Rand Paul

Randal Howard Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Kentucky since 2011.

A member of the Republican Party, he is a son of former three-time presidential candidate and 12-term U.S. representative from Texas, Ron Paul.

Paul describes himself as a constitutional conservative and supporter of the Tea Party movement.

Paul attended Baylor University and is a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine.

Randal Howard Paul was born on January 7, 1963, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Carol (née Wells) and Ron Paul, who is also a politician and physician.

The middle child of five, his siblings are Ronald "Ronnie" Paul Jr., Lori Paul Pyeatt, Robert Paul, and Joy Paul LeBlanc.

Paul was baptized in the Episcopal Church and identified as a practicing Christian as a teenager.

Despite his father's libertarian views and strong support for individual rights, the novelist Ayn Rand was not the inspiration for his first name.

Growing up, he went by "Randy", but his wife shortened it to "Rand."

The Paul family moved to Lake Jackson, Texas in 1968, where he was reared and where his father began a medical practice and for a period of time was the only obstetrician in Brazoria County.

When Rand was 13, his father Ron Paul was elected to the United States House of Representatives.

That same year, Paul attended the 1976 Republican National Convention, where his father headed Ronald Reagan's Texas delegation.

The younger Paul spent several summer vacations interning in his father's congressional office.

In his teenage years, Paul studied the Austrian economists that his father respected, as well as the writings of Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand.

Paul Went to Brazoswood High School and was on the swimming team and played defensive back on the football team.

Paul attended Baylor University from fall 1981 to summer 1984 and was enrolled in the honors program.

During the time he spent at Baylor, he completed his pre-med requirements in two and a half years, was involved in the swim team and the Young Conservatives of Texas and was a member of a tongue-in-cheek secret organization, the NoZe Brotherhood, known for its irreverent humor.

He regularly contributed to The Baylor Lariat student newspaper.

Paul left Baylor without completing his baccalaureate degree, when he was accepted into his father's alma mater, the Duke University School of Medicine, which, at the time, did not require an undergraduate degree for admission to its graduate school.

He earned an M.D. degree in 1988 and completed his residency in 1993.

Paul was a practicing ophthalmologist in Bowling Green, Kentucky, from 1993 until his election to the Senate in 2010.

After completing his residency in ophthalmology, Paul moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he has been an "active, licensed physician" since 1993.

He worked for Downing McPeak Vision Centers for five years.

Paul has faced two malpractice lawsuits between 1993 and 2010; he was cleared in one case while the other was settled for $50,000.

His medical work has been praised by Downing and he has medical privileges at two Bowling Green hospitals.

In 1995, Paul was certified to practice by the American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO).

Three years earlier, the ABO had changed its certification program, which previously awarded lifetime certifications, and required ophthalmologists to recertify every 10 years, while those who had already been given lifetime certification were not required to recertify.

Paul felt this was unfair and campaigned to have all ophthalmologists recertify every ten years.

In 1998, he joined a private medical group practice, the Graves Gilbert Clinic, in Bowling Green, for 10 years.

In 1999, he incorporated the National Board of Ophthalmology (NBO) to offer an alternative certification system, at a cost substantially lower than that of the ABO.

In 2008, Paul formed his own private practice across the street from John Downing, his former employer at Downing McPeak.

After his election to the U.S. Senate, he merged his practice with Downing's medical practice.

As a member of the Bowling Green Noon Lions Club, Paul founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic in 2009 to help provide eye surgery and exams for those who cannot afford to pay.

Paul won the Melvin Jones Fellow Award for Dedicated Humanitarian Services from the Lions Club International Foundation for his work establishing the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic.

He was re-elected to a second term in 2016, and won a third term in 2022.

Paul was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

He ended his campaign in February 2016 after finishing in fifth place during the Iowa caucuses.

While he initially opposed Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries, he supported him following his nomination and became one of his top defenders in the U.S. Senate during his first impeachment trial, though on key votes Paul aligned with Trump the third least among Republican senators during Trump's presidency.

In April 2020, after recovering from COVID-19, Paul began volunteering at a hospital in Bowling Green, assisting them in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Kentucky.

Paul specializes in cataract and glaucoma surgeries, LASIK procedures, and corneal transplants.