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In this photo taken Feb. 10, 2015, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. speaks in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington. Paul said he is likely to announce whether he'll run for president in 2016 sometime in March or April from his home state of Kentucky. The Kentucky Republican told reporters after a Friday speech in Louisville that he was getting closer to making a decision, but all signs point to Paul launching a campaign. Next month, he will ask the state Republican Party to create a presidential caucus in 2016. That way, Paul could run for president and re-election to his Senate seat simultaneously without appearing on the primary ballot for two offices. That's banned by Kentucky law. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) Rand Paul wasn't a conventional Republican when he won a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky, and he's not mapping out a predictable strategy as he ponders a 2016 bid for the White House.

Paul confirmed Friday that he will announce his intentions in April or May, and then he spent the day displaying an ideological and political balancing act.

"We have to be a bigger party," he told Alabama Republicans at a fundraising gala Friday evening. "I want to take that message across America. I've shown I'll go anywhere."

He takes with him the small-government libertarianism of his father, former congressman and failed presidential candidate Ron Paul. But the senator also mixes in frequent references to his "Christian faith" as he courts cultural conservatives who were wary of his father.

There's the usual blistering of President Barack Obama and his executive orders, but Paul reminds his partisan audiences that the expansion of presidential authority has spanned decades, through administrations of both major parties.

Paul calls for the conservative "boldness" of Ronald Reagan and offers GOP orthodoxy on tax and spending cuts, making him a tea party darling.

He talks tough on national defense, but also staged an actual Senate filibuster talking for hours on the chamber floor, rather than just using procedural paper delays to protest the American government's use of drones.

Meanwhile, he chides Republicans to reach into the cities for non-white votes that have eluded the GOP by particularly wide margins in Obama's two national victories. And Paul champions criminal-justice reform and plugs his work with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a black Democrat, on the issue.

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In early White House maneuvering, Paul avoids predictability