Rand Paul: Ted Cruz and I might differ on 'winnability'
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, says one difference between himself and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas might be winnability and that he is polling the strongest against former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner for president in 2016.
Ted Cruz and I come from the same wing of the party, Mr. Paulsaid on Fox News Hannity. So sometimes youll have two very conservative, two senators who support the Constitution, and youll have to look for nuances of difference between the two, and one of those might be winnability.
Mr. Cruz became the first major presidential candidate to jump into the race for the White House this week, and he and Mr. Paul have indeed fought on the same side of many fights in the U.S. Senate.
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When you look at polling right now, youll find that nobody in the Republican party does better against Hillary Clinton than myself, and I think thats because weve tried very hard to pick up [the] independent vote and voters who havent been voting Republican, and frankly, thats how you win elections, Mr. Paul said.
In a recent CNN/ORC poll, Mr. Paul trailed Mrs. Clinton by 11 points, 54 percent to 43 percent, but was closer than other potential GOP contenders such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Mr. Paul said his goal over the last couple of years has been to take a consistent defense of liberty, but to take it to new places where it hasnt been heard in hopes that we can get a bigger party and a more national party.
So Ive been to Howard, Ive been to Bowie State, Ive been to the Urban League, Ive been to NAACP, Ive been to Berkeley trying to broaden the people, and the amount of people [I] bring in and not just toss out things that may well inflame the situation and excite certain people, but might turn off other people, he said. But Ill also put up my record as being as conservative as anybody, if not more conservative, than anybody in the Congress.
Speaking on Fox News The Kelly File, Mr. Cruz said they reassembled the Reagan coalition when he got elected to the Senate.
We brought together conservatives and libertarians and evangelicals and women and young people [and] Hispanics and Reagan Democrats, he said.
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Rand Paul: Ted Cruz and I might differ on 'winnability'