Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told a room full of pastors that the Democrats are taking African-American support for granted.
"When I've traveled and met primarily with African-American audiences around the country, there's an eagerness for somebody to meet with them," Paul said while speaking at a private prayer breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington on Thursday morning,
The Daily Signal is reporting.
"The Democrats have completely taken this whole body of vote for granted," the presidential hopeful explained.
"When I was in Ferguson, I just asked them, I didn't really want to get into the shooting aspect [of things], but I wanted to ask them about the unhappiness, and they said that they hadn't seen their Democratic congressman in six years," Paul said.
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"Because it's an entirely African-American district, African-American congressman — he didn't bother to come because he didn't need to," he added.
In addition, the Kentucky Republican addressed issues related to welfare, and one way that "the party that doesn't want everyone to be on welfare forever" should tackle that issue.
"Let’s be the party that lets you expunge your records so you can get a job again," Paul said. "It’s hard to get a job if you have a criminal record but many of these are youthful offenses, that it wasn’t a violent crime committed. We can reintegrate these people back in."
Paul also talked about First Amendment issues, the need for another Great Awakening, marriage, how to talk to different demographics about the "Bill of Rights and believing in God-given liberty," and other topics.
David Brody of CBN News, who released the video from the prayer breakfast, predicts that "Rand Paul is going to get a chunk of the evangelical vote," even though "on the surface, he may not be the guy you might think would appeal to evangelicals."
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