Rand Paul: Polls underestimate strength of his campaign

CEDAR RAPIDS - Rand Paul's fourth-place finish in the Iowa secretary of state's youth caucus - a much better position than in national polling - has the Kentucky senator thinking about a new strategy.

'Yeah, we might be for that,” Paul said with a laugh Saturday when asked if would favor lowering the voting age to 16 before the Feb. 1 first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.

Paul, who tailgated with high school and college students Saturday at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, is banking on a strong turnout of younger voters at the caucuses to give him a strong start on his bid for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. He believes his positions, especially on protecting individuals' privacy, will appeal to younger voters.

He cited a poll that found 83 percent of voters 40 and younger believe the government went too far in collecting information, such as phone records, without a warrant.

He believe polling underrepresents his strength among young people, who are nearly exclusively on cellphones. 'I've yet to meet a college kid in Iowa who's ever done a poll,” Paul said.

Overall, he thinks there's too much reporting on polls.

'I don't expect Donald Trump or Ben Carson to be the nominee even though they are consuming nearly half of the polls in some polls,” Paul said. 'Neither do a lot of other smart people. So maybe we should pay less attention to the polls and pay attention to who can turn out crowds, who's got a ground game, who's raising some money. There's a lot of different ways to judge a campaign and we've dumbed it down to one item.”