Rand Paul, a Republican elected in 2010, is Kentucky’s junior senator. He is the son of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a libertarian and 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate who has a devoted following among strict adherents of limited government. The younger Paul was born in Lake Jackson, Texas. He attended Baylor University, where he was an active member of the Young Conservatives of Texas. Although he failed to get an undergraduate degree at Baylor, Paul chose to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a doctor. He got a high score on the medical entrance exam and was admitted to Duke University, where he got his medical degree. Read More

Rand Paul, a Republican elected in 2010, is Kentucky’s junior senator. He is the son of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a libertarian and 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate who has a devoted following among strict adherents of limited government. The younger Paul was born in Lake Jackson, Texas. He attended Baylor University, where he was an active member of the Young Conservatives of Texas. Although he failed to get an undergraduate degree at Baylor, Paul chose to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a doctor. He got a high score on the medical entrance exam and was admitted to Duke University, where he got his medical degree.

His schooling and residency finished, Paul moved to Bowling Green, Ky., near his wife’s home town, and opened an ophthalmology practice. Paul also established an eye clinic to treat low-income patients. Paul mulled entering politics for some time, writing newspaper columns, helping with his father’s campaigns, and founding an anti-tax watchdog group called Kentucky Taxpayers United. His father’s denunciation of the Federal Reserve and espousal of free market principles in the 2008 presidential campaign attracted a cult-like following and showed the potential of an unconventional candidate to raise large sums online. When Rand Paul gave a speech on April 15, 2009—Tax Day—to a tea party group, the energy of the crowd persuaded him that “something enormous was going on,” as he later told the Bowling Green Daily News. He decided to run for the Senate.

The seat was held by two-term Republican incumbent Jim Bunning, who had a solid conservative record but had been only barely re-elected in 2004 and was being pressed by Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the powerful Senate Republican leader, not to run. In July 2009, Bunning announced he would retire, and the favorite for the Republican nomination was state Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who had the backing of McConnell and much of the state GOP establishment. But Paul had his father’s name and access to his vast network of contributors. His backers eagerly embraced his outspoken views that government should stick to the functions outlined in the Constitution, that some agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Education Department should be abolished, and that the powers of the Federal Reserve should be drastically curbed.

McConnell appeared in television ads for Grayson, and Grayson ran spots charging Paul was weak on national security. But Paul ended up winning the primary in a rout, 59%-35%, carrying 109 of 120 counties. McConnell made a point of appearing at a victory rally for Paul and complimenting his campaign. Paul, who had previously declined to say whether he would vote for McConnell for Senate minority leader, said there was virtually no scenario where he wouldn’t support him. On the Democratic side, the primary was much closer: Attorney General Jack Conway beat Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo by 44%-43%.

Paul’s decisive upset was quickly overshadowed by an appearance on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show. When the liberal host challenged him on his beliefs, he indicated his opposition in principle to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing that the federal government shouldn’t interfere with private businesses. The remarks caused a furor, even after Paul issued a statement saying he did not support repealing the landmark law barring discrimination against minority groups. After that, he limited his media appearances and subsequently traveled to Washington to meet with Republicans and interest groups that had viewed him with suspicion. But his Democratic opponent, Conway, hammered him for that and other public statements, such as a claim that imposing a $2,000 deductible on Medicare beneficiaries would solve the financial problems of the behemoth government medical insurance program. Paul said that the idea was just an option under consideration and that he did not endorse it.

One of the two nominees was arguably too conservative and the other too liberal for the median Kentucky voter, and both tried to take advantage of that. Conway seized on Paul’s support for raising the Social Security retirement age and opposing federal involvement in drug enforcement. Paul had plenty of material to work with, however, in his attempt to paint Conway as too liberal. Conway supported abortion rights, the Democrats’ health care bill, repeal of the ban on open gays in the military, and a pro-union bill effectively abolishing the secret ballot in unionization elections. Conway may also have hurt himself with an ad that political operatives considered over the top. In the ad, the narrator says, “Why was Rand Paul a member of a secret society that called the Holy Bible a ‘hoax’?...Why did Rand Paul once tie a woman up, tell her to bow down before a false idol, and say ... god was Aqua Buddha?” The charges mostly referred to pranks during Paul’s college years. GQ magazine had reported that Paul once belonged to a secret society called the NoZe Brotherhood, which often taunted the school’s administration; he and a friend were once accused of blindfolding a female acquaintance and trying to get her to smoke marijuana.

Paul won by 56%-44%, a slightly smaller margin than John McCain’s in 2008 in Kentucky, but nonetheless decisive. He did not carry Louisville’s Jefferson County or Lexington’s Fayette County, but ran strongly in the Northern Kentucky counties across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

His victory was counted as one of the major triumphs for the tea party movement, although on some issues, notably defense, he seemed closer to his father’s views than those of most tea party supporters. As soon as he got to Washington, Paul established a Tea Party Caucus in the Senate. And he showed no sign of giving up his penchant for sending up rhetorical flares. In May 2011, Paul accused President Barack Obama of trying to block Boeing from creating jobs in the South, saying he suspected Obama kept an "enemies list."

With his civil libertarian inclinations, Paul tried to block the extension of the USA PATRIOT Act in May 2011, despite the fact that the law is popular with most conservatives. Paul complained that the law should be more thoroughly debated and he objected to the government’s ability to examine individual gun purchasing records. Paul offered an amendment that would restrict the government’s power to obtain gun records, but the measure was defeated, 85-10, and the PATRIOT Act was extended. In a June 2011 speech at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Paul spoke of the need for a more restrained foreign policy and more congressional oversight of U.S. military engagements. During a November 2011 debate over a defense authorization bill, Paul was a vocal opponent of a provision that would allow the military to detain terrorism suspects indefinitely. “I’m very, very concerned about having U.S. citizens sent to Guantanamo Bay for indefinite detention,” he said. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. offered an amendment to strike the controversial provision from the authorization bill, but it failed, 38-60. Paul and Mark Kirk of Illinois were the only two Republicans to vote for Udall’s amendment. Despite being a staunch budget cutter and deficit hawk, Paul did tell a Veterans of Foreign Wars group that he would work to maintain funding for the military and veterans.

Paul offered a large number of bills for a freshman. And he was perfectly willing to use his power to block anything he viewed as government overreach. He proposed an amendment in November 2011 that would have blocked an Obama Administration cross state air pollution rule aimed at limiting pollution from power plants, but Paul’s measure was voted down and opposed by six Republicans. In September 2011, Paul blocked a bill to strengthen safety regulations for oil and gas pipelines in the wake of a deadly gas pipeline rupture near San Francisco in 2010. The pipeline safety bill was broadly popular and even supported by pipeline trade associations and the natural gas industry. Paul later dropped his hold on the bill, it passed the Senate under unanimous consent in October, and was eventually signed into law.

When the budget blueprint from Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., which included his controversial plan to revamp Medicare, came to a vote in the Senate in May 2011, Paul was one of five Republicans who joined Democrats in successfully voting it down. However, the other GOP senators-Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Maine Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins-are all moderates and opposed Ryan’s plan because of fear of deep cuts to Medicare. Paul opposed the budget because he didn’t think it made enough spending cuts.

In January 2012, Paul made national news when he refused a pat-down from the Transportation Security Administration at an international airport in Nashville, Tenn. Paul remains a tea party favorite, and he gave a blistering speech indicting the Obama Administration at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. in February.