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Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul brought his presidential campaign to Chicago on Wednesday, appealing to African-Americans on the South Side, entrepreneurs downtown and Republicans in the suburbs.

On a stage set up on a blacktop parking lot in front of an American flag mural at 66th Street and South King Drive, Paul continued a unique approach for GOP White House contenders making an appeal to African-Americans who tend to favor Democrats.

Paul opened his speech by referring to the "black lives matter" refrain used by protesters after the controversial deaths of African-American men at the hands of police. Paul said the phrase reminds him of the deaths of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by officers in New York, and Freddie Gray, who was fatally injured in police custody in Baltimore. But Paul said the phrase also has meaning in Chicago.

"When I hear people say, 'Black lives matter,' I think of Jacele Johnson, who is 4 years old and got shot this weekend just a few blocks from here," Paul said of the Englewood girl who doctors say is swiftly recovering after being shot on the left side of her head Friday night outside a family gathering. "You may be saying to yourself, 'Why is this white guy saying black lives matter, what does he know about crime in my neighborhood?' Well, I've got crime in my neighborhood too. We've got some kind of thing going on in our country, and we need to come to grips with it."

Paul then talked about a horrific 2011 case in his home state. "In my little town in Kentucky, a white woman cut a baby out of another white woman.

"There is crime going on all across America. It is not a racial thing, it is a spiritual problem," Paul said. "I think government can play a role in public safety, but I don't think government can mend a broken spirit. Government can't provide you salvation, government can't save you. Ultimately, salvation is something you accept yourselves."

A white, libertarian Republican senator from the South urging African-American voters in an impoverished, heavily Democratic neighborhood on the city's South Side to look within themselves to "find your inner grace" isn't a typical scene in a GOP presidential bid. Paul, though, isn't running a conventional campaign.

His stop in Chicago came a day after the release of his book "Taking a Stand," in which he makes the case for a new, more inclusive Republican Party, proclaiming the "Republican brand sucks."

On Wednesday, Paul sought to bring that theme to the stump.

He advocated for reclassifying nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors as part of his call to end "mass incarceration" in America.

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Rand Paul in Chicago: Crime 'not a racial thing, it is a ...

Rand Paul took a left turn on his journey to the Republican nomination, and now his hopes seem to be headed south.

The libertarian Kentucky senators new book, Taking a Stand, came out Tuesday, and it is chock-full of lines that would position Paul well if he were running against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

On the environment: Youll find Im a tree hugger, literally ... Im a Republican who wants clean air, clean water, and the life-extending miracle of electricity. I compost.

On Wall Street: Only in a world of crony capitalism would bankers whose faulty decisions caused bankruptcy be allowed to cash out as the middle class absorbs the losses.

On his party: Right now, the Republican brand sucks. I promised Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, that I would stop saying the GOP sucks, and I will (except for this last time).

On racial minorities: I want a New GOP that resonates with America, that looks like America white and black. ... The face of the Republican Party should not be about suppressing the vote but about enhancing the vote.

On Ferguson, Mo.: [T]housands of peaceful protesters were met with rubber bullets, tear gas, and a police department that showed up at the protest in gear more fitting for Fallujah or Kandahar.

On drug sentencing: We should free those who are in jail under the old guidelines. Our prisons are bursting with young men and women who are poor or of color.

But Paul has a problem: He isnt running for the Democratic nomination. And though Paul may think his Republican Partys brand sucks, the primary voters dont necessarily share his view that the party is too old and too white. His candidacy has so far failed to ignite and, indeed, he seems to be fading as a force within the party.

The most recent national poll, by Fox News, has Paul in sixth place, with 7percent, trailing Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio. Paul averages only about half the support he had late in 2013. Paul doesnt appear to be winning over young voters perhaps the most important justification for his candidacy and does not do better than other Republicans, according to a survey released last month by Harvard Universitys Institute of Politics. Even in his home state, a media consortium poll this month found that Paul had lost his lead in a theoretical matchup with Clinton.

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The decline of Rand Paul - The Washington Post

Story highlights Rand Paul has christened himself a different kind of Republican: tree hugger. Paul has tried to cast himself as a fresher Republican face who can appeal to new audiences.

In a new book released on Tuesday, Paul said he composts and believes in clean air and clean water. Paul notes that he has planted giant sequoias in his yard and repurposed old trees used for a fort to build compost bins.

"None of this is at odds with wanting out government to be smaller, with wanting our regulatory bodies to protect both our land and water," Paul wrote in his third book, "Taking a Stand: Moving beyond partisan politics to unite America."

RELATED: 6 things you can buy from a presidential campaign

"It boggles my mind to think that somehow Republicans have been branded as a party that doesn't like the environment," he said, pointing to avowed conservationist Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Paul also details his history planting trees and flowers at his house in Bowling Green, Kentucky and his childhood home in Lake Jackson, Texas. Some trees he has planted in Bowling Green are now 40-feet tall, according to the candidate.

"I'm a crunchy conservative and a tree hugger and proud of it," Paul writes.

Paul has tried to cast himself as a fresher Republican face who can appeal to new audiences, such as environmentalists. Paul has stressed repeatedly that the GOP needs to win over African-Americans and Hispanics, a point he returns to in the book.

The Kentucky senator wrote that the tension he has tried to soothe between the GOP and people of color is deep and complicated, but ultimately salvageable. That is if Republicans recognize that, admit it and make this minority outreach a priority.

"My Republican Party, the Republican Party I hope to lead to the White House, is willing to change," Paul wrote in his third book,

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Rand Paul: Republican brand 'sucks' and is 'broken ...

This post has been updated.

Sen. Rand Paulplayed a major role in forcing the Senate to adjourn without taking action on a controversial surveillance program. And he made it clear Monday: he's nowhere close to done.

Paul said Monday that he would continue to try to block the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, which the Senate will again take up May 31.

"What I'm looking for right now is to see if the other side will negotiate," Paul said on "CBS This Morning." The Kentucky senator said he wants to put two amendments onto a bill that would stop the government from collecting bulk phone records and leave those records with the phone companies.

"I would like to have a vote on ending the bulk collection," he said. "I think we can win that vote."

Paul said on "Fox and Friends" thatdata that has been collected should be thrown out.

"I think it should be purged," Paul said. "I think that information was collected illegally and should be purged."

Prospective presidential candidate Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) slammed Paul this weekend, saying theinability of Congress to act on the legislation is the result of "misguided ideologues."

[Read:Senate NSA vote underscores rift in 2016 field]

The Kentucky Republican said Christie's take "just wasn't very nice," and painted himself as a defender of the Constitution.

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Rand Paul on Mitch McConnell: I dont think we need ...

Sen. Rand Paul says he does not think he is being unreasonable in his stand against government surveillance practices.

Im just asking for two amendments and a simple majority vote on ending the National Security Agencys bulk data collection, the Kentucky Republican said on CBS This Morning on Tuesday.

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I think sometimes my party gets all caught up in the Second Amendment, which is fine, but we dont protect the Fourth Amendment enough, he added. But actually I think neither party ends up protecting the Fourth Amendment enough, which is the right to privacy.

Paul downplayed any bad feelings between him and his fellow Kentucky senator, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who failed to secure a deal in the Senate regarding the surveillance programs before Congress left for recess, in large part due to Paul.

I dont think we need counseling yet, he laughed. On the NSA thing, we are on opposite sides. I do think we keep it very civil.

Arguing that giving the government too much power opens the door for systemic bias to enter the system, Paul noted historical examples where race and political motivations played a role in government surveillance.

President Barack Obama is disingenuous about this, as he could end the practice on his own, Paul said on CBS.

Paul echoed the remarks in a later interview with Fox & Friends.

We did it to the Japanese-Americans in World War II. We did it to civil rights protesters during the 60s and to Vietnam War protesters. We just started grabbing them up and started looking at behavior we didnt like. So the right to dissent in a free country is very important, and some would say this has a chilling effect on a right to dissent, he said.

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Rand Paul 2016: I'm not being unreasonable on privacy ...