7 politicians who praised Ayn Rand

A handful of lawmakers have voiced support for the Russian-born novelist.

Rep. Paul Ryan once credited the philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand as “the reason I got involved in public service,” but this week he’s singing a new tune, telling the National Review’s Robert Costa, “I reject her philosophy.”

Here are seven other politicians who have talked up Rand:

1. No, Sen. Rand Paul wasn’t named after Ayn Rand, but the Kentucky Republican told supporters in 2009 that he “cut [his] teeth on Ayn Rand in high school” and has read all of her novels.

2. In a 1966 letter, Ronald Reagan wrote, “Am an admirer of Ayn Rand …”

3. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson calls “Atlas Shrugged” his “foundational book,” and the Republican said in a 2010 debate the novel is “a warning of what could happen to America.”

4. Like his son Rand, Rep. Ron Paul went through an Ayn Rand phase.

In 2007, he told Dartmouth students that “she had a lot of influence on me,” but he has also criticized her take on religion and Christianity as seeming “so cold.”

5. Each year, Justice Clarence Thomas hosts a screening of the 1949 film version of Rand’s novel, “The Fountainhead,” for his four new law clerks.

6. Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and current Libertarian candidate for president, gave his fiancée a copy of “Atlas Shrugged” when they started dating, and told her, “If you want to understand me, read this.”

7. Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford penned an essay for Newsweek, “Atlas Hugged,” just months after his affair was exposed in 2009.

He said he was “blown away” by Rand’s novels in the ’80s, but “since then, I’ve grown more critical of Rand’s outlook because it doesn’t include the human needs we have for grace, love, faith, or any form of social compact.”