Sen. Rand Paul is engaging in the Alaska Senate race with an endorsement for Republican Dan Sullivan in a new ad.
Paul, who has quickly become one of the prized Republican surrogates in this midterm election cycle, is featured in a television spot from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which debuted Friday.
“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,” said Blair Latoff Holmes, a chamber spokeswoman.
In the ad, Paul looks straight to the camera to deliver the message that “Washington is broken.”
“Washington takes too much of our freedoms and too much of our money,” Paul says. “I think Dan Sullivan will get it back.”
“To change Washington,” Paul adds, “change your senator.”
The pairing of the Chamber of Commerce, a mainstay group of the Republican establishment, and Paul, who has made his mark in the Senate by bucking many of the party’s typical policies, is an unexpected one.
But Paul has charted a pragmatic political course as he prepares to run for president in 2016, although that decision is not yet public or final.
Putting his name on the line to help win one of the most important Senate races this year will no doubt help endear Paul to the Republican mainstream.
In Alaska, Sullivan has been polling strongly of late, but Sen. Mark Begich, the Democratic incumbent, remains well within striking distance.
Paul also takes on Begich in the new ad, accusing him of voting “with his liberal Democratic friends 91 percent of the time.”
