Paul 's campaign got off to a rough start after his comments on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stirred controversy . Paul stated that he favored 9 out of 10 titles of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , but that had he been a senator during the 1960s , he would have raised some questions on the constitutionality of Title II of the Act . Paul said that he abhors racism , and that he would have marched with Martin Luther King Jr. to repeal Jim Crow laws . He later released a statement declaring that he would have voted for the Act and stated " unequivocally ... that I will not support any efforts to repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964 " . Later he generated more controversy by characterizing statements made by Obama Administration officials regarding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup as sounding " un-American "
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Rand Paul