Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the only GOP Presidential contender without at least one victory in a primary, admitted Tuesday that his quest to “win delegates, not primaries” isn’t going as well as he had hoped.
Paul failed to pick up any delegates in the Michigan or Arizona primaries Tuesday and told CNN he “wished” he could have done better.
“Paul hoped to win some of Michigan’s delegates but it didn’t work out that way,” GOP activist Larry Wilson told Capitol Hill Blue.
In front of cheering crowd of supporters in Springfield, VA, Paul sounded more upbeat.
“Everyone keeps asking me about winning states,” Paul said. “We are winning delegates, and that’s what counts.”
But Paul’s strategy of capturing delegates has stalled in recent weeks and he is dead last in the delegate race and 0-11 in primary wins.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney restored his claim to frontrunner status Tuesday night with wins in Michigan and Arizona. Romney captured all of Arizona’s delegates in the winner-take-all Arizona race and will most likely split the count in Michigan, where delegates are apportioned by Congressional district results.
“We’re still winning a lot of delegates,” Paul told supporters in Virginia Tuesday.
Actually, he’s not. Santorum’s strong second place finish in Michigan gives him enough delegates to bump former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to third place while Paul brings up the rear. After Michigan Romney has an estimated 165 delegates, Santorum 44, Gingrich 38 and Paul 27. A candidate needs 1,144 delegates to capture the nomination.
Last week, Paul appeared optimistic about his chances to pick up some delegates in Michigan but he failed to even come close, finishing third with just 12 percent of the vote and failing to capture enough votes to take home any delegates in the state’s Congressional district.
Paul stands to pick up some delegates in next week’s Super Tuesday races and he goes into the Virginia primary with only he and Romney on the ballot. Both Gingrich and Santorum fell short in obtaining enough signatures.
Yet the Texas Congressman appeared lukewarm at best about Virginia when asked about his chances over the weekend. On Sunday, Paul said he was still not sure “to what extent” he’d do in the Old Dominion.
10 thoughts on “Ron Paul’s delegate strategy not paying off yet”
All the comments made here about Ron Paul were the same words used in 1992 when Ross Perot was our candidate for change.
We should have listened to him but it wasn’t cool to do so. Many even here at CHB are too lazy to stand up for what is needed. This is the whine club and we are still wasting our time and Doug’s site. Do we have to wait until there is nothing left of American values before we stand up for our freedoms? Or is that just a dream of a funny old lady who lives in the desert.
In the Congressman’s defense, there are at least three states where voter fraud has been suspected, and he particularly got screwed in Maine when the GOP cancelled the primary due to one inch of snow. The local Girl Scouts held their activity, but the GOP cancelled and now says those votes will never count.
Fair and open elections? Not here.
@ Bill, it’s more of a Liberty, Freedom, and Constitution syndrome.
Liberty, Freedom, and Constitution
Yep, I can’t count how many politicians have used those words in trying to sale themselves to the masses. I’m not buying it!
Bill, the only one that mentioned any of those notions is Ron Paul.
Just Ron Paul? I’m an old fart myself and I can tell you thats just nonsense!
Seriously, that odd little old man needs to hang it up and go home. Polls show his support is significantly lower the older the age group. Odd that it’s mostly the young who support him, this old soon to be 77 year old man. I don’t know? It must be some kind of grandpa syndrome I suppose.
Or maybe older folks are so invested in the Establishment, so set in their ways, so programmed by decades of mainstream propaganda, so afraid of change, and so robotic in their partisanship that they simply know no other way.
Younger people know their future hangs in the balance, they know that they are being screwed by the news media and politicians on a daily basis.
Older doesn’t necessarily mean wiser.
Please moderate. Bill has used this insult for far too long.
This past Sunday I had two comments deleted almost immediately because I dared expose partisan hypocrisy, ostensibly because the powers that be considered it “racist” to point out that our dear president said basically the same thing that a Republican was being excoriated for.
Every comment made after that spent more than two days in moderation limbo, and any comment I make is still being queued for moderation.
It’s plenty fine to make fun of an old white guy with a thirty year impeccable and indisputible voting record, but quite another to criticize Obama in any way, shape, or form.
Don’t hold your breath…
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