Paul leads Daviess GOP Get Out the Vote rally

Don Wilkins, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
·3 min read

Oct. 4—U.S. Sen. Rand Paul drew a large crowd Monday evening at Reid's Orchard for the Daviess County Republican Party's Get Out the Vote Rally.

Paul, a Bowling Green Republican, spent most of his more than 11-minute speech criticizing Anthony Fauci's role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and his influence with decisions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paul said legislation he introduced in March would eliminate the director position of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Since then, Fauci has announced that he would step down in December from the position he's held for 38 years.

"...It's the most reasonable of proposals; he has too much power," said Paul, whose public feud with Fauci has captured national headlines. "His position should be divided into three positions. But I've also gone one step further; I think he's lied to Congress — that's a felony — and I've referred him to the Department of Justice for conviction."

Paul said the U.S. House Democrats practiced "elitism" by refusing to approve an amendment in the U.S. Senate that would prevent tax dollars to fund scientific research taking place in Wuhan, China.

"...The philosophy of elitism is that they know better than you do," Paul said. "... It's this idea that a group of experts will run the country that are smarter than everyone else."

Paul also shared his contempt for the mask and vaccine mandates that were put into place by state and federal governments during the pandemic.

"...We should all stand up with one voice and say, 'this is our job to make our own health decisions — not the job of government'," he said.

Along with Paul, U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, a Bowling Green Republican, was also among the speakers.

Prior to going on stage, Guthrie said Congress is adjourned for the upcoming Nov. 8 general election, opening up his schedule to be part of the Daviess County GOP rally.

"My thing is we need to reach out to people who typically don't vote Republican, and let them know we have a message for them," Guthrie said. "For instance, high energy costs affect everybody, inflation affect everybody and controlling the border affects everybody."

Joanne Nelson, Daviess Republican Party chairwoman, said the rally came together in about two weeks and it was scheduled around when Paul could attend.

"We're just trying to get the vote out — for people to vote Republican," Nelson said. "... We still have a lot of voters who are still registered Democrats (in Daviess County); they just don't think anything about it but they vote Republican. So when we go out and talk to people, we try to get those swing voters and weak Democrats who haven't always voted Democrat."

State Rep. Suzanne Miles was emcee for the rally. Local partisan and non-partisan candidates with opponents were given two minutes to introduce themselves to attendees.

Among them were Larry Conder for county commissioner, Steve Nave for constable, Mark Castlen for city commission, Larry Maglinger for city commission, Jeff Sanford for city commission, Tim Hicks for Daviess County school board, Jeremy Luckett for Owensboro school board and DJ Johnson for state representative.

Don Wilkins, dwilkins@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7299