FRANKFORT, Ky., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Rand Paul, son of 2008 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, jumped into the GOP primary race in Kentucky to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning.
Paul's campaign manager filed the candidate's papers and a $500 check Wednesday with the secretary of state's office in Frankfort, Louisville's WAVE-TV reported Thursday.
At a news conference at the state GOP headquarters in Louisville Thursday, Paul, a 46-year-old ophthalmologist in Bowling Green, pledged to strengthen the party by promoting "small government principles," CQ Politics reported.
Paul also praised the so-called tea party movement, saying "career politicians" have betrayed taxpayers.
"We, the members of the tea party movement, you, the members of this movement, have come to take our government back from the special interests, from the lobbyists, from the pork barrel politicians who continue to spend our country into oblivion," he said.
Paul will battle Secretary of State Trey Grayson for the GOP nomination in the 2010 race for Bunning's seat.
