LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The midterm elections are in a week and a high-profile race on Kentucky's ballot is for U.S. Senate. Senator Rand Paul has held the seat for two consecutive terms and looks to win a third on Nov. 8.
When you've been in the spotlight for 12 years and as vocal as Sen. Paul is, you may think you know him pretty well. Politically speaking, that may be true, but we sat down with the Bowling Green resident a few weeks back to get a better feel for who he is at home.
"Something about me that you or the public doesn't know about? Well, I'm a composter. I love trees," Paul said. "I plant trees all over my yard. I've planted trees from little seedlings that are now 40 feet tall. Maple trees, Hickory trees, Oak trees."
We also asked him if he had a favorite food in the kitchen.
"I'm a big mushroom fan. You can put mushrooms in anything. Legal mushrooms of course," Paul said. "I'm always saying, do we have any mushrooms we can add to that?"
When he's not on the campaign trail or working at the capitol, Paul is enjoying the few days a week he has with his wife Kelley and their three boys. He says he's home almost every weekend.
"It's a pretty busy schedule and I'm in Washington almost every week. It's funny some people criticize, why aren't you here? It's like well, I'm in three different places. You know, it's a lot because people don't understand the job involves Washington as well as Kentucky," Paul said.
The couple chose Bowling Green as their home close to 30 years ago where they continue living today.
"We wanted to live in a small town where we knew the people. You meet people in the grocery store. You knew you'd meet people at church," Paul said.
Originally from a small town in Texas, Paul grew up watching his dad, Ron Paul, who was both a physician and politician, so it was only fitting when he set his sights set on a similar path.
"A lot of the same sort of things I remember my dad talking about in the 70's are now coming back this century," Paul said, mentioning both inflation and the value of the dollar.
Today, he's an ophthalmologist and Kentucky's incumbent U.S. Senator.
"I kind of wish we could do both," he said. "I've always been an advocate that we should allow people to do their their day job, their regular job. It would be more part-time legislators, not full-time. I think a lot of time is wasted. We could actually go back to having people who had a job, we could lower the salaries of people in Washington, and have them there less. What I discovered when I got there was, I couldn't practice medicine at all for money. So, when I do surgery now, I do it for free. I couldn't really own my own practice and pay people because I'm not allowed to. But I've done trips to Guatemala, trips to Haiti. I've operated in somewhere between six or seven different surgery centers around Kentucky for people who don't have insurance."
Paul has 12 years under his belt as senator and is looking at another 6, though he says he's not a career politician. We asked if he sees an end to this part of his career.
"It is a difficult decision sometimes, you know, between remaining in public life versus you know, going back to medicine, but I do think if I weren't there, I think there's kind of a void for someone to stand up and say, we're spending too much money," Paul said. "No matter how unpopular it is."
Curbing the nation's debt is one of his top priorities.
"It's alarming. We're now at $31 trillion," he said. "And it's because there weren't enough people like me standing up and saying that we shouldn't spend money we don't have."
Then, there's COVID-19 and his ongoing battle with Dr. Anthony Fauci.
"I am curious how a million Americans died from this and nobody seems to be curious as to how this originated," Paul said. "The evidence very strongly indicates that came from a lab in Wuhan. I think Fauci was complicit in covering that up and the reasoning is because he funded the lab. He's tried to obscure the fact that he funded it. So, this is something that I'm very, very serious about. As far as priorities if I win again, this is something we are going to look into."
Paul says his number one priority is avoiding nuclear war.
"I don't care whether you're Republican or Democrat, nobody wants that. But in order not to have that, I think it's important that we have voices and I am one of those voices who believe in dialogue and diplomacy. It doesn't mean we accede to what our enemies want. It does mean that we are listening to our adversaries."
On a more local level, we asked the senator about Louisville's crime and how to reduce it.
"When I talk to people who have been victims of violence in the West End, they want more police. They want more more protection. And I have three kids I raised. I never had to worry about them on the bus stop being shot. It's inexcusable, unfair and rotten, that anybody in the West End has to worry about their kids at the bus stop. They should be safe. And we should make that so," Paul said.
"The police are not killing people in the West End. It's people killing people and the police are trying to protect the people. And so, have there been some instances where there were problems? Yeah, I was the first one to introduce the Breonna Taylor ban on no-knocks. I want there to be rules. But the vast majority of murders across the country, 99.9 percent of murders are not the police killing people. And 99 percent of the police are trying to help prevent that. They're good people who go to church with them. They live in your neighborhood. You see them at the grocery store. They are the leaders in our community."
Paul's opponent, Democratic challenger Charles Booker recently said Paul's campaign ads are blatant lies, claiming Booker's stance on policing is to 'defund the police.' Booker says he's never said that, but has asked for alternatives to police.
Listen to Senator Rand Paul's response to this issue and many more by watching his full interview here. You can also watch Charles Booker's interview here.
►Contact reporter Brooke Hasch at bhasch@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter (@WHAS11Hasch) and Facebook.
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