Paul makes case for libertarian Republican approach

Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday that his "libertarian Republican approach" to politics could help win over young voters as well as moderates and independent voters.

"The Republican Party needs to figure out how to be bigger and I think I do bring some ideas to that. And so I talked with the Republican National Committee, the Republican National Committee chairman [Reince Priebus] about things I think we need to do to be competitive on the West Coast, to be competitive in New England and Illinois," the Republican senator from Kentucky said on "Fox News Sunday."

"Some of those ideas are more [of a] libertarian Republican approach to things and I think that a lot of young people are attracted to that and our party could grow if we accepted something more than the cookie cutter conservatives in the past."

The left-right political spectrum "doesn't always work for people," Paul said.

"We have a confusing spectrum," he added. "This left-right spectrum doesn't always work for people. But I think because of that confusion, it shows that someone like myself I think could appeal to young people, independents and moderates, because many of them do think it's a mistake to put people in jail for marijuana use and throw away the key."

"So I think there are people who would like a less aggressive foreign policy," he said. "There are all kinds of issues that don't neatly left in the left-right paradigm that I think would help because we're not doing very well in a lot of these states, these purple and blue states. So we need a candidate that would appeal across the left-right paradigm."

As for 2016, Paul said he doesn't know if he'll run for president.

"The country is suffering, 12 million people out of work< he said. "So I want to be part of the answers to it. Whether or not that actually is me specifically running for president, I don't know that yet."