He was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1975 and to the New Jersey Senate in 1981, where he was a former chairman of the Senate Transportation and Public Utilities Committee.
Rand sponsored laws that created New Jersey's Transportation Trust Fund, which combined aid received from the Federal government, state appropriations and highway bond proceeds to pay for an accelerated road building and repair program. He wrote the bill that led to creation of the South Jersey Transportation Authority and allowed Atlantic City International Airport to expand.
After Rand's death in 1995, Wayne R. Bryant was named to fill his seat in the State Senate.