If he runs for president, says Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), he wants to be considered on his own merits. But when he brought his fledgling campaign to Iowa this weekend, there was no escaping the double-edged legacy of the man he's almost always compared with — his father.

Until recently, Ron Paul, the former Republican congressman from Texas, still largely overshadowed his son. Then came Sen. Paul's filibuster in March over the Obama administration's use of drones. His 13 hours of nearly nonstop talk became a phenomenon of social media and cable television, and suddenly turned the younger Paul into a star in conservative circles.

Now, as the first-term senator seeks to leverage the attention to launch a run for the GOP nomination, a key question is whether he can keep the passionate engagement of his father's libertarian supporters while reaching beyond them to other Republicans, many of whom the elder Paul alienated during more than two decades in Congress and three presidential bids. . .

He offered a message that combined steadfast social conservatism — opposition to abortion, defense of traditional marriage — with an insistence that Republicans "need to reach out to other people who don't look like us." That included support for at least the idea of immigration reform, if not the specifics of the bill now before the Senate. He wrapped the message in a tone of optimism about the future more reminiscent of Ronald Reagan than Ron Paul..