Rand Paul may have been excluded from the main debate, but he still was a winner. Not only did he go on a media blitz (and give the media the middle finger), he held a Twitter Online Town Hall. #RandRally, which the Rand Paul campaign popularized on Twitter, trended with tens of thousands of tweets about it.

He answered questions from Twitter’s headquarters in New York submitted from Periscope and Twitter. All of these questions ranged from the NSA to property rights. Some of these questions included commentaries (Rand Paul joked about boycotting more debates) and even answered a question from yours truly.

“That’s a great question,” Rand Paul said to the question about limiting NSA spying. “I think we ought to obey the Constitution. We can defend ourselves, we can look for information from those we have suspicion, probable cause, list an individual’s name. So what I’ve been saying is: look, we can get more records from people we suspect of being terrorists, but we shouldn’t be gathering records from all Americans.”

Rand Paul’s presence was felt at the debate, even in his absence. His supporters briefly interrupted the GOP event after Chris Christie went on an anti-drug rant and right before a Fox Business moderator asked Governor Kasich a question about police shootings.

By the time the debate was half through, Rand had picked up more Twitter followers than other campaigns. Skipping the debate may have been a brilliant move.

He may not be on #GOPDebate stage, but @RandPaul still gaining more followers than most prez hopefuls w/ #RandRally pic.twitter.com/tUldiq0DmR — Jenny Earl (@jenearlyspeakin) January 15, 2016

Rand Paul may not have been there, but he was still a winner of the GOP debate.