With Justin Amash gone, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is the closest thing to a libertarian left in Congress. It’s no surprise then that a political action committee affiliated with the senator would work to identify and promote libertarian candidates, or that he would endorse them in primaries.
It is not surprising, then, that Paul would support a more liberal candidate in the Republican primary, even if President Trump endorsed his rival.
He endorsed Manny Sethi over Trump’s nominee, Bill Hagerty, in the 2020 Tennessee Republican Senate primary. Hagerty won and is now a senator. Paul also endorsed a Libertarian candidate in Texas who lost to Trump’s nominee, Kay Granger, in the Texas Republican primary for the House of Representatives.
But it is a bit surprising that Paul support and aid with financing and fund a candidate who is clearly not ready for a mainstream audience, like Ron Hood.
In the only campaign finance report we’ll see before the Aug. 3 primary, Hood lifted a paltry $155,000, and from that he pays himself $6,000 a month for the campaign. But he is kept alive in the race about $640,000 from Paul’s Project Freedom PAC.
President Trump is support Mike Carey, who says his internal polls show him far ahead of the other 10 Republican candidates. Carey lifted $460,000 in cash, not including PAC support. State Senator Bob Peterson trails close by $455,000 raised, including a $5,800 personal loan from the candidate.
Jeff LaRe, another state senator, raised $227,000 and received $300,000 in support from Steve StiversRepublican whose resignation to become head of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce created an opportunity. Even Ruth Edmonds outran Hood.
So why would Paul break with former President Donald Trump, who is still the party’s titular leader, to endorse Hood, a flawed candidate who may or may not have a job, is unable to rank in the top five candidates in fundraising and would be unable to compete without his aid?
Over the years, while he has served in the Ohio House of Representatives, and even now on his campaign website, Hood he listed his job as “marketing consultant” for American Way Investors Corporation, which is trying to recruit investors for diminutive real estate projects in the Midwest. He lists two office addresses, one of which appears to be a senior center—an odd place for a branch of such a company.
When he’s not involved in real estate transactions, he’s involved in multi-level marketing. In his statements, he claims to have worked for MonaViewhich sold dietary supplements in the form of concentrates, powders and fruit juice purees until it was closed due to disputes over its health properties.
But Paul has focused on promoting libertarian candidates, and his support for Hood highlights a long-standing problem with libertarianism: its inability to produce leaders acceptable to voters.
In the 2016 presidential cycle, her candidates were Smoke and Drink – pot-smoking Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, and William Weld, who once passed out during a commencement speech due to alcohol and slurred his words during his commencement speech when he became Governor of Massachusetts.
Her 2020 presidential candidate, Jo Jorgensen, is a professor at Clemson. But her opponents The nominees included a man who wanted the federal government to sell marijuana and then tax it at 9 percent to fund the space program, and another who was convinced the deep state was spying on us via television and that Justice Antonin Scalia’s death was faked.
“We set a pretty low bar for ourselves to be considered a candidate,” said Carla Howell, political director of the Libertarian Party in 2016. he said at the party convention.
Paul must know that Hood is not the best candidate. He once supported a bill that require doctors to re-implant embryos from ectopic pregnancies into the uteruswhich some consider medically impossible, but everyone will agree that it doesn’t sound very libertarian.
He has twice lost his seat in the state House of Representatives, and in his most recent race for a school board seat, he received just 35 percent of the vote.
Paul also needs to know that Carey is in good shape to win. He needs to know that Hood has no chance.
So why are you marching the plank for Hood? Why are you putting your name on the line for a candidate with no fundraising ability, questionable job prospects, and a few unlibertarian ideas? Is the libertarian bench really that shallow?
If so, perhaps some funds should be redirected towards recruiting candidates.
