BOWLING GREEN — Rand Paul parlayed a rising anti-Washington mood, the TEA Party movement and a ready-made Internet fundraising system into a big Republican primary Senate election win Tuesday night, one which reverberated through the Republican Party of Kentucky and the nation.

The Associated Press called the race at 7:45 p.m. EDT for Paul — with only 32 percent of the precincts reporting. Paul was leading his chief opponent, Secretary of State Trey Grayson, 61 percent to 34 percent with about 156,000 votes counted.

Paul took early and big leads in the state’s urban centers of Jefferson and Fayette counties and in northern Kentucky, Grayson’s home turf. At the time AP called the race, most of the Fifth District, represented by Congressman Hal Rogers who endorsed Grayson and where the mother load of Republican votes reside, had not reported.

Paul told a large, cheering crowd at the Bowling Green Country Club his victory is a “a message from the TEA Party — a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: we’ve come to take our country back.

“It’s a national movement and what I say to Washington is watch out!” Paul said as the crowd roared its approval. He went on tot criticize President Barack Obama for apologizing for American capitalism and said America should be proud of its capitalist system. He reiterated campaign promises to fight for term limits, balanced budgets, and restricting congressional action to powers enumerated in the constitution.

Behind Paul on the podium were his family, including his father, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2008 and whose fundraising network benefited Rand Paul in his race against Grayson and the other Republican candidates — John Stephenson, Gurley Martin, Jon Scribner and Bill Johnson.

Paul’s strength showed in diverse parts of the state, winning big in Boyd County, Hardin County and even in McCreary County, part of the Fifth District. Paul’s win wasn’t unexpected in recent weeks as he consistently led Grayson by double digits in publicly released polls. But it may still be unsettling to the Republican establishment. Grayson was backed by Sen. Mitch McConnell as well as Rogers — and their backing didn’t matter. Grayson hoped to win Rogers’ district by huge margins to offset Paul’s strength in urban areas — but it didn’t happen.

In fact, Paul won Whitley County for example 53 to 40 percent. Grayson needed to win those southeastern counties like Whitley by three to one or two and a half to one margins. He didn’t and his cause was lost.

Grayson conceded shortly after 9 p.m. saying he called Paul’s campaign manager David Adams to congratulate Paul and promised to “stand side by side” with Paul at a scheduled “unity rally” at state Republican headquarters Saturday in Frankfort.

“Rand Paul had a message of constitutionally limited government and of Congress operating under the constitution’s enumerated powers,” said David Dickerson of Glasgow who attended Paul’s celebration at the Bowling Green Country Club.

State Rep. Jamie Comer, R-Tompkinsville, said the victory by Paul isn’t a reflection on either McConnell or Rogers but he said the Paul win shows “people want to send someone to Washington who is going to act and vote like a Republican.”

The man who Paul seeks to succeed, Sen. Jim Bunning, who says he was pushed out of the race by McConnell, said Paul’s win “is a clear signal to the Washington establishment that it is time to shake things up.”

Turnout was lower than predicted — unofficially, it appeared around 25 percent statewide although higher in some areas where there were contested local races like the mayor’s race in Jefferson County.

Louisville political consultant Danny Briscoe said the low turnout is an indication of the inability of the candidates to engage the voters.

“With 25 percent turnout, it has to go back to the candidates (in both party primaries),” said Briscoe. “They didn’t say anything to inspire voters to come to the polls.” He also said 25 percent turnout might be an indication that voter anger might have been over estimated.

Earlier in the day, the Grayson campaign complained that Paul supporters had intimidated voters in some counties while conducting exit polling. The state Board of Elections obtained a memo from Paul campaign manager David Adams which encouraged volunteers to politely ask to inspect voting machines — something not allowed under Kentucky law — and to then conduct exit polling at specified hours of the day.

Paul responded to questions about the complaint by saying such things often occur during elections and the Grayson campaign “played games with that.” His campaign claimed some precinct workers ordered the exit pollsters to leave but that is legal if conducted far enough from the actual polling place.

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.

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