My impression of Rand Paul is that he has personal views which conflict with many Americans and that he believes that it's not his right to impose those views,

My impression of Rand Paul is that he has personal views which conflict with many Americans and that he believes that it's not his right to impose those views, this differs significantly from Hillary who is a long time advocate of actively denying marriage to gays and lesbians through acts like DOMA. As far as private prisons I think his views on sentencing are much more relevant. I think people being sentenced to less time and those who have non-violent offence being released are more important than whether the prison is owned and operated by the gov't. As far as popularity he's the only Republican that outpolls Clinton in many swing states. (Not sure if you were insinuating that he's only popular on the internet) He's a huge advocate of fixing urban poverty by not removing working parents from their home to serve lengthy sentences for non-violence offences.