Story highlights Rand Paul plans to launch a college-focused tour in Iowa starting Monday

"Our goal is to turn 10,000 students out -- that could be enough to win the Iowa caucus," he said

Waterloo, Iowa (CNN) Facing sagging poll numbers and questions about whether he may soon drop out of the race, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul says he is standing firm, in it to win it and planning to launch an extensive college tour in the key early voting state of Iowa next week.

The 11-stop, three-day swing starts Monday. The goal is to fire up young voters the campaign believes will be drawn to the senator's emphasis on issues like curtailing government surveillance, criminal justice reform and questioning continued U.S. involvement in wars overseas.

"I think that many of these kids are ready to come our way," Paul told CNN in a brief telephone interview. "Our goal is to turn 10,000 students out -- that could be enough to win the Iowa caucus. We think it's an achievable goal for us."

The swing will take the senator to Cedar Rapids, Mount, Vernon, Iowa City, Davenport, Dubuque, Fayette, Waverly, Cedar Falls, Sioux City, Storm Lake and Des Moines. It builds on an initiative the campaign launched in August aimed at encouraging college students to launch chapters for Paul supporters on 300 college campuses over 30 days. The campaign beat that goal, with 340 chapters set up on campuses nationwide in that time period and has added several more since, 15 of them in Iowa.

The libertarian firebrand, who was one of the first candidates to throw his hat in the ring, is hoping college students will give him an edge in Iowa and other early states. Wooing them could make an impact in Iowa, which has more than 130,000 students at four-year colleges alone, according to the 2013 Iowa College and University Enrollment Report.

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