“I think a libertarian twist or a libertarian influence in the Republican Party is good, but I’ve pretty much just stayed with the party and plan on doing so,” he said at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. …

Making the GOP slightly more libertarian is just part of Paul’s recent mission to broaden the Republican Party. The senator reiterated his message that it also needs to look different in terms of race and age.

“You go to a Republican event and it’s all white people—not because we’re excluding anybody, but because we just haven’t done a good enough job encouraging people to come into our party,” he said at the event, which was hosted by his 2010 GOP primary rival, Trey Grayson. He’s now the institute’s director. …

“The Republican Party–I will tell you, from talking to whoever the establishment is–they are recognizing that they need to be bigger to win, and that they need to broaden their message.”