page_title: Rand Paul 2016 presidential campaign
section_title: Pre-campaign speculation
hierarchical_section_title: Rand Paul 2016 presidential campaign / Background / Pre-campaign speculation
caption_attribution_description: Rand Paul speaking at the 2013 CPAC in Washington D.C. on March 14, 2013.
context_page_description: The 2016 presidential campaign of Rand Paul, the junior United States Senator from Kentucky, was announced on April 7, 2015 at an event at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. First elected to the U.S. Senate in the 2010 election, Paul's candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2016 had been widely speculated since early 2013.
  Leading up to his formal announcement, Paul delivered several high-profile speeches, which included filibustering the nomination of CIA Director John Brennan, speeches at Berkeley and Howard University, and meeting with community leaders in Ferguson, Missouri and Detroit, Michigan, with Paul stating that the meetings and speeches help reach his goal of broadening the Republican Party's appeal with non-traditional constituencies.
  Paul suspended his campaign on February 3, 2016.
context_section_description: Rand Paul first acknowledged a possible 2016 presidential candidacy in January 2013. On February 13, 2013, Paul delivered the Tea Party response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, prompting some pundits to consider him a potential candidate in the upcoming presidential election. On March 6–7, 2013, Paul engaged in a filibuster to delay voting on the nomination of John O. Brennan as the Director of the CIA. Paul questioned the Obama administration's use of drones and the stated legal justification for their potential use within the United States. Paul held the floor for 12 hours and 52 minutes. Following his filibuster, Paul spoke at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington D.C., where he won the presidential straw poll with 25% of the votes cast. Paul again spoke at CPAC in National Harbor, Maryland on March 7, 2014. The day after his speech, he won the presidential straw poll for the second year in a row with 31% of the votes cast, nearly triple the percentage of runner-up U.S. Senator Ted Cruz with 11%.
  In April 2014, Paul spoke at the GOP Freedom Summit, an event organized by Americans for Prosperity and Citizens United, which was also attended by several other potential presidential candidates. In his speech, he insisted that the GOP has to broaden its appeal in order to grow as a party. To do so, he said it cannot be the party of "fat cats, rich people and Wall Street" and that the conservative movement has never been about rich people or privilege, "we are the middle class", he said. Paul also said that conservatives must present a message of justice and concern for the unemployed and be against government surveillance to attract new people to the movement, including young people, and Hispanic and African Americans.
caption: Rand Paul speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland on March 14, 2013
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