Conservative blogger Erick Erickson is calling on Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to end his 2016 GOP presidential campaign.
“Rand Paul, this was an interesting run, and I am a fan of yours,” he wrote on RedState Wednesday morning in a post titled “Rand Paul, It Is Time to Take Your Campaign Out Back and Shoot It.”
{mosads}“But your campaign is a bloody embarrassment that needs to be taken out back and put out of its misery,” Erickson said.
“Go home to Kentucky, Senator, and save your Senate seat before Kentucky voters take the incompetence of your presidential campaign as a reflection on you and your Senate campaign,” he added.
Paul is up for reelection to the Senate this year.
Erickson argued that Paul’s presidential team suffers from poor direction and spending.
“It is rumored in D.C. that his campaign has serious turmoil between staffers who do not get along and it appears Paul either has too much conflicting advice or is ignoring competent advice all while paying out big bucks to consultants, who, at this point, appear to be profiting from a reality TV star making a fool of himself,” he said.
“About the only thing Rand Paul is now doing in the race is serving as a future George Washington University campaign management hypothetical in how not to run a presidential campaign,” Erickson continued.
“A man who should be setting the agenda of a new GOP reform path is now, at best, an asterisk, headed toward being a polling asterisk,” the pundit added.
Erickson charged that the final straw was Paul’s live stream of his entire day campaigning in Iowa earlier this week.
Paul repeatedly expressed bemusement with the event during its broadcast Tuesday, at one point calling it a “dumbass” idea.
“The whole thing is embarrassing,” Erickson wrote of the live stream. “Rand Paul should be a candidate reflecting on serious issues within the Republican Party.”
“But he has failed to get traction on any of [his] issues, has failed to stand out on any debate stage except to look stoned or serve as a plaything for [GOP presidential front-runner] Donald Trump, and has failed to raise a competitive amount of money,” he added.
Paul has frequently insisted his 2016 run remains alive despite his falling support across multiple national polls.
He is tied for ninth out of 15 GOP candidates, with 2.7 percent, in the latest RealClearPolitics average of samplings, matching former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s support.