Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul told a raucous crowd in Louisville on Tuesday that he will build his presidential campaign on 'a message that is loud and clear, and does not mince words: 'We have come to take our country back.'

He will blast 'special interests that use Washington, D.C. as their personal piggy bank' if he wins the White House, Paul promised a cheering, packed ballroom.

'The Washington machine,' he said, 'must be stopped.'

Paul's official announcement Tuesday that he would run for president in 2016 came at the beginning of what observers are already calling an unconventional campaign.

Donors and family members of Paul campaign insiders said Monday night at a pre-launch party that the 'wild card' senator would surprise much of the political establishment by being an 'un-candidate' who turned traditional campaign wisdom on its head.

He took aim at Republicans along with Democrats on Tuesday, saying 'both parties and the entire political system are to blame' for dwindling freedoms in America.

'Big government and debt doubled under a Republican administration, and it's now tripling under Barack Obama's watch,' he said.

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THE UN-CANDIDATE: Rand Paul aims to change how Republicans run for president, and has designs on shaking up the field with unconventional messages and outreach to groups the GOP has historically ignored

FAMILY MAN: Paul made his announcement after his wife Kelley Ashby introduced him in Louisville on Tuesday

PREACHER: 'It doesn't matter what color you are, Rand Paul will be there,' said Rev. Jerry Stephenson, a former Democrat who switched parties and endorsed Paul

Paul tried to straddle the Republican chasm between conservatives and libertarians on Tuesday,

He called for an army of peasants with pitchforks that 'clutches the Constitution in one hand and the Bill of Rights in the other.'

Moments later he appealed to the party's right wing, likely infuriating fellow candidates – principally former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush – who hail from the party's moderate center.

'If we nominate a candidate who is simply "Democrat-lite," what's the point?' he asked. 'Why bother?'

VITAL SIGNS: DR. RAND PAUL Full name: Randal Howard Paul Age: 51 Party: Repubican Politics: Libertarian Born in: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Career: Came into the Senate after the 2010 tea party wave Family: Married Kelley Ashby, three sons, Robert, William and Duncan Profession: 20 years practicing ophthalmology Training: Duke University Medical School Claim to fame: 2013 Senate filibuster where he spoke for nearly 13 hours about the CIA's ability to target US citizens with drones Advertisement

Tuesday's speech may be remembered as much for what it omitted as for what Paul actually said.

Missing from the laundry list of issues he touched on were immigration policy and Obamacare, two conservative Shibboleths that more hard-line conservatives can be expected to hammer throughout the presidential campaign season.

'It's a week long announcement tour,' Paul's press secretary Sergio Gor told Daily Mail Online late on Tuesday.

'Stay tuned tomorrow for different portions in the speech,' he said, referring to remarks Paul will make in new Hampshire.

'[A] new location means new items too.'

Paul won wild cheers in Louisville with a demand for term limits in Congress, where he serves, and a constitutional amendment that would force federal lawmakers to present a balanced budget each year.

He drew an ovation from young people with a broadside directed at the National Security Agency, booming that 'the phone records of law-abiding citizens are none of their damned business!'

A President Paul, he pledged, 'will immediately end this unconstitutional surveillance.'

He also promised to put a short leash on the Internal Revenue Service so it 'cannot target, cannot harass American citizens for their political or their religious beliefs.'

And far from the dovish caricature often seen in Washington, Paul trumpeted a military policy that he sad would be more aggressive than President Barack Obama's, calling Middle Eastern Islamists 'haters of mankind.'

'Until we name the enemy we can't win the war,' he said. 'The enemy is radical Islam. You can't get around that.'

But at the same time he advocated restraint by saying he preferred a Pentagon that is 'unencumbered by overseas nation-building.'

On Obama's much-hyped Iran nuclear negotiations, Paul insisted any resulting final agreement 'must be approved by Congress. Not only is that good policy, it's the law.'

His most poignant moments came during an appeal to change the way the U.S. government treats racial minorities, especially in inner cities.

'The poor seem to get poorer and the rich get richer' in cities where Democrats run governments, he said. 'Poor families across America continue to suffer.'

Politicians 'have failed our inner cities,' he said. 'Our schools are not equal.'

Paul claimed children in failing public schools were left with 'a daily ugliness that dashes hope,' and called for federal policy that would put a 'school choice' program into place.

Paul begins the 2016 race as the second fully declared candidate, behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, but he could face as many as 20 rivals for the nomination before the lead-off Iowa caucuses early next year.

'I don't care how many people run against him. He's one of ours, and one of us,' rally attendee Cathy Spitzer told Daily Mail Online. She said she made the 90-minute drive from Lexington, Ky. to see Paul's big moment.

If we nominate a candidate who is simply 'Democrat-lite,' what's the point? Why bother? Kentucky Senator Rand Paul

'I'm not a tea party girl, mind you,' she said. 'But Rand is a once-in-a lifetime politician who does what he says he'll do and means every word of his speeches.'

The first-term senator is expected to challenge his fellow Republicans on both foreign and domestic policy with unconventional views on military intervention, privacy issues and criminal justice reform .

'This is the guy who's going to bring blacks back into the GOP,' Kentuckian Michael Spence said at the rally, describing Paul's outreach to minorities that has been based on the idea that low-level drug offenders – who are disproportionately black – should not be locked up like hardened criminals.

Spence, one of the sparsely scattered African-Americans in the ballroom, told Daily Mail Online that 'the Republican Party was black folks' great hope until the '60s, and now they have to fight to get us back.'

'I think Rand is the only one on the right with the guts to actually try.'

On Monday night at a private event in Louisville, one self-identified donor told Daily Mail Online that the senator 'is a wild card that lots of people aren't going to know how to deal with.'

'Just you wait and see,' he predicted, while insisting on anonymity. 'Everyone is going to be scratching their heads. The Democrats are going to be spinning their wheels trying to pin him down while the old-boy GOP network is going to have to scramble to catch up with his momentum.'

PRIVACY ADVOCATE: Paul blasted the National Security Agency, saying that 'the phone records of law-abiding citizens are none of their damned business!'

PACKED: A crush of fans met Rand Paul at the Galt House Hotel – no relation to the John Galt character in the libertarian-favorite novel 'Atlas Shrugged'

The spouse of another donor said Paul will be 'the un-candidate.'

'You know – like the old 7-Up commercials? "The Un-cola"? He's so different. It's amazing.'

'I'm hearing so may people asking when Rand is going to start acting like other Republicans. But who knows? Maybe the whole field will start acting like him.'

After his Tuesday noontime speech, Paul is expected to answer questions from voters on his Facebook page.

On the eve of his launch, Paul was a frequent poster on Twitter.

'On April 7, one leader will stand up to defeat the Washington machine and unleash the American dream,' Paul's political committee announced in a Web video before Tuesday's event.

Embedded in the video: an opportunity for supporters to donate.

Paul is launching a five-state swing Tuesday aftenoon, starting in New Hampshire before visiting Iowa, South Carolina and other early bellwether states.

His spokesman Sergio Gor told Daily Mail Online that the senator 'will take his constitutional conservative message to every corner of America.'

'Cutting federal government debt, balancing the budget and unleashing the American dream is a message that resonates far and wide. His goal is to expand the Republican party. The GOP needs to become bigger, better and bolder!'

Paul's slogan 'Defeat the Washington Machine' has come under criticism from rival Republicans who point out that he's part of it as a US senator

SEPARATION OF POWERS: Paul insisted that any nuclear agreement with Iran 'must be approved by Congress. Not only is that good policy, it's the law'

SILENT PARTNER: Rand Paul's father, the retired former Texas congressman Ron Paul (center), was in Louisville but did not appear on stage

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a prominent Paul rival and the only other Republican to announce his candidacy so far, issued a statement Tuesday morning with what may be his only olive branch until the 2016 election.

'I am glad to welcome my friend Rand Paul into the 2016 GOP primary,' Cruz said. 'Rand is a good friend, and we have worked side by side on many issues.'

'I respect his talent, his passion, and the work he has done for Kentuckians and Americans in the U.S. Senate. His entry into the race will no doubt raise the bar of competition, help make us all stronger, and ultimately ensure that the GOP nominee is equipped to beat Hillary Clinton and to take back the White House for Republicans in 2016.'

Unlike Cruz, who has already made his evangelical Christianity a centerpiece of his candidacy, Paul appeals strongly to secular libertarians.

But that hasn't stopped him from bank-shot appeals to religious-issues voters.

Three separate preachers warmed up the crowd on Tuesday.

And the lead-off speaker, former Oklahome congressman J.C. Watts asked, a packed ballroom at the Galt House Hotel to think about Rand and his wife Kelley, and 'pray for them by name every single day.'

'This is the start of a cause,' Watts said.

Kelley Ashby, Paul's spouse, spoke glowingly of her husband, with whom she has been married 24 years.

She recalled the senator's first political speech in April 2009, what he said would be a small event.

'There were 700 sign-waving tea party members,' she recalled.

CAMPAIGN: Rand Paul yard signs went on sale Monday for $15, and 'Rand on a stick' – for fanning away the campaign summer heat – for $35

UNCONVENTIONAL: Rand Paul has made a name for himself meeting with minority groups – and speaking to all-black audiences – in an attempt to win them over with a message of criminal justice reform

Sen. Ted Cruz, the only other Republicans officially in the hunt for 2016, said Tuesday that Paul would 'no doubt raise the bar of competition' for everyone else in the GOP field

A leading tea party group hinted just before Paul spoke at noon that it would support Paul, who came to the Senate on a tea party wave in 2010.

'It's exciting to see another energetic, visionary conservative enter the contest for the 2016 nomination,' Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said in a statement to Daily Mail Online.

'Sen. Paul has been at the forefront of the liberty movement, and he will do a lot to shape the debate as the GOP field expands.'

It's unclear, though, how much support Paul can muster in the Republican mainstream.

Paul, the son of former Rep. Ron Paul, is a frequent contrarian against his party's orthodoxy, questioning the size of the U.S. military and proposing relaxation of some drug laws that imprison offenders at a high cost to taxpayers.

He bristles at the idea that he's a carbon copy of his cantankerous dad, however.

The elder Paul, who was in Louisville for his son's high-profile announcement, did not speak or appear on stage.

He has proudly embraced starkly anti-interventionist views that party insiders blasted as 'isolationist' in 2012.

Rand, though, denies claims that he's cut from the same cloth.

I'm hearing so may people asking when Rand is going to start acting like other Republicans. But who knows? Maybe the whole field will start acting like him.

Paul the younger also challenges the GOP's support for surveillance programs, drone policies and sanctions on Iran and Cuba.

'The issue on Sen. Paul and national security issues is where he comes down in the continuing conflict between his principles and his ambition,' said John Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations and a potential Paul rival for the GOP nomination.

In an interview, Bolton cited Paul's shifting views on military spending.

In Paul's proposal for the 2012 budget, he called for reducing military spending and for fewer troops at the Department of Defense. 'The DOD should not be treated sacrosanct with regard to the treatment of taxpayer dollars,' Paul wrote in a plan that would balance the federal budget in five years.

But as a presidential campaign came closer, Paul last month proposed a 16 percent increase in the Pentagon's budget.

'On any given day, it's hard to know where he will be,' Bolton said. 'I believe in redemption, and I hope he comes all the way over. But I just don't know what's at work in his mind.'

A retired U.S. Navy captain in attendance on Tuesday who spoke on condition of anonymity told Daily Mail Online that a President Paul would 'pick and choose, and then empower and trust the right kind of military leadership.'

'Right now we have a stacked deck of pacifists that Barack Obama has put in place to agree with his weakness,' he said,

'If dishonesty was a crime, the current commander-in-chief would be doing life without parole,' he said.

The Paul campaign published a video Tuesday highlighting the senator's positions on Israel, hours after a group of hawkish Republicans launched an ad campaign accusing him of being soft on Iran

BIG MONEY: Rand Paul's website showed more than $41 million in contributions rolling in

'BENGHAZI MATTERS': Rand Paul buttons on sale Tuesday in Louisville, Kentucky hinted at future slams against Hillary Clinton, whose stewardship of the State Department before and after the 2012 Benghazi, Libya terror attack has brought a refrain of catcalls from Republican presidential hopefuls

At least one Republican group is already hammering Paul for what it says would be a weak military policy if he were to win in 2016, an indication of a foreign policy civil war Paul may be launching inside the GOP.

The Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, a war-hawkish group led by longtime Republican operative Rick Reed, began a $1 million ad campaign Tuesday morning in early primary states.

The ads tie Paul to a weak policy on Iran and suggest his policies would mirror those of President Obama.

'The Senate is considering tough new sanctions on Iran,' the ad’s voiceover intones.

'President Obama says he’ll veto them, and Rand Paul is standing with him. Rand Paul supports Obama’s negotiations with Iran, but he doesn’t understand the threat.'

As if on cue, Paul's campaign released a video Tuesday morning highlighting his position on supporting Israel.

'Israel’s cafes and buses are bombed, towns are victimized by hundreds of rockets, and its citizens are attacked by Palestinian terrorists,' Paul says in the video, speaking against a stark white background.

'It’s time we took a stand for Israel by standing up to the enemies of Israel, the enemies that murder Israeli citizens.'

RAND-SPIRATION? a Paul donor's spouse told Daily Mail Online that the senator would be the 'un-candidate,' much like 7-Up tried to distinguish itself from Coke and Pepsi with an 'Uncola' slogan in the 1970s

CHIP OF THE BLOCK? Paul's uber-libertarian father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul (right), earned an image party-wide as a cantankerous and prickly contrarian with little chance of winning over centrist Republicans

American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal opposition-research group, said Tuesday in an email to reporters that Paul 'has a history of taking on views that are bizarre and even dangerous.

The organization said Paul has gone on record 'supporting the end of all foreign aid to Israel and pushing for the total privatization of Medicare.'

It launched a Web page to pummel him on Tuesday, at pauloffthewall.com

The Democratic National Committee was similarly quick to pooh-pooh a Paul candidacy, with DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz saying he represents 'a lurch backwards to failed policies and narrow-minded extremism.'

'He says he’s something different, but when you take a look, he’s the same as any other Republican presidential hopeful: good for the wealthiest few and bad for the middle class, and taking positions that are way outside the mainstream on issue after issue.'

And speaking of Paul's reputation for minority outreach – principally with talk of criminal justice reform – Wasserman Schultz mocked him for 'thinking he can talk his way into our communities while turning his back on us when it comes to his policy prescriptions.'

'Not only is Rand Paul not going to make the GOP’s tent any bigger, the tent actually collapses under the weight of his harmful policies.'

The vicious broadside is one indication of how firmly the Democrats need to cling to black and Hispanic voters as they try to expand their ow voter base in advance of the 2016 election.

But African-American pastor Jerry Stephenson, one of the three to precede Paul on the dais, said he has seen him roll up his sleeves in minority communities.

'It doesn't matter what color you are,' said Stephenson, a former Democrat who switched parties.

'Rand Paul will be there.'