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ASHLAND, Va.Sen. Rand Paul took the stage as Chumbawambas Tubthumping blared on the speakers.

On one side of him was Ed Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman and ex-D.C. lobbyist whos running for the Senate. On the other: Dave Brat, the Tea-Party insurgent who came out of nowhere to oust then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the June GOP primary.

I see unity, and I see victory. Be part of it! Paul told about 150 supporters who had braved the rain and jammed into a former Civil War-era Baptist church in this conservative town of 7,000 just north of Richmond.

But walking the Tea Party-establishment tightrope is proving to be tricky for Paul. When he mocked President Obamas pen and phonecampaign, a man fromthe audience screamed, Treason!

Impeach Obama! someone else yelled.

Sporting a pink shirt, sport coat, jeans and boots, Paul warned the crowd that a vote for Gillespies opponent, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), is a vote to keep Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in charge of the Senate majority.

But he didnt specifically mention Gillespie, a former George W. Bush adviser, by name. Instead, hequickly pivoted to Brat,an economist and professor at nearby Randolph-Macon College who, Paul said, hasnt yet been elected to Congress but is already shaking up Washington.

Its a narrative much like his own.

When I ran for office, people said, Oh, youre just a physician from a small town. How could you possibly be in the U.S. Senate? Paul said. And I say precisely my strength is that I have not been in office. I havent been dumbed down by the system. I havent been beaten to death by the system. I still know whats right and wrong. I still know whats good for the country.

And I will vote that way regardless of whether I get reelected because its the right thing to do.

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Rand Paul stumps for GOP in Virginia

ASHLAND, Va. (AP) Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky headlined a rally Wednesday for Senate candidate Ed Gillespie and House candidate Dave Brat.

Paul, who has been weighing a potential 2016 presidential bid and campaigning for other Republican candidates across the country, told supporters at a small auditorium in Ashland that Gillespie and Brat would help repeal the Affordable Care Act and rein in federal spending.

Gillespie is the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and is considered an underdog in his bid to unseat Democrat Mark Warner in the senate election.

Brat became an overnight political sensation when he defeated former U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the GOP primary in June. He faces Democrat Jack Trammell in next month's general election.

WARNER'S RECORD

Gillespie and Paul focused on Warner's record in the Senate and argued that Warner is not the moderate candidate he portrays himself to be.

"I hate to tell you Virginia, but you've been tricked," Paul said, noting Warner's past support for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "You've been hoodwinked."

Gillespie revisited a familiar attack that Warner is a rubber stamp for President Barack Obama's policies.

"Mark Warner has pretty much voted for every single one of" Obama's policies, Gillespie said. "And it's time for a change."

A spokesman for Warner's campaign said that Gillespie showed by campaigning with Paul that he would "add to the gridlock in Congress."

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Rand Paul stumps for Dave Brat, Ed Gillespie

Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky(Photo: Associated Press)

Likely presidential candidate Rand Paul will be in Iowa next week to campaign for Iowa candidates.

Paul, a Republican U.S. senator from Kentucky, will be in Wilton on Wednesday for the Kaufmann Family Barbecue, an event for state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton.

"This will be the fourth presidential contender to appear at the Kaufmann Family BBQ," said Jeff Kaufmann, the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa and a former state representative.

GOP U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst will attend the barbecue, too, Kaufmann said in a news release this morning. The fundraiser will be from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Wilton Community Center, 1215 Cypress St. in Wilton. The event is open to the press and paid guests. Admission is $25.

Paul will also campaign for 1st District U.S. House candidate Rod Blum at the University of Northern Iowa at noon on Wednesday, and at a 2:30 p.m. tour and small business roundtable at MobileDemand in Hiawatha.

Blum is seeking to replace Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, whose seat in the left-leaning district is open because he's running for U.S. Senate.

Five other potential presidential candidates have lined up behind Blum: Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is booked to be in Dubuque on Oct. 29; former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum stumped for Blum Oct. 15; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did a public rally for Blum in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 3; Texas Gov. Rick Perry did four campaign stops with Blum on Sept. 2; and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson headlined a breakfast for Blum on Aug. 25.

Paul is one of the most frequent top-name GOP visitors to Iowa, home of the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. He has been trying to reach out to minorities, young voters and others outside the typical GOP base.

He's featured on the cover of the latest issue of Time magazine in an article headlined "The Most Interesting Man in Politics: The Reinventions of Rand Paul," Politico reported this morning.

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Rand Paul back in Iowa next week

TIME Politics 2014 Election On the Road with Rand Paul Can he fix what ails the GOP?

The tattooed and pierced longhairs never showed up to see Senator Rand Paul speak with students at the University of South Carolina in Columbia last month. Those in attendance drew instead from the preppy set, with brushed bangs, blue blazers and proper hemlines, some wearing sunglasses on neck straps like jock jewelry. They mostly hailed from college Republican circles, and the room where they gathered, a wood-stained memorial to the states old power structure, was named for the politician who led the fight to protect school segregation in the 1960s.

You could call them activists, even rebels in their way. But this was not a gathering of losers and outcasts. Paul knew this. And that was the whole point

Read the full story here.

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On the Road with Rand Paul

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a potential 2016 presidential aspirant, campaigned in Ashland on Wednesday with Republican Senate candidate Ed Gillespie and congressional nominee Dave Brat.

Virginia, you have been tricked, Paul told a crowd of about 150 at the Hanover Arts and Activities Center.

You have been hoodwinked into believing that Mark Warner is a moderate. ... When Warner is home, he tells you one thing. He used to be for a balanced budget amendment. Mark Warner said one thing when he was running for office, but I was there; I watched him vote against it.

Paul stumped for the candidates three weeks before the Nov. 4 election. Gillespie faces Warner and Libertarian Robert C. Sarvis. Brat faces Democrat Jack Trammell and Libertarian James Carr in the contest for the 7th District seat formerly held by Republican Eric Cantor.

Brat spoke first at the rally, then Gillespie, who introduced Paul. The Kentucky senator, who wore jeans and cowboy boots, was greeted with thunderous applause.

On the Affordable Care Act and Warners support for the health care law, Paul said:

Im a physician, and I am a little bit bothered by Mark Warner, who thinks youre not smart enough to choose your own doctor. I think youre smart enough to choose your own doctor, and I think you may be just smart enough to choose a new senator.

Paul said the election is about the freedom of choice. Its about whether or not the politicians in Washington think that you are smart enough to make your own choices, he said.

Its about whether you want people who believe in the freedom of choice or you want people who are arrogant enough to make those choices for you. I think there is no question, we need a change this year.

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Warner campaign spokesman David Turner said that by campaigning with Paul, Gillespie just confirms that he would stay true to his history as a self-described partisan warrior.

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Rand Paul stumps for Gillespie and Brat in Ashland