Some "big tent" the GOP turns out to be.
In the 2012 GOP presidential primary elections, after Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich all dropped out of the race, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) was the last candidate that remained to compete against Mitt Romney.
Finally, on May 14, 2012, Paul also quit, but announced that his campaign would switch to a delegate accumulation strategy. On May 29, according to projected counts, Mitt Romney crossed the threshold of 1,144 delegates needed to secure the party's nomination.
Nevertheless, Paul did win 3 states, 10.9% of or 2,049,410 popular votes, and 166 delegates. He is also the Republican candidate that has received the most campaign donations and support from actively-serving members of the U.S. military. Ron Paul has also consistently pushed for auditing the Federal Reserve.
Despite that, Paul won't be speaking at the upcoming GOP National Convention in Tampa, Florida.
Anugrah Kumar reports for Christian Post, July 16, 2012, that according to Republican National Committee rules, a candidate must have a plurality of delegates in five states to be officially eligible for the nomination at the national convention and be granted up to 15 minutes for a nominating speech.
Paul was hoping that the Nebraska convention would give him a plurality of delegates along with delegates from Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, and Minnesota. But Paul lost it all, results on Saturday showed. Now, it's up to Romney and convention organizers to decide whether to include Paul in the proceedings in late August.
However, Paul's insurgent spirit remains strong. His campaign is planning on bringing as many as 500 supportive delegates to Tampa to make his presence known. Paul is planning a rally in Tampa around the convention, and his supporters have organized Ron Paul Festival, an independent event that will include live music, according to ABC News.
Paul had said his delegate count gave him "a tremendous position to grow our movement and shape the future of the GOP." He believes in a non-interventionist foreign policy and decriminalizing drugs, and says government should not have a role in some of the conservative social causes.
Paul is also asking Romney not to select former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice amid rumors that she could be his running mate. "I don't dictate anything to anybody, but they wouldn't be very happy with her," Paul said in an interview with the Fox Business Network. "She represents a foreign policy quite different than what energizes college campuses today."
~Eowyn
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