added confidently when discussing his competition.
Other candidates were aware of the accuracy of this statement and dropped out hours after the results from the Iowa caucus started to arrive. Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley and Republican candidate Mike Huckabee dropped once they saw their results.
As Paul holds onto his fifth place title he waits for the next big step, which is the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9.
