--- title: Republican Debate: Rand Paul Hosts Rally on Twitter description: After losing his spot on the main stage at Thursday's Republican debate, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul staged a rebellion canonical: https://time.com/4181893/republican-debate-rand-paul-twitter-rally/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-15T04:09:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:43.582Z article:section: Politics og:title: What Rand Paul Was Doing During the Republican Debate og:description: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul staged a rebellion. og:url: https://time.com/4181893/republican-debate-rand-paul-twitter-rally/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b5b6f35d5a11514/69887951f887dc1a6ae942aa/gettyimages-503476980.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Presidential Candidate John Kasich Speaks At The NH Primary Student Convention og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Rand Paul Was Doing During the Republican Debate twitter:description: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul staged a rebellion. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b5b6f35d5a11514/69887951f887dc1a6ae942aa/gettyimages-503476980.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Rand Paul Was Doing During the Republican Debate > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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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 [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 15, 2016 4:09 AM UTC  Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky and 2016 presidential candidate, skipped the Republican debate on Thursday and hosted his own event, the "Rand Rally," on Twitter. Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky and 2016 presidential candidate, skipped the Republican debate on Thursday and hosted his own event, the "Rand Rally," on Twitter. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 15, 2016 4:09 AM UTC After losing his spot on the main stage at[ Thursday’s Republican debate](http://time.com/4179941/republican-debate-charleston-fox), Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was not happy — so he skipped it entirely and hosted his own event on Twitter. The Republican presidential candidate was [protesting being moved](http://time.com/4176566/carly-fiorina-rand-paul-republican-debate/) from the main stage to the 6 p.m. undercard at the Fox Business debate. After a two-day media tour of New York City giving interviews — all hinged upon his skipping the debate — Paul holed up at the Twitter offices and answered user questions on Periscope video livestream, calling the event the Rand Rally. > [](https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/687771508203114496) Eschewing the debate stage for a virtual exchange was a bold move, but it paid off for Paul — at least on social media. Amongst all candidates, regardless of party, Paul added the second most followers, according to Twitter Government, and #RandRally was the fourth highest trending hashtag in the United States. The event also served as a fundraiser of sorts for Paul — he periodically sent messages linking to his Square Cash page for donations. Paul responded to a tweet from Wired Magazine about his follower growth saying, “I’m thinking we should tell them in advance that we’re not showing up to any more of their stupid debates.” > [](https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/687835326702874625) **Read More:** [_How Carly Fiorina Won the Undercard Debate_](http://time.com/4181856/republican-debate-carly-fiorina-undercard) Paul, who complained at previous debates about speaking time, talked all he wanted to viewers during the over two years that he wasn’t on stage. “I refuse to be banned, and I refuse to be silenced,” Paul said in a[ preview video.](https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/687790983602241536) “Instead, I’ll take my message directly to the people.” He wasn’t entirely absent from the main debate however — just over two hours into the event, a group of supporters briefly interrupted the show, loudly chanting “We want Rand!” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4181893/republican-debate-rand-paul-twitter-rally/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4181893/republican-debate-rand-paul-twitter-rally/"},"headline":"What Rand Paul Was Doing During the Republican Debate","datePublished":"2016-01-15T04:09:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:43.582Z","description":"He was hosting the Rand Rally on Twitter — and it performed well","url":"https://time.com/4181893/republican-debate-rand-paul-twitter-rally/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election","Rand Paul"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b5b6f35d5a11514/69887951f887dc1a6ae942aa/gettyimages-503476980.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b5b6f35d5a11514/69887951f887dc1a6ae942aa/gettyimages-503476980.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presidential Candidate John Kasich Speaks At The NH Primary Student Convention","caption":"Presidential Candidate John Kasich Speaks At The NH Primary Student Convention","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via 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/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4181893/republican-debate-rand-paul-twitter-rally/","name":"What Rand Paul Was Doing During the Republican Debate"}}]}] ```