Rand Paul Dramatically Endorses ‘Not Nikki Haley’ for President

Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

If, like me, you’ve been holding off on picking a presidential candidate because you base all your important voting decisions on Rand Paul’s recommendations, there’s some good news and some bad news.

First, the good news: On Thursday afternoon the Kentucky senator announced that he’d soon be breaking his silence on the 2024 election. “As you know I’ve been pretty quiet about the presidential race, which is kind of unusual for me,” Paul said in a video posted to X. “But tune in tomorrow and I’ve got something very important to say on the presidential race.”

Now the bad news: Rand Paul did not actually endorse any candidate on Friday morning.

He didn’t even commit to voting for a Republican!

So what was this “very important” thing the senator needed to tell us? He’s not voting for Nikki Haley.

“I’m not yet ready to make a decision, but I am ready to make a decision on someone who I cannot support,” he said. “So I’m announcing this morning that I’m #NeverNikki.”

Basically, Paul hates Haley. Like, a lot. He followed up this video with 21 posts explaining his reasons for voting against the the former South Carolina governor. He also urged people to “go to NeverNikki.net [so] you can let her know that you’re not a supporter either.”

Traditionally, voters let candidates know they don’t support them by casting their ballots for other people. Americans will finally have a chance to do this when the voting phase of the 2024 election kicks off with the Iowa Caucuses on Monday. So why do people need to go to this website? Because Rand Paul is messy and lives for drama? Sure, that’s probably a factor. But take a closer look at the site, which was “PAID FOR BY RAND PAUL FOR US SENATE”:

It seems the real answer lies in the fine print at the bottom:

Sign up for text updates! By participating, you agree to the terms & privacy policy for recurring autodialed campaign & donation messages from Rand Paul to the phone number you provide. No consent required to buy. Msg&data rates may apply.

So this is a just a stunt to expand Rand Paul’s mailing list? Wow, I guess I’m going to have to find some other failed presidential candidate to tell me which single name I should cross off my 2024 presidential ballot.