Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) may run for president in 2028, he told Newsmax.
He told the publication on “Finnerty” that while he has not decided yet, he believes the Republican Party needs a “free-market conservative.”
“I think there needs to be a candidate that is a free-market conservative, somebody who believes that the debt is wrong, Big Government is bad, but also that we get richer through international trade and that capitalism on an international scale is a good thing, not a bad thing,” Paul said.
“I think the populism of the party now is teaching something that’s an economic fallacy,” he explained. “And so I think it would be a robust debate to have a free market, libertarian-leaning conservative like myself, who doesn’t think the government should own businesses, shouldn’t be involved, that capitalism should reign.”
Capitalism made America great,” Paul said. “So, we’ll see what happens.
“I haven’t decided,” he declared, “but we’re going to look thoroughly at it as we see the results coming in for the midterms.”
Paul has entertained a 2028 campaign for several months, as he discussed the matter with “CBS News Sunday Morning” in March.
Speaking to “CBS News Sunday Morning,” Paul said, “Yeah, I don’t know yet, so maybe they know something I don’t know. We’re thinking about it, and I would say 50-50. We’ll make a decision after the [2026 midterm] election.”
He added, “But I’m not going to do it just to do it. It would be, one, because we need to have a free market wing. We need to have a free trade wing in the party. And we need to have a wing of the party who’s not eager for war and tries to at least explore diplomacy as an option to war.”
