The Emergence of Rand Paul

With his dramatic win, Paul tapped into the same kind of voter discontent that boosted his father Ron's run for the presidency in 2008. During that campaign, Rand frequently spoke for his father at rallies and events, like in New Hampshire in January 2008, above, when he met with the media in the "spin room" during one of the early presidential debates.

Paul has been active in Kentucky politics since he moved to the state with his wife Kelley in the early 1990s. In 1994, he founded Kentucky Taxpayers United, a group that urged local politicians to sign pledges not to raise taxes.

Until the last couple of years, Paul says he did not think about running for office. But the pace of spending in Washington prompted him to throw his hat in the ring. "My fear, my worry, which is the same of the Tea Party movement," he told a crowd in Columbia, Ky., "is that we could destroy our country with this out-of-control spending."

Paul (dressed in half a suit after racing from his son's soccer game before an appearance on Fox News) has advocated some difficult positions, like raising the age of social security eligibility to slash spending in order to balance the budget.

During his run for the Republican Senate nomination, Paul received support from Tea Party icon Sarah Palin, as well as Senator Jim Bunning (whose retirement opened up the Senate seat that Paul and his democratic opponent will be seeking) and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.

Of America's presence in Afghanistan, Paul says he remains skeptical, but does not oppose the war outright. After seeming to dismiss the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, and then taking heat for that, he quickly clarified that he supports sanctions against Iran and even the threat of military action.

Paul was joined by his wife (in pink) and dad to celebrate his May 18 win. "I have a message," he said in his victory speech, "A message from the Tea Party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We've come to take our government back". In November, he will face Democratic nominee Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general.

A few days after his win, Paul suggested that the forced integration of southern lunch counters by the 1964 Civil Rights Act amounted to an overreach by the federal government, a view that might make sense to a free-market purist like himself, but few others. The slip gave Rand's critics much fodder for attack and even led some Republicans to wonder if the candidate was ready for politics on the national level.