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Sen. Rand Paul (R) officially announced his campaign for president in his home state of Kentucky. Here are his full remarks. (AP)

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky launched his bid for the White House on Tuesday as the most distinctive voice in the Republican Partys presidential field. The competition ahead will answer whether his candidacy can remake his party or will be undone by the orthodoxies he seeks to upend.

Pauls announcement speech was a reminder of why he often has been called the most interesting politician in the country, with a libertarian message that seemed to sweep across the ideological spectrum and that challenged the establishment of both parties.

But the address underscored as well the challenge Paul faces in trying to take the many pieces of his vision and convert them into a cohesive whole capable of attracting a winning coalition. On domestic and especially foreign policy, he will find himself under attack from his Republican rivals.

[Rand Paul launches 2016 bid: We have come to take our country back]

In his speech, the first-term senator wore many hats. He was part tea party activist, with a revival of the strong anti-government message that propelled him to victory in the 2010 Senate primary against the Kentucky GOP establishment led by Mitch McConnell, now the Senate majority leader.

I have a message, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words, Paul thundered as he took the stage before an enthusiastic audience of supporters. We are here to take our country back.

He painted his candidacy in vivid symbolism. We need to go boldly forth, he said, under the banner of liberty that clutches the Constitution in one hand and the Bill of Rights in the other.

He decried spending and deficits and the power of lobbyists and insiders, with a sign on the lectern that read, Defeat the Washington Machine. He said Washington is horribly broken and called for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget and for term limits for members of Congress.

But if he was a small-government tea party reformer, he was also channeling Jack Kemp, the late Buffalo Republican congressman and housing secretary who preached outreach to minorities and aid and assistance to inner cities and rarely worried about deficits.

Link:
Balz: For Rand Paul, is it enough to be distinctive?