Rand Paul Eyes Chance To Run For President In 2016

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has seen his name thrown around often as a possible contender for the Republican nominee for president in 2016, and he does his best to keep stoking the flames. Paul now says he is considering running for president because doing so will provide him with a larger platform to discuss issues.

The Christian Science Monitor recently hosted a breakfast for reporters who grilled the senator about his thoughts on running for president in 2016.

“You know, I want to be part of the national debate,” Paul said. “So whether I run or not, being considered is something that allows me to have I think a larger microphone.”

Paul went on to confirm that he is considering making a run. This isn’t the first time the senator has hinted at a possible 2016 presidential bid. Following the November election, Paul told ABC:

“Am I interested in thinking about that? Yes … I am different than some in that I am not going to deny that I am interested. I’m not going to deny that I think we have to go a different direction because we’re just not winning.”

Rand Paul is the son of Ron Paul, a favorite among libertarians who ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988 and competed in the last two Republican presidential primaries. He represented Texas’s 14th district from 1997 until 2013, leaving after announcing he would not seek re-election in order to focus on his presidential campaign.

Rand Paul has attracted some of the libertarian supporters that rallied behind his father and has been a Tea Party favorite since running for the Senate in 2010. He delivered the Tea Party response to President Barack Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address. At this year’s CPAC, he won a symbolic poll seeking whomever attendants most desired for president in 2016. Last month he staged a one-man filibuster for nearly 13 hours in opposition to the possibility that the government may use unmanned drones to target US citizens suspected of being terrorists.

Rand Paul told reporters that he will travel to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina by this summer — all early-primary states — but he won’t make a decision about running for president in 2016 before 2014.

[Image by Mark Taylor (http://www.flickr.com/photos/n3tel/5589208029/) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons]