Rand Paul’s presidential campaign is rooted in railing against the establishment. Now, as the Kentucky Republican embarks on a White House bid, he hopes to build a coalition of Silicon Valley libertarians and online grass-roots contributors, and to woo nontraditional GOP donors to raise the tens of millions of dollars needed to run a competitive primary race.

Mostly starved of Wall Street money, Paul is turning to Silicon Valley and to major donors and bundlers in target-rich cities like Dallas and Chicago, promising them a voice in creating policy through “councils” he hopes to establish across the country. And he’s looking to take a page from the campaigns of his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, by aggressive online fundraising.


The strategy looks more akin to what might be expected if Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren were to run for president. Like Warren, the Kentucky Republican has regularly railed against “corporate welfare” and has said Republicans can’t be the party of “fat cats, rich people, and Wall Street,” a posture that has almost universally alienated him from a traditional source of campaign cash.

Paul, who will launch a five-day, five-state presidential bid Tuesday in Kentucky, has been gaming out his dollar dance for more than a year — regularly reaching out to California’s tech community to create alliances with deep-pocketed industry executives and billionaire entrepreneurs concerned about policy issues like privacy.

“Part of the message he’s sending out to the tech community [is] that, ‘I want to be close to you,’” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association. “And part of it is that he sees a naturally ally there in terms of fundraising and messaging, and I think it will be well-received.”

Indeed, Paul’s first official fundraiser as a presidential candidate is Friday at the home of Ron Sechrist, founder of oxygen and respiratory equipment manufacturing company Sechrist Industries, and his wife Helena, in Newport Beach, California. Helena Sechrist contributed $2,400 to another expected GOP presidential candidate, Carly Fiorina, when she ran for U.S. Senate in 2010.

While Paul has regularly traveled to California, tech industry lobbyists say he made his case to the industry during a recent trip to Austin, Texas, for the annual South by Southwest summit. He took the stage for a high-profile fireside chat to talk tech policy and broadcast his travels on the newly popular live-streaming app Meerkat — and he even raised some money at a fundraiser co-hosted by CEA, according to the group.

“I think that speaks volumes to the fact he recognizes this is an important voting bloc, and this is an important sector to court,” said Internet Association President Michael Beckerman. Asked how he compares to the other GOP hopefuls, given his early outreach: “Early relationships go a long way. It’s yet to be seen who else is going to run and how other relationships develop over the next year and a half or so, but being first goes a long way.”

But Paul’s potential disconnect with Silicon Valley also surfaced: He spoke, for example, against the Obama administration’s position on net neutrality, a salient and emotional issue among the younger, Web-savvy crowd.

And while Paul’s message may have appealed to Valley libertarians, it also risks isolating the industry’s socially liberal set. The potential chasm came into sharp relief this week amid a furious debate over so-called “religious freedom” laws. A diverse collection of executives from both parties — including Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Cisco CEO John Chambers and others — signed a statement strongly denouncing the efforts as discriminatory. Paul, by contrast, has remained relatively silent on the matter.

Paul’s position on other flashpoint issues like immigration reform could also weaken support among tech Republicans and independents who might feel more comfortable with a candidate like Bush.

In some ways, Paul’s California headway contrasts sharply with fellow GOP presidential conservative candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who announced in March and is not expected to draw heavily from the state. Cruz did have a fundraiser in San Diego as part of his first fundraising tour.

Two possible key Paul tech donors — PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Napster’s billionaire co-founder Sean Parker — are staying mum about whether they’d pony up big money to back a Paul super PAC. Thiel, a Facebook investor and board member, contributed $2.6 million in 2012 to the pro-Ron Paul super PAC Endorse Liberty.

Parker has also invested heavily in Rand Paul’s political operation. He cut a check in November for $7,600 to the Kentucky Republican’s joint fundraising committee. Parker has also contributed in the past to Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, contributing $10,200 in October 2013 to his joint fundraising committee.

Thiel and Parker declined to comment.

While Paul isn’t expected to draw much money from New York’s financial set, he has made headway with one hedge fund — Mason Capital Management. Company executives have contributed heavily to Paul. Co-founder Kenneth Garschina cut a check for $250,000 to America’s Liberty, a pro-Paul super PAC. He did not respond to a request for comment about whether he would continue to support Paul in his presidential bid.

Paul advisers say developing a fundraising strategy has been a top priority for more than a year, though they won’t discuss their money goals for the first week or the primaries. Paul is expected to do several fundraisers and, because he has a large base of small donors, his fundraising “will be consistent and long-term — rather than in bursts like other potential candidates,” according to a source close to the campaign.

And while not all of Ron Paul’s supporters are expected to back his son, Rand, an existing family fundraising network offers an advantage, as it does for Jeb Bush.

PayPal founder Peter Thiel is one of two possible key tech donors who may back a Paul super PAC. | Getty

”They are not going to have problems raising money,” said Stephen Moore, Heritage Foundation chief economist who has informally advised multiple 2016 candidates but is most interested in working for Paul. “Jeb inherits his brother’s and his father’s machine. You can’t even put a price tag on how valuable that is. The only person who actually has that in a smaller and important way is Rand Paul. He has his father’s network. He’s going to be able to raise a lot of money. Not as much as Jeb. But I don’t think money is going to be a problem for Rand Paul.”

And unlike his father, Rand Paul appears willing to make some concessions that could attract a broader donor base. For instance, Paul endorsed Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential cycle, campaigned across the country during the 2014 presidential cycle and even hired Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s fundraiser, Laura Sequeira, who raised tens of millions for McConnell’s reelection bid.

Paul has also made the pilgrimage earlier this year to the Koch brother’s fundraising retreat and to Mitt Romney’s weekend of former donors and supporters in Utah.

“There is definitely a stress on it,” said Brian Darling, a former senior Paul adviser on fundraising. “When Rand went out to the Koch event he brought a fundraiser with him. He’s been trying. He’s been doing his best. He went to the big confab that Romney had a few months ago with donor types.”

Elroy Sailor, who has focused on Paul’s fundraising outreach in the South and New York, said the effort has focused on trying to “create opportunities for your traditional donors large and small and find opportunities for new donors both large and small to engage very methodically.”

Sailor said that includes Paul’s concept of creating councils of elected officials, policymakers and business leaders to engage donors beyond just writing checks. The Paul operation has held events in Atlanta, Detroit and Cleveland — trying to go beyond the traditional GOP donor base.

“We think the major donors have been doing the same thing over the last 15 to 20 years, but here is an opportunity for traditional donors to be involved, to be a part of something that’s a little bigger than writing a check,” Sailor said. “It’s a way to also reach out to folks who do not necessarily consider themselves a Republican, but that individual is — maybe it’s a barber shop owner who believes in lower taxes and less regulation.”

With online fundraising, Paul has already built out a significant online presence and is expected to use multiple social media platforms, in addition to email blasts, to bring in campaign funds.

While his father isn’t expected to have a significant campaign presence,, several Rand Paul supporters said he will rely on the online donor base to raise significant money. In December 2008, Ron Paul had the largest one-day online fundraising take at the time, bringing in roughly $6 million from 58,407 individual contributors.

“I believe, based on my read on the world, Rand Paul will do just fine in the grass roots,” said Brian Doherty, who covered Ron Paul in 2008 and is senior editor at Reason Magazine. “If he says, ‘Everyone just give me a little to the real campaign,’ I’m guessing that will work just fine.”

Darren Samuelsohn contributed to this report.