At Thursday’s debate in Charleston, he reminded voters that he was the only veteran on stage.
Rivals have called Paul’s platform naive, even dangerous. But Paul, a former Air Force doctor, received more than $95,000 from members of the armed forces from January to September, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.
“So they’re saying that I’m on the right track,’’ he said at the debate. “They’re sick and tired of those wars. They’re sick and tired of the nation-building and the policing activity.’’
South Carolina is home to seven military installations, including Fort Jackson, the Army’s largest boot camp, and hosts more than 38,000 active-duty personnel. Tens of thousands of veterans live here, and countless civilians depend on an economy powered by the armed services.
South Carolina is “more red blooded than the rest of the country’’ and appealing to voters’ sense of “patriotism will probably take you farther than other places,’’ said DuBose Kapeluck, a professor of political science at The Citadel, a military college in Charleston.
“The military vote is important in any calculus for any candidate who wants to be successful here,’’ he said.
While his rivals espouse the traditional GOP gospel of beefing up the country’s defenses by boosting, not cutting, military spending, Paul wants to close overseas bases and bring troops home. Long an opponent of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Paul argues that sovereign nations must confront turmoil within their borders on their own.
“Perhaps the people who know best are the people who are enlisted. His message resonates because what he says makes sense to them,’’ said Karen Kedrowski, who chairs the political science department at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.
“He has a military background, and it could inoculate him from those who criticize his policies as an attack on the military itself,’’ Kedrowski said.
Paul does have critics, though, especially among older veterans.
