Mediaboss Marketing

When Rand Paul began charting his presidential run, the Ray-Ban-wearing senator and heir apparent to a libertarian legacy rebranded himself to suit more mainstream Republican tastes.

He rejected his famous fathers isolationist foreign policy, voted for more military spending and even campaigned in front of an aircraft carrier. He invited a Christian broadcasting network into his home and spoke against gay marriage, famously pronouncing himself libertarian-ish.

But it turned out that Rand Paul 2.0 had a glitch: Appeal was limited.

After flatlining in the polls and lagging rivals in fundraising, Pauls campaign heeded a market lesson repeatedly applied in American politics. They brought back the original.

The Kentucky senator has pivoted back to his familiar stomping grounds among the outliers of Republican politics.

In May he infuriated some fellow Republicans by delivering a 10-hour speech to protest Patriot Act provisions on NSA domestic spying. Last month he became the first presidential candidate to openly court money from the legalized marijuana industry and shared a moment with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, known for his standoff with federal agents in 2014 and for his divisive comments about minorities.

Out of necessity hes moving back to his base, which is a sign the strategy he adopted was the wrong strategy, said Aaron Day, chairman of the New Hampshire chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus, a nationwide libertarian-leaning organization within the GOP. He needs the grass-roots and they know this now.

Rands campaign denied any rebooting of his message or positions, and insisted that he never intended to replicate the campaigns of his father, the former Texas GOP congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul. There has been no change, no pivot, said campaign manager Chip Englander. He has the same view hes always had.

But as Paul tried to navigate a more crowd-pleasing course, he ended up in no-mans land, disappointing core activists while failing to generate enthusiasm from the partys mainstream.

The result left him on an island, said one strategist from a rival Republican campaign who did not want to be identified speaking about Paul. Hes played this footsie game with the establishment for so long and you can see him make this pivot back.

View original post here:
After sagging in fundraising, Rand Paul 2.0 reboots ...

I grew up in Texas, I went to Brazoswood High School about an hour from here and I went to Baylor which is up in Wacoand actually one of the interviews I did on the radio on the way down here was with a guy I was part of Young Conservatives of Texas with, which a group that Steve Munisteri [the former Texas GOP chairman whos working for Pauls campaign now] founded and it was a break off of Young Americans for Freedom back in the 1970s, Paul said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News right before he took the stage.

Its good to be here to reconnect with people and also spend a lot of time with my family as well. Being in Texas is greata lot of Republicans down here, a very red statebut to have 800 people for a rally is pretty good considering theres some other Texans in the race as well.

Paul, a U.S. Senator from Kentucky, grew up here in Texas and is one of many Texans in the 2016 GOP presidential primary. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is also running as is Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was born and raised in Texas too.

Paul, a grassroots conservative candidate, took the stage inside downtown Houstons Hyatt Regency while local band The Guzzlers played hits like Brown Eyed Girl, Sweet Home Alabama, and other songs before introducing Paul as the next president of the United States.

Anyone here from the leave me alone coalition? Paul asked the crowd as he took the stage, to shouts of YEAH!

How about the leave me the hell alone coalition? Paul followed up to more cheers.

Justice Brandeis once said that the right most cherished by civilized men is the right to be left alone, Paul said. Yet in Washington, every day in every nook and cranny of your livesyour business life, your personal lifethe government wants to get a piece of you. What we need to do is shut down the Washington machine, and give you your freedom back.

Paul lit into every single high-profile member of the Washington establishment ranging from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while laying out how Washington, D.C., is a mess.

You have people in Washington do things that you would never, ever approve of, Paul said. Ill give you an idea. Does anybody here think its a good idea to borrow money from China to send it to Pakistan?

No! the crowd of several hundred people shouted resoundingly.

Read the original here:
Rand Paul Rallies Houston For Real National Security: We ...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., waits to speak at a campaign stop on July 2, 2015, in Brooklyn, Iowa.(Photo: Charlie Neibergall, AP)

Breitbart News is reporting that GOP presidentialcandidate Rand Paul told one of itsreporters backstage ata speech in Houston last night that the U.S.should provide extra scrutiny of people coming into the countryfrompredominantly Muslim countries after the Chattanooga, Tenn.,terrorist attack on Friday.

"Im very concerned about immigration to this country from countries that have hotbeds of jihadism and hotbeds of this Islamism," Paul told Breitbart. "I think there does need to be heightened scrutiny. Nobody has a right to come to America, so this isnt something that we can say oh, their rights are being violated. Its a privilege to come to America and we need to thoroughly screen those who are coming."

USA TODAY

Sailor wounded in Tenn. shooting spree dies

USA TODAY

Chattanooga shooter straddled worlds

ONPOLITICS

Trump slams 'gun-free zones' in Chattanooga shooting

The alleged shooter in the Chattanooga incident --which claimed the lives of fiveU.S.Marines -- wasnamed Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez. The 24-year-old was born in Kuwait and immigrated to the U.S.

More:
Report: Rand Paul calls for scrutiny of Muslims

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. (David Zalubowski, AP)

The first finance report filed by Sen. Rand Pauls presidential campaign shows Kentuckys junior senator has expanded upon his father Ron Pauls mastery of building a vast network of small donors.

But in a crowded campaign likely to be dominated by super PACs that can accept contributions of unlimited amounts from billionaires, Paul finds himself at best in the middle of the pack in the critical struggle for the big money it will take to win the 2016 Republican nomination for president.

In a report filed Wednesday night with the Federal Election Commission, the Paul campaign reported raising $6.9 million between April when Paul announced his candidacy and June 30.

Of that total, $3.2 million came in small donations of $200 or less. Within the group of 15 GOP presidential candidates, only retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has raised a higher percentage of his contributions from small donors.

Former Florida governorJeb Bush, for instance, reported raising much more during the period than Paul $11.4 million. But Bush reported only $368,000 in contributions of $200 or less.

Paul campaign spokesman Sergio Gor declined to comment to The Courier-Journal. But he told Breitbart News last week that 108,205 individual donors have given to Paul, with the average contribution of $65.

Gor said those numbers show Paul has powerful grass-roots support of real voters across the country.

But unlike any presidential race before the 2016 campaign will be funded by the super PACs that support particular candidates.

Super PACs can accept contributions of unlimited amounts from individuals and corporations. But a campaign can accept donations of no more than $2,700 per person.

Read more from the original source:
Rand Paul raises $6.9 million for presidential campaign ...

Sen. Rand Paul is the latest lawmaker to throw a wrench into delicate transportation bill negotiations, suggesting he might hold up the legislation over the controversial Planned Parenthood video that surfaced this week.

The Kentucky Republican and presidential candidate released multiple statements Friday promising to use all legislative vehicles to defeat and defund Planned Parenthood next week. The statements on his Senate and campaign websites dont directly mention the pending highway and transit legislation, but it is the next big-ticket item on the Senates to-do list, with a procedural vote set for Tuesday.

Story Continued Below

The recent revelation that this taxpayer-funded organization is selling body parts of the unborn further proves that this agency deserves our scorn not our tax dollars, he said in a statement. I plan to do whatever I can to stop them and will introduce an amendment to pending Senate legislation to immediately strip every dollar of Planned Parenthood funding.

Paul is just the latest Republican to weigh in on the controversy, which has riled up the GOP base after abortion-rights opponents released an undercover video that allegedly shows an executive of the health care nonprofit talking about the sale of fetal tissue from terminated pregnancies.

Planned Parenthood has denounced the video as heavily edited and says the executive was talking about donations of fetal tissue for medical research, and adds that the organization does not profit from the donations. But the group has also apologized for the lack of compassion the executive showed in the video, in which shes shown eating salad and drinking wine while discussing dollar figures.

Other GOP lawmakers have threatened to hold up the infrastructure bill over concerns that Democrats will use it as a vehicle to bring back the Export-Import Bank.

Link:
Rand Paul may hold up highway bill over Planned Parenthood