He won the 2016 straw poll with 36 percent of ballots cast. Rand Paul touts Mich. straw poll win

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul hailed his victory in this weekend’s Michigan GOP presidential straw poll as a win for a younger generation of Republicans, highlighting his cross-generational appeal on issues such as criminal justice and drug reform.

Paul handily won the 2016 straw poll with 36 percent of ballots cast at the biennial Republican conference. The runner-up was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, at 18 percent, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 8 percent and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 7 percent each, according to MLive.com.


Jindal and Walker also spoke at the conference. Christie, Cruz and Bush did not.

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Speaking by phone from Michigan’s Mackinac Island — at a conference Paul said was “jammed full of really a lot of young people” — the senator said: “There’s just a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of people out here excited about the message of how we grow the Republican Party.”

Paul specifically cited the audience’s response to his testimony last week regarding mandatory minimum sentencing for drug crimes, which he called unjust and disproportionately harmful to minorities. “Many people came up to me and said, ‘You’re exactly right,’” Paul said.

During his extensive political travels this year, Paul has called it a top priority to expand the reach of the Republican Party to young people and minorities. The former Bowling Green ophthalmologist said he spoke in Michigan with school-choice advocates from the Detroit area, and said he is likely to return to Michigan to visit charter schools in Detroit.

As for what it all means for his own 2016 plans, Paul remained coy: “You never know.”

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The senator offered some blunt realism in Michigan earlier this weekend on the ongoing battle over funding for the Affordable Care Act, explaining — as he has done repeatedly in recent weeks — that Republicans are unlikely to be able to defund “Obamacare,” though he personally plans to vote against spending money to implement the law.

Some Republican legislators, led by Cruz, have vowed to oppose a new government spending bill that includes money for Obamacare through all legislative and procedural means available to them. Party leaders have expressed impatience with that approach, given the impossibility of overcoming the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House.

But Paul suggested that conservatives could declare victory if they are able to force changes to the law, even if they are unable to defund it. His suggestions: repealing the medical device tax, delaying implementation of the individual mandate, and revising the law’s treatment of insurance for part-time workers.

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“The Republicans can pass [defunding the ACA] out of the House, and they have, and I don’t think the Democrats are going to accept that in the Senate,” Paul said. “I also don’t think the president will sign defunding Obamacare … You start the battle for what you believe in and you hope to modify it some if you can’t win the whole battle.”

Asked about the upcoming debate over a new Fed chair, Paul had little to say about the wide expectation that the Fed’s current number-two official, Janet Yellen, is likely to get the nomination.

“Obviously she wouldn’t be my first pick,” Paul shrugged.