Rand Paul 2016
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Rand Paul 2016 - Video
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) -- Campus politics aren't always a clear winner for Rand Paul, as he discovered here this week during an appearance at the College of Charleston.
The Kentucky Republican and potential 2016 contender opened with a familiar riff about government surveillance that won predictable applause -- especially from the many students who represented Young Americans for Liberty, the libertarian outfit created from the ashes of his father Ron Paul's presidential campaigns.
Then a young woman in the audience asked if Paul, who sponsored an anti-abortion bill in 2013 that defines life as beginning at fertilization, is opposed to Plan B, the emergency contraception commonly known as the morning-after pill.
A number of social conservatives -- plenty of them in Iowa -- have condemned the morning-after pill as an on-demand abortion drug, sometimes confusing the contraceptive with RU-486, which can be used to induce abortion.
Noticeably uncomfortable with the question, Paul first gave a terse answer: "I am not opposed to birth control," he said. After a pause, he elaborated. "That's basically what Plan B is. Plan B is taking two birth control pills in the morning and two in the evening, and I am not opposed to that."
Next question.
The exchange was notable because it happened on a college campus -- a place where Paul has made inroads in building support for his libertarian agenda. And it underscored the challenge that lies ahead for him: burnishing the libertarian credentials that make him so appealing to young voters while making sure he doesn't stray so far from the Republican line that he won't be able to win the party's presidential nomination.
Another student here pressed him on "the drug war," asking if Paul would support legalizing marijuana, cocaine and heroin. He said he wasn't supportive of drug use, explaining that pot "is not that great," but said drug laws should be left up to states. Colorado and Washington are experimenting with legalized marijuana, he said, and we should be watching carefully.
Paul has enjoyed plenty of success on the campus circuit.
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Could Rand Paul support gay marriage?
By Kevin Bohn, CNN Senior Producer
updated 5:55 PM EDT, Thu October 2, 2014
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Washington (CNN) -- The Chamber of Commerce is launching an ad featuring Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a favorite of libertarians, to build support for Alaska Republican Senate hopeful Dan Sullivan, who faces a challenge from libertarian third party candidate.
Republicans and their allies have begun work to limit how much support third party candidates draw away from GOP candidates in states which could determine control of the Senate.
In the ad Paul uses language libertarians would like to tout Sullivan, who is locked in a tight race against first term Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich. Mark Fish, past chairman of the state's libertarian party, is running as well and is the wild card there because drawing even a small amount of votes away from Sullivan could prove the difference in this key race.
"Washington is horribly broken. I am Rand Paul, and I am fighting to change that. But nothing is going to change when Mark Begich votes with his liberal Democratic friends 91% of the time," Paul says in the spot. "Washington takes too many of our freedoms and too much of our money. I think Dan Sullivan will get it back. To change Washington change your Senator."
"In states like Alaska, the Chamber is focused on the independent swing vote, and we think Sen. Paul is well positioned to deliver a message that appeals to them. This fits into our them this year of using credible messengers in target races," Chamber spokeswoman Blair Latoff Holmes says in a statement.
Besides Alaska, some Republicans worry libertarian candidates could cost GOP candidates support in such key Senate battlegrounds as North Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky.
The Chamber's Alaska buy for the Paul ad is seven figures, and the spot will air statewide beginning Friday on broadcast as well as on line.
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Chamber launches Paul ad to halt aid to third party hopeful
Rand Paul is the most interesting presidential possibility out there right now. But will the media hang his fathers record around his neck like an albatross?
That may be unfair, since the Kentucky senator is a very different lawmaker and potential 2016 candidate than his father, former Texas congressman and perennial presidential contender Ron Paul. But Im starting to think it may be inevitable.
In fact, in a lengthy New Yorker profile, Rands mother, Carol, says the two men arent far apart:
Everybody that calls [Ron] wants to argue about their differences. They dont really have differences. They might have fractional differences about how to do things, but the press always want to make it into some kind of story that isnt there.
I would beg to differ. Both men are libertarians, to be sure. Ive watched Ron Paul speak to campaign crowds, and he can get them wound up on the gold standard, abolishing the IRS and other issues that make his ardent fans swoon but also rendered him unelectable as a national candidate. Rand Paul is a conservative pragmatist who has been breaking with Republican orthodoxy, particularly when it comes to reaching out to African-Americans.
As the magazine profile by Ryan Lizza makes clear, Rand Pauls life was very much intertwined with his dads career. Growing up, he worked on a number of his fathers campaigns, once taking off a semester to join his unsuccessful Senate race. "Ultimately, Rand was saved from political obscurity by his father. In 2008, Ron Paul decided to run for president. The campaign raised an extraordinary $35 million by cultivating a small but intensely committed following that later carried Rand Pauls message, too.
Paul himself once wrote of his impendingKentucky race:After seeing how the establishment treated my father during his presidential campaign, I had every reason to believe that the powers-that-be would do everything they could to keep another Paul away from the reins of government.
The elder Paul is an isolationist, and while the younger Paul doesnt go that far, he is an outspoken critic of U.S. military intervention abroad and has called for an end to foreign aid. His challenge is to ensure that their approach to world affairs arent morphed in the public mind.
Paul has spent the past few months often clumsily trying to convince voters that his foreign policy differs from his fathers. Rand is perhaps best known, thus far, for his nearly 13-hour filibuster last year to protest the administrations use of dronesa tactic that further convinced Republican hawks that he doesnt share their assessment of the risks posed by terrorism. Over the summer, Paul was under constant attack from rivals, such as Governor Rick Perry, of Texas, who described him as curiously blind to the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham. As with the criticisms of his past statements on civil rights, Paul felt that he was the victim of a smear campaign. Unfair criticism from people who have partisan goals, he told me.
Interestingly, John McCain, one of Pauls frequent critics, is quoted as saying that the freshman senator has evolved.
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KURTZ: How the media are saddling Rand Paul with his fathers baggage - Ron Paul's secession comments could pose ...
Rand Paul Values Voter Summit 2014
Here is Rand Paul speaking at The Family Research Council at its 9th annual Values Voter Summit.
By: DailyWorldwideNews
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Rand Paul Values Voter Summit 2014 - Video