U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) announced on Friday that “thousands of people have been asking if I’d run for Senate leadership” after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced he is retiring.
Testing the waters, Paul posted a poll on the social network X, asking “Who would you like to be the next Senate leader?” and offered three options: himself, South Dakota’s John Thune (currently Senate minority whip), and John Cornyn (R-TX).
Midway through the X poll, Paul reported that the majority of respondents voted for him: “100,000 votes, 97% oppose the status quo, if only we could hold the leadership vote online…No matter, at least the establishment knows their popularity wanes outside of DC!”
(While he differs on some positions from Thune and Cornyn, Rand Paul’s rage against the “establishment” triggers the mention that his father, Ron Paul, was a United States Congressman from Texas who ran for the presidency three times, twice as a Republican and once as a Libertarian.)
It’s Unanimous. Rand Paul for leader. pic.twitter.com/YRCi9x8BUr
— Chris (@ChrizDDv3) March 8, 2024
Note: The poll was shown largely to people already following Paul on X.
Among Paul’s supporters is David Limbaugh, younger brother of the late conservative talk radio influencer Rush Limbaugh, who “would absolutely love to see it.”
Would absolutely love to see it.
— David Limbaugh (@DavidLimbaugh) March 8, 2024
Elon Musk, the owner of X, replied to Paul’s poll: “Would be interesting to see the other Senate leadership candidates run similar polls.”
Would be interesting to see the other Senate leadership candidates run similar polls
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 8, 2024
Paul’s followers are replying to Musk and asking for more options when it comes to polling on X.
Christian Conservative web developer Brian Lathe replied to Musk: “If we threw such a poll together, we may need more than 4 options…Would be nice to offer responders a ‘none of the above’ option, or some way to indicate that the poll is not clear and/or difficult to answer… In other words, a more elaborate polling mechanism. What exists currently is 1980’s tech.”