JORDAN BROOKS

jordan.brooks@middlesboronews.com

On Oct. 17, Sen. Rand Paul hosted a get-out-the-vote event in Middlesboro.

Paul and his wife, Kelley, were on hand at Ike’s Artisan Pizza on Monday, prior to making similar visits in Harlan and Hazard.

He spoke about lingering effects of Covid, as well as conflicting information about vaccinations.

“I do think we can get through this though,” Paul said. “I think we have a great country.”

Politics aside, Paul, who definitely has libertarian views, shared with the local crowd some of what excites him most about representing Kentucky in Washington.

“To me the job of government, my job, as I see it, is to defend your liberty,” he said. “It isn’t always to pass a bill, it is to defend your liberty.

“We’re supposed to keep big-government from taking it away, or individual citizens from taking it away. It isn’t so much we want a bigger government, we want a government that lives within its means.”

Paul, who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, is seeking his third term in office. He faces democratic challenger Charles Booker on the ballot. His barnstorming tour continued on Oct. 18 with stops in Stanford and Bowling Green. He said he had visited 12 cities in two days and has been to about 60 Kentucky cities during the past two months.

On Oct. 25, Paul will be in a mobile field office in Letcher County to meet with Kentuckians affected by flooding in July.