Sen. Rand Paul pushes Republican party to focus on young people

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) gets it. He knows that without young people there is no future for the Republican Party — and he’s not afraid to be their champion.

Paul appeared on Fox News Sunday this week, where host Chris Wallace asked the Senator about what winning the 2014 CPAC straw poll meant for his viability as a presidential candidate in 2016.

“Well you know, the one thing about CPAC is it’s chock full of young people,” Paul responded. “There’s young people everywhere.”

As a generation that is very connected through technology, the Senator told Wallace that he believes young people are very aware of their right to privacy. According to Paul, the government’s invasion of data privacy is something that young people just don’t — and won’t — accept.

“I think not only conservative young people from colleges and high school, I think young people across the country are fed up with the government that says, ‘Hey, the Fourth Amendment doesn’t apply to your records, doesn’t apply to your cell phone,'” he said.

Paul pointed out that President Barack Obama’s approval rating among young people has fallen dramatically, even though the demographic overwhelmingly supported him in the 2012 presidential election. And that is an open invitation for Republicans to bring the “energy” of young people into their party, the Kentucky Senator added.

Wallace also asked the question that everyone continues to wonder: will Paul actually be running for President in 2016? Although the Senator is still thinking about his options, he believes that he has a strong platform for the job.

“I think that the message that I’m trying to promote, whether I do it [run for President] or not, of bringing our message to minority voters, to people who have been persecuted throughout history, to young people who feel like the government has grown too big — I think it’s a message that can grow the party,” he said. “And the party’s got to grow bigger or we’re not going to win again.”

Paul also tweeted about the youth vote on Sunday morning, around the same time as his TV appearance.

Young people have certainly taken notice of Paul’s commitment to young people, as the CPAC straw poll made evident. With 42 percent of voters in the poll being students — and 46 of the voters being between the ages of 18-25 — it’s no question that Paul’s commanding win in the presidential preference category signals his support among Millennials.