Do we like them?

Do we like Rand Paul?

Our score: 4 out of 10. Real independence and a civil-liberties streak, set against years of his own words aimed at trans people and gay couples.

Paul is the Republican senator for Kentucky and has chaired the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee since January 2025. He's a libertarian-flavoured Republican who says he's roughly 50-50 on a 2028 presidential run and will decide after the midterms. Most of what you'll hear about him comes down to one question: where does he stand when his party and his president want the opposite?

On that, he's been a handful for Trump. He has pushed to rein in Trump's tariffs and wanted Congress to have a say on them. In January 2026 he was at odds with his own leadership over guardrails on military action in Venezuela. In March he lashed Trump's DHS pick Markwayne Mullin at his confirmation hearing. And he backed Thomas Massie, who lost his May primary to a Trump-backed challenger.

The harm check is where it gets uncomfortable. At Rachel Levine's 2021 confirmation hearing, the Advocate reported he launched into an anti-trans rant at the first openly trans nominee for a Senate-confirmed post. In another 2021 hearing he argued that trans inclusion would damage girls' sport. On gay marriage, back in 2015 he said it offended him and floated a legal contract instead, though he also said people should be treated fairly under the law. That's his own words, not association.

He has also spent years chasing Anthony Fauci. Paul has pressed the Justice Department to look at Fauci's testimony to Congress, and says it has not acted. Fauci has denied misleading Congress. In April 2026 he also sponsored a constitutional amendment on citizenship, which coverage describes as aimed at ending birthright citizenship for people here illegally. Where you land on that depends on whether you read it as border policy or as a move against migrants' kids.

The good side is real. He's one of the few Republicans who keeps pushing on war powers, and he sponsored a resolution in September 2026 to block a defence sale to Saudi Arabia. He's also sponsored a Fourth Amendment bill on surveillance and a pair of bills to trim duplicated government spending. We didn't turn up charity work, and nothing reliable on climate either way, so that's about the list.

So: independent, principled on civil liberties, and willing to cop the heat from Trump. But the trans and gay-marriage record is his own, and it's the sort of thing a LGBTQ+ reader would not shrug off. We'd call it a lean-on-the-fence, not a fan club. Nothing big has landed on him in the last few months beyond bills and 2028 chatter.