Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) won reelection in Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race Tuesday night over Democrat challenger Charles Booker. Paul will be entering his third six-year term in the upper chamber.
The Associated Press called the election at 7:14 p.m. for the incumbent senator.
BREAKING: Republican Rand Paul wins reelection to U.S. Senate from Kentucky. #APracecall at 7:14 p.m. EST. https://t.co/2nlgpjzI1K
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) November 9, 2022
The incumbent senator was the favorite to win reelection as polls and election forecast models showed him winning comfortably. FiveThirtyEight gave the incumbent Senator an over 99 to 100 chance of victory in the race, while Politico predicted the seat to stay Republican this cycle.
Paul won his first Senate victory in 2010 during the first Tea Party wave, beating then-Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway (D) by 11 points. His second victory came in 2016 when he beat then-Lexington Mayor Jim Gray (D) by 15 points.
The non-interventionist senator and son of former presidential candidate and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) ran in the 2016 Republican presidential primary race but suspended his campaign after finishing fifth in Iowa Caucus.
During Paul’s second term, he was violently assaulted by his neighbor in 2017, leaving him with five broken ribs and three displaced fractures. He eventually had to have part of his lung removed in 2019.
He was also the victim of a heated confrontation with leftist protesters after leaving former President Donald Trump’s keynote address at the RNC National Convention in Washington, DC, in 2020.
Paul was one of the most prominent Republican Senators to publicly criticize NIH Director Dr. Anthony Fauci’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Notably, in 2021, the senator accused Fauci of perjury over his funding of gain of function research at the Chinese Communist Wuhan lab.
“Absolutely, he lied to the American people. There was gain of function research going on with Dr. Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute,” Paul said while speaking of Fauci.
Paul has also been vocal in his opposition to the U.S. Congress giving billions of dollars of aid to Ukraine. In May, he singlehandedly upheld a $40 billion aid package and demanded the Senate pass an amendment to create a special inspector general position to oversee how the Ukraine military aid is spent, Breitbart News reported.
Paul was endorsed by Trump in both his primary race and the general election.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
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