--- title: Ron Paul Haunts His Son Rand Paul's 2016 Presidential Bid description: Ron Paul is quickly going from being his son's greatest asset to his worst liability canonical: https://time.com/3262890/ron-paul-rand-paul-jesse-benton/ author: Jay Newton-Small article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-04T01:30:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:59.116Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ron Paul Haunts His Son Rand Paul's 2016 Presidential Bid og:description: Ron Paul is quickly going from being his son's greatest asset to his worst liability og:url: https://time.com/3262890/ron-paul-rand-paul-jesse-benton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c7715b875a18343/6986a1cccd6848172b0964ad/rand-ron-paul.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Rand Paul Ron Paul og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ron Paul Haunts His Son Rand Paul's 2016 Presidential Bid twitter:description: Ron Paul is quickly going from being his son's greatest asset to his worst liability twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c7715b875a18343/6986a1cccd6848172b0964ad/rand-ron-paul.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Ghosts of Ron Paul Haunt His Son > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/) and [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) Sep 4, 2014 1:30 AM UTC  U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) (L) talks to his father Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) (R) during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 22, 2011. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) (L) talks to his father Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) (R) during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 22, 2011. Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/) and [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) Sep 4, 2014 1:30 AM UTC Late last week, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager Jesse Benton [quietly resigned](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/mitch-mcconnell-campaign-manager-jesse-benton-resigns-110465.html). But the move won’t affect McConnell’s campaign so much as one that has yet to be launched: fellow Kentuckian Rand Paul’s anticipated bid for the White House in 2016. McConnell had hired Benton, who worked for Ron Paul’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, and for Paul’s son Rand’s insurgent 2010 senatorial bid, for his connections to the Tea Party and grassroots activists. Unfortunately for Benton, it is those connections in the [early voting state of Iowa](http://theiowarepublican.com/2013/the-payoff-details-revealed-on-sorensons-deal-with-ron-paul/) that have gotten him in trouble. The scandal goes back to the 2012 presidential race, when Iowa State Senator Ken Sorensen dramatically left Michele Bachmann’s campaign just days before the caucuses and endorsed Ron Paul. After a 31-month federal investigation, Sorensen finally admitted to seeking a $75,000 payment for the jump from the Paul campaign. He named Benton as the person within the Paul campaign with whom he negotiated. Benton has denied the allegations as “untrue” and “false,” but resigned nonetheless to spare “unfairly undermining” McConnell’s tough reelection. Allegations that Benton and former Ron Paul 2012 Iowa vice chair AJ Spiker may have been involved in the scandal throw a wrench into the younger Paul’s campaign structure, as he had hoped to inherit much of his father’s political network. But there may be another shoe yet to drop. The federal investigation into the pay-for-endorsement scheme continues, and may seek to target other former Paul staffers involved. Repeated requests for comment from Paul’s Iowa staffers went unanswered. The incident is just one of many this summer where Rand Paul—who owes his Libertarian political identity to his father—has had to reconsider shared staff or distance himself from his father’s positions. The outspoken three-time presidential contender is quickly cementing himself as his son’s greatest political vulnerability—and he’s not going away anytime soon. While Paul-the-younger has been working to reframe his foreign policy to be more palatable to the GOP’s hawkish wing, his father has been making that task increasingly difficult. Speaking on the Money and Markets [podcast](http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/podcasts/ron-paul-cg-23-opening-the-secret-911-records), Ron Paul defended 9/11 “truthers,” adding that the federal government did more harm to Americans’ liberties than Osama bin Laden. “It’s politically very risky to talk about it,” Paul said. Though Rand Paul has [skated close](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/05/20/866004/-Is-Rand-Paul-a-9-11-truther#) to truthers in his career, he’s never endorsed the conspiracy theory. The disconnect between father and son was further on stark display this weekend when the younger Paul said President Barack Obama’s admission that he has “no strategy” to tackle ISIS in Syria meant “Maybe it’s time for a new president.” In a follow-up comment to the Associated Press, Rand Paul added he would seek congressional authorization “to destroy ISIS militarily.” The elder Paul, however, celebrated the president’s candid moment. “A lack of strategy is a glimmer of hope. Perhaps the president will finally stop listening to the neocons and interventionists whose recommendations have gotten us into this mess in the first place! Here’s a strategy: just come home.” There are many places where the two agree. For example [both](http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/august/24/ferguson-the-war-comes-home.aspx) wrote [op-eds](http://time.com/3111474/rand-paul-ferguson-police/) excoriating the militarization of the police after the riots in Ferguson, Mo. But more often than not, they don’t. Ron Paul has called for [clemency](http://www.voicesofliberty.com/article/clemency-for-edward-snowden-bring-him-home/) for Edward Snowden while his son says Snowden deserves [a light prison sentence](http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/05/heres-how-rand-paul-thinks-edward-snowden-should-be-punished/#). Rand Paul has called for [strong sanctions](http://time.com/17648/sen-rand-paul-u-s-must-take-strong-action-against-putins-aggression/) against Russia, while his father has opposed such sanctions saying they might “[sink the U.S. dollar.](http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/august/10/us-sanctions-on-russia-may-sink-the-dollar.aspx)” And Rand Paul has yet to weigh in on his father’s comments [last month](http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/14/ron-paul-government-exaggerating-ebola-claims-prof/) that the U.S. had exaggerated the Ebola outbreak [for profit](http://www.voicesofliberty.com/video/ebola-crisis-how-dangerous-is-it/?mc%5Fcid=aa3987a2b2&mc%5Feid=[UNIQID]), and that the disease should be treated with the banned pesticide DDT. Clearly, the 13-term Texas congressman isn’t slowing down in his retirement. But he may want to tone the rhetoric down for his son’s sake, in case the sins of the father—or, in this case, the conspiracy theories—come back to haunt his son. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3262890/ron-paul-rand-paul-jesse-benton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3262890/ron-paul-rand-paul-jesse-benton/"},"headline":"The Ghosts of Ron Paul Haunt His Son","datePublished":"2014-09-04T01:30:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:59.116Z","description":"Ron Paul is quickly going from being his son's greatest asset to his worst liability","url":"https://time.com/3262890/ron-paul-rand-paul-jesse-benton/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Rand Paul","2016","Scandal","Iowa","ron paul"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c7715b875a18343/6986a1cccd6848172b0964ad/rand-ron-paul.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jay Newton-Small","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c7715b875a18343/6986a1cccd6848172b0964ad/rand-ron-paul.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Rand Paul Ron Paul","caption":"Rand Paul Ron Paul","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3262890/ron-paul-rand-paul-jesse-benton/","name":"The Ghosts of Ron Paul Haunt His Son"}}]}] ```