Sen. Rand Paul

A lifelong Republican who has dedicated his career to advancing Libertarian values, Rand Paul has proven to be one of the nation's fiercest opponents of government overreach and has fought to return lawmakers' power to a more limited, constitutional scope. He was born Randal Howard Paul in Pittsburgh the third of five children to Carol and Ron Paul. Raised in Lake Jackson, Texas, ``Randy,'' as he was called, spent many summer vacations interning in the congressional office of his father, who was elected to the House of Representatives in 1976 and ran for president of the United States multiple times. Paul attended Baylor University in the early '80s as an honors student studying biology and history, and he also wrote for the student newspaper. A few credits shy of earning his bachelor's degree from Baylor, Paul decided to change his life's path and enroll in his father's alma mater, the Duke University School of Medicine. After receiving a medical degree in 1988, Paul took part in a general surgery internship at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta. That's where he met Kentucky native Kelley Ashby, whom he dated for two years before they married in 1991. When he completed his residency in ophthalmology at Duke University Medical Center in 1993, the couple moved to Bowling Green, Ky., to start a family, and together they have three sons -- William, Duncan and Robert. Paul founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic in 1995 to help provide eye exams and surgery to needy families and individuals. That same year he was certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology, passing the tests on his first try, and his sustained efforts to aid those in need of vision care has since been universally recognized. He has also performed free eye surgeries for impoverished children in developing countries through the Children of the Americas program. Influenced by a desire to diagnose problems and provide practical solutions - indicative of his life's work as a doctor - and partly inspired by his father's 2008 run for president, Paul became involved in political causes, most notably with the burgeoning, nationwide anti-tax movement known as the Tea Party. In 2009 he decided to seek his first-ever political office, running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican by espousing traditional Libertarian issues, like lower taxes, and socially conservative policies like a federal law against abortion. After a big upset victory in the primary, Paul won the general election to become Kentucky's junior senator in January 2011. He made news again a few years later by announcing his intention to enter the 2016 race for president, but after failing to stand out in a crowed Republican field, he ended his bid to focus on his Senate campaign. Paul was re-elected to the Senate in November 2016, representing Kentucky for a second term.