Sure, his dad brings along some name recognition too, but Rep. Ron Paul’s son Rand Paul — who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky — was ecstatic to hear former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was endorsing his insurgent Senate campaign.
“We think it may be the biggest endorsement that a candidate could get in the country this year,” Paul told Yeas & Nays, boasting he was “all smiles” when he heard the news Monday.
The endorsement wasn’t a total shock. Paul’s campaign had been putting out feelers to Palin’s people for quite some time, but Paul believed one of his grass-roots supporters, who penned a persuasive letter to Palin, may have sealed the deal.
“I think showing that even big things sometimes happen through one grass-roots supporter is interesting,” he said.
Palin’s role in the campaign has yet to be defined. In fact, the two Republicans — both associated with the tea party movement — haven’t even chatted.
“That’s on my list, to put a call into her and say, ‘hello,’ but we haven’t arranged that yet,” Paul said.
“I was in surgery all morning,” he added.
The candidate has continued to work as an eye surgeon throughout his primary campaign against Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson. He’s currently beating Grayson in the polls.
So who’s the next big endorsement?
“It’s hard to think of another endorsement; we’ve been sort of riding this tsunami,” he said.
