Kentucky senator and Tea Party favorite kicks off with anti-establishment pitch
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
LOUISVILLE (CFP) — Vowing “to rescue a great country now adrift,” U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky kicked off his campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination with a call for Republicans not to settle for a nominee who is a “Democrat light.”
U.S. Senator Rand Paul
“We cannot, we must not, dilute our message or give up on our principles,” Paul said at an April 7 kickoff rally at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville. “We need to go boldly forth under the banner of liberty that clutches the Constitution in one hand and the Bill of Rights in the other.”
The crowd at the rally hoisted signs with twin slogans capturing the outside, anti-establishment tenor of Paul’s campaign — “Defeat the Washington Machine” and “Unleash the American Dream.”
Paul, 52, an opthtamologist, was elected to the Senate in the Republican sweep of 2010 with support from Tea Party groups and the GOP’s libertarian wing. Playing to those libertarian voters, Paul said he would end government surveillance programs of phone and computer records that began during the Bush administration and were continued under President Obama.
“Warrantless searches of Americans’ phones and computer records are un-American and a threat to our civil liberties,” he said. “I say that your phone records are yours. I say the phone records of law-abiding citizens are none of their damn business.”
Paul also brought up his skepticism of U.S. intervention overseas — a position that has put him at sharp odds with the defense and foreign policy establishment within the Republican Party.
“I see an America strong enough to deter foreign aggression, yet wise enough to avoid unnecessary intervention,” he said. However, Paul also said American interests are under assault from “radical Islam.”
“Not only will I name the enemy, I will do whatever it takes to defend American from these haters of mankind.”
Paul also made a populist pitch for support on the issue of income inequality, saying “under the watch of both parties, the poor seem to get poorer and the right get richer.”
In addition to seeking the Republican presidential nomination, Paul is also simultaneously seeking re-election to his Senate seat in Kentucky.
Paul is now the second announced GOP presidential candidate, joining U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who announced his candidacy March 24. A third candidate, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, is expected to announce next week.
The trio are among nine Southerners — eight Republicans and one Democrat — considering a White House bid in 2016.
On the Democratic side, former U.S. Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has already launched an exploratory committee for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination — a race that’s expected to be dominated by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a former first lady of Arkansas.
Texan kicks off campaign with a pitch aimed at Christian conservatives
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
LYNCHBURG, Virginia (CFP) — U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has become the first candidate in either party to announce a run for the White House in 2016, with an exhortation to Christian conservatives to get involved in the political process and vote their “values.”
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz
“What is the promise of America?” Cruz asked students at Liberty University, where he announced his campaign March 23. “The revolutionary idea that this country was founded upon, which is that our rights don’t come from man. They come from Almighty God. And that the purpose of the Constitution, as Thomas Jefferson put it, is to serve as chains to bind the mischief of government.”
Rather than announce his campaign in his home state of Texas, Cruz chose Liberty University, a 13,000-student school in Lynchburg, Virginia, founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, a leader in the Christian conservative political movement who also founded the Moral Majority in 1979.
In his opening campaign salvo, Cruz, who wore a headset microphone and paced across the stage as he spoke, asked the crowd to “imagine millions of courageous conservatives, all across America, rising up together to say in unison, ‘We demand our liberty.'”
“Instead of a federal government that works to undermine our values, imagine a federal government that works to defend the sanctity of human life and to uphold the sacrament of marriage.”
And on the fifth anniversary of the signing of Obamacare into law, Cruz vowed as president to sign legislation “repealing every word” of the health care law.
Cruz, 44, a Harvard Law School graduate and one-time national debating champion, won his Senate seat in 2012 in an upset made possible by Tea Party support. In the Senate, he has been an occasional thorn in the side of GOP leaders and was among the Republicans who helped trigger a government shutdown in 2013 in a dispute with Democrats over repealing Obamacare.
Cruz is one of nine Southerners — eight Republicans and one Democrat — considering a White House bid in 2016.
On the Democratic side, former U.S. Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has already launched an exploratory committee for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination — a race that’s expected to be dominated by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a former first lady of Arkansas.
The move would eliminate a potential hurdle to Paul seeking both re-election and the White House
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
LOUISVILLE (CFP) — U.S. Senator Rand Paul is asking Republican leaders in Kentucky to switch from a presidential primary to a caucus in 2016 — a move which would allow him to run for president and the Senate at the same time.
U.S. Senator Rand Paul
In a letter to the Kentucky Republican Central Committee, Paul asked party leaders to abandon the May 2016 primary in favor of a caucus earlier in the year, which he said would make the Bluegrass State more relevant in the presidential nominating process.
“By May 2016, the GOP will likely have decided its nominee, rendering our votes useless in deciding anything,” Paul said.
However, Paul conceded that the change would also allow him to get around a state law that doesn’t allow the same person to be on the ballot for two offices in the same election, which would happen if he were running for re-election to the Senate and the White House at the same time.
“My request to you is simply to be treated equally compared to other potential candidates for the presidency,” he said.
The committee will consider Paul’s request at a March 7 meeting.
Paul has already kicked off his Senate re-election campaign and is expected to make a decision on the presidential race this spring.
Kentucky Democrats, who control the state House and the governorship, have blocked efforts by Paul’s allies to change the state law against political double-dipping. However, a change to a caucus would not require their approval.
A Bluegrass/Survey USA poll last September showed 66 percent of state voters and 54 percent of Republicans were opposed to changing the law.
Paul maintains the law is unconstitutional because of a 1995 Supreme Court ruling that a state can’t impose its own restrictions in races for federal offices. He has hinted that he may file a federal lawsuit if any attempt is made to keep him from seeking both offices. Another option would be forgo Kentucky’s presidential primary while seeking re-election to the Senate.
There is historical precedent for running for both the presidency or vice presidency and Congress at the same time, most recently in 2012 when U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP’s vice presidential nominee, was re-elected to his House seat in Wisconsin.
Vice President Joe Biden also won Senate re-election in 2008 on the same day he was elected vice president, as did Lyndon Johnson in 1960.
The only other senator up for re-election in 2016 considering a White House bid, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, has said he will give up his Senate seat if he pursues the Republican presidential nomination.
LOUISVILLE (CFP) — Vowing “to rescue a great country now adrift,” 
LYNCHBURG, Virginia (CFP) — 
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