But Paul maintains he isn't going anywhere—and may even outlast the reality television star turned nativist presidential candidate. According to CNN:
Speaking on CNN's "New Day" with Alisyn Camerota, the Kentucky senator responded to comments from Trump that Paul's campaign was sputtering out.
Trump
"I'll tell you this, I think we'll be around just as long as Trump, or longer," Paul said. …
Paul said there's no truth to Trump's assertions that his campaign is having trouble fundraising. In fact, he said, his campaign is focused on organizing on the ground in key primary states and pleased with how that's going.
"Ultimately we're going to get to the truth, we're going to get to substance—it takes a while," Paul said of the campaign. "But by no means am I finished: I'm just getting started."
Meanwhile, Trump is making overtures to Paul's supporters:
I hope when Rand Paul gets out of the race—he is at 1%–his supporters come over to me. I will do a much better job for them.
It's hard to imagine libertarians—actual libertarians, who want the government to be smaller—heading in droves to the campaign of a man who despises trade, uses the government to confiscate private property, and would seek vast new federal power to kick hard-working Americans out of the country.
That said, there is a Republican candidate who seems to be cutting into Paul's libertarian base with some success: Ted Cruz. Cruz has picked up a few key endorsements from libertarians who supported Ron Paul's presidential campaign, and former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr is chairing a new "Liberty Leaders for Cruz" coalition, according to The Washington Post:
As Paul's campaign has floundered and Cruz remains in the middle of the pack, Cruz's campaign has made the case to Paul supporters that the Texas Republican can remain in the race for a long time—and that while he does, he will espouse libertarian principles. At rallies this summer, Cruz has evoked the Fourth Amendment, railed against the Fed and talked about his efforts to end the bulk government collection of metadata.
In the video, Cruz's supporters talk about how both Pauls endorsed Cruz's 2012 Senate run and said they believe he has held positions consistent with the liberty movement, including a reluctance to send boots on the ground to Syria and support for Rand Paul's bill calling for an audit of the Fed.
Cruz's relative success at courting Ron Paul activists suggests to me that the younger Paul has not done enough to shore up his libertarian base as he makes overtures to the more traditional, hawkish wing of the Republican Party. But he did a better job of this in the second debate, and the Iowa caucus is months away—meaning it's still premature to assume that Paul's presidential ambitions are dead.
