Kentucky Senator Rand Paul: ‘The Republican Party Brand Sucks’
While on a voyage through Detroit on Wednesday, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who has constantly criticized the Republican party's efforts to extend their platform to minority voters in hopes to make it more pleasant. Paul likened the political group to Domino's Pizza stating that the GOP brand "sucks," especially as African-Americans are concerned.
"Remember Domino's Pizza? They admitted, 'Hey, our pizza crust sucks.' The Republican Party brand sucks and so people don't want to be a Republican and for 80 years, African-Americans have had nothing to do with Republicans," Paul said at a GOP field office in Sherwood Forest, predominantly middle-class African-American neighborhood in Detroit, according to The Hill.
"We're also fighting 40 years of us doing a crappy job, of Republicans not trying at all for 40 years, so it's a lot of overcoming," he said. "You got to show up, you got to have something to say and really we just have to emphasize that we're trying to do something different."
Paul, whom has publicly divulged to contemplating a 2016 presidential run, has also struggled to actively gauge African-American community. This year, he travelled to Ferguson, Mo., in the wake of the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr., a black teenager who was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white officer, where racial tensions have kindled into civil unrest. He also opened up offices in Detroit and other regions.
Paul, whose platform concerns issues facing African-American neighborhoods across the nation, has sponsored six bills. Of those issues, Paul has plugged proposals to improve the criminal justice program and amend poverty-stricken inner-city communities.
"If we show up in communities where we haven't been showing up...we're going to win votes like we've never won before," Paul stated to Oakland County Republicans, the Detroit Free Press reports. Paul also noted that this would not just be about landing votes but was "the right thing to do."
The Redeem Act, which would assist juvenile offenders with criminal records to secure jobs and avoid backsliding, is one of those six mandates and is co-sponsored by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, currently the Senate's only black Democrat.
"We're also fighting 40 years of us doing a crappy job, of Republicans not trying at all for 40 years, so it's a lot of overcoming," The Hill reports. "You got to show up, you got to have something to say and really we just have to emphasize that we're trying to do something different."
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