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U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky greets supporters Tuesday at Randolph Hall at the College of Charleston. Paul Zoeller/Staff

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky looked more like an Apple executive than a potential GOP candidate for president during his stump appearance at the College of Charleston.

He wore cowboy boots, jeans and a tie but no jacket. He said the Republican Party has been way off in its methods for trying to grow its ranks and should instead diversify by welcoming more people of color - and even men who wear their hair in ponytails or have pierced ears. Also, anybody inked with tattoos.

"You need to look like the rest of America," he said.

In an address designed to appeal to South Carolina's youth vote, Paul spoke for nearly an hour Tuesday about where the world is heading and how their generation, more than any previous one, will face the potential dangers of electronic overreach.

"When you talk to young people, their whole life revolves around their phone and I think they instinctively know that the government shouldn't be looking at their stuff without the permission of a judge," he said.

He also said the attitude that "if you're not doing anything wrong then you shouldn't fear the government" could too easily become the basis of society accepting privacy intrusion as a future norm.

"That's a little bit of a lower standard than 'innocent until proven guilty,'" he told more than 200 students on the campus on protecting their data.

Paul's appearance was part of an increased emphasis on attracting younger voters as he sets up a potential run for the White House in 2016. The youth vote is something he acknowledged that Republicans have historically failed at cultivating.

"When you look at President Obama's victory, he won the youth vote 3-to-1, and he increased the youth vote," Paul said. He added "if you get the youth vote, you've got quite a bit" of the electorate.

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Rand Paul talks electronic snooping, tattoos at College of Charleston stop