Rand Paul Urges California GOP To Try New Tactics
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul urged California Republicans on Saturday to attract new voters by trying approaches that are typically associated with Democrats: pushing for expanded voting rights, reforming criminal drug sentences and talking to minorities.
"Let's be the party that actually wants to extend the right to vote," Paul said in a lunchtime speech. "Some people say, well these people are going to be Democrats, more of them are going to be Democrats. Let's be the party for voting rights, let's be the party for restoring more voting rights, then more people will come to our party."
Paul addressed about 400 delegates at the state party convention, being held at a hotel near the airport in Los Angeles. He said when the Republican Party "looks like the rest of America" it will win again nationally.
Paul has been pushing a libertarian approach to expand the GOP's base this year ahead of a possible 2016 presidential bid.
Most of his address Saturday covered familiar turf for Paul, such as connecting with millennial voters on civil liberties issues.
He did not touch on his vote this week against President Barack Obama's legislation authorizing the military to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State militants in the Middle East.
He's already visited Democratic-leaning California several times this year, including headlining a technology conference aimed at linking tech savvy Silicon Valley, and its money, with libertarian ideals and closing the technology gap with Democrats, who were more technologically advanced in the 2012 presidential election than Republicans.
And he was criticized for meeting with students at the University of California, Berkeley, in April. Paul responded with an opinion piece telling Republicans that if they don't talk to new people they'll never find new voters.
"Evolve, adapt or die. That is the fate of our current Republican Party. We must evolve as a party and find a way to attract millennials to the conservative movement or we will never succeed in realizing our ideals of individual freedom and freedom from government interference," he wrote.
Nowhere has the effort to attract a new generation of Republicans been more fraught than in left-leaning California, where the GOP's registration has slid to 28.5 percent — just a few percentage points above the 21 percent of registered voters who are unaffiliated with any party.
Party Chairman Jim Brulte has been preaching outreach to minority communities since taking over the party last year and is promoting a diverse slate of candidates for legislative races this November.
Paul, an ophthalmologist and the son of former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, is trying to build on the small but passionate coalition assembled by his father and he has emerged as a leading GOP voice on foreign and domestic policy.
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