Friday, April 3, 2015

Rand Paul's Former Pollster on How Rand's Campaign is Shaping Up

By Robert Wenzel

"Rand Paul has a split political personality," Fritz Wenzel (no relation), a partner at Clout Research and former pollster for both Ron Paul and Rand Paul, told me in an exclusive interview.

According to Wenzel, Rand is going to have a difficult time capturing the evangelical vote because, although he is attempting to reach out to the evangelicals with his pro-Israel stance, there are many other important issues for evangelicals that do not fit well with Rand's positions.

With so many others attempting to capture the evangelical vote, Rand's split political personality is going to make it very difficult for him to win Iowa, but Wenzel expects him to still finish in the upper tier.

Wenzel pointed out that Rand's father ran a different type of camapign in Iowa. Ron Paul ran a message of economic populism rather than a campaign aimed at evangelicals, Rand has not developed the economic message, which is a powerful message in Iowa, says Wenzel.

In New Hampshire, Wenzel expects Rand to do better because there is a strong undertone of NH voters who like an independent streak, and view Rand in that camp. Though, Wenzel warned that if Donald Trump gets serious about running that is going to be a problem for Rand. He said NH voters like Trump and that is why he is spending much more time there than in Iowa.

Wenzel sees big problems for Rand in South Carolina because of the large evangelical vote there. He thinks Rand will do much better in Nevada, where Rand's father has always done well.

After Nevada, the next major primaries will be in Ohio and Michigan, and Wenzel says it will be tough slogging for all the candidates, including Rand. He thinks Ohio and Michigan will look a lot like Iowa.

Wenzel also sees a problem for Rand in his not having executive government experience. He thinks voters will favor governors as opposed to senators. When I asked him to name who he thought is likely to come out on top and grab the Republican nomination, he threw out four possible nominees: Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Mike Huckabee.

Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher at EconomicPolicyJournal.com and at Target Liberty. He is also author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics


1 comment:

  1. Are you hoping for Rand? He presents us with such a dilemma.

    ReplyDelete