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1st LD Writethru: Rand Paul announces 2016 White House bid

Xinhua, April 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. Senator Rand Paul on Tuesday officially threw his hat in the ring for the race to become the next U.S. president.

"I am running for president to return our country to the principles of liberty and limited government," he said on his campaign website.

The Kentucky senator is so far the second to launch the 2016 presidential candidacy. His Texan and Republican fellow senator, Ted Cruz, a darling of the conservative Tea Party, did it on March 23.

Paul is scheduled to start his campaign with a rally in Louisville, Kentucky, followed by a five-day tour of five states, namely Kentucky, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Iowa and Nevada.

Paul has been a Republican senator since 2011. His father, Ron Paul, a former Texan congressman, is an icon in the libertarian community. Analysts believe that Paul's left-libertarian leanings might make him the candidate of choice for disaffected free marketers.

In a new poll by ABC News and The Washington Post, Paul has an 8 percent support rate in the GOP, behind the 21 percent for the party's leading potential candidate, Jeb Bush. Endi