Advertisement Sen. Rand Paul plans to support Republican presidential candidate Share Shares Copy Link Copy

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul visited Valley High School Monday morning for a town hall meeting.Paul said he will support the candidate who gets the Republican nomination for president. But he would not say if he'll be endorsing any of the candidates right now.Paul didn't take any questions about his campaign for re-election or the presidential race during the meeting.When WLKY spoke with him after the event, he said the Republican Party needs to rethink the way it interacts with voters."The Republican Party will not thrive and will not win again unless we become a more diverse party," Paul said.During his town hall meeting, Paul smoke mostly to students about what he's doing to change the perception of the GOP."I think the Republican Party needs to be more inclusive and more diverse," Paul said.When asked if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was making that more difficult, Paul said the blame can't be placed on one person."The Republican party has not had a great history. Not just one person, one new person. We haven't had a great history and we have to work doubly hard to improve our ability to attract African American voters, Hispanic voters, and all I can do is, from my sort of pedestal is do the best I can," Paul said.On stage, Paul talked about a number of changes he'd like to see, such as lower taxes in poorer areas to help attract business and less penalties for low-level drug offenses."I have about 10 different bills to try to fix our criminal justice system so it's applied equally to everyone, regardless of their race," Paul said.Paul also answered questions from the mostly high school-aged crowd.One topic discussed was minimum wage."Even though it sounds good for the government to mandate a higher minimum wage, it often leads to more unemployment," Paul said.He moved on to education, saying he feels school curriculum should be in the hands of local teachers, not the federal government."I think curriculum ought to be developed more locally. Plus, I think what works is a little different in each classroom, in each school, really," Paul said.Paul is seeking re-election to the Senate after dropping out of the Republican presidential contest.