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SARASOTA Conventional wisdom has it that Florida is Jeb Bush country in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio enjoys lots of conservative Sunshine State love as well.

But that didn't stop Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul from courting Republicans in Bush/Rubio home turf this weekend. At a Valentine's evening airport rally Saturday evening he found plenty of Republicans receptive to his message.

"I like Jeb Bush. I've voted for him," said Republican business broker Dale Tindall. "But whether it's the Bushes or the Kennedys, or the Clintons, enough is enough."

That sentiment was repeated over and over again in random interviews among the several hundred people gathered Saturday to see Paul, who told the Tampa Bay Times he is not intimidated by his rivals' Florida advantage or by Bush's expected overwhelming fundraising advantage.

"Most of the grass-roots of our party believes that we should have less centralization of education in Washington. Most of the people I meet are opposed to Common Core, as I am," Paul, 52, said of the education standards championed by Bush and adopted by Florida and most other states. "I just think it's going to be difficult (for Bush) to win over grass-roots conservatives."

Paul suggested that he would like to see both Rubio and Bush jump into the presidential race.

"That would actually make it more like the vote would split enough ways for the state to be competitive," Paul said.

The Kentucky senator on Friday addressed the Orange County GOP's Lincoln Day Dinner, while Jeb Bush was in southwest Florida at the Barbara Bush Foundation's annual event promoting literacy.

Asked at a news conference about his brother's handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush demurred.

"If I'm in the process of considering the possibility of running, it's not about re-litigating anything in the past," the Washington Post quoted him as saying. "I won't talk about the past. I'll talk about the future."

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Rand Paul gets receptive ear to his message in Sarasota