Paul kicks off Western swing in Alaska

His campaign staff says the western swing also sends the message that Paul is ready to compete in all states and isn’t conceding anything to front-runners in the big pack of Republican contenders.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican candidate for president, drew less than a full house – and less than his father Rep. Ron Paul in 2012 – to a Town Hall Seattle rally for his 2016 campaign.

Paul’s Anchorage stop was his first in Alaska – he caught a plane to Fairbanks immediately afterwards.

Paul is scheduled to hold a rally at the Boise State Student Union at 11:30 a.m. Thursday and another event at the Nampa Civic Center at 2:45 p.m. that day.

After Spokane, his tour is scheduled to take him to Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. “As chairman of the Budget Committee, I had to do that”, he said.

And Paul dug into federal regulatory agencies, and federal criminal enforcement, which he said is out of control. In fact I ended up helping get passed a bill that allows for a report for any shooting deaths of police that they need to know race of individuals, so because of my leadership in Senate, we will get a report on what’s going on. But given the competitiveness of the state with Senate control in the balance, he opted not to run.

Senator Paul has four and a half percent support.

The crowd at the Sheraton in Anchorage included supporters that came to Paul from a variety of causes. “Because he has courage”.

“I think most important thing about securing the border is sometimes lost in the debate”.

As for his own lackluster number so far: “We’d rather they be higher, but for the most part, we’d like to look at the glass half poll. It’s just sort of pressure from above and pressure from beneath that’s squeezing the vitality out of the American economic system”, Tanner said. “Government doesn’t create jobs”, he said “It consumes money”. But are they really going to change the direction of government?

Traditionally, presidential nominees already are decided by the time Kentucky’s primary rolls around, although with so many Republicans scrapping for the nomination, it might be up for grabs later than usual.