Insider: 50% Chance a Paul Will Try for GOP Nod

A family adviser to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said there’s a 50 percent chance that there will be a Paul in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, Salon reported Thursday.

Some believe the freshman senator from Kentucky would be the better candidate than his father, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, in part, because of the elder’s age, 77, and the son’s camera-friendly brash style and ideological purity.

Earlier in the week, Rand Paul said the only certainty is that he won’t run against his father. He has been making the rounds of early primary states. On Monday, he was in South Carolina and is traveling soon to Iowa and New Hampshire.

The Pauls' libertarian ideology is more popular now within the GOP, and Rand Paul is a tea party favorite. Some believe Rand Paul could take up the mantle of Pat Buchanan, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination in the 1990s and has a libertarian bent.