Paulo Rangel was born in Vila Nova de Gaia on February 18, 1968. He holds a degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the Portuguese Catholic University and is a lawyer by profession.

He is a professor at the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University in Porto, where he has taught Administrative Law and Constitutional Law and currently teaches Political Science. Since 2011, he has also been a lecturer in the Executive MBA program at the University of Porto Business School.

He has been Vice-President of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) since July 3, 2022. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2024, elected as the lead candidate in the European elections of 2009, 2014, and 2019.

In the European Parliament, he was a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. During his last term, he was also a member of the Delegation to the EU–Montenegro Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee, as well as the Delegation for Relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. He authored the report on the European Parliament’s right of legislative initiative, which was approved in June 2022.

In 2015, he was elected Vice-President of the European People's Party (EPP).

He was elected to the Portuguese Parliament (Assembleia da República) in 2005, during the 10th legislative term, and became leader of the PSD parliamentary group in June 2008. He served as Deputy Secretary of State to the Minister of Justice in the 16th Constitutional Government, from July 2004 to March 2005.

He was Minister of State and Foreign Affairs in the 24th Constitutional Government.