jonathan easley's with the hill newspaper. let's talk more about the announcement today. senator rand paul in louisville, kentucky. how is it that he can run for both the presidency and a second term for senate? jonathan: --guest: he's got a nice little backup plan. it seems like the state party is open and moving forward to give him a workaround that he will need to run for the white house and the senate simultaneously. yes, he had to go through the state party to set that up, but it appears they set it on the path to achieve that for him. host: what is his campaign message? guest: rand paul will be running on -- he's touting himself at the different kind of republican. he's saying he has been reaching out to some of these groups that republicans, he says, have ignored. he has met with black leaders in ferguson, missouri. he has gone to inner cities in detroit and atlanta and talked at length about how he is reaching out to black voters that are typically loyal to democrats. he is also reaching out to young voters. there is always -- already a solid base of young voters that like his libertarian message and he thinks he can build on that. he is making the argument that he is the most selectable republican to face likely hillary clinton in the general election. host: how has he been doing so far, and why make this announcement now? explain the timing. guest: well, he's going to be, really, only the second major candidate in the party to enter the race. ted cruz a couple of weeks ago became the first person to officially enter the field. by being the second, i think you can still build quite a bit of energy by getting in so early. ted cruz got a pretty significant bump in the polls by just being that first candidate in. he will get a lot of support from that. and basically, any candidate not named jeb bush will need to focus quite a bit on pulling in some major donors. this will give him some time to focus on that fundraising. paul's supporters have a money bond to coincide with the launch. he will do well with his grassroots donors. but it legitimate candidate will need to raise about $50 million by next march. it will require a good deal of work. you will have to be in silicon valley appealing to some of these in younger executives that have a libertarian streak. all that requires time, and by being the second candidate in, in april, it will generate buzz, and he will be admired over the pack of republican candidates right now in the polls. if you get the same boost that ted cruz does, this could launch him into the top tier of republican candidates. host: are there others that are contenders, or folks that are thinking about getting in, they watching rand paul? do they consider him a serious challenger? guest: yeah, absolutely. rand paul has probably the most complicated white house bid. republican strategists say he has as much range as anybody and in some of these early voting dates they don't how he could do. he could run the table on the first four carveout states, or he could be more like his father and only appeals to this base of libertarian, conservative minded -- libertarian minded conservatives. he could build some momentum by putting in some showings or not winning in the first four state. or he could fall flat. it will be interesting to see which one of those scenarios will play out. host: jonathanley, he plans to be on the ballot in all 50 states. does he have the infrastructure and organization to make that happen? guest: if they are planning on doing that, he better. i think he probably does have a nice structure base that is left behind -- a nice days of infrastructure that is left behind from his father. that may not be enough to pull off the strategy cannot but he's -- the strategy, but he's going to need to win. i think probably more important it is probably a symbolic gesture as well. it is not in the long run going to be that important, how he does in the south dakota caucuses, or primaries let's say. but he's pitching himself as the candidate that is looking to expand the party and by doing that, he needs to be as inclusive as possible, and that means a 58 strategy for him. whereas -- a 50-state strategy for him. whereas some of these other candidates may be all in on new hampshire and then seeing how it plays out from there. rand paul, we know more about his campaign