U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has endorsed Mary Thomas, Republican candidate for Florida’s 2nd Congressional District.

The campaign announced the endorsement Thursday.

“In this critical open-seat race, Mary is the only candidate who stands for less government, lower taxes, and more liberty,” said Paul, a libertarian Republican who dropped out of the race for president earlier this year.

“Mary is a constitutionalist who will fight to return government to its rightful place,” he added in a statement. “The voters of Florida’s Second District have a clear choice, and I urge them to vote for the liberty-minded conservative Republican Mary Thomas on Aug. 30.”

The 53-year-old Paul, an ophthalmologist, was elected in the tea party-driven wave of 2010 and often tangled with GOP leaders.

In opposition to the Obama administration’s use of drone strikes against suspected terrorists, Paul took over the Senate floor for almost 13 hours in 2013 to block the nomination of John Brennan as CIA director.

Paul also has endorsed Republican Dan Bongino, the former Secret Service agent who is running for the 19th Congressional District.

That candidate most recently was in the news after his profane tirade against a POLITICO Florida reporter who was questioning Bongino’s critique of local news coverage of his campaign.

Thomas, a state government attorney for Gov. Rick Scott, is running against Panama City urological surgeon Neal Dunn and Tallahassee’s Ken Sukhia, a former federal prosecutor, for the Republican spot in the general election.