Paul has distanced himself from the more controversial foreign policy views held by his father, but he also sees an opportunity to woo young voters over the privacy issues that surfaced following revelations this year about National Security Agency surveillance.

When asked during a brief interview how he will seek to engage young people as he takes his next political steps, Paul said, “I think [by] talking about the right to privacy, and we’re going to continue working on that.”

Some data suggest Paul is on target. After revelations about the NSA’s broad surveillance powers broke last summer, support for President Barack Obama with people younger than 30 tumbled 17 points in a CNN poll in June. That issue creates an opening for Republicans to gain ground, according to Paul, who has blasted much of the NSA program as “unconstitutional.”

“Young people, they don’t really associate with Republicans on taxes and regulations. Not that they oppose us, they just don’t have any money so they don’t care much about those issues,” Paul said over the summer on “The Laura Ingraham Show.” “But they’ve all got a cellphone, they’re all on the Internet, they’re all concerned about Internet freedom — and they’re concerned about privacy. And these are precisely issues where we can grow our youth vote.”