165 Facts About Rand Paul

Randal Howard Paul was born on January 7,1963 and is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Kentucky since 2011.

Rand Paul was a practicing ophthalmologist in Bowling Green, Kentucky, from 1993 until his election to the US Senate in 2010.

Rand Paul was re-elected to a second term in 2016 and won a third term in 2022.

Rand Paul was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2016 US presidential election.

At the beginning of Trump's second presidency, Rand Paul vehemently opposed Donald Trump's invoking the National Emergencies Act to bypass Congress's authority on issues such as taxation.

Rand Paul is expected to become Kentucky's senior senator when Mitch McConnell retires from the Senate in 2027.

Randal Howard Paul was born on January 7,1963, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Carol and Ron Paul, who is a politician and physician.

Rand Paul was baptized in the Episcopal Church and identified as a practicing Christian as a teenager.

The Rand Paul family moved to Lake Jackson, Texas in 1968, where he was raised and where his father began a medical practice and for a period of time was the only obstetrician in Brazoria County.

When Rand was 13, his father Ron Paul was elected to the United States House of Representatives.

That same year, Rand Paul attended the 1976 Republican National Convention, where his father headed Ronald Reagan's Texas delegation.

The younger Rand Paul spent several summer vacations interning in his father's congressional office.

Rand Paul went to Brazoswood High School and was on the swimming team and played defensive back on the football team.

Rand Paul attended Baylor University from fall 1981 to summer 1984 and was enrolled in the honors program.

Rand Paul regularly contributed to The Baylor Lariat student newspaper.

Rand Paul left Baylor without completing his baccalaureate degree, when he was accepted into his father's alma mater, the Duke University School of Medicine, which, at the time, did not require an undergraduate degree for admission to its graduate school.

Rand Paul earned a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1988 and completed his residency in 1993.

Rand Paul worked for Downing McPeak Vision Centers for five years.

In 2008, Rand Paul formed his own private practice across the street from John Downing, his former employer at Downing McPeak.

Rand Paul has faced two malpractice lawsuits between 1993 and 2010; he was cleared in one case while the other was settled for $50,000.

Rand Paul specializes in cataract and glaucoma surgeries, LASIK procedures, and corneal transplants.

Rand Paul won the Melvin Jones Fellow Award for Dedicated Humanitarian Services from the Lions Club International Foundation for his work establishing the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic.

In 1995, Rand Paul was certified to practice by the American Board of Ophthalmology.

Rand Paul felt this was unfair and campaigned to have all ophthalmologists recertify every ten years.

Rand Paul did not file the required paperwork with the Kentucky Secretary of State's office for the NBO's renewal to operate in 2000.

Rand Paul recreated the board in 2005, but it was again dissolved in 2011.

Rand Paul maintained his own ABO certification from 1995 to 2005.

Rand Paul was head of the local chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas during his time at Baylor University.

In 1984, Rand Paul took a semester off to aid his father's campaign in the Republican primary for the 1984 US Senate election in Texas, which the elder Rand Paul eventually lost to fellow Representative Phil Gramm, who would go on to defeat Democratic nominee Lloyd Doggett in the general election.

Bush's promise not to raise taxes, Rand Paul founded the North Carolina Taxpayers Union in 1991.

Rand Paul has often cited his involvement with KTU as the foundation of his involvement with state politics.

Rand Paul managed his father's successful 1996 congressional campaign, in which the elder Rand Paul returned to the House after a twelve-year absence.

The elder Paul defeated incumbent Democrat-turned-Republican Greg Laughlin in the Republican primary, despite Laughlin's support from the National Republican Congressional Committee and Republican leaders such as Newt Gingrich and George W Bush.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2010 that, although Rand Paul had told a Kentucky television audience as recently as September 2009 that KTU published ratings each year on state legislators' tax positions and that "we've done that for about 15 years", the group had stopped issuing its ratings and report cards after 2002 and had been legally dissolved by the state in 2000 after failing to file registration documents.

Paul spoke on his father's behalf when his father was campaigning for office, including throughout the elder Paul's run in the 2008 presidential election, during which Rand campaigned door-to-door in New Hampshire and spoke in Boston at a fundraising rally for his father on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

In February 2014, Rand Paul joined the Tea Party-affiliated conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks in filing a class action lawsuit charging that the federal government's bulk collection of Americans' phone records metadata is a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution.

Rand Paul's representatives denied the charge, and Fein issued a statement saying that Mattie Fein had not been authorized to speak for him on the matter and that he had in fact been paid for his work on the lawsuit.

Rand Paul is co-author of a book entitled The Tea Party Goes to Washington and the author of Government Bullies.

In 2013 and 2014, Rand Paul was included in a list of the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine, to which he is a contributor.

Rand Paul's website reported that this set a new record in Kentucky's political fundraising history in a 24-hour period.

Rand Paul ended up raising some $3 million during the primary period.

Rand Paul's fundraising was aided by his father's network of supporters.

Rand Paul ran an ad in February that made an issue out of Grayson's 2008 admission that he voted for Bill Clinton when he was 20 years old.

Rand Paul's campaign got off to a rough start after his comments on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stirred controversy.

Rand Paul stated that he favored nine out of ten titles of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but that had he been a senator during the 1960s, he would have raised some questions on the constitutionality of Title II of the Act.

Rand Paul was sworn in on January 5,2011, along with his father, who was simultaneously in the House of Representatives.

Rand Paul was assigned to be on the Energy and Natural Resources, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and Small Business committees.

Rand Paul formed the Senate Tea Party Caucus with Jim DeMint and Mike Lee as its inaugural members.

Rand Paul later proposed a five-year budget plan intended to balance the budget.

Rand Paul voiced opposition to US intervention in the Libyan Civil War and has criticized President Barack Obama for not gaining congressional consent for Operation Odyssey Dawn.

Rand Paul was a supporter of the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, which was tabled by Democratic opposition.

Later that month, Rand Paul blocked legislation that would strengthen safety rules for oil and gas pipelines, because, he stated, the bill was not strong enough.

Rand Paul lifted his hold on the bill after Democratic leaders promised to hold a congressional hearing into how individuals are selected for refugee status and request an investigation on how the two suspects were admitted in the country through a refugee program.

In June 2012, Rand Paul endorsed Mitt Romney after it became apparent that he would be the Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election.

Rand Paul questioned the Obama administration's use of drones and the stated legal justification for their potential use within the United States.

Rand Paul ceded to several Republican senators and Democratic senator, Ron Wyden, who generally questioned drone usage.

Rand Paul said his purpose was to challenge drone policy in general and specifically as it related to noncombatants on US soil.

Rand Paul requested a pledge from the Administration that noncombatants would not be targeted on US soil.

Press Secretary Jay Carney read Holder's letter, indicating president Obama's support, "The president has not and would not use drone strikes against American citizens on American soil" Press Rand Paul answered that he was "quite happy" with the response.

Also in March 2013, Rand Paul endorsed fellow Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell's 2014 re-election campaign.

Rand Paul's endorsement was seen as a major win for McConnell in avoiding a challenge in the Republican primary.

In October 2013, Rand Paul was the subject of some controversy when it was discovered that he had plagiarized from Wikipedia part of a speech in support of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli.

Evidence soon surfaced that Rand Paul had copied sentences in a number of his other speeches nearly verbatim from other authors without giving credit to the original sources, including in the speech he had given as the Tea Party rebuttal to the president's 2013 State of the Union Address.

When it became apparent that Rand Paul's op-ed in The Washington Times on mandatory minimums and related testimony he had given before the Senate Judiciary Committee both contained material that was virtually identical to an article that had been published by another author in The Week a few days earlier, The Washington Times said that the newspaper would no longer publish the weekly column Rand Paul had been contributing to the paper.

Rand Paul said that the United States should try to maintain a "respectful relationship with Russia" and avoid taking actions that the Russians might view as a provocation, such as seeking to have Ukraine join NATO or otherwise interfering in Russia's relationship with Ukraine.

Two weeks later, after the Russian parliament authorized the use of military force in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military exercises along Russia's border with Ukraine, Rand Paul began taking a different tone.

Rand Paul urged that the United States impose economic sanctions on Russia and resume an effort to build defensive anti-missile installations in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Rand Paul called for the United States to take steps as a counterweight to Russia's strategic influence on Europe's oil and gas supply, such as lifting restrictions on new exploration and drilling for fossil fuels in the United States along with immediate approval of the controversial Keystone Pipeline, which he said would allow the United States to ship more oil and gas to Europe if Russia attempts to cut off its own supply to Europe.

Rand Paul played a leading role in blocking a treaty with Switzerland that would enable the IRS to conduct tax evasion probes, arguing that the treaty would infringe upon Americans' privacy.

Rand Paul received the 2014 Distinguished Service Award from the Center for the National Interest for his public policy work.

In December 2014, Rand Paul supported the actions taken by the Obama administration to change United States policy towards Cuba and to ease trade restrictions with that country.

Rand Paul introduced the FAIR Act, or Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act, which would restrict civil forfeiture proceedings.

Rand Paul spoke for ten and a half hours on May 20,2015, in opposition to the reauthorization of Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

In March 2017, Rand Paul introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists Act that would prohibit the use of United States government funds to provide assistance to Al Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to countries supporting those organizations.

Rand Paul responded the following day by saying McCain "makes a really, really strong case for term limits", suggesting McCain had become "a little unhinged" as a result of his seniority.

Rand Paul was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to have the United States withdraw from the Paris Agreement in May 2017.

Rand Paul did sign the bill though likely out of political pressure.

Rand Paul was one of fourteen Republican senators to vote against the proposal.

Rand Paul introduced a bill on January 25,2017, that sought to replace the Affordable Care Act which included each person's having a tax credit of $5,000 and not requiring everyone to have coverage, unlike Obamacare.

Two days later, Rand Paul said Republicans were united in repealing the Affordable Care Act but divided in their stances on its replacement.

On March 12, Rand Paul accused House Speaker Rand Paul Ryan of being misleading in portraying supporters of the American Health Care Act of 2017 as not being negotiable, and three days later, March 15, furthered that Ryan was "selling" President Trump "a bill of goods" that he had not explained fully to the president.

In January 2019, Rand Paul condemned Senator Mitt Romney for writing an editorial criticizing President Trump.

Rand Paul said that Romney's criticism of Trump's character was bad for the country and for the Republican Party.

On July 17,2019, Paul blocked Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's motion for unanimous consent on a bill renewing the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund along with Utah Senator Mike Lee.

Rand Paul argued that he was not blocking the bill, but rather seeking a vote on an amendment that would offset the new spending by other spending cuts due to the deficit.

On November 4,2019, Rand Paul called on the media to reveal the secret identity of Trump's Ukraine quid pro quo whistleblower after threatening to reveal the name himself.

In February 2020, Rand Paul criticized YouTube for removing a video of his floor speech about the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

On February 26,2020, Rand Paul's wife purchased between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of stock in Gilead Sciences, a pharmaceutical company that produces an antiviral drug used to treat COVID-19, before the threat from the coronavirus was fully understood by the public; his disclosure of this transaction came 16 months after the legal deadline set forth in the Stock Act, a law that combats insider trading.

Rand Paul's office stated that the disclosure form was filled up on time, but by mistake was not submitted.

In September 2020, Rand Paul was the lone Republican to vote against the COVID-19 aid package introduced by Senator Mitch McConnell, joining the Democrats who unanimously voted against it.

Rand Paul additionally condemned the attack while it occurred, calling it "violence and mob rule" and "un-American".

Rand Paul formally voted against the charges on February 13,2021.

In January 2022, a video resurfaced of Rand Paul advising medical students at the University of Louisville in 2013, during which he said "misinformation works, so try to trick your opponents".

In May 2022, Rand Paul blocked a bipartisan bill that would provide $40 billion in aid for Ukraine during the Russian invasion, citing the need to create a special inspector general to oversee how the aid is spent.

In March 2023, Rand Paul gained particular media attention after he crossed party lines and blocked fellow Republican Senator Josh Hawley's "No TikTok on United States Devices Act", which would ban the app TikTok in the United States.

On January 11,2024, Rand Paul announced that he had a major announcement about the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries planned for the following morning.

The next day, Rand Paul delivered an anti-endorsement against Nikki Haley, launching a website called "Never Nikki".

On February 3,2021, Rand Paul was named a ranking member of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.

Rand Paul was considered a potential candidate for the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States since at least January 2013.

Rand Paul delivered the Tea Party response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on February 13,2013, while Marco Rubio gave the official Republican response.

Rand Paul went on to win the straw poll for the next two years as well, leading to some considering Rand Paul to be a front runner for the nomination, although CPAC attendees are typically considered younger and more libertarian-minded than average Republican voters.

Rand Paul 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 the young, Hispanics, and black voters.

Rand Paul began to assemble his campaign team, setting up campaign offices and hiring his campaign manager in the beginning of 2015, fueling speculation that he was preparing to enter the presidential race.

Rand Paul officially announced his presidential candidacy on April 7,2015.

In March 2014, the Republican-controlled Kentucky Senate passed a bill that would allow Rand Paul to run for both offices, but the Democratic-controlled Kentucky House of Representatives declined to take it up.

Rand Paul spent his own campaign money in the 2014 legislative elections, helping Republican candidates for the State House in the hopes of flipping the chamber, thus allowing the legislature to pass the bill.

Rand Paul has since given his support to the idea that the Kentucky Republican Party could decide to hold a caucus rather than a primary, potentially giving Rand Paul more time to decide whether he should run for US Senator or continue a potential bid for president.

Rand Paul announced the suspension of his presidential campaign on February 3,2016, shortly after the Iowa caucus, where he finished in fifth place.

Rand Paul is generally described as a libertarian, a term he both embraced and rejected during his first Senate campaign.

Rand Paul has frequently appeared on Infowars with radio show host and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Since the 2016 Republican primary, when Rand Paul was highly critical of Trump, he has "become one of the president's closest allies despite occasionally voting against Trump's nominees and legislative proposals".

Rand Paul is a supporter of free trade, and has frequently rebuke President Trump for his tariffs.

Rand Paul was one of the four Republicans who break party line to vote for a resolution opposing tariffs on Canada.

In tweets responding to the act, Rand Paul stated the executive order that created DACA was illegal and congressional bipartisanship was needed to solve or fix the program.

Rand Paul was one of 11 Republicans in 2019 to vote against Trump's demand for "emergency border funding".

Unlike his more stridently "non-interventionist" father, Rand Paul concedes a role for American armed forces abroad, including permanent foreign military bases.

Rand Paul has said that he blames supporters of the Iraq War and not President Obama for the growth in violence that occurred in 2014, and that the Iraq War "emboldened" Iran.

In 2011, shortly after being elected, Rand Paul proposed a budget which specified $542 billion in defense spending.

Rand Paul has stated concerns about arms sent to Syrian rebels that wind up in unfriendly hands.

In 2016, Rand Paul was one of the first members of Congress to come out in opposition to United States support for the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.

In June 2017, Rand Paul tried to block Trump administration's plan to sell more weapons to Saudi Arabia.

Rand Paul had previously insisted that he would not confirm Pompeo, citing Pompeo's hawkish foreign policy beliefs.

In June 2019, Rand Paul criticized the Trump administration for escalating tensions with Iran.

Rand Paul stated that the attack will increase tensions between the two countries.

That same month, Rand Paul blocked a Senate resolution that backed the intelligence community's assessment of Russian election interference and that called on President Trump to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller.

In May 2019, Rand Paul opposed the decision of the Senate Intelligence committee, chaired by Republican Senator Richard Burr, to subpoena Donald Trump Jr.

In July 2018, Rand Paul was among only two senators to vote against a Senate motion supporting NATO.

On May 12,2022, Rand Paul stopped a vote on a $40 billion spending bill for aid to Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion, objecting that it would be the second spending bill for this purpose, and that it was 3 times larger than the first.

Rand Paul has stated that President Biden provoked Russia by advocating for Ukraine's entrance into NATO.

In January 2024, Rand Paul voted for a resolution, proposed by Bernie Sanders, to apply the human rights provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act to the Israel military assistance.

Rand Paul has focused on criminal justice reform as a legislative priority.

Rand Paul says policies such as the war on drugs and mandatory minimum sentencing have particularly harmed minorities.

In 2020, Rand Paul held up bipartisan legislation that would make lynching a federal crime.

Rand Paul said that he thought lynching should be "universally condemned", but wanted an amendment to clarify that the causation of non-fatal injuries would not be considered lynching.

Rand Paul was one of six Republican senators to vote no on expanding the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which would allow the US Justice Department to review hate crimes related to COVID-19 and establish an online database.

On May 28,2021, Rand Paul voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack.

On cannabis legalization, Rand Paul says the issue should be left up to the states and that "you ought to be able to pretty much do what you want to do as long as you don't hurt somebody else".

Rand Paul introduced the Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act in 2015 to allow cannabis businesses increased access to banks.

In 2022, Rand Paul introduced the Right to Try Clarification Act to clarify that the Right to Try Act allows terminally ill patients to use Schedule I drugs for which a Phase I clinical trial has been completed.

In 2015 Rand Paul spoke for ten and a half hours on the Senate floor against renewing provisions of the PATRIOT Act that he said were unconstitutional.

Rand Paul has called Edward Snowden a "whistleblower" and called for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to resign for "lying" about the phone metadata program that Snowden exposed.

Rand Paul filed a class action lawsuit against the Obama administration seeking to end the program.

Rand Paul has not definitively accepted the scientific consensus on climate change, which has found that global warming is real, progressing, and primarily caused by humans.

Rand Paul has said pollution emissions are subject to "onerous regulation".

In 2018, Rand Paul called for an investigation of a National Science Foundation grant that went towards educating meteorologists about the science of climate change.

In 2009, Rand Paul was interviewed by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and suggested mandatory vaccination would be akin to martial law.

Rand Paul's remarks generated controversy by suggesting that states should not require parents to vaccinate their children, because parents should have the freedom to make that decision for their children.

In 2014, Rand Paul argued that the Obama administration and the Centers for Disease Control were downplaying the threat posed by Ebola virus in the United States.

At a Senate committee hearing on September 23,2020, Rand Paul clashed with Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Rand Paul asked Fauci if he had "second thoughts" about the CDC's mitigation recommendations, including mask-wearing and maintaining a six-foot space of social distancing.

Rand Paul said New York's high fatality rate showed that mitigation efforts were insufficient.

At Senate hearings in May and July 2021, Rand Paul debated Anthony Fauci on the origin of COVID-19, gaining media attention for his concerns about the risks of lab work.

Rand Paul released a video of himself calling on people to "resist" public health measures to halt the spread of COVID-19.

On October 10,2023, Rand Paul published Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up with publisher Regnery Publishing.

Rand Paul supports repealing the Affordable Care Act and opposes universal health care, having once equated it to slavery.

Rand Paul says he instead favors expanding health savings accounts and providing a $5000 tax credit, allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines, and allowing individuals and small businesses to pool together to purchase insurance.

In November 2019, Rand Paul signed a pledge to support a constitutional amendment to limit senators to two terms.

Rand Paul has opposed efforts to raise the debt ceiling without significant spending cuts.

Rand Paul is married to Kelley Rand Paul, a freelance writer.

On November 3,2017, Rand Paul was assaulted by a neighbor, Rene Boucher, a retired anesthesiologist.

Rand Paul, who is deaf in one ear, was wearing noise-canceling headphones while mowing his lawn, reportedly enabling Boucher to tackle Rand Paul without his own approach being noticed.

Rand Paul sustained five broken ribs, of which three were displaced fractures.

Rand Paul announced on March 22,2020, that he had tested positive for COVID-19 amid the ongoing pandemic of the disease.

Rand Paul was the first member of the United States Senate to test positive.

Rand Paul received bipartisan criticism from his Senate colleagues after it was discovered that he attended Senate lunches and used the Senate gym while awaiting his test results; he defended his actions because he had no symptoms of the illness and believed it was "highly unlikely" he was sick.