Liberal talk show host Chris Matthews is predicting that Sen. Rand Paul will be the Republican party’s 2016 nominee.

“I believe the Republican party is going to go hard-right in 2016,” Mr. Matthews said Wednesday on MSNBC. “It’s going to someone from the growing hard-right wing of the party, something it hasn’t done since 1980.”

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“I predict the hard right is going to takeover the Republican party in 2016 and the nomination is going to Rand Paul,” he said.

Mr. Paul, Kentucky Republican and tea party favorite, appears to be laying the groundwork for a presidential run, and argues that his libertarian brand of politics will help the Republican party make inroads with young voters and minorities - two voting blocs that strongly backed President Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections.