WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) – Republican Rand Paul said on
Sunday he was preparing for a possible run for the presidency in
2016 but would not make a final decision until after the
November midterm elections.
One day after winning a preference poll of conservative
activists, the Kentucky senator his libertarian message of
protection for civil liberties could help the Republican Party
grow by attracting young people and minorities.
“We’re definitely talking about it, my family’s talking
about it,” Paul said on “Fox News Sunday” of a run for the
presidency.
“We do the things that would be necessary to make sure that
it can happen and will work. But I truly haven’t made my mind up
and won’t make my mind up until after the 2014 elections,” he
said.
Paul won a straw poll of activists at the Conservative
Political Action Conference on Saturday with 31 percent of the
vote, well ahead of second-place finisher Republican Senator Ted
Cruz of Texas who had 11 percent.
Paul told the conference on Friday that President Barack
Obama was trampling personal liberties with programs like the
National Security Agency’s electronic surveillance and offered a
strong defense of Fourth Amendment constitutional rights against
unreasonable searches and seizures.
“The youth in particular have lost faith in this president,
and so I think there’s a real opportunity for Republicans who do
believe in the Fourth Amendment to grow our party by attracting
young people,” Paul told Fox.
Paul, who is up for re-election in 2016, has asked for a
clarification of Kentucky state law to determine if he can run
for Senate and president simultaneously.
If Paul runs for president, he would join a Republican field
that also could include Cruz, New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, former Florida Governor
Jeb Bush and many others.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who lost a 2012
bid for the Republican nomination, told Fox he also was
preparing for another run but had not made a final decision. He
said he would be in Iowa and New Hampshire later this month.
(Reporting by John Whitesides; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
