Newly endorsed Republican U.S. Senate candidate state Rep. Kurt Bills says he's going to spend the day focusing on how much money his campaign needs to compete with DFL incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Bills won his party's backing on Friday after receiving strong support from Republican delegates backing Ron Paul. Bills said he still backs Paul for president but will eventually back the GOP nominee.

He told The Daily Circuit he shouldn't be considered someone who agrees with Ron Paul on every issue.

"I had somebody ask me, 'are you a Ronald Reagan Republican or a Ron Paul Republican?' And I said 'I'm a Kurt Bills Republican,' " Bills said. "Whatever your name is within the party, you're that person."

Bills says he's looking to raise roughly $5 million for the campaign but acknowledged he'll be outspent by Klobuchar. The latest campaign finance reports shows her with more than $5 million in the bank, much more than Bills has raised so far.

Policy-wise, Bills said cutting the federal workforce is one of the ways he'd reduce the federal budget deficit.

Bills didn't offer many specifics but said he would look at the budget plan put forward by Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan. He compared the success of North Dakota's economy to the federal government.

"One's booming of real economic growth and that's natural resource based and the other one is booming because of borrowed money so we have to get in and look at the federal workforce that has grown so much and pare that back so the private sector can grow," he said.

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