Rand Paul Amasses Influence At South By Southwest In AustinAUSTIN, Texas — While two of his top likely 2016 GOP presidential rivals square off up north in the Granite State, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is amassing influence—and courting millennials, while winning over top leaders in the tech community—here at the South By Southwest conference this weekend.
Paul on Saturday evening schmoozed with top technology leaders—including executives from the wildly successful internet radio company Pandora and social media powerhouse Snapchat—at a major-players-only private party in Austin hosted by Pandora.
The event at the chic downtown Austin bar the Gatsby, hosted other high profile attendees including Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Will Hurd (R-TX). Paul, who had spent the day Saturday raising campaign cash at various fundraisers with high-dollar Texas donors, posed for photos with the tech luminaries and other major players present as Grammy-award winning DeeJay Mark Ronson performed on a stage out back.
...
On Sunday and Monday, Paul will attend a series of events associated with South By Southwest. He’ll do a town hall with Twitter, a question-and-answer session with the Texas Tribune’s CEO, and an event with Young Americans for Liberty—a libertarian-leaning grassroots organization.
Before flying to Texas, on Friday Paul spoke to a predominantly liberal audience at the historically black university Bowie State University in Maryland. He enjoyed several rounds of applause and a standing ovation after delivering a message of conservatism to the students there.
Paul, having made visits this year to Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada and other early presidential states, is is trying to take a different path than former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are on the campaign trail.
Walker and Bush have been in New Hampshire shooting at each other after Bush’s soft-launch of a likely presidential bid a few months ago, and Walker’s meteoric rise after his explosive speech to the Iowa Freedom Summit in Des Moines in January.
...
But what Paul has going for him is these projections of power at events such as South By Southwest, speeches at historically black colleges, and the building of coalition—an army, if you will—that he may surprise the entire political world by storming into the GOP nomination with just a year from now. Just like any other Tea Partier, Paul is frustrated with how Washington works—and is articulate on the trail in detailing his distaste with the permanent political class.
But the difference between Paul and some of the other potential contenders is he seems to have a very detailed and concerted plan—a vision, and a method to the madness—that he’s been executing for over a year on how to build an arsenal to overcome his opponents. As Paul ramps up as things get closer to 2016, he may just catch everyone in the entire political establishment off guard. After all, unlike the others, every move he makes seems to be part of a grander well-thought-out plan–and all his moves, from the political battles he picks to staff he hires to audiences he chooses to speak to and even the content of his messaging, are clearly disciplined. It’s almost as if he’s acting like the GOP nominee already.
His move to speak in Austin at South By Southwest is no different: No other potential 2016 GOP candidates are here, and it’s an opportunity for Paul to garner backing from major tech leaders, youth voters and opinion leaders throughout the country, all while fundraising and laying out for the American people yet again the vision he has for the country should he get elected to the White House.
Because of the fact he’s been building support for a potential candidacy–and for his ideas–for as long as he has, Paul consistently places among the top two or three candidates in most 2016 GOP presidential polls. All this maneuvering and building of a sustainable operation means that if and when Paul hits his so-called “escape velocity” getting his breakout moment like Walker’s in Des Moines, he’ll be able to maintain it and steer and control the ship he built all the way until election day. Paul could be the guy who breaks the endless cycle in which outsider candidates like himself seem to have been stuck in recent GOP presidential primary elections: having simply just one moment in the sun that fades away after the honeymoon from their first big break is over.
...
More...
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/03/15/rand-paul-amasses-influence-at-south-by-southwest-in-austin/