Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, says one difference between himself and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas might be “winnability” and that he is polling the strongest against former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner for president in 2016.
“Ted Cruz and I come from the same wing of the party,” Mr. Paul said on Fox News’ “Hannity.” “So sometimes you’ll have two very conservative, two senators who support the Constitution, and you’ll have to look for nuances of difference between the two, and one of those might be winnability.”
Mr. Cruz became the first major presidential candidate to jump into the race for the White House this week, and he and Mr. Paul have indeed fought on the same side of many fights in the U.S. Senate.
“When you look at polling right now, you’ll find that nobody in the Republican party does better against Hillary Clinton than myself, and I think that’s because we’ve tried very hard to pick up [the] independent vote and voters who haven’t been voting Republican, and frankly, that’s how you win elections,” Mr. Paul said.
In a recent CNN/ORC poll, Mr. Paul trailed Mrs. Clinton by 11 points, 54 percent to 43 percent, but was closer than other potential GOP contenders such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Mr. Paul said his goal over the last couple of years has been “to take a consistent defense of liberty, but to take it to new places where it hasn’t been heard in hopes that we can get a bigger party and a more national party.”
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“So I’ve been to Howard, I’ve been to Bowie State, I’ve been to the Urban League, I’ve been to NAACP, I’ve been to Berkeley trying to broaden the people, and the amount of people [I] bring in and not just toss out things that may well inflame the situation and excite certain people, but might turn off other people,” he said. “But I’ll also put up my record as being as conservative as anybody, if not more conservative, than anybody in the Congress.”
Speaking on Fox News’ “The Kelly File,” Mr. Cruz said they “reassembled the Reagan coalition” when he got elected to the Senate.
“We brought together conservatives and libertarians and evangelicals and women and young people [and] Hispanics and Reagan Democrats,” he said.
He also noted that he won 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in Texas and that he’s also raised more than $1 million in the first day since announcing his run.
“Our campaign is based on courageous conservatives across this country, men and women goin’ to tedcruz.org and contributing and that’s where we’re gettin’ the support,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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