Sen. Rand Paul began his presidential campaign Tuesday offering a roundly anti-Washington message and embracing a transformative vision of the Republican Party and its cornerstone policies.
Sharing the stage in Louisville with a sign bearing his newly minted campaign slogan, “defeat the Washington machine, unleash the American Dream,” Paul stressed his experience as an ophthalmologist over his experience as a first-term senator.
“The Washington machine that gobbles up our freedoms and invades every nook and cranny of our lives must be stopped,” Paul announced at the Galt House Hotel.
Paul is not completely disenchanted with Washington: He has announced he will also run for re-election to the Senate in 2016. But Paul scarcely mentioned his day job in his speech, saying he has “been to Washington, and let me tell you, there is no monopoly on knowledge there.”
“I ran for office because I believe there are too many career politicians,” Paul added, as he pushed for congressional term limits.
After being introduced by former Rep. J.C. Watts, an African American Republican, Paul also sought to highlight his outreach to minorities in cities such as Detroit and Chicago, which “revealed what I call an ‘undercurrent of unease.'”
“Liberal policies have failed our inner cities,” Paul said. “Our schools are not equal and the poverty gap continues to widen.”
Paul’s inclusive tone bore a striking contrast with that of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who announced his bid for president last month with a call to arms targeted at the conservative base, especially evangelical Christian voters.
But broadening the reach of the Republican Party will likely be a popular theme among many candidates in this election cycle. The GOP is seeking to adapt to changing demographics and sharpen its appeal among groups that have traditionally regarded the party with skepticism. Paul’s Tuesday announcement featured an introduction from a longtime Democrat turned Republican, Louisville’s Rev. Jerry Stephenson.
Paul has attempted to carve out a niche in this regard with events over the past few months targeting minorities and young voters. But Democrats pushed back Tuesday at the notion that Paul will ultimately succeed with his big-tent strategy.
“Not only is Rand Paul not going to make the GOP’s tent any bigger, the tent actually collapses under the weight of his harmful policies,” said Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Paul plans to run for president as a “different kind of Republican,” as advertised by a web video released Sunday by Paul’s campaign. The pressing question for Paul will be whether voters in a Republican primary will accept a new model of GOP candidate.
In particular, Paul is known for having a dovish foreign policy worldview relative to other Republicans, which might prove challenging to defend with threats from the Islamic State and Iran at the forefront of the national security debate.
And Paul must also seek to consolidate past supporters of his father, Ron Paul, a former presidential candidate and member of Congress, without too closely aligning himself with his father’s more extreme policies.
Ron Paul attended his son’s announcement in Louisville on Tuesday, but was not name-checked by Rand Paul.
