McConnell Says Rand Paul Can 'Count on Me' for Presidential Support

Mitch McConnell, who four and a half years ago didn't think Rand Paul was fit to be Kentucky's junior senator, has endorsed Paul's widely expected 2016 presidential run, adding some early and important establishment heft to the coming campaign.

"I don't think he's made a final decision on that," McConnell told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "But he'll be able to count on me."

The early endorsement puts the incoming Senate majority leader, one of the two most powerful Republicans Washington, firmly on Team Rand—the kind of institutional support that Paul's father, Ron, never received in his two losing GOP presidential bids, in 2008 and 2012.