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Fact check: Did Rand Paul vote against the CR to keep the Government open on October 30, 2025
Executive Summary
Rand Paul did vote against a continuing resolution to fund the government, but the decisive roll-call and reporting show that his recorded “Nay” vote occurred on September 30, 2025 for the CR/continuing appropriations measure that failed to avert a shutdown. Contemporary roll-call records and multiple news outlets describe Paul as the lone or among the few Republicans joining Democrats in opposing the funding measure on that date, while the October 30, 2025 references in some pieces relate to other Senate actions that day rather than a separate CR vote [1] [2] [3].
1. What the claim asserts and the direct factual verdict
The claim asks whether Rand Paul voted against the CR to keep the government open on October 30, 2025. The direct factual verdict is that Paul voted against a funding measure that would have kept the government open, but the roll-call and reporting identify that vote as taking place on September 30, 2025, not October 30. Official Senate roll-call entries list Paul as voting “Nay” on H.R. 5371 (the continuing appropriations measure) on September 30, 2025, and media summaries of the shutdown tally attribute Paul’s opposition to that date’s failed funding motion [1] [2]. Some October 30 coverage discusses Senate activity and other votes in the shutdown’s aftermath, which has led to occasional date confusion in secondary summaries [4] [3].
2. The roll-call evidence: what the Senate record shows
The Senate’s official roll-call documents show Rand Paul (R-KY) voted “Nay” on the relevant continuing resolution/CR funding vehicle tied to fiscal year 2026 appropriations on September 30, 2025. These procedural and roll-call records are the primary source for how each senator voted and list Paul’s vote against advancing or passing the CR on that calendar date; they also record his “Yea” on an unrelated joint resolution to terminate a national emergency trade action on October 30, 2025, underscoring that Paul was voting but on different measures that day [1] [5]. Official roll-call entries resolve date-specific disputes because they timestamp each recorded vote and identify the precise question before the Senate.
3. How news outlets reported the vote and where confusion arose
Major outlets covering the shutdown and Senate maneuvers reported that Paul opposed the GOP/Democratic compromise funding package, framing him as a Republican dissenting on debt and spending grounds. Several stories summarized voting patterns across multiple dates as the Senate held successive procedural and substantive votes, and that aggregation sometimes conflated the September CR defeat with other October actions, producing inconsistent date references in downstream reporting [3] [4] [2]. Coverage on October 30 focused on ongoing shutdown consequences and other Senate votes — for example, a high-profile tariff rebuke vote in which Paul voted with Republicans to terminate the president’s action — which can create the impression he opposed the CR on October 30 when the CR vote itself had been earlier [5] [6].
4. Why Rand Paul opposed the funding measure — documented rationales
Contemporaneous reporting and vote analyses attribute Paul’s “Nay” on the CR to fiscal conservatism and opposition to deficit-financed continuing appropriations, consistent with his public posture that spending increases and stopgap measures exacerbate national debt. Coverage noted Paul as a solitary or rare Republican joining Democrats to oppose the specific funding motion on September 30, arguing the CR added to long-term deficits rather than addressing structural spending questions [2] [3]. The record also shows Paul participated in other, separate votes around late October 2025 where his positions diverged depending on the policy question, which explains mixed characterizations when pieces summarize his behavior across votes [5].
5. Bottom line for accuracy and how to state this claim precisely
To be fully accurate, state: “Rand Paul voted against the continuing resolution to fund the government on September 30, 2025.” Saying he voted against the CR “on October 30, 2025” is incorrect because the recorded CR vote occurred a month earlier; Paul did cast other votes on October 30, including on a tariff-related joint resolution, which likely fuels date confusion in some accounts [1] [5] [3]. For readers and researchers, the Senate roll-call entries and contemporaneous reporting dated September 30–October 2 provide the authoritative record and should be cited when asserting how individual senators voted on the CR question [1] [2].