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This article first appeared in Real Clear Politics.

Rand Paul raised just $2.5 million for his presidential bid over the last three months--a sum that not only pales in comparison to the high double-digit hauls of his rivals, but amounts to roughly a third of what he brought in the previous quarter.

The Kentucky libertarian has slipped so far in the polls--the RCP average shows him at 2.3 percent--that he may not qualify for the prime-time debate stage later this month.

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The Kentucky senator who rode the 2010 Tea Party wave to a victory in the Senate is a practical libertarian

Paul has also recently been raising money for his U.S. Senate re-election, raising questions about his commitment to the presidential contest. Paul pushed the Kentucky GOP to host a caucus instead of a primary, which would allow him to run for both offices--and he footed the $250,000 bill.

Altogether, this paints a picture of a campaign on life support.

But the campaign doesn't see it that way and instead points to signs of life: in the two weeks after the second Republican debate, it raised $750,000. The campaign insists there will be no shakeups or changes in strategy, that Paul will continue his campaign schedule in the early states and regions off the beaten track, and that it has enough resources to carry the candidate through at least the first four primaries. This week, the campaign rolled out a list of caucus state endorsements.

Spokesman Sergio Gor said the campaign has added new staff over the past week.

"Our campaign is in for the long haul and Senator Paul's message of limited government and individual liberty will continue to resonate with primary voters," Gor said in a statement.

"Most Interesting Man in Politics"

Still, the numbers are startling for a candidate who, at this time last year, had been dubbed the "most interesting man in politics." Paul's libertarian leanings, especially his audience-commanding efforts in the Senate on drone strikes and NSA snooping, his calls for criminal justice reform and support for legalizing marijuana, and his ability to expand the conservative message to new groups and communities were all supposed to set him apart from the crowded field.

Instead, the GOP returned to its hawkish roots on foreign policy as situations escalated abroad, and Paul found himself in a challenging position. He wanted from the outset to expand the coalition of loyal libertarians his father had built through his own presidential campaigns, but he also hoped to win over a faction of the mainstream. He irked libertarians by proposing an increase in the defense budget, joining Sen. Tom Cotton and others in trying to trip up the Iran negotiations, and ultimately opposed the nuclear deal. And on the campaign trail, he didn't always appear to be all that interested or interesting.

Paul was the second candidate to announce his presidential campaign, and did so with the message: "Defeat the Washington Machine, Unleash the American Dream." But Paul had also worked to alter Kentucky state laws to allow him to run for his Senate seat and the presidency at the same time, which not only raised questions about his intentions but also seemed antithetical to his anti-establishment campaign.

The rise of real political outsiders, Donald Trump in particular, undercut Paul's credentials. And Paul's efforts to swat down Trump, especially in the first debate, proved futile and appeared desperate.

Paul became a favorite punching bag for Trump. On the main debate stage last month, Trump asked why Paul was even participating. This week, he tried to stoke the fires and take credit for Paul's demise, tweeting: "Prediction: Rand Paul has been driven out of the race by my statements about him-- he will announce soon. 1%!"

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GOP presidential candidate and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul sits down with CBS' "Face the Nation" to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis, Planned Parent...

Paul responded by saying he would be sticking around the presidential race just as long as Trump, if not longer, and called the real estate mogul "a clown."

"Ultimately we're going to get to the truth, we're going to get to substance--it takes a while," Paul told CNN earlier this week. "But by no means am I finished: I'm just getting started."

But Trump isn't the only one undermining Paul's campaign. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has also sought to appeal to some of the libertarian contingent and has maintained his standing in the polls. The tension between the two has thickened.

This week, the Cruz campaign rolled out a video highlighting eight supporters of his campaign who had previously backed Ron Paul. The video also noted that Rand Paul, along with Ron, had endorsed Cruz during his Senate campaign.

Paul said Cruz was "done for" in the Senate Tuesday after Cruz failed to garner enough support to amend a government-funding bill. "Ted has chosen to make this really personal and chosen to call people dishonest in leadership and call them names, which really goes against the decorum and also against the rules of the Senate, and as a consequence, he can't get anything done legislatively," Paul told Fox News Radio.

The criticism, however, was a bit peculiar, as decorum and Senate rules are rarely priorities for anti-establishment voters. Cruz picked up on that in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, reminding listeners that Paul endorsed Mitch McConnell in his re-election bid and that the now-Senate majority leader returned the favor.

Fundraising Takes a Dive

Paul will have even more competition. The close of the fiscal quarter this week serves as a window into the financial health and habits of campaigns. Cruz has not released his numbers yet. So far, Ben Carson has wowed the field by raising $20 million in the last quarter, and his campaign says most of the contributions come from small donors.

In the previous quarter, Paul raised over $7 million and had $4 million in cash at the end of June. This time, he raised $2.5 million and has $2 million cash on hand.

Ron Paul raised nearly $35 million during his presidential run four years ago. In his 2007 run, the elder Paul raised $6 million in a 24-hour period through an aggressive online "money bomb" pitch.

What's more, Rand Paul can't rely on two of his three super PACs to propel his stalling campaign. One group said this week it halted its fundraising efforts for a "futile" campaign, though it had spent little so far this cycle.

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Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is one of the 10 Republican presidential candidates who qualified for the first prime-time GOP debate. Paul's poll number...

The leaders of another group backing Paul, America's Liberty PAC, are under indictment on campaign finance charges stemming from their previous work on Ron Paul's presidential campaign.

Another PAC, Concerned American Voters, which is focused on organizational efforts in the early states, says it's still raising money. "Donors who have given to us were generally pretty energized by the performance in last debate," says the PAC's senior adviser, Matt Kibbe, who noted that Trump has taken up a lot of the oxygen but that there is still time for Paul to turn things around. He pointed to criminal justice reform as one of Paul's initiatives likely to gain steam.

"What I'm hearing from investors and activists is they want to hear more of what they heard in the last debate," Kibbe says. "They want to hear those libertarian values to distinguish Rand."

It's unclear, however, whether Paul will make the big stage for the third debate in Colorado on Oct. 28. Host CNBC said candidates must average 3 percent in national polls Sept. 17 to Oct. 21. A standing of 2.5 percent would be rounded up. But right now, at least in the RCP average, Paul stands at 2.3 percent.

In other words, Paul's fate as a presidential candidate may just come down to rounding. And he could rebound. Still, some argue, there's a Senate race in Kentucky may that may look to be more and more inviting.

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Rand Paul campaign insists it's not folding tent - CBS News

The libertarian moment in American politicsforetold just last year in the New York Times magazineis like the horizon; always retreating as we advance upon it.

The political events of 2015 are a brutal reminder about how far this country is from embracing libertarianism and how alien those ideas are even to the purported shock troops of the freedom movement. While libertarianisms opponents can take heart, its champions are setting their cause back by pretending that all is well.

The collapse of the Rand Paul campaign speaks volumes. In a 15-person field, Paul is the only candidate who looks even remotely libertarian (social tolerance, foreign policy restraint, and limited government). He started the campaign with decent name recognition, a seat in the United States Senate, lavish media attention, a serious will to win, and a battle-tested, national political operation inherited from his father, Ron.

If there were any significant support for Libertarian ideas in the GOPany at allRand Paul would be near the top of an otherwise crowded, fragmented field that is fighting over every non-libertarian voter in the party.

If real Libertarian votes were there for the taking, someone would have come along and done the harvesting.

Yet hes polling at a mere 1 percent among Republican voters nationwide and has a higher unfavorability rating than anyone else in the GOP race.

According to an August survey by the independent polling firm Eschelon Insights, far and away the most popular candidate nationwide among libertarian-inclined Republicans is Donald Trump, the least libertarian candidate in the race.

Libertarians who cant stomach Trump scattered their support without any ideological rhyme or reason (11 percent for Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, 9 percent for Ted Cruz and John Kasich, 8 percent for Carly Fiorina, 7 percent for Paul).

The secret of Trumps appeal to Pauls base is that a large segment of the Ron Paul Revolution leavened its libertarianism with a pony keg of crazy. Birthers, 9/11 Truthers, a wide assortment of conspiracy theorists (many of whom believe the Federal Reserve to be a modern manifestation of the Illuminati), and naked racists rivaled the number of reasonably sober libertarian-ish voters among the faithful.

Trump won their hearts by throwing even more crazy into the mix and stirring up a white, working class populism last given political life by George Wallace.

Paul let these voters down because he was disinclined to offer the distasteful dog whistles that his father traded for extremist support, much less the louder, baser appeals that are Trumps stock-in-trade.

The second voter bloc Rand Paul hoped to bring into his campTea Partiershas likewise rejected the Kentucky Republican. Thats because there are few Libertarians there, either.

According to a survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, more than half the Tea Party is made up of the religious right while only 26 percentthe smallest ideological bloc within the groupcan be loosely described as Libertarian.And Tea Partiers have always manifested a large degree of nativist populism.

It should be no surprise, then, that the candidates doing best with Tea Partiers are Donald Trump (37 percent support), Ted Cruz (19 percent), and Ben Carson (14 percent). Rand Paul? Two percent.

Sure, one can argue that Paul has run a sub-par campaign and that a more adroit effort would have produced better results.But given the above, it is hard to argue, as some do, that Paul would have done better had he run as more of a libertarian.

If real libertarian votes were there for the taking, someone would have come along and done the harvesting.

If there was truly a $20 (electoral) bill lying on the sidewalk, its hard to believe that none of the other 14 starving candidates would bother to pick it up.

Yet this is precisely the narrative that the prophets of the Libertarian vote would have us believe: an epic political market failure.

Theres good reason that political professionalsthose with the most to gain from an accurate reading of the political landscapedo not pander to the libertarian vote: It doesnt exist.

The most thorough search for libertarian sentiment was conducted last year by the Pew Research Center.They asked 10,013 adults 23 questions about a variety of social and political issues and then used cluster analysis to sort respondents into homogeneous groups. Pew found that Americans who resembled libertarians form a group that is too small to analyze: no more than 5 percent of those surveyed.

Its true that if we avoid asking people about concrete issues and instead ask general questions, we can (if we squint hard enough) see a great deal of latent libertarian sentiment out there.

It has been noted, for instance, that 59 percent of the American public is, broadly speaking, libertarian in that they answer yes to the question Would you define yourself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal?Political scientists and campaign strategists, however, almost universally dismiss self-identification and general sentiment surveys as functionally meaningless. Both academic investigation and hard-earned political experience tell us that attitudes about specific governmental programs are far more telling than asking people what labels or characterizations describe them best.

Libertarians, however, can take heart from the fact that political sentiment is moving their way in some areas. Gay rights, drug decriminalization, increasing outrage over heavy-handed police tactics, growing concern over an unjust legal system, disgust over crony capitalism, and opposition to military deployments abroad all suggest that libertarian arguments can have political force. But just because people buy libertarian arguments when it comes to civil liberties or foreign policy does not mean they are more likely to buy them on taxes, spending, or regulation. If they were, then Bernie Sanders Democrats would be Rand Paul Republicans.

Libertarians love to preach the virtues of markets. Yet in the marketplace of ideas, their bundled product has been regularly and thoroughly rejected for over a century.

Until libertarians acknowledge that market verdict and re-think either what theyre selling, how theyre selling it, or both, they will remain on the margins of American political life. And for friends of liberty, that would be a tragedy.

Jerry Taylor is the president of the Niskanen Center,a think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to the advancement of liberty and pragmatic policy solutions.

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The collapse of Rand Paul and the libertarian moment that ...

The 2016 presidential campaign of Rand Paul, the junior United States Senator from Kentucky, was announced on April 7, 2015 at an event at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. First elected to the U.S. Senate in the 2010 election, Paul's candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2016 has been widely speculated since early 2013.[2]

Leading up to his formal announcement, Paul delivered several high profile speeches, which included filibustering the nomination of CIA Director John Brennan, speeches at Berkeley and Howard University, and meeting with community leaders in Ferguson, Missouri and Detroit, Michigan, with Paul stating that the meetings and speeches help reach his goal of broadening the Republican Party's appeal with non-traditional constituencies.

Rand Paul first acknowledged a possible 2016 Presidential candidacy in January 2013.[2] On February 13, 2013, Paul delivered the Tea Party response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address,[3] prompting some pundits to consider him a potential candidate in the upcoming presidential election.[4] On March 67, 2013, Paul engaged in a filibuster to delay voting on the nomination of John O. Brennan as the Director of the CIA. Paul questioned the Obama administration's use of drones and the stated legal justification for their potential use within the United States. Paul held the floor for 12 hours and 52 minutes.[5] Following his filibuster, Paul spoke at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington D.C.,[6] where he won the presidential straw poll with 25% of the votes cast.[7] Paul again spoke at CPAC in National Harbor, Maryland on March 7, 2014.[8][9] The day after his speech, he won the presidential straw poll for the second year in a row with 31% of the votes cast, nearly triple the percentage of runner-up U.S. Senator Ted Cruz with 11%.[10][11]

In April 2014, Paul spoke at the GOP Freedom Summit, an event organized by Americans for Prosperity and Citizens United,[12] which was also attended by several other potential presidential candidates.[13] In his speech, he insisted that the GOP has to broaden its appeal in order to grow as a party. To do so, he said it cannot be the party of "fat cats, rich people and Wall Street" and that the conservative movement has never been about rich people or privilege, "we are the middle class", he said. Paul also said that conservatives must present a message of justice and concern for the unemployed and be against government surveillance to attract new people to the movement, including young people, and Hispanic and African Americans.[14][15][16]

In an October 2014 speech in Detroit, Paul stated, "The Republican Party brand sucks, and so people don't want to be a Republican, and for 80 years, African-Americans have had nothing to do with Republicans." He stated that reshaping the Republican Party's brand would be crucial to the party's success. Leading up to his decision about running for President, Paul attempted to broaden the appeal of the Republican party.[17] He visited several historically black colleges, including Howard University, Bowie State University, and Simmons College.[18] In addition, he visited Ferguson, Missouri, and also spoke at the Detroit Economic Club.[18][19] During his remarks, Paul highlighted his efforts to improve the criminal justice system by reforming mandatory minimum sentencing laws, and restoring voting rights of individuals with non-violent felonies, which Paul believes disproportionately affects the African American and Hispanic communities. Paul also introduced his plan to create "economic freedom zones" which would help areas of high unemployment, such as Louisville or Detroit, to reduce federal regulation and taxes to boost economic growth.[18] Paul received praise for his efforts from Lorraine Miller, acting President of the NAACP,[20] and he also sponsored legislation with Democratic U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand to improve the criminal justice system for young men and women in a "cycle of poverty and incarceration."[21] Paul's outreach to minority communities seems to be working, as polls show him receiving up to 29% of the African-American vote in his home state. This is significant, as John McCain received just 4% of the African-American vote in 2008 and Mitt Romney took just 6% in 2012.[22]

Kentucky law does not allow Presidential (or Vice-Presidential) nominees to run for office in the state, meaning Paul could not concurrently run for President and reelection to the Senate. However, Paul filed to run for re-election to his Senate seat in April 2011.[23][24] In March 2014, the Republican-controlled Kentucky Senate passed a bill that would allow Paul to run for both offices, but the Democratic-controlled Kentucky House of Representatives declined to take it up.[25][26][27] During the 2014 legislative elections, Paul attempted to shift the power in the House to the Republicans, who were more likely to pass the bill. Paul spent his own campaign money in the elections, helping Republican candidates for the State House. Even if Democratic Governor Steve Beshear were to veto the legislation, that veto can be overridden with a simple majority.[28][29] However, the Democrats retained their 5446 majority in the State House.[30][31][32] Paul in turn gave his support to the idea that the Kentucky Republican Party could decide to hold a caucus in March separately from the regular primary in May, allowing for the party to have more time to pick a new Senatorial candidate should Paul clinch the Republican Presidential nomination, which the party agreed to do at a meeting in March 2015.[33][34]

In addition to his own political prospects, in the lead up to the 2014 midterm elections, Paul made a point to campaign for several Senate and Congressional candidates, including Joni Ernst and Rod Blum in Iowa, former U.S. Senator Scott Brown in New Hampshire, David Perdue in Georgia, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Mitch McConnell in Kentucky and Pat Roberts in Kansas.[35] Paul facilitated these endorsements through his political action committee known as Rand PAC, which was able to provide funds for candidates that Paul had endorsed, as well as provide volunteer support, and air television and radio commercials in support of certain candidates.[36] Because of Paul's appeal to younger voters and "grassroots energy," a majority of Republican campaign operatives, according to Politico, selected Paul as their top choice as a campaign surrogate.[37] After the election, Paul launched a social media campaign titled "Hillary's Losers" which was meant to highlight many of the Democratic candidates who lost their bids for the U.S. Senate despite endorsements from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.[38]

Out of the nearly 20 endorsements that Paul offered in the 2014 midterm election, only three candidates were unsuccessful in their campaigns for office.[35] In contrast, more than half of Clinton's endorsements were unsuccessful,[35] but many political analysts regarded the 2014 midterm elections as a wave election year for Republicans.[39][40]

Near the end of 2014, Paul made moves towards a presidential run, including hiring staff in several states, setting up offices, and hiring a campaign manager. In January 2015, Rand Paul gained the support of Texas Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri, a move seen as crucial in taking on potential rivals Governor Rick Perry and Senator Ted Cruz, both with deep ties to Texas. Paul hired a digital strategist who previously worked on the Senate campaign for Ted Cruz, Vincent Harris, and a campaign manager, Chip Englander, who led businessman Bruce Rauner's successful campaign for Governor in Illinois.[41] Longtime Paul advisor Doug Stafford will stay on as a senior political advisor to the Paul campaign.[41] Campaign operations have also begun in many of the early states, with the hiring of Steve Grubbs, a former Chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, to run Paul's potential Iowa campaign, Michael Biundo, formerly campaign manager for Rick Santorum's 2012 presidential bid, in New Hampshire, Chris LaCivita, who advised Senator Pat Roberts and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in his gubernatorial bid, in South Carolina, and John Yob, a campaign operative, based in Michigan.[41] Through his political action committee, known as Reinventing A New Direction (RAND) PAC, Paul toured many states seen as important in gathering both votes and fundraising dollars.[42]

After former Governor Mitt Romney announced that he would not seek a third presidential bid, political analyst Mark Halperin made a statement that he thought that Paul was the new frontrunner in the New Hampshire primary if it were to be held then.[43] Polling throughout 2014, both nationally and in statewide contests, has consistently placed Paul among the top tier of candidates potentially seeking the Republican Party's nomination in the 2016 presidential election.[44]

Several political analysts have pointed to the established network of supporters that Rand Paul's father, Ron Paul, had garnered through his own attempts at running for President of the United States in the 2008 and 2012 elections.[45] At the same time, other analysts have stated that Ron Paul may be more of a liability, due to his consistent opposition to foreign involvement, which may not appeal to mainstream Republican voters.[46] A Super PAC was formed by Ron Paul's 2012 campaign manager John Tate, known as America's Liberty PAC, which states that it is the only Super PAC officially endorsed by Paul.[47] The group also boasts several staff members from Campaign for Liberty, a group founded in 2008 following the Ron Paul's first unsuccessful attempt at receiving the Republican Party's nomination for President.[47] A second SuperPAC was formed by former FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe and Young Americans for Liberty president Jeff Frazee.[48]

Paul spoke at CPAC 2015 and received a plurality of votes in the straw poll for his third year in a row, with 26%.[49] On March 23, 2015, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz announced his candidacy for President of the United States, prompting some political analysts to compare Cruz's support with Paul's, stating that they are both vying for the anti-establishment wing of the party.[50] Shortly before Cruz's announcement, Paul made it clear to supporters and members of the media that he would be making an announcement on April 7, at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville regarding the 2016 presidential election, and would follow up his announcement with a four state tour of various early primary states, including Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.[51]

Going into the summer, Paul hosted several town halls, meet and greets, and rallies in early states and other important states for fundraising, and voter contacts.[52] On May 11, Paul returned to New Hampshire and held a town hall meeting in Londonderry, along with several dozen lawmakers who endorsed his campaign,[53] and continued his campaign swing to southeastern Iowa, concluding with a "cattle call" style Lincoln dinner hosted by the Republican Party of Iowa in Des Moines.[54] Paul also spoke outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and participated in a discussion at the National Constitution Center before returning to Washington, D.C. in order to tend to business in the United States Senate.[55]

The week before Memorial Day, Rand Paul announced his intention to block any attempt at renewing the Patriot Act, in which certain provisions regarding warrantless surveillance of Americans were set to expire at the end of the month.[55] In order to accomplish this, Paul began to filibuster the legislation on May 20, 2015, and spoke for approximately 10 and a half hours.[56] His campaign utilized social media in order to promote the Senator's campaign, using the hashtag "Stand With Rand," which was introduced during Paul's previous filibuster.[57] Following his filibuster, the Senate attempted to move forward with the legislation, holding a series of votes shortly after midnight on the Saturday before Memorial Day weekend, which failed to get the 3/5 supermajority needed to invoke cloture.[58][59] Paul objected to all further attempts to extend the Patriot Act's provisions which had been put forth by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (requiring unanimous consent), causing them to delay debate of the legislation until the following week.[60][61]

Paul officially announced his presidential candidacy for the Republican party on April 7, 2015 at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky.[62] His announcement featured several testimonials from supporters, and endorsements from prominent individuals, including former U.S. Congressman J.C. Watts, as well as his wife, Kelley who introduced her husband.[62] At the conclusion of his speech, Paul stated, "To rescue a great country now adrift, join me as together we seek a new vision for America. Today I am announcing, with God's help and with liberty lovers everywhere, that I am putting myself forward as a candidate for President of the United States."[63] Within a day of his announcement, Paul raised $1 million, slightly outpacing fellow Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.[64] However, Paul also faced a $1 million ad campaign against him, criticizing his foreign policy views.[65] Paul was also criticized for having heated exchanges with the press. Paul is known for being accessible to the media but he admitted in an interview on CNN to being "short-tempered" with the press.[66]

After announcing his campaign in Louisville, Kentucky, Paul embarked on a tour of four early states, which included stops in Milford, New Hampshire, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, Iowa City, Iowa, and Las Vegas, Nevada.[67] Each event also featured local testimonials and endorsements of Paul's candidacy, including several state legislators, and members of Congress.[68] Following his four state tour, Paul appeared on several Sunday morning shows to discuss his candidacy, with interviews on Meet the Press on NBC, Face the Nation on CBS, and State of the Union on CNN.[69]

A week after his announcement, Paul spoke at the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Summit in Nashua, New Hampshire, along with more than a dozen other announced and potential Republican candidates.[70] In his speech, Paul highlighted the large amount of political baggage of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who announced her own candidacy only a few days after Paul. Paul has been a leading critic of Clinton, which has included her time as Secretary of State and her handling of the situation in Benghazi, as well as more recent controversies involving her email server, and foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation.[70]

Several media outlets noted that Paul's campaign began relatively quietly. Whereas candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were regularly appearing in the news, CNN noted Paul "has been working the campaign trail quietly, taking a deliberate approach to national media and choosing his battles carefully." This was seen as unusual, since Paul was known for being vocal and strategically standing out. In an interview with CNN, Doug Stafford, one of Paul's strategists, commented "Y'all may be too busy covering the newest thing each week to have noticed,but we are running hard, running strong, and running all over the country... It's a marathon, not a sprint."[71][72] In June 2015, facing declining poll numbers, Paul's campaign appeared to shift strategies, with Paul attempting to appeal more to the Republican Party's base. Nick Gillespie, the editor of Reason.com, a Libertarian-leaning news service, commented that Paul appeared to do much better when he took more Libertarian positions, commenting, "All of the moments where he stands out where he captures not just the political imagination, but the public American imagination are the most libertarian."[73]

Within the first day of his campaign, Rand Paul raised over $1 million.[74] At the launch of his candidacy, Paul's campaign unveiled his official online campaign store, which caught the attention of many political media analysts with several humorously-themed items, in addition to the traditional campaign gear. Some of the items included Rand Paul themed Beats headphone skins, Ray-Ban sunglasses, as well as a broken email hard drive promoted as "Hillary's Hard Drive," in reference to the scandal involving her use of a personal email address during her time as Secretary of State.[75][76] All of the items were intended as fundraisers for his campaign.[75] Doug Stafford, one of Paul's political staffers, said he thought Paul would need to raise $50 million by March 2016 in order to remain viable as a candidate, which he felt was possible.[74]

According to online fundraising data from the first several weeks of Paul's campaign, a majority of donations came from small dollar contributions, as well as from rural cities and towns.[77] More than a quarter of online donors listed addresses in communities with populations of less than 10,000. The average donation hovered around $60 during the initial stages of the campaign.[77]

Following his initial announcement, Paul's campaign had lackluster fundraising. For the quarter ending on June 30, 2015, Paul's campaign reported receiving $7 million, far behind that of the $14 million raised by Ted Cruz, $12 million for Marco Rubio and $11 million for Jeb Bush. When adding fundraising by Super PACs and other outside groups, Bush's total was $114 million, while Cruz had $52 million and Rubio had $44 million, while the major Super PAC supporting Paul has not yet released their fundraising total.[73]

On June 30, 2015 Paul held the first ever major-party fundraiser with the marijuana industry, which he did at the National Cannabis Industry Association's business summit in Denver, Colorado. The 2016 election is the first to take place following the legalization of recreational marijuana use. At the time of the fundraiser, marijuana was legal in three states.[78][79]

In addition to his three consecutive wins in the CPAC straw polls from 2013 to 2015, Paul has also performed well in a handful of early straw polls as well as some statewide polls. In March 2015, Paul came in second in the straw poll held by Georgia's Association of Republican County Chairmen, only behind Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.[80]

One statewide poll where Paul consistently performs well is in the crucial swing state of Colorado. In numerous polls from Quinnipiac University and Public Policy Polling, Paul is the one Republican who has consistently led Hillary Clinton in Colorado, with such poll results dating back to late 2013. In four consecutive polls from early 2014 to mid-2014, he was the only Republican who led Clinton in the state.[81][82][83][84][85][86] Paul has also performed well, even against Clinton, in other states such as Pennsylvania,[87][88]Ohio,[87][89] and Iowa.[90]

Paul has taken positions on many national, political, economic and social issues, either through public comments or his senatorial voting record.

One such position is Paul's stance on mass surveillance of American citizens. Paul has repeatedly stated that he wants to end the domestic surveillance programs established under previous administrations by the National Security Agency (NSA). He has proposed a major overhaul of the agency, and vowed to eliminate the NSA's domestic spying program "on day one" of his Presidency, if elected. He has also focused his campaign message around ending "cronyism," reforming the criminal justice system, and reducing the national debt.[91]

Rand Paul promises to simplify the tax code and implement a 14.5% flat tax on everyone.[92] He also has promised to decrease regulations on businesses stating the need to be a balance between the environment and economy.[93] He wants to cut spending and require congress to balance the budget.[94]

Rand wants to reform social security and 'fix it' for younger generations. He stated "As President, I will remain committed to fixing the Social Security program, while preserving the system for seniors who have planned their lives around the program and implementing reforms to save the program for younger generations" [95] Rand Paul wants to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a more affordable free market alternative. Rand Paul said, "Government interventions in health care have driven up the cost of coverage and decreased competition within the market. Morenot lessfreedom to choose and innovate will make sure our health care system remains the best in the world."

Critics have called Rand Paul an isolationist. Rand Paul does want to intervene less but also stated his support for a strong defense. Rand stated, "As Commander-in-Chief, the importance of this decision would not be overlooked. If the military action is justified and there is no other course of action, I would follow the Constitution and seek Congressional approval before sending our brave men and women into harm's way." He compared himself to Ronald Reagan as he also believes in peace through strength. Rand Paul wants to cut foreign aid.[96] Rand Paul proposed a bill called the "Stand with Israel Act" to cut off the flow of U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Palestinian Authority.[97]

Rand Paul is against the Patriot Act and government spying and has promised to end it.[98] Rand Paul supports Second Amendment Rights [99] He wants to limit abortion funding and place restrictions on abortions.[100] Rand Paul wants to eliminate the Department of Education and opposes Common Core.[101]

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Rand Paul presidential campaign, 2016 - Wikipedia, the ...

Just weeks after the leader of a Super PAC supporting Rand Paul was indicted, it was revealed that another Super PAC supporting the Kentucky senator and presidential hopeful has been dormant since June.

Politico first reported today that Purple PAC, a Super PAC founded by Ed Crane, has not been actively fundraising for Paul.

"We havent really been actively soliciting money until we feel the Purple PAC and Rand are on the same page," Purple PAC leader Ed Crane told ABC News.

Crane said that the Super PAC hasn't shut down, but other than a $10,000 contest, the PAC hasn't raised or spent any money to help Paul since June.

Paul's campaign has struggled to gain traction with voters. Crane, a libertarian activist and co-founder of the Cato Institute, created Purple PAC in 2013 and shifted the PAC's focus on raising money for Paul this summer.

"Within a couple of days we got two or three donations and we said were not going anywhere with this until we're certain the campaign is on the right track and at the time we didnt think it was," Crane said.

Crane said that he has been disappointed with Paul's campaign strategy.

"All of sudden his campaign decided hes going to be a mainstream candidate and that took some steam out of his candidacy," Crane said.

Crane feels that Paul has been "off in too many directions" instead of sticking to his "core message of peace and free enterprise." But Crane also had praise for Paul.

"I think hes been terrific on the NSA and civil liberties," Crane said.

Crane hasn't ruled out returning to fundraising for Paul or doing more to help Paul's struggling campaign. He said that the timetable for making a decision would be within the next month.

"[Purple PAC] never got off the ground and it will one day, possibly, if Rand starts using the more libertarian approach," Crane said.

Three Super PACs have fundraised for Paul since he announced his candidacy in April: Purple PAC, Concerned American Voters and America's Liberty PAC. These Super PACs have raised a combined $6.19 million, far lower than the money raised by Super PACs supporting rivals Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush. Paul's campaign raised $5.33 million between April and the end of June.

Sergio Gor, a spokesman for Senator Rand Paul's campaign, says that Purple PACs dormancy doesnt hurt the Paul campaign because the super PAC had done little, if anything, to help bolster Pauls candidacy. According to the most recent FEC reports available, Purple PAC has no independent expenditures.

"It is untruthful for a story to say that this Super PAC stopped supporting Senator Paul, when in fact they don't seem to have lifted a finger in the first place," Gor said.

"The PACs that were set up to help Rand Paul and have done work to do so remain active and ongoing," Gor said.

Gor is referring to America's Liberty PAC and Concerned American Voters. America's Liberty PAC says on its website that it is the only Super PAC endorsed by Senator Paul. Concerned American Voters has produced video ads supporting Paul. America's Liberty PAC saw a change in leadership this summer after its initial leader, Jesse Benton, was indicted. In August, Benton was indicted on federal charges that he was involved in bribing an Iowa politician to shift his allegiance to endorse Ron Paul in the 2012 presidential race.

ABC News reached out to Concerned American Voters and a spokesman confirmed that it was still actively fundraising for the Kentucky senator.

"We're very pleased with what we're quietly doing right now. Rand will rise again in this next quarter," said Jeff Frazee, president of Concerned American Voters, in an email.

While Crane feels that Paul isn't showing his libertarian roots enough, the senior adviser to Concerned American Voters appears to feel the opposite.

In a statement, Matt Kibbe, senior adviser to Concerned American Voters, said, "We are still 100 percent committed to electing Rand Paul. More donors are warming and becoming energized as a result of Rand's performance in the last debate. They really want a principled, libertarian voice on issues like foreign policy, tax cuts, and criminal justice reform."

Kibbe also said in the statement that the Super PAC is focused on "get out the vote" mechanics, particularly in Iowa.

"Rand is unique because of his track record and leadership on these issues. Once we get through these flavors of the week and the field narrows, Rand will emerge as the anti-establishment choice," Kibbe said.

Paul, himself, will be holding fundraisers for his presidential and senate campaign this week. Some insiders have questioned whether fundraising for his Senate campaign shows his presidential campaign is in trouble.

"Senator Paul has been clear he's running for both, so we'll fundraise for both," said Gor.

Paul defended his campaign's viability in multiple interviews today and said that fundraising for his Senate campaign shouldn't be misconstrued.

"I am running for Senate concurrently, but Ive been raising money for my Senate run for the past two years. So this is nothing new," Paul told Fox News.

Paul also said that his presidential campaign is in it for the long haul. Earlier today, Paul's wife, Kelley Paul, filed the paperwork for her husband to participate in the South Carolina primary.

"Were in it to win it. Were in it for the long haul. Were organizing in all 50 states for the presidency. We have 350 different college groups that were started in different colleges across America," Paul told Fox News.

ABC News' Ryan Struyk contributed to this report.

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More Trouble Brewing for Rand Paul Super PACs? - ABC News

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky speaks to guests gathered for the Republican Party of Iowas Lincoln Dinner at the Iowa Events Center on May 16, 2015 in Des Moines.

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

What if Sen. Rand Paul is forcing the most substantive debate of the Republican nominating contest so far and killing it at the same time?

On Sunday night, Paul took to the Senate floor to continue his fight against the governments bulk collection of metadata. By any objective measure, he was raising important questions. The first was whether the government has gone too far in its fight againstterrorists. Since Pauls a constitutional conservative who has argued this ground before, it wasnt surprising he made this case. In fact, it aligns with the central tenets of the conservative bloc of the Republican Party that believes that lawmakers should remain vigilant aboutcedingtoo much power to government. It was in keeping with William Buckleys line about conservatives being the ones who stand athwart history and yell stop.

So far in the Republican primary process the national security debate has been thin: Obama is weak and the proper response is strength. Whether you agree with Pauls national security positions or not, he has injected some complexity into the conversation that might force the debate into something more than a choice between weak and strong. Doing so will give voters a better window into the foreign policy views the candidates actually do hold, and presumably that would help voters make a better choice.

The problem for Paul is that, in a nearly half-hourlong speech on the Senate floor, his case may have been swallowed up by a claim he made near the end: People here in town think Im making a huge mistake. Some of them, I think, secretly want there to be an attack on the United States so they can blame it on me.

Paul gave his opponents a chance to dismiss his arguments as nutty and to take umbrage while promoting just the worldview that Paul was trying to challenge.Immediately, he faced several charges: He was being thin-skinned (he turned a policy debate into a personal one),narcissistic(its not all about you, senator), and finally, that he had lost his bearings in the debate, which isnt what you want in a president who will face tougher challenges than criticism from Senate colleagues.

Rick Santorum took the biggest swing:

Aswise readers pointed out, its quite likely that if there were an attack during the period the Patriot Act was on pause, someone would blame Paul, even if the accusation was unfair. His efforts made it so that the law expired without being immediately replaced. This is different, however, than saying lawmakers were rooting for an attack. And, even if they were, its not really germane to Paulsargument and smacked of late-night dorm-room desperation. It will not be listed in the examples of grace under pressure, which detracts from Pauls larger and genuine claim to be someone who takes on unpopular fights in the service of his beliefsa demonstration of the courage voters often say they want above all.

PaulsSenate colleagues leveledtwo charges: He was lying about the nature of the surveillance program, and he wasfundraisingoff the public fracas he was instigating.He wouldnt be the first to have tried to raise money off of grandstanding on foreign policy, but by Monday morning, Paul was backing off the claim, saying it was the hyperbole that sometimes slips into political debate. The senator likes to paint in broad strokes.He once claimed that the majority in Washington wants to deploy ground troops as the answer to every ongoing conflict. Politicians aresusceptibleto bouts of hyperbole, but after too many, every human on the planet is going to get sick to their stomach of them. Or, to speak less hyperbolically, theyll think youre just crying wolf.

The Paul forces see this as a classic case of Washington versus the rest of America. Paul is advocating a position that has support out in the country, his advisers believe, and it only highlights how disconnected the Senate is from the real world. Other Republican strategists make the obvious case that it riles up Pauls base and adds to his campaign coffers, which he needs.

Pauls public fight and partial successes battling for his cause might bring in the group of nontraditional voters Paul hopes will give him a leg up in the Republican contests. But, while it might expand his chances in one area, it is going to create difficulties among traditional national security Republicans. Those voters are hearing a constant drumbeat from other Republicans that the world is more dangerous than ever and that Paul is weak on national defense. Hillary Clinton, they will argue, is to the right of Paul on foreign policy. For primary and caucus voterswho care about national defense, this is going to make it harder to embrace Paul as the candidate who will ensure safety.

Rand Paul has done what Republican Party voters say they want: He has stood up for his principles. The question is whether in taking his stand he has weakened his platform.

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Rand Pauls outrageous claim hurt his cause: The Kentucky ...