In a move that is sure to send shockwaves through the Washington establishment all the way to the 2016 presidential election, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has announced Tuesday morning that he is leaving the Republican Party and joining the Libertarian Party. “I’m not leaving the party,” the Tea Party standard bearer said in a statement, “the party has left me.” Paul has long considered himself a libertarian Republican, so this announcement simplifies that description considerably, while leaving uncertain how he will caucus his votes in the Senate. This also puts the younger Paul on the opposite trajectory as his father, former Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, who ran for President first as a Libertarian in 1988 then later as a Republican in 2008 and 2012.Senator Paul has of course not officially announced his candidacy for President, but given his campaigning, fundraising, and network-building over the last two years, that is all but certain. It is unclear how this latest move affects those plans.
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