Rand Paul launches ads in Kansas

STEVE PEOPLES
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — He’s not on the ballot this fall, but Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is launching new ads to help Republicans in key elections across the country.

The prospective presidential candidate is praising Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts for voting against sending billions of dollars to “countries that hate us” in an advertising campaign set to begin running across Kansas on Tuesday, according to an announcement released by Paul’s political action committee, RandPac. A spokesman said the group is spending six figures on the ads, which reference the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, without mentioning it by name.

“Pat Roberts was one of a few true conservative senators who stood with Rand Paul and said stop sending taxpayer’s money to countries where radicals storm our embassies, burn our flag and kill our diplomats,” the narrator says in the new ad, seizing on an issue likely to resonate with conservative voters.

Roberts is locked in a competitive contest against independent businessman Greg Orman.

At the same time, Paul’s organization is launching a series of online ads aimed at influencing Senate contests in Kentucky, New Hampshire, Iowa and North Carolina. The contests are expected to help decide whether Republicans take control of the Senate for the final two years of President Barack Obama’s second term.

The advertising push comes as Paul sends increasing signals he will enter the 2016 presidential contest. He has been among the most active potential Republican White House hopefuls this fall.

A spokesman says he’s visited more than 30 states this election season, including multiple trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, which will host the first two contests in the GOP’s next presidential primary.

Paul is not alone, however, as would-be presidential contenders including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz crisscross the country jockeying to help themselves and their Republican colleagues.

Another potential primary contender, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, has also been active on the airwaves this fall. Rubio’s political action committee is currently running television ads in both Iowa and Colorado.

Paul, meanwhile, is scheduled to campaign in Kansas on Tuesday.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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