Leaked Emails Show Democrats Feared Rand Paul as GOP Nominee

Paul Would Have Been A Major Threat To Clinton

By: Elias J. Atienza

A new memo in the recent batch of leaked emails released by Wikileaks showed that the Democrats, or at least the Clinton campaign, feared Rand Paul. The memo was part of the “Podesta Emails” which were thousands of emails from the Clinton campaign’s chairman, John Podesta, to various Democrats and Clinton operatives.

The memo divided the GOP field into two groups. One was the “Pied Pipers” which were candidates that would only appeal to a certain set of voters. The Clinton strategy was to push the more established candidates to the right in order to make them the leaders.

These candidates included Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, and Ben Carson.

Their second goal was to undermine the candidates who would try and focus on “building a winning general election coalition.” These candidates included Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, and Marco Rubio. But perhaps the candidate that scared the Clinton campaign the most was Rand Paul.

“What to undermine: the idea he is a “different” kind of Republican; his stance on the military and his appeal to millennials and communities of color,” the memo stated.

Paul ended up placing fifth in the Iowa caucuses and dropping out just a few days after. But the memo showed how Democrats feared Paul if he was to be the GOP nominee.

Last year, before the start of the summer, Rand Paul dominated amongst independent voters against Hillary Clinton and was leading the GOP along with Scott Walker. Unfortunately for him, Trump entered the race and his candidacy all but evaporated.

Polls conducted amongst Kentuckians show that Paul has a wide swath of appeal with nearly a third of Democrats saying they support the incumbent Senator for reelection.