Libertarian views and traditional conservative values complement each other, Paul says. Paul: 'Chamber' Republican can't win

FORT WORTH, Texas — Rand Paul told GOP activists Saturday that the GOP can’t nominate another “Chamber of Commerce Republican” and expect to win the presidency in 2016. It’s time, he said, for a “libertarian moment.”

“Chamber of Commerce is fine, I was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, but a Chamber of Commerce Republican is not going to win a national election,” Paul (R-Ky.), the libertarian-leaning senator and likely presidential contender, said. “I’m not saying we give up on what we believe in, but we have to expand what we believe in.”


His comments came during an address to the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas at the Texas GOP convention here. Liberty, he said, “infuses traditional conservatism with the excitement, the energy, the outreach that we need.” Libertarian views and traditional conservative values complement each other, Paul added.

“The interesting thing about it is, as I go around the country, no matter who I talk to, whether it’s the establishment — the wealthy who support our party sometimes — or the poor, people say it’s time, time for this libertarian moment, this liberty moment,” he said. “It’s no longer something that scares people, it’s what [makes] people say, we can’t run the same-old same-old, we’re not going to win with the same-old, same-old.”

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Paul has long advocated trying to bring traditionally Democratic constituencies into the Republican fold, and at the breakfast he outlined his message to disadvantaged people in urban areas. He called for reforming the criminal justice system so it doesn’t disproportionately hit minorities and poor people; school choice; and promoting policies that help economic development in poorer areas.

“You have to show up, you have to show you care, people have to believe that you care and then we’ll win, be the dominant party,” he said. “In Texas you are, but we’re not nationally.”

Later on Saturday, he is set to attend an opening of a GOP engagement office in Louisville, Ky., in what he called “an African American section of town where we haven’t been for 100 years.”