Rand Paul talks football, concealed carry at Kinnick tailgate

Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul talked football and concealed carry legislation at a Hawkeye football tailgate rally outside of Kinnick Stadium on Saturday morning.

More than 50 supporters braved below-freezing temperatures to share hot chocolate, ideas and handshakes with the junior Republican senator from Kentucky. Supporters, staffers and curious Hawkeye fans surrounded Paul in a parking lot west of Kinnick as fans trudged through the snow-laced parking lot.

"We didn't have this kind of weather in Texas," Paul said surrounded by supporters, referencing where he grew up and went to college.

On Thursday, Paul introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate that would call for the rolling back of gun restrictions in the District of Columbia and bring concealed carry permits to district residents and nonresidents and allow permits from other states in Washington, D.C.

Standing in Iowa, where concealed carry is the law, Paul backed his plan in front of supporters.

"The people have the right to defend themselves, no matter where they are. They have the right to bear arms; that's in the Constitution," Paul said. "You can't control all the crazy people in the world, but concealed carry would help."

While many supporters and Hawkeye fans were at the Paul tailgate for political reasons, a football game between the 10-0 Iowa Hawkeyes and the Purdue Boilermakers was about to take place, so even the senator talked football.

Because of a busy schedule, Paul said he had only been to one football game so far this year: the Eastern Kentucky vs. University of Kentucky game on Oct. 3. "It was a good game, it went to overtime and I was able to join my son who goes to Kentucky."

Paul then reflected on college football in his college days when he attend Baylor University in the early 1980s.

"Mike Singletary (NFL Hall of Fame middle linebacker) was playing for Baylor at the time, he went on to have a great career with the Bears. Walter Abercrombie too was a running back then, he went on to have a solid NFL career. So I had a good time at those games," Paul said.

Though Jason Schuchert was at the Paul tailgate as a Hawkeye fan as well, he also was there to support his daughter Anna Schuchert, a University of Iowa student who is part of the Students for Rand Paul group.

"It's fun to see the inside of the campaign, what it takes to get people involved and caucus," Jason Schuchert said.

Though Paul's fiscal conservative stances are what Jason Schuchert said interested him in Paul, his daughter found a wide-ranging list of reasons for why she supports the Kentucky senator.

"It was funny, I took a Facebook quiz about what presidential candidate I agree with the most and Rand was first. So I started learning more about him, liking more of what I learned, heard about Students for Rand Paul and joined," Anna Schuchert said.

Before supporters gathered around Paul to take a selfie, the senator was asked why he thought people were willing to stand out in the cold to support him.

"Liberty," he said. "These people just want the government less involved in their lives."

Reach Zach Berg at 319-887-5412, zberg@press-citizen.com, or follow him on Twitter at @ZacharyBerg.