U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky appears with Senator Mitch McConnell and Mr. McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, at Mr. McConnell's midterm election night victory rally in Louisville.John Sommers II/Reuters
There he was on the front page of newspapers across the United States Wednesday, the morning after the Republicans' big victory in the midterm elections.
No, not Mitch McConnell, the senior Senator from Kentucky who is the Republicans' leader in the Senate and has a big smile on his face – I'm talking about the guy to Mr. McConnell's right, the one who resembles Archie Andrews in the comic books.
That's Rand Paul, the junior Senator from Kentucky who might well have been the biggest winner in Tuesday's nation-wide elections (and his Senate seat wasn't even up for grabs).
At the moment of Mr. McConnell's greatest political triumph, he chose to share the podium with his wife and this first-term Republican colleague.
Mr. Paul, who is almost certain to be a candidate for U.S. president in 2016, played a key role in Mr. McConnell's victory; not so much in the general voting Tuesday but in the Republican primary earlier this year when the 72-year-old Minority Leader faced a potent challenge from a candidate backed by the right-wing Tea Party movement.
The junior Senator, himself a one-time darling of that movement, has seen the wisdom of broadening his appeal and reaching out to more moderate Republicans if he hopes to win the country. He used his still substantial clout among conservative voters to encourage their support for the moderate Mr. McConnell, something the senior Senator won't forget.
Mr. "Everyman," as the populist Mr. Paul likes to style himself, was everywhere in this election campaign, racking up political IOUs from candidates for the Senate, the House and governors' mansions in about 30 states, and impressing voters all along the way.
When Republican senatorial candidate David Perdue needed help in Georgia after Democrat Michelle Nunn had overtaken Mr. Perdue in the polls two weeks ago, Rand Paul was there. Mr. Perdue went on to victory Tuesday.
When Republican Thom Tillis continued to trail incumbent Democratic Senator Kay Hagan in North Carolina in October, despite having waged one of the most expensive campaigns in the country, Mr. Paul answered the call.
A medical graduate of North Carolina's Duke University, the young Kentucky Senator persuaded a large number of libertarians in the state to vote Tillis and the Republican came from behind to win. Among libertarians, Mr. Paul is a rock star.
And when long-time Senator Pat Roberts looked on the edge of defeat in his state of Kansas even in the last week of the campaign, Mr. Paul arrived and made a series of campaign appearances in the state. Mr. Roberts was re-elected – for a variety of reasons, to be sure, including a strong get-out-the-vote operation on Election Day, but Mr. Paul's well-timed visit didn't hurt.
The funny thing about Kansas is that the campaign waged by Mr. Robert's chief challenger, a businessman named Greg Orman who ran as an independent, sounded a lot like Mr. Paul. Both men criticize Washington for its frustrating political deadlock and excessive partisan nature. Men such as Mr. Roberts, who's been in Washington since 1980, are viewed as part of the problem. But to Mr. Paul, he's become part of the solution to building a wide-range of support within the Republican Party. A lot of Kansas's independent supporters are likely to vote for the Kentucky Senator in 2016 should he run for president.
Not everything came up smelling like roses to Mr. Paul on Tuesday.
For one thing, Arkansas elected another young Republican, Tom Cotton, who could turn out to be Mr. Paul's political nemesis. Whereas the Kentucky Senator is considered a moderate libertarian who prefers to see the United States stay out of foreign conflicts, Senator-elect Mr. Cotton, 37, is a rising star among Republican hawks who like seeing the United States throw its weight around.
Mr. Paul, for example, opposes the U.S. use of drones to carry out targeted killings and wants the practice reined in. Mr. Cotton, who served as an officer for several years in Iraq, would like to see the program expanded.
For another thing, Republicans were not able to win a majority in Kentucky's state legislature, and that poses a unique problem to Mr. Paul. Current electoral law in Kentucky prohibits any person from running for state and federal office at the same time. Unless legislators change their mind and amend the law, or the courts strike down the law, Mr. Paul, whose Senate term expires in 2016, will have to choose between running for re-election to the Senate or running for President.
Considering that few would have thought it conceivable a year ago that the Kentuckian could have mounted a viable campaign for the White House, Rand Paul must relish the choice.