Conventional wisdom is that candidates have to run to the extreme side of their party in the primaries, although that is obviously not always true. However, in the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate race, it may be starting to actually be a horse race. Mitch McConnell’s handpicked candidate Trey Grayson was thought to be the inevitable nominee, even knocking his own mentor Jim Bunning out from a re-election bid. However, Rand Paul has defied the conventional wisdom.
Grayson was in Washington D.C. yesterday, for a $500 per plate fundraiser hosted by two dozen U.S. Senators including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman John Cornyn, R-Texas.
During that time, Paul had an online fundraising event called a “moneybomb”, which is a poor choice of terms given the violent nature of public gatherings this summer and the fringes attracted to his candidacy.
On Facebook, Trey Grayson, the candidate that is universally viewed as the known and preferred candidate by mainstream Republicans, has a total of 4,183 Facebook supporters. The dark horse outsider Rand Paul, on the other hand, has 14,628 Facebook supporters. Whatever other strengths Grayson may have, and whatever other weaknesses of Paul will be identified, numbers such as the supporters and fundraising totals make it clear that Grayson will not be able to buy this primary. Like the Democratic candidates, the Republican nominee for Kentucky’s U.S. Senate seat will come into the general election after a bruising primary fight.
randpaul
