WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden says Senate Republicans are scared of two of their freshmen: Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Biden says the GOP has fundamentally changed and he's never seen anything like it. He says during the Senate's gun control debate, he called out nine Republican senators, and almost all said they were voting no because they didn't want to take on Cruz or Paul.

Biden spoke at a fundraiser for Rep. Ed Markey, the Democrat running in a special Senate race in Massachusetts.

Biden says the difference in this race is President Barack Obama isn't on the ballot. He says that means African-Americans and Latinos won't automatically vote. He says Democrats shouldn't take the race for granted because nobody has energized minorities like Obama.