Interview: Rand Paul to open Austin office

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), heading to Texas this weekend for the South by Southwest digital-palooza, will open an Austin office for his RANDPAC political committee as part of his effort to attract tech talent and appeal to younger voters.

Paul, who also plans a Bay Area office, will speak Monday afternoon at the office opening in the Capital Factory complex. The outpost, according to RANDPAC, “will center on digital engagement and product innovation.”


Paul chatted with POLITICO Playbook as he kicked off a busy four days of political travel, ahead of his expected announcement next month that he’ll seek the 2016 GOP nomination.

On Friday afternoon, Paul speaks on criminal-justice reform at Maryland’s Bowie State University, one of the nation’s oldest historically black colleges and universities. On Sunday evening in Austin, on the third day of South by Southwest, Paul appears with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith to discuss “how technology has transformed politics, campaigning, governing and citizen engagement.”

POLITICO: Why Bowie State?

PAUL: “A young man wrote us, one of their students, wrote us about some of the things we’ve been trying to do, and so we contacted him. I’ve been saying for a couple of years now that Republicans need to go where we haven’t been going, and we need to ask new voters to come and join us. And I think there’s a great opportunity for us. … There’s only upside potential for us. I think there’s a lot of our message that will resonate beyond where we’ve tried in the past. We just have to take it there."

POLITICO: Do you get any hostility when you speak in a place like Detroit?

PAUL: “Most people have actually been very friendly. The most common response I get is: ‘We’re glad you’re here and we’re glad you’re competing for our vote.’ We’ve gone probably a couple of generations now where everyone has automatically assumed that virtually all of the African-American vote is Democrat. So Republicans don’t bother to go to any venues that are predominantly African American, and then the voters get pigeonholed that way. But then they get disappointed that their Democrat representatives don’t want to show up, because they take them for granted.”

POLITICO: What will your message be at Bowie State?

PAUL: “My position on criminal justice reform is very similar to the NAACP’s and the Urban League’s. … Fifty years after the civil rights movement, we’re still facing a great deal of obstacles for African Americans, particularly for young African-American males. And when I talk to the folks who have graduated from historically black colleges, they feel like it had met their needs better than the traditional schools. … I’ve met a lot of graduates of Morehouse [College in Atlanta] who are doing very well — who seem to be leaders in many of our cities, as I’ve traveled around the country. I see a great deal of success coming from the schools.”

POLITICO: Why an Austin office?

PAUL: “Austin is getting a reputation as a hub for tech improvements, startups. The young man that does our social media [Vincent Harris] is out of Austin, and so we have some connections down there. It’s going to be really a hub for trying to bring some of the best and brightest tech minds in to talk about how we find our voters. One thing about using technology to find your voters is that if you have a distinctive footprint, it’s easier to find your voters. Many Republicans may appear the same, but … I think those libertarian-ish leanings help to find the people you’re looking for if you want to turn them out to vote."

POLITICO: Why your emphasis on social media?

PAUL: “We’re always looking for new platforms. We’re looking for new and innovative ways to get the idea out. And I think it’s a combination of both. One is embracing the different platforms on the Internet and social media. But the other thing is having something to say that young people are interested in. When you look at young people, if you put a television ad on Fox News or CNN, they’re never going to see it. But under 40, particularly under 35, you’ve got to figure out where they’re getting their news — on a Twitter feed — and through what ads and what locations they’re going to online."

POLITICO: How do you use Snapchat?

PAUL: “They’ve got me getting on Snapchat, and we reach thousands of kids that we might not ever have reached before. In fact, we’re probably reaching some kids who aren’t yet 18, that will be 18 when the elections roll around the next time. We’ll have whole classrooms sometimes do a Snapchat to us — like 30 or 40 kids in a high school class will do a quick Snapshot to us. If you can get into the different platforms, that you reach new audiences and also that these are audiences you never would have reached otherwise.

“But the bottom line is you have to have something to say to them too, and we tell them, frankly, that the government has no business looking at their phone records, and I think they appreciate that. I remember being a kid and you’re trying to escape from under the thumb of your parents. And then you don’t want to replace your parents with the government. I think kids are quite open to the message of having a right to privacy.”

POLITICO: Where do you like to go online?

PAUL: “Mike Allen Twitter feed is my number one [laughing]. All right, that was pandering. That was shameless pandering. I really look a little bit at a lot. But I’m not an avid person as far as all the different — you know, I’m not out there personally using a lot of things in Facebook. I have a lot of help doing all of this, and I check out all of the things that I’m doing, and in encourage people, and I give ideas, you know, for things to go out.”

POLITICO: What’s the next frontier?

PAUL: “If I knew the next frontier, I would start it myself, and then I would become a 25-year-old billionaire, like all these other people.”