Rand Paul Channels Barry Goldwater in 2016

Before there was Rand Paul, there was Barry Goldwater.

In 1964, Barry Goldwater laid the groundwork for the Republican party to win back the White House in 1968.

Goldwater, a Senator from Arizona ran for president in 1964. Credited with changing the way Republicans look at campaigning, Goldwater was the Godfather of grassroots activism. Fastforward to 2015, Senator Rand Paul is showing us why he may just be the next Barry Goldwater when it comes to running a grassroots operation.

Like Goldwater’s plain-spoken, small government rhetoric, Paul follows the same ethos and has built a vast grassroots better than any Republican to date.

Paul rode the Tea Party wave to Washington, and quickly became the movement’s most intriguing and charismatic spokes­person—an ambassador for libertarian values who takes obvious relish in skewering critics, regardless of their political affiliation.

From his stance on gay marriage to his class action lawsuit against the NSA for domestic abuse,  Senator Rand Paul dives head first into issues Republicans normally shy away from especially in an election year. Much like Goldwater, Paul has a large grassroots following. Paul has tapped into his father’s network of libertarian followers, and is using social media as a vehicle for his stance on issues.

In 2013, during Paul’s 13 hour filibuster against drones, the twittersphere lit up as people from around the country declared #StandwithRand. A raucous twitter campaign that would put him on the map and draw in people who ordinarily would define themselves as progressives. Channeling his inner Barry Goldwater, Paul has proven his knack for seizing a political moment in a way that entices liberty-loving millennials to join his efforts.

Trey Greyson, director at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics agrees “Paul is without a question the Republican who best connects with millennial voters across the country.” Paul’s positions more closely mirror those of young voters than those of the G.O.P. establishment. Paul has an uncanny ability to energize and mobilize the grassroots the same way Goldwater did to cinch the nomination in 1964. Goldwater’s campaign contacted 3.4 million voters in 912 targeted counties in 46 states, with volunteers walking the neighborhoods, and raised 1/3 of his war chest in from small amounts given by over 300,000 direct-mail contributors.

The fervor is now reverberating throughout the country as grassroots activists take to social media and college campuses to encourage others to #StandwithRand. Organizations such as Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) are reminiscent of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), a group who was instrumental to the Goldwater campaign. YAL is poised to follow in YAF’s footsteps, by organizing young people to vote in the caucuses and primaries, and to position them as delegates to the national convention. YAL claims to have chapters on 527 college campuses across the nation, including seven in Iowa, and five in New Hampshire.

It is still too early to tell if Senator Rand Paul will win the GOP nomination in 2016, but one thing is certain, Paul has taken a page from the history books and created a grassroots movement even Barry Goldwater would be proud of.  At the end of the day, it’s safe to say change is on the horizon and Rand Paul is leading the movement one tweet at a time.