Ron Paul 2008
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- Published: 2007-06-14
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| Committee | Ron Paul for President 2008 |
|---|---|
| Logo | |
| Campaign | U.S. presidential election, 2008 |
| Candidate | Ron Paul Congressman 1976–1977 Congressman 1979–1985 Congressman 1997–present |
| Cand id | P80000748 |
| Fec date | 2007-12-31 |
| Status | Announced March 12, 2007 Suspended June 12, 2008 |
| Affiliation | Republican Party |
| Headquarters | Lake Jackson, Texas |
| Key people | Kent Snyder (Chairman, deceased) Lew Moore (Manager) Jesse Benton (Press Secretary) |
| Receipts | 28.1 |
| Slogan | Hope for America |
Ron Paul was a Republican Party primary candidate in the 2008 United States presidential election.
Initial opinion polls during the first three quarters of 2007 showed Ron Paul consistently receiving support from 3% or less of those polled. In 2008, Paul's support among Republican voters remained in the single digits, and well behind front-runner John McCain.
During the fourth quarter of 2007, Paul was the most successful Republican fundraiser, bringing in approximately 20 million dollars. He also received the most money from the armed services of any candidate in the fourth quarter and, out of all the Republican candidates, he had the most support from black Americans. Ron Paul's campaign set two fund raising records: the largest single day donation total among Republican candidates and twice receiving the most money received via the Internet in a single day by any presidential candidate in American history. Paul's run for president is also noted for its grassroots social networking, facilitated by the Internet. Ron Paul's enthusiatic supporters were noted by the media, who called them "Paulites". Paul receives most of his contributions from individuals, at ninety-seven percent; compare to other candidates.
As of February 5, 2008, Paul had won sixteen delegates to the Republican National Convention, placing him last amongst the four Republican candidates still in the race at that time. The campaign projected on February 6 to have secured at least 42 delegates to the national convention.
On March 4, 2008, John McCain earned enough pledged delegates to become the Republican presumptive nominee, but Ron Paul decided to continue his run.
On April 29, 2008, Ron Paul released , which collected essays based on thoughts that arose from his experiences running for president in 2008. The book went on to be a #1 bestseller among political books on Amazon.com and the New York Times nonfiction list.
On June 12, 2008 Paul announced that he was ending the presidential campaign, investing the more than $4.7 million of remaining campaign contributions to build up the new advocacy group Campaign for Liberty.
Although he suspended his campaign, he appeared on the ballot in Montana and Louisiana
In a February CNN landline opinion poll, Paul was the candidate with the least name recognition besides John H. Cox. On March 20, Paul signed the American Freedom Agenda Pledge.
During the Straw Poll Ron Paul supporters gathered to form a parade, that marched hundreds of people many of whom bore colonial costumes and drum and fife instruments, flags and other around the ISU grounds for hours chanting back and forth slogans that would later be used in many marches and events throughout the campaign.
Paul's first major television campaign began November 8, at a total cost of US$1.1 million, started advertising in New Hampshire.
Mid November, 2007 Operation: Live Free or Die, An effort to bring volunteers to campaign door to door in New Hampshire was started by Google employee Vijay Boyapati. His idea to rent a few houses to hold volunteers turned into 14 houses with over 600 people arriving in New Hampshire to knock on doors, organize marches, phone bank at the Concord and Nashua Headquarters. Ron Paul visited OLFD volunteers at a local restaurant owned by a member of the Free State Project called Murphy's Pub, a frequent establishment for FSP members, to thank them in person for their dedication.
On Jan 7, 2007 many of these volunteers worked at polling stations across the state and later held a party which Ron Paul attended and spoke. Many of these volunteers, including Vijay went on to other states to continue the efforts. On December 1, 2007, the Los Angeles Times declared Paul a player in the presidential campaign. The Libertarian Party adopted a resolution on December 12 urging Paul to run on the Libertarian ticket if he does not get nominated by the Republican Party.
In December 2007, the Associated Press reported that Paul kept a US$500 donation from Don Black, operator of Stormfront, a white nationalist organization website. Paul's campaign stated that "If someone with small ideologies happens to contribute money to Ron, thinking he can influence Ron in any way, he's wasted his money," responding that they would spend the money on spreading "the message of freedom" and "inalienable rights".
CBS News reported on December 21 that "Ron Paul can no longer be dismissed as the favorite of the fringe".
Many presidential candidates released apolitical Christmas-themed advertisements. Paul was the first nationally recognized candidate to post such an ad on Youtube. In the ad, Paul's family sings a rendition of "Deck the Halls" amid a brief narrative from Paul wishing the viewer "an absolutely great 2008". On Meet the Press, Paul defended his bid for the earmarked funds saying he never voted for an earmark in his life. Russert said Paul's statement was like saying, "you voted for it before you voted against it." Congressman Paul responded,"I put them in because I represent people who are asking for some of their money back, ... I'm against the tax system, but I take all my tax credits. I want to get their money back for the people." That was in addition to the campaigns in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Also on January 15, James Giles, writing for The Bulletin of Philadelphia, said that Paul represented "the dominant foreign policy consensus in the Republican Party from 1920 to 1952."
Ron Paul campaigned heavily in Nevada, more than Mitt Romney, the only other candidate to go there. On January 17, Paul's Nevada campaign representatives warned state GOP officials that thousands of caucus-goers had been given wrong caucus locations. A correction was put onto the Nevada GOP website that morning, two days before the caucuses. Then Paul's campaign criticized inconsistencies, confusion over rules, and a shortage of ballots in some counties. They asked the state Republican Party to consider postponing the vote because of those problems and others, such as unclear rules on who could vote.
In January, Paul released an economic revitalization plan and named Peter Schiff and Don Luskin economic advisors to the campaign. The National Taxpayers Union found that among the remaining presidential candidates, only Paul proposed sufficient federal spending cuts to more than offset new spending plans.
In February, suicide terrorism expert professor Robert Pape joined the campaign as foreign policy advisor; Ivan Eland and Leon Hadar also joined Paul's foreign policy team.
After Romney left the race in February, leaving John McCain strongly favored to win the nomination, Paul e-mailed his supporters on February 8 and stated that he was refactoring his presidential campaign to be "leaner and tighter" and would devote a significant portion of his time specifically to his campaign for reelection to the U.S. House, representing Texas's 14th congressional district, where Paul is being challenged for the Republican nomination by Friendswood mayor pro tem Chris Peden. Paul recognized a nearly zero chance of a brokered convention. He was determined to continue in every caucus and primary remaining and promised not to campaign for president for another party. Staffer Dan McCarthy clarified in a blog post on February 9 that Paul's presidential campaign "is not ending, not being suspended, and not even drawing down", stating that "[a] few news sources are misreporting Ron Paul’s e-mail from last night."
On February 11, Ron Paul posted a video via YouTube and his campaign website in which he states that he would like to organize a march on Washington in order to show the support he has received and give his campaign a boost in the presidential race.
On March 4, John McCain earned enough delegates to become the Republican nominee. Mike Huckabee dropped from the race as a result, but Ron Paul decided to continue his run, having successfully defended his congressional seat. acknowledging that he would not be able to win the nomination, interpreted by some news sources as a hint that the campaign was over. Ron Paul's son Rand publicly denied the allegations and stated the campaign "will continue to contest the remaining primaries." On March 10, Ron Paul appeared on CNN's American Morning to explain that he has not withdrawn from the race and he will keep campaigning to keep his ideas in the arena, and to fulfill an obligation to his supporters in states that have not yet held primaries.
|Ron Paul|American Morning}}
In 1996 the media inquired into these passages, having been brought to light by Paul's congressional opponent Charles "Lefty" Morris; Paul's congressional campaign countered the statements were taken out of context. The newsletters, attributed to Paul, made statements such as "opinion polls consistently show only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions," "if you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be", and referring to Martin Luther King as a "pro-communist philanderer" and to Martin Luther King Day as "hate Whitey day." An issue from 1992 refers to carjacking as the "hip-hop thing to do among the urban youth who play unsuspecting whites like pianos." In an article title "The Pink House" the newsletter wrote that " "Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities." Paul's 2008 presidential campaign repeated these assertions when the challenged passages resurfaced again in Kirchick's January 2008 article. Paul "never uttered such words and denounced such small-minded thoughts," saying Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks were personal heroes because they stood for individual rights, and that he had spoken highly about Parks in a 1999 floor speech in the House of Representatives. Paul took the position that the Kirchick story was a "rehash" of a political attack received during his 1996 campaign.
In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Paul asserted that racism is incompatible with his beliefs and that he sees people as individuals, not as part of collectives. He also dismissed the attack as an attempt to accuse him of racism by proxy, claiming that he has collected more money among African-Americans than any other Republican candidate. Blitzer stated that he was "shocked" by the newsletters, as they did not seem to reflect "the Ron Paul that I've come to know, and the viewers have come to know" over the course of several interviews during the campaign.
Nelson Linder, president of the Austin chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), also defended Paul, though not in his official capacity under the NAACP: "Knowing Ron Paul's intent, I think he is trying to improve this country but I think also, when you talk about the Constitution and you constantly criticize the federal government versus state I think a lot of folks are going to misconstrue that....so I think it's very easy for folks who want to take his position out of context, and that's what I'm hearing."
Reason magazine contributing editor Matt Welch found numerous references to the newsletters in news coverage of the 1996 race, many showing a defense of the newsletters by Paul and his campaign. He also made several campaign stops in Montana. He was the keynote speaker at the April 26 Nevada Republican State Convention, where his supporters comprised over 2/3rds of the 1200 some attendees. Paul's supporters used their super-majority to allow any state delegate to be considered for the position of national delegate, rather than voting on an pre-approved small slate of possible national delegates. Ron Paul is expected to capture most or all of Nevada's 31 delegates to the RNC as a result. The main purpose, according to Paul supporters, is not to make Ron Paul the nominee but to influence the official RNC party platform so it adopts several of the issues advocated by the Texas congressman.
In Missouri, some 145 "suspected" Ron Paul supporters were barred from participating in the state selection process or from being delegates to the national convention by local GOP party leaders. This has led to accusations of procedural violations on the part of state GOP leaders by Republican voters.
The Independent Greens of Virginia (IGVA) petitioned to have Ron Paul as their vice-presidential nominee, putting him on a ticket with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Paul himself had nothing to do with the nomination, and was only a placeholder candidate who was later replaced as the vice-presidential candidate on the IGVA ticket by Darrell Castle, running mate of Chuck Baldwin.
On June 26, Kent Snyder, Ron Paul's campaign chair, died of viral pneumonia. Other staffers on Paul's campaign started a collection service to help pay for Snyder's remaining medical bills, as the campaign did not provide its workers with health insurance.In Nevada on June 28, Ron Paul delegates reconvened the state convention to elect national delegates to the RNC. They cited a rule that when the chair of the previous meeting called recess without a vote by the delegates, it broke the rules, meaning that the previous state convention never concluded. From this new convention, Ron Paul was awarded all of Nevada's national delegates, winning him the state. The Nevada Republican Party challenged the results and elected their own national delegates. Nevada party officials later decided to not have a convention and have the issue decided by the party's executive board via conference call. The RNC rejected the delegates chosen by both groups, eventually granting Paul four of the state's delegates and the rest to McCain.
On June 12, 2008, Paul announced that he was suspending the presidential campaign, investing the more than $4.7 million of remaining campaign contributions to build up the new advocacy group Campaign for Liberty. Paul also placed second in the straw poll conducted at the National Taxpayers Union conference, following Fred Thompson. Ron Paul placed second, polling 17 percent, in a Cobb County GOP straw poll on July 4, 2007.
Ron Paul placed third in the Illinois Straw Poll on August 16, 2007, with 18.87 percent of the vote, polling just 0.4 percent behind undeclared candidate Fred Thompson. Paul won the similar West Alabama Republican Assembly 2007 Presidential Preference Straw Poll on August 18, 2007, capturing 216 of 266 votes (81 percent), ahead of second place Mitt Romney On August 18. Paul won the South Sound Ronald Reagan Republican Club's straw poll on August 21 in Snohomish County, Washington, with 30 percent of the vote, with Fred Thompson coming in second with 27 percent.
On November 20, 2007, Ron Paul finished fourth behind fellow Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson in a Zogby International "blind bio" poll of likely Republican voters. However, Paul was first when Democrats and Independents were included in the survey. The poll presented potential voters with descriptions of each candidate's resume rather than candidate names.
National polls conducted in January 2008 showed Paul with an average of just under 5% among Republican candidates.
Paul received 8 percent of the vote in the January 8 New Hampshire primary, finishing fifth in the Republican field and receiving no delegates. Though he had hoped to improve on his Iowa performance, he vowed to stay in the race, telling supporters, "It's really only the beginning." A recount, which Paul does not support, began January 16, 2008. Paul placed fourth in the January 15, 2008, Michigan Republican primary, with 6 percent of the votes and no delegates.
Paul finished second in the January 19 Nevada Republican caucuses with 14 percent of the vote, finishing behind Mitt Romney and earning an estimated four delegates to the national convention. Paul finished fifth in the January 19 South Carolina Republican primary, with 4 percent of the vote and no delegates. Paul had 3 campaign offices in South Carolina and noted that it was "absolutely vital" since every Republican winner of the state since 1980 has gone on to win the nomination.
The Louisiana Republican caucuses were held on January 22, 2008. Official results have not yet been reported; preliminary results show Ron Paul in second place among candidates. On January 26, the Paul campaign filed a complaint with the state GOP contesting Louisiana's process of choosing delegates.
The Florida primary was held on January 29, 2008, and was a state-wide winner-take-all contest for all 57 of Florida's delegates. Philadelphia Inquirer noted that Paul did not campaign in the state, and he finished in fifth place with 3% of the vote. LA Times listed Florida as part of an eight state radio ad campaign by Paul during January 2008. Paul held campaign events, including a rally at the Maine State House on January 28, 2008. The week before the caucus, Paul said that he was hoping for a "grand showing" in the state. With 74.7% of the precincts counted, Paul placed third in the voter preference tally with 19%. National delegates are assigned to candidates May 2 when state delegates hold their convention. Paul earned 35% of the state delegates to take second place.
Paul's best showings were in Montana, with 25% for second place and no delegates, third in the North Dakota caucus with 21% and five delegates, third in Alaska with 17% and five delegates, and third in Utah with 3%. In that day's 16 other primaries and caucuses (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee), Paul finished fourth among current candidates. (He placed fifth in California overall, as Giuliani received absentee ballots.)
Paul received 4% of the popular vote among all Super Tuesday states.
On the February 12 Potomac Primaries, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC, held their contests. Paul came in third among current candidates in each of them, receiving 6% in Maryland, 4% in Virginia, and 8% in the District of Columbia. A Fox News exit poll showed that in Virginia, 20% of independent voters voting in the Republican races voted for Paul.
In the two February 19 primaries, Paul came in third in Wisconsin with 5% and fourth in Washington state's follow-up primary (8%), even though he was third in the state's caucus with 22%. Paul placed third in the caucus of Puerto Rico (4.33%), tied with Mike Huckabee for second place in the Northern Mariana Islands caucus (4.35%), and has an unknown standing in the American Samoa caucus.
In the four Republican primaries on March 4, Paul came in third in every state. He earned 5% in Texas and Ohio and 7% in Vermont and Rhode Island.
Mississippi held their Republican primary on March 11, 2008. Paul finished 3rd with 4% of the vote.
In the April 22 Pennsylvania Primary, Ron Paul finished second with 16% of the vote overall. Paul and Mike Huckabee, who was also on the ballot, did best in Pennsylvania's conservative regions. In the May 6 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, Paul earned 8% of the vote in both states. In the May 13 West Virginia primary, Paul received 5% of the vote. In the May 20 primaries, Paul received 15% of the vote plus 4 national delegates in Oregon and 7% in Kentucky.
Paul won 24 percent of the vote in the May 27 Idaho Republican primary, which was his best showing in a primary state.
Paul's fundraising increased significantly over the campaign. The campaign holds an all-time record for political one-day fund-raising. most in the fourth quarter of 2007. Among the active candidates per February 2008, Ron Paul devoted the smallest portion of his funds to salaries and benefits - 8 percent.
As of February 14, 2008, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air force members represent three top contributors to Ron Paul's campaign, respectively.
Ron Paul received more money from donors in the military, over $200,000, than any other candidate, Democrat or Republican.
Forbes.com noted a disparity between Paul's online support and his performance in the primaries: while Paul supporters responded in droves to text-message and online polls following televised debates, he received 10% of the vote in Iowa and 8% in New Hampshire. David Thorburn, director of the MIT Communications Forum, said that while the Internet is a major source of fundraising, it is not yet able to compete with traditional media for influence in campaigns. Thorburn added that support from "an intellectually elite minority that lives in cyberspace does not translate into support among the general population."
Blogger Tommy Christopher noted that critics of Ron Paul's followers accused them of being "cult-like" in an attempt to marginalize Paul's support base. Christopher opined that this was part of a "seemingly willful determination by the mainstream media to completely ignore or glibly dismiss Paul's many successes."
Paul claims the most YouTube views of all Republican candidates, over 6.8 million,. Paul's YouTube channel is among the Top 40 most subscribed of all time, achieving 40,000 subscribers in December 2007. The Weekly Standard on December 10, 2007, reported: "To give an idea of Paul's viral velocity, if you hit “Rudy Giuliani” or “Mitt Romney” into YouTube's search engine, you'll turn up about 3,700 hits apiece. Do the same with “Ron Paul”, and you'll be wading through 63,000 videos." The Ron Paul Girl is an internet video not originally generated from the campaign, but which has amounted to hundreds of thousands of viewings and is thought to have contributed materially to internet fund-raising. Also, many World of Warcraft players have named themselves after Ron Paul and staged an in-game support march.
As of January 30, 2008, Ron Paul has the largest distributed grassroots organization on Meetup.com of all candidates, with almost 105,000 members in 1,600 Meetup groups, that have collectively planned and held nearly 31,000 offline events to rally support (and raise money) for their candidate. In comparison, Barack Obama — who has the second largest Meetup organization among active candidates — has close to 5,000 members among 82 Meetup groups.
The Wired article claims that the finding is "significant" because of Paul's popularity in online polls, which Wired says does not reflect offline polling, and suggests technically sophisticated Paul supporters may have been "manipulating" polls.
Earlier, the prominent conservative blog RedState barred users with accounts less than six months old from posting messages supporting Paul. This was due to a torrent of pro-Paul comment spam. Other blogs at least temporarily shut down their online polls due to concerns the results may have been stacked by Paul supporters. that frequently appears on placards and t-shirts at rallies and serves as a slogan that the official campaign has adopted. Supporters use the letters "EVOL" ("love" reversed) to represent peace and hope.
In late October, a grassroots website called "This November 5" was launched, requesting pledges for the Paul campaign on November 5, the same day as Guy Fawkes Day. They collected over 18,000 e-mail addresses.
On November 5, 2007, the campaign raised over $4.3 million. That amount is the largest amount collected on a single day by any Republican candidate, and the record for largest amount of on-line fund raising in a single day ever in U.S. history. Paul eclipsed his overall third-quarter fund-raising total around 2:30 p.m. EST.
Paul's December campaign contributions rose to over $7.1 million and the Q4 campaign contributions rose to over $17 million as a result of this push. The campaign website displayed a novel real-time display of the funds raised and the names of donors. Smaller fund raising money bombs continued throughout November and early December.
A December 16, 2007, money bomb on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party broke the campaign's previous record, raising nearly $2 million more than the November 5 event, bringing in over US$6 million in the largest single day of fund raising, on-line or not, in U.S. presidential campaign history. During the last minutes of the drive, the server refused to accept contributions due to an overload of donations, as about 100 contributors per minute donated to the campaign; more than an additional $100,000 were donated within the hour past midnight.
February 1, 2008, marked the 51st anniversary of Carol and Ron Paul's marriage. Supporters raised over $1 million in the 24-hour period for the campaign as an "anniversary gift," making the it the fourth largest campaign donation day to date.
The blimp was financed by a for-profit company (Liberty Political Advertising, L.L.C.), rather than the campaign itself. This structure was created to permit donors to escape federal limits of $2,300 per person on campaign donations. The FEC has not commented on the validity of such a finance structure.
A supporter named Elizabeth Blane also created a "micro-blimp" emblazoned with the same logos as the full sized blimp, which flew over the San Diego area.
A Nevada brothel owner recently promised to take up a collection from his customers to back Paul's bid.
Paul supporters have created a number of songs in support of Ron Paul. Steve Dore, for example, produced a CD called "Early Songs of the Great Ron Paul Revolution," the profits from which were donated to Paul's campaign. in support of Paul's candidacy.
Dean Van Gundy in Grand Junction, Colorado paid for a bus full of "campaigners" to sit in a prominent location, hoping to pick up more supporters.
Some Paul supporters announced plans to build a cooperative community populated solely by those philosophically aligned with Paul dubbed "Paulville" on a plot near Dell City, Texas, in a sparsely populated area between San Angelo and El Paso. Paul himself was not in favor of the idea, stating "I don't see that as a solution, but it can't hurt anything either".
Supporters of Ron Paul held a rally in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, at the same time the 2008 Republican National Convention took place in that city, and officially commenced the Campaign for Liberty.
Paul participated in the Fox News Channel First-in-the-South Republican Party Presidential Candidates Debate at the University of South Carolina on May 15, alongside nine other Republican candidates. In a phone text message based vote among viewers after the debate, Paul finished second, winning 25% of the votes.
During the debate, Congressman Paul commented that America's history of interventionism in the Middle East has led to an unpopular view of the U.S. in Middle Eastern countries, and argued that the CIA's removal of Iranian leader Mohammed Mosaddeq in Operation Ajax, the Iraq war and the bombing of Iraq in the 1990s had led to increasing anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and promoted terrorism. When the moderator asked if Paul was suggesting that the US had "invited" the 9/11 attacks, Paul argued with fellow candidate Rudy Giuliani, who responded to Paul's suggestion that the U.S. pay attention to the underlying causes of terrorism by saying "I don't think I've heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11. And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn't really mean that." Paul responded that terrorists were the result of "blowback" from poor foreign policy, and that they "don't come here to attack us because we're rich and we're free, they come and attack us because we're over there." Though the confrontation was noted in the media and cast as a political win for Giuliani, Paul's remarks were debated. Conservative pundits including Sean Hannity and Michael Steele criticized them; former CIA Bin Laden Issue Station head Michael Scheuer endorsed them as "obvious" and an "immense service to all Americans"; and commentator Andrew Sullivan agreed with Paul, citing his comments as evidence that he was the only GOP candidate "serious about national security." Paul condemned Giuliani's attack in a press release, later demanding an apology on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.
In the debate, Paul and McCain refused to endorse torture, with Paul labelling the phrase "enhanced interrogation techniques" as "Orwellian".
Ron Paul participated in the CNN Republican debate in New Hampshire on June 5. Paul argued against a preemptive military policy in favor of going "back to traditions and our Constitution" and "[defending] our liberties and [defending] our rights.". He was given fewer than six minutes of time, less than Mitt Romney, John McCain, or Rudy Giuliani.
Paul participated in the Fox News debate at the University of New Hampshire on September 5. Paul and Mike Huckabee argued over the war in Iraq, with Paul attributing Republican losses in the 2006 elections to the unpopular war. Paul won a Fox-sponsored text-messaging poll with 33 percent of votes.
On September 17, Paul participated in the GOP "Values Voters' Presidential Debate" in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, alongside six other candidates --- John H. Cox, Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, and Tom Tancredo. Paul finished second in an official post-debate delegate straw poll, trailing Mike Huckabee's 63% showing with 13% of the vote.
Paul participated in a September 27 debate hosted by PBS television at Morgan State University with a panel exclusively of journalists of color. The organizers put empty podiums on the stage in the names of the absent candidates. Answering questions were Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee, Alan Keyes, Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter, and Tom Tancredo.
The Republican Jewish Coalition candidates' forum on October 16, 2007, did not invite Ron Paul due to "time only for leading candidates" and his "record of consistently voting against assistance to Israel and his criticisms of the pro-Israel lobby", according to sources close to the RJC.
Paul appeared in a 90-minute October 21 debate in Orlando, Florida sponsored by Fox News, winning an informal "cell phone” vote, but drawing jeers during the debate for advocating non-interventionist foreign policy.
Paul participated in the November 28 Republican CNN-Youtube Presidential Debate in St. Petersburg, Florida alongside seven other candidates. He obtained less than 8 minutes of time, and wasn't addressed with a question until the second half hour. Paul debated John McCain on the merits of isolationism versus non-intervention. Paul won an CNN online "scorecard" with 51% of the vote; two of three CNN analysts stated that he had a "disappointing" performance, but the other argued that Paul "came off very direct and clear" and "stood out the most".
Paul participated in the December 9 GOP debate hosted by Spanish-speaking television network Univision at the University of Miami, alongside seven other candidates.
Sponsored by The Des Moines Register newspaper and Iowa Public Television, the December 12 debate among nine Republican candidates was broadcast live on the state-wide television network and re-broadcast later. It was available to all PBS stations, and was the last debate before the Iowa caucuses, January 3, 2008.
Fox News excluded Paul, Duncan Hunter, and Alan Keyes from a January 6 New Hampshire forum, sparking numerous protests from Paul supporters. Fox said that due to having limited space in the "souped-up bus" in which the debate was to talk place, they required that the candidates must have been polling at least ten percent in recent nationwide polls to be included in the debate. In a nationwide poll conducted by the Associated Press and Yahoo, December 14–20, Paul was only polling at three percent which was far short of the threshold necessary for debate inclusion. Jay Leno invited Paul as a Tonight Show guest January 7 specifically because he said he thought Paul's exclusion was "unfair."
NH GOP Drops Out As Fox Forum Partner The Seattle Times, January 5, 2008.
Fox News hosted a January 10 debate at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in South Carolina. Ron Paul participated despite his exclusion from the Fox News debate. Ron Paul took part, and a text message poll asking viewers who they believed had won showed Romney in first with 41% and Paul in second at 40%. On January 30, Paul was one of four candidates in a debate hosted by Los Angeles Times, The Politico and CNN in Simi Valley, California, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
On February 2, MTV and MySpace hosted a two-party debate broadcast live from New York City: "Closing Arguments: A Presidential Super Dialogue." Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee were the only Republicans to attend.
{| class="navbox collapsible collapsed" style="text-align: left; border: 0px; margin-top: 0.2em;" |- ! style="background-color: #CCFFFF; font-weight:normal;" | List of Ron Paul endorsements |- | style="border: solid 1px silver; padding: 8px; background-color: white;" |
Paul's endorsers include:
;Organizations Alabama Constitution Party Jefferson Republican Party Montana Shooting Sports Association Reform Party of Ohio United Republicans of California Wyoming State Shooting Association Christians for Life and Liberty
;Press The American Conservative - paleoconservative magazine The Muslim Observer - national newspaper
;Elected officials – current Walter B. Jones - United States Representative from North Carolina's third district Aubyn Curtiss - Montana state Senator. Michael J. Doherty - New Jersey state legislator. Mike Folmer - Missouri state representative. Phil Hart - New Hampshire state representative. Karen Johnson - Arizona state senator. Rick Jore - mayor of Costa Mesa, California. Jerry O'Neill - former member of Congress (R-IL) Barry Goldwater, Jr. - former member of Congress (R-CA) Gary E. Johnson - former governor of New Mexico Karen Kwiatkowski - Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, Retired Andrew Napolitano - political commentator and former New Jersey Superior Court Judge
;Political – other Michael Badnarik - 2004 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin - 2004 Constitution Party vice-presidential candidate Jim Clymer - Constitution Party National Chairman Darrell Castle - 2008 independent congressional candidate in Florida Stephen P. Gordon - former national communications director, Libertarian Party Larry Kilgore - 2008 Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas Steve Kubby - Former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Peroutka - 2004 Constitution Party presidential candidate Justin Raimondo - 1996 Republican congressional candidate in California and editorial director of Antiwar.com Mary Starrett - conservative strategist and writer.
;Academia – economics Walter Block, Ph.D. - professor of economics at Loyola University and fellow at the Mises Institute.
Paul has also received endorsements from active and retired economics professors at The University of Dallas, Orange Coast College, Saddleback College, Hollins University, Pepperdine University, The Johns Hopkins University, The Naval Postgraduate School, Winston-Salem State University, Hillsdale College, and Indiana University.
;Academia – other David Beito, Ph.D. - professor of history, University of Alabama.
Paul has also received endorsements from active and retired professors at Southern Illinois University, Ohio University, Florida Atlantic University, Brigham Young University, and the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.
;Finance
;Media
;Celebrity endorsements
* Aimee Allen - singer
;Other Jane Roe - the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade (now pro-life activist), Overstock.com CEO Patrick M. Byrne, Stormfront White Nationalist Community webmaster Don Black, independent congressional candidate Frank Gonzalez, Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel owner Dennis Hof, Future of Freedom Foundation president Jacob G. Hornberger, pastor Creighton Lovelace, Hutton Gibson (father of Mel Gibson).
|- | style="text-align:center;" | |}
On September 5, 2008, the Constitution Party of Montana removed Chuck Baldwin from their presidential ticket, replacing him with Ron Paul for president and Michael Peroutka for vice president. stating that that he did not "seek nor consent" to the Montana Constitution Party's nomination. stating that the request was sent to them too late. On September 4, 2008 a list of electors in Louisiana using the label "Louisiana Taxpayers Party" filed papers and paid $500 with the Secretary of State's Office. The congressman had reportedly invited presidential candidates Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader to the press conference, leading some to speculate that they would endorse Paul running for president on the ticket of either the Constitution, Libertarian or other third party.
On September 10, 2008, Paul confirmed his open endorsement for the four candidates at a press conference in Washington D.C. He also revealed that he had rejected a personal request for an endorsement from John McCain. He later appeared on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer with Nader where they presented and briefly laid out the four principles that all the independent candidates had agreed on as the most important key issues of the presidential race.
On September 22, 2008, Paul announced his support for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party.
In October 2008, Paul was declared an eligible write-in candidate in California.
In the 2008 presidential election, Paul received approximately 20,000 votes.
Category:United States presidential Republican Party campaigns, 2008 Category:Ron Paul
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