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Another Republican Candidate Bites the Dust

Sen. Rand Paul calls it quits on his presidential campaign, after finishing in fifth place in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.

Senator Rand Paul is ending his campaign for the presidency, after finishing in fifth place in the Iowa caucuses on Monday night.

"It's been an incredible honor to run a principled campaign for the White House. Today, I will end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of Liberty," Paul announced in a statement on Wednesday, adding, "Brushfires of Liberty were ignited, and those will carry on, as will I."

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Paul often struggled to make it onto the debate stage in recent months after poor polling in some of the early contests.

Another election back in Paul's home state has complicated his presidential campaign. Paul is up for reelection in Kentucky this year, and, although he continued to focus on the presidential race, he kept open the option of running for his Senate seat again.

He now faces a potentially difficult Democratic challenger in Jim Gray, the mayor of Lexington. Many state Republicans, including some of Paul's own supporters, have been publicly encouraging him for months to drop to his flagging presidential bid to focus maintaining Republican control of the Senate next year.

'Today, I will end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of Liberty.'

Kentucky continues to be a deep red state, and Paul's colleague and one the most powerful supporters of his presidential campaign, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, fended off a Democratic challenger there in 2014. But Gray, who is openly gay, is still seen as a potentially difficult challenger, given his popularity in Lexington and his ability to potentially self-fund his campaign. National Democrats have kept an eye on the race since Paul announced his presidential campaign as a possible pick-up and will likely throw money at trying to unseat Paul and get one step closer to taking control of the Senate back from Republicans next year.

Defending that seat will be his focus now, Paul said Wednesday, saying that he "will continue to carry the torch for Liberty in the United States Senate and I look forward to earning the privilege to represent the people of Kentucky for another term."

Related: After Iowa: Rubio, Sanders, Trump All Have Big Opportunities in New Hampshire

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