on august 20, 2009, paul's supporters planned a moneybomb to kick off his campaign. the official campaign took in $433,509 in 24 hours. his website reported that this set a new record in kentucky's political fundraising history in a 24-hour period. a second "moneybomb" was held on september 23, 2009, to counter a d.c. fundraiser being held for primary opponent trey grayson, by 23 republican united states senators. the theme was a ufc "fight" between "we the people" and the "d.c. insiders". later in the campaign, paul claimed his pledge to not take money from lobbyists and senators who had voted for the bailout was only a "primary pledge"; he subsequently held a fundraiser in washington, d.c., with the same senators who had been the target of the september 23, 2009, "moneybomb". paul ended up raising some $3 million during the primary period. paul's fundraising was aided by his father's network of supporters. although grayson was considered the frontrunner in july 2009, paul found success characterizing grayson as a "career politician" and challenging grayson's conservatism. paul ran an ad in february that made an issue out of grayson's september 2008 admission that he voted for bill clinton when he was 20 years old. james dobson, a christian evangelical figure, endorsed grayson on april 26 based on the advice of what dobson described as "senior members of the gop", but on may 3 the paul campaign announced that dobson had changed his endorsement to paul after paul and some paul supporters had lobbied dobson insisting on paul's social conservative bona fides. on may 18, paul won the republican senatorial primary by a 23% margin, meaning he would face the kentucky attorney general jack conway, in the november 2 general election. general campaign paul greeting supporters at bowman field in louisville, kentucky, on november 1, 2010. in the 2010 general election, paul faced kentucky attorney general jack conway. the campaign attracted $8.5 million in contributions from outside groups, of which $6 million was spent to help paul and $2.5 million to help conway. this money influx was in addition to the money spent by the candidates themselves: $6 million by paul and $4.7 million by conway. on june 28, 2010, paul supporters held their first post-primary online fundraising drive, this time promoted as a "money blast". 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". paul defeated conway in the general election with 56% of the vote to 44% for conway. u.s. senate 112th congress (2011–2013) paul being sworn in as a senator by vice president joe biden, along with his family, in the old senate chamber in the u.s. capitol, january 2011. paul campaigning with his father, ron paul, for his 2012 presidential campaign in waterloo, iowa, on august 10, 2011. paul was sworn in on january 5, 2011, along with his father, who was simultaneously in the house of representatives. paul was assigned to be on the energy and natural resources, health, education, labor and pensions, homeland security and government affairs, and small business committees. paul also formed the senate tea party caucus with jim demint and mike lee as its inaugural members. his first legislative proposal was to cut $500 billion from federal spending in one year. this proposal included cutting the department of education by 83 percent and the united states department of homeland security by 43 percent, as well as folding the department of energy into the department of defense and eliminating the department of housing and urban development. seven independent agencies would be eliminated and food stamps would be cut by 30 percent. under paul's proposal, defense spending would be reduced by 6.5 percent and international aid would be eliminated. he later proposed a five-year budget plan intended to balance the budget. in february, paul was one of two republicans to vote against extending three key provisions of the usa patriot act (roving wiretaps, searches of business records, and conducting surveillance of "lone wolves" — individuals not linked to terrorist groups). on march 2, paul was one of nine senators to vote against a stopgap bill that cut $4 billion from the budget and would temporarily prevent a government shutdown, saying that it did not cut enough from the budget. one week later, he voted against the democratic and republican budget proposals to keep funding the federal government, saying that both bills did not cut enough spending. both bills failed to pass the senate. he later voted against stopgap measures on march 17 and april 8, both of which passed the senate. on april 14, he was one of 19 senators to vote against a budget that cut $38.5 billion from the budget and funded the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. paul voiced opposition to u.s. intervention in the libyan civil war and has criticized president barack obama for not gaining congressional consent for operation odyssey dawn. during the debt ceiling crisis, the senator stated that he would only support raising the debt ceiling if a balanced budget amendment was enacted. paul was a supporter of the cut, cap and balance act, which was tabled by democratic opposition. on august 3, paul voted against a bill that would raise the debt ceiling. on september 7, paul called for a vote of no confidence in united states secretary of the treasury timothy geithner. later that month, paul blocked legislation that would strengthen safety rules for oil and gas pipelines, because, he stated, the bill was not strong enough. in october, paul blocked a bill that would provide $36 million in benefits for elderly and disabled refugees, saying that he was concerned that it could be used to aid domestic terrorists. this was in response to two alleged terrorists who came to the united states through a refugee program and were receiving welfare benefits when they were arrested in 2011 in paul's hometown of bowling green. paul lifted his hold on the bill after democratic leaders promised to hold a congressional hearing into how individuals are selected for refugee status and request an investigation on how the two suspects were admitted in the country through a refugee program. in june 2012, paul endorsed mitt romney after it became apparent that he would be the republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election. however, he was later vocal about his disagreements with romney on a number of policies. 113th congress (2013–2015) for the 113th congress, paul was added to the foreign relations committee and retained his spot on the health, education, labor and pensions, homeland security and government affairs, and small business committees. on march 6–7, 2013, paul engaged in a filibuster to delay voting on the nomination of john o. brennan as the director of the central intelligence agency. paul questioned the obama administration's use of drones and the stated legal justification for their potential use within the united states. paul held the floor for 12 hours and 52 minutes. he ceded to several republican senators and democratic senator, ron wyden, who generally also questioned drone usage. paul said his purpose was to challenge drone policy in general and specifically as it related to noncombatants on u.s. soil. he requested a pledge from the administration that noncombatants would not be targeted on u.s. soil. attorney general eric holder responded that the president is not authorized to deploy extrajudicial punishment without due process, against non-combatant citizens. press secretary jay carney read holder's letter, indicating president obama's support, "the president has not and would not use drone strikes against american citizens on american soil" press paul answered that he was "quite happy" with the response. the filibuster was ended with a cloture vote of 81 to 16, and brennan was confirmed by the senate with a vote of 63 to 34. paul speaking during filibuster on the senate floor on march 6, 2013. in march 2013, paul, with senators ted cruz and mike lee, threatened another filibuster, this one opposing any legislative proposals to expand federal gun control measures. the filibuster was attempted on april 11, 2013, but was dismissed by cloture, in a 68–31 vote. also in march 2013, paul endorsed fellow kentucky republican senator mitch mcconnell's 2014 re-election campaign. mcconnell had previously hired paul's 2010 campaign manager, jesse benton, as his own campaign manager. paul's endorsement was seen as a major win for mcconnell in avoiding a challenge in the republican primary. in response to detroit's declaration of bankruptcy, paul stated he would not allow the government to attempt to bail out detroit. in a phone interview with breitbart news on july 19, 2013, paul said, "i basically say he is bailing them out over my dead body because we don't have any money in washington." paul said he thought a federal bailout would send the wrong message to other cities with financial problems. in september, paul stated that the united states should avoid military intervention in the ongoing syrian civil war. in an op-ed, paul disputed the obama administration's claims that the threat of military force caused syria's government to consider turning over its chemical weapons, instead arguing that the opposition to military action in syria, and the delay that it caused, led to diplomatic progress. in october 2013, paul was the subject of some controversy when it was discovered that he had plagiarized from wikipedia part of a speech in support of virginia gubernatorial candidate ken cuccinelli. referencing the movie gattaca, paul quoted almost verbatim from the wikipedia article about the film without citing the source. evidence soon surfaced that paul had copied sentences in a number of his other speeches nearly verbatim from other authors without giving credit to the original sources, including in the speech he had given as the tea party rebuttal to the president's 2013 state of the union address. in addition, a three-page-long passage of paul's book government bullies was taken directly from an article by the conservative think tank the heritage foundation. when it became apparent that paul's op-ed in the washington times on mandatory minimums and related testimony he had given before the senate judiciary committee both contained material that was virtually identical to an article that had been published by another author in the week a few days earlier, the washington times said that the newspaper would no longer publish the weekly column paul had been contributing to the paper. after a week of almost daily news reports of new allegations of plagiarism, paul said that he was being held to an "unfair standard", but would restructure his office in order to prevent mistakes in the future, if that would be what it would take "to make people leave me the hell alone." in response to political turmoil in ukraine in early 2014, paul initially said that the united states should remain mindful of the fact that although the cold war is over, russia remains a military power with long-range nuclear missiles. he said that the united states should try to maintain a "respectful relationship with russia" and avoid taking actions that the russians might view as a provocation, such as seeking to have ukraine join nato or otherwise interfering in russia's relationship with ukraine. two weeks later, after the russian parliament authorized the use of military force in ukraine and russian president vladimir putin ordered military exercises along russia's border with ukraine, paul began taking a different tone. he wrote: "vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine is a gross violation of that nation's sovereignty and an affront to the international community ... putin