Rand Paul opens Bay Area office to reach Silicon Valley

Ahead of what seems to be an increasingly likely presidential run, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will soon open an office in the San Francisco Bay Area, he said.

The Kentucky senator told The San Francisco Chronicle in an interview on Saturday that his team was “in the process of” opening the office, which would be a way to stay in touch with many of Paul’s wealthy and libertarian-minded potential supporters in Silicon Valley. 

{mosads}”There’s a lot of smart people in Silicon Valley, and we want to use their brains to figure out how to win,” he told the newspaper.

“Well, for the party, winning nationally,” he added to clarify what, specifically, he wanted to win. “My goal for the past year has been to try to widen the party message and make the party big enough to win nationally.”

Paul has come to the region “fairly often,” he added and has made no secret that he has drawn support from some in Silicon Valley, where his criticism of surveillance and big government has resounded.

The senator’s office was unable to provide any additional details about the new Bay Area office.

Paul was in California this weekend to deliver the keynote address at the state’s Republican Party convention. 

While there, he differentiated himself from likely Democratic front-runner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who he said should “absolutely” be precluded from being president by her response to the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.