Rand Paul sweet talks crowd at SXSW, tries to woo techies and millennials
AUSTINYou know weve reached peak South by Southwest when a Republican senator from Kentucky chooses that event as the launch pad for his personal brand. (Ok, maybe it is pretty fitting after all, seeing as its a giant launch pad for anything and everything you can think of.) Senator Rand Paul took the stage on Sunday to talk tech shop with moderator Evan Smith from the Texas Tribune.
He didnt use the panel as an opportunity to announce a presidential campaign for 2016, but he kind of hinted that it would be coming around the corner. His actions scream of candidacy: He just opened an office in Texas, hes experimenting with social media, and hes making the press rounds. He certainly knew how to butter up the crowd in Austin.
Tech people are interested in progress and bipartisanship, so we feel right at home here at South by Southwest, he said, adding that he didnt think techie voters easily fit into a political partys box since they tend to think for themselves and play by their own rules.
Paul wants to connect with the tech community (you know, for votes), and he thinks hes found a platform that can help him do that. Hes pro privacy and anti net neutrality, and hell be telling us all about it via Snapchat.
Just a few days before his SXSW appearance, Paul discussed his Snapchat presence with Politicos Mike Allen, and he mentioned it again in Austin. (Sheesh, maybe weve reached peak Snapchat, too.) Snapchat is just one part of his plan to reach voters in the highly sought-after under 30 demographicSnapchat has a huge number of users between the ages of 18 and 24, so Paul wants engage with them to see if he can wrangle up potential voters.
A huge part of campaigning is reaching the people, Paul said, and people are already on Snapchat, so its just a matter of going to where the people are. He also acknowledged that Snapchat has a ton of users that are under the age of 18 now, but will be 18 by the time 2016 rolls around.
Surprisingly, Paul seems to side with Edward Snowdenhe mentioned Snowden a few times when the conversation moved towards privacy, which Paul is a champion of. Paul believes most young people (again, with the under 30 demo) will want leadership that believes in privacy, especially when it comes to mobile devices and data collection.
Every young person communicates via phone 100 times a day, and none of them would want the government to collect these records, he said, adding that because teenagers hate when their parents spy on them, theyre likely to want a less-prying government.
Paul called himself the leader of the "Leave Me Alone Coalition," a group that thinks that the government shouldn't be telling people what to do and should, basically, leave them alonefor the most part. He firmly believes that traditionally liberal voters will be open to embracing a Republican candidate who campaigns hard for privacy. Its not that hes against the NSA, but he wants to make sure their practices dont violate the Bill of Rights.
He also couldnt help but make jabs at potential opponent Hillary Clinton.
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Rand Paul sweet talks crowd at SXSW, tries to woo techies and millennials