Announcements On May 13, 2011, in
Exeter, New Hampshire, Paul announced his decision to seek the Republican nomination in the 2012 election. The announcement was broadcast live nationally on
ABC's
Good Morning America.
GOP debates and straw polls He participated in a debate on June 13, 2011, at
Saint Anselm College in
Goffstown, New Hampshire. On June 18, 2011, Paul won the
Southern Republican Leadership Conference straw poll with 41%, winning by a large margin on
Jon Huntsman, who trailed second with 25% and Michele Bachmann with 13% (Mitt Romney came in fifth with 5%). On June 19 he again won the
Clay County Iowa StrawPoll with 25%, while Michele Bachmann trailed second with 12%. Paul indicated in a June 2011 interview that if nominated, he would consider former New Jersey Superior Court judge
Andrew Napolitano as his running mate. Paul also participated in another debate on August 11, 2011, in
Ames, Iowa, and overwhelmingly won the post-debate polls. He then came in second in the
Ames Straw Poll with 4,671 votes, narrowly losing to
Michele Bachmann by 152 votes or 0.9%, a statistical first-place tie finish according to some in the news media. He received the fourth most votes for a candidate in the history of the Ames Straw Poll. On August 20, in the
New Hampshire Young Republicans Straw Poll Paul came again first, again overwhelmingly, with 45%, Mitt Romney trailing second with 10%. On August 27, in the
Georgia State GOP Straw Poll Paul came in a close second place behind Georgia resident
Herman Cain, who had 26% of the vote, with Paul receiving 25.7%. On September 5, Paul attended the Palmetto Freedom Forum in South Carolina along with fellow candidates Herman Cain, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich. The forum was paneled by congressmen Steve King of Iowa, senator
Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Dr. Robert P. George, the founder of the American Principles Project which hosted the event. On September 12, Paul attended the Tea Party Republican presidential debate broadcast by CNN. During the event, Paul received both unexpected "cheers" and "boos" for his responses to the questions posed by the debate moderators and fellow debate participants. When
Rick Santorum questioned Paul about his position regarding the motivation behind the
September 11 attacks, some of the audience jeered his response that U.S. foreign occupation was the "real motivation behind the September 11 attacks and the vast majority of other instances of suicide terrorism".
Jack Burkman, a Republican Party (GOP) strategist, was asked of Paul's performance in the debate. While Burkman stated that his national radio program's polling suggested Rick Perry won the debate (156 Perry votes to 151 Paul votes), he believed Paul's support is extremely deep like Democrat support for
Bobby Kennedy decades before and predicted "he could come from behind as the horses turn for home and win the nomination." On September 18, Paul won the California state GOP straw poll with 44.9% of the vote, held at the JW Marriott in downtown Los Angeles. Out of 833 ballots cast, Paul garnered the greatest number of votes with 374, beating his nearest competitor Texas Gov.
Rick Perry by a wide margin. On September 24, Paul finished fifth in the GOP's Florida Presidency 5 straw poll with 10.4% of the vote. Paul won with 37% of the vote at the
Values Voter Summit on October 8; the highest ever recorded at the event. On October 22, Paul won the Ohio Republican straw poll with the support of 53% of the participants, more than double the support of the second-place candidate, Herman Cain (26%). Paul won the National Federation of Republican Assemblies Presidential Straw Poll of Iowa voters on October 29 with 82% of the vote. On November 19, Paul won the North Carolina Republican Straw Poll with 52% of the vote, finishing well ahead of the second-place candidate, Newt Gingrich, who received 22% of the vote.
Polls In an August
Rasmussen Reports poll of likely voters across the political spectrum asking if they would vote for Paul or
Barack Obama, the response narrowly favored Obama (39%) over Paul (38%), but by a smaller margin than the same question asked a month ago (41–37%). Paul finished 3rd in a late-August poll of likely Republican primary voters, trailing
Rick Perry and
Mitt Romney and ahead of
Michele Bachmann, climbing from 4th position which, according to another poll, he occupied only a few days earlier. In a September
Harris Poll, respondents chose Paul (51%) over Obama (49%). In the Illinois Republican Straw Poll held in the beginning of November, Paul took 52% of the votes of those polled with Herman Cain coming in second with 18%. In a November 10–12
Bloomberg News poll of Iowans likely to participate in the January 3, 2012 Republican caucuses, Paul was in a four-way tie at 19 percent with Cain, Romney and Gingrich at 20, 18 and 17 percent respectively. A
Bloomberg News poll released on November 16, 2011, showed Paul at 17% in New Hampshire, in second place to Romney's 40%. A
Public Policy Polling poll released on December 13, 2011, put Paul in a statistical tie for first in Iowa with Newt Gingrich, polling 21% and 22%, respectively. The RealClearPolitics.com average shows Paul in second place in New Hampshire at 18.3% on December 28, 2011. Public Policy Polling results from December 18 show that Paul is now leading in Iowa with 23%, followed by Romney at 20% and Gingrich at 14%. A January 2012
Rasmussen Reports poll of likely voters across the political spectrum found that in a hypothetical two-candidate race between Paul and
Barack Obama, respondents preferred Obama (43%) over Paul (37%). The RealClearPolitics.com average of polls also found Obama (47%) favored over Paul (42%), in a two-candidate race. A January
Pew Research Center poll of registered voters across the political spectrum on the eve of the South Carolina primary found that in a hypothetical three-way race between Obama, Romney, and Paul, with Paul running as a third-party candidate, respondents would choose Obama (44%) over Romney (32%) and Paul (18%). (Paul had repeatedly stated he had no plans for a third-party run.) In polls of likely Republican primary voters on the eve of the South Carolina Republican primary, Paul placed third both in South Carolina (15%) and nationally (14%), trailing Romney and Gingrich. A Rasmussen poll in April 2012 showed Paul as the only Republican candidate able to defeat Obama in a head-to-head match-up. Paul beat Obama by one point in the poll with 44% of the vote.
Moneybombs and fundraising Paul's second
moneybomb (the first being before his official announcement) was scheduled for June 5, 2011, the anniversary of the 1933 joint resolution which abolished the
gold standard. The June 5 moneybomb, which was themed as "The Revolution vs. RomneyCare: Round One", raised approximately $1.1 million. A third moneybomb themed "Ready, Ames, Fire!" was executed on July 19, 2011, to provide support leading up to the Ames Straw Poll on August 13, 2011, raising over $550,000. In the second quarter of 2011, Paul's campaign ranked second, behind Mitt Romney, in total dollars raised with $4.5 million. This was $1.5 million more than his original goal of $3 million. During that quarter, the Paul campaign had raised more money from military personnel than all other GOP candidates combined, and even more money than
Barack Obama, a trend that has continued from
Paul's 2008 presidential campaign. A fourth moneybomb took place on Paul's 76th birthday on August 20, 2011. It raised more than $1.8 million despite a cyber-attack against the site that took it down for several hours, after which the donation drive was extended for another twelve hours. A fifth moneybomb began on September 17, the date of the 224th anniversary of the creation of the
United States Constitution. Continuing throughout the following day, it raised more than $1 million. Shortly after the Constitution Day moneybomb, a sixth moneybomb, entitled "End of Quarter Push", began on September 22 in an attempt to generate $1.5 million before the 3rd Quarter fundraising deadline. In the third quarter of 2011, Paul raised over $8 million. On December 16, a moneybomb titled the "Tea Party MoneyBomb" took place and raised upwards of $4 million over a period of two days. Paul was also supported by the
Super PAC Endorse Liberty. By January 16, 2012, the PAC had spent $2.83 million promoting Paul's campaign.
"Blue Republican" movement In June 2011, online publisher Robin Koerner coined the term "Blue Republican" to refer to U.S. voters who consider themselves to be
liberal or
progressive—or who generally vote
Democratic—but plan to register as Republicans and vote in the U.S. 2012 Republican presidential primaries for Paul. The phrase "Blue Republican" quickly spread after Koerner's article "If You Love Peace, Become a 'Blue Republican' (Just for a Year)" was published in
The Huffington Post on June 7.
Social media entrepreneur Israel Anderson then promoted the term on Facebook, later teaming with Koerner to expand the movement. Five days after his original article coining the term, Koerner published a follow-up article on the term's popularity: "'Blue Republicans': an Idea Whose Time Has Come." The article was shared on the social networking site Facebook more than 11,000 times by the time the second article was published.
Federal budget On June 21, 2011, Paul was the first 2012 Republican presidential candidate to sign the
Cut, Cap, and Balance Pledge. This pledge seeks commitments from politicians for changes of the
debt limit, spending decreases, and taxation. The pledge also implores signers to endorse passage of a
balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
Media coverage During his
previous presidential campaign, it was alleged by many supporters that there was a
media blackout and suppression of coverage of Paul. Similar allegations arose in the 2012 campaign and received some media coverage.
Politico columnist
Roger Simon noted on
CNN's
Reliable Sources that Paul has received considerably less coverage than
Michele Bachmann, despite earning a close second to her at the
Ames Straw Poll. Simon later opined in
Politico that the media was treating Paul unfairly. Comedian
Jon Stewart similarly complained about the lack of coverage, despite Paul polling much better than candidates who received coverage. Stewart presented a montage of
mainstream media clips that showed commentators ignoring, and two CNN correspondents admitting to suppressing, coverage of Paul. Will Wilkinson opined in
The Economist that "Ron Paul remains as willfully overlooked as an American war crime", arguing that if Paul had won the Ames straw poll, it would have been written off as irrelevant, but since Bachmann had won, it was claimed to boost her campaign. Other commentators noted that Paul has had success at past straw polls but has not turned that into broader success as a reason for the relative lack of media attention. Paul was asked in a
Fox News interview "What are they [the media] afraid of?" He answered "They don't want to discuss my views, because I think they're frightened by me challenging the status quo and the establishment." During the November 12
CBS/
National Journal Debate, Paul was allocated 90 seconds speaking time. Paul's campaign responded, saying, "Congressman Paul was only allocated 90 seconds of speaking in one televised hour. If we are to have an authentic national conversation on issues such as security and defense, we can and must do better to ensure that all voices are heard. CBS News, in their arrogance, may think they can choose the next president. Fortunately, the people of Iowa, New Hampshire, and across America get to vote and not the media elites." The
Pew Research Center's
Project for Excellence in Journalism found in August 2011 that Paul received substantially less coverage than other candidates in the 2012 race. Pew released another study in October 2011 confirming that Paul has been receiving disproportionately low coverage in the media. Paul polled 6.0–9.8% during the study period, but only received 2% of media coverage, the lowest of all candidates. It also noted that Paul's coverage among blogs was the most favorable of all candidates. In January 2012,
The Atlantic cited the weekly Pew study. They noted that despite steadily rising in the polls, Paul has been losing his share of press coverage, going from 34% in late-December 2011 to about 3% in mid-January 2012. They also noted a sharp drop in positive coverage and a small rise in negative.
RNC lawsuit In June, a group of lawyers and legal experts filed a lawsuit in the US District Court against the
Republican National Committee and 55 state and territorial Republican party organizations for depriving Paul delegates of voice in the nominating process as required by law, and illegally coercing them to choose
Mitt Romney as the party's presidential nominee. Supporters of the effort say there is "evidence that the voting rights of Ron Paul Republican delegates and voters … have been violated by nearly every state GOP party and the RNC during the 2012 primary election phase." The plaintiffs claim that the party violated federal law by forcing delegates to sign loyalty affidavits, under threat of perjury, to vote for Mitt Romney, before an official nominee is selected. The suit alleged that there had been "a systematic campaign of election fraud at state conventions," employing rigging of voting machines, ballot stuffing, and falsification of ballot totals. The suit further pointed to incidents at state conventions, including acts of violence and changes in procedural rules, allegedly intended to deny participation of Paul supporters in the party decision-making and to prevent votes from being cast for Paul. An attorney representing the complainants said that Paul campaign advisor Doug Wead had voiced support for the legal action. In August 2012, the lawsuit was dismissed by
U.S. District Judge David Carter, who described most of the plaintiffs' claims as vague and largely unintelligible. The judge said that the one intelligible claim they had lodged—that the Massachusetts Republican Party had illegally excluded 17 elected state delegates from participating in the national convention because they had refused to commit to a particular nominee—failed because political parties have a right to exclude people from membership and leadership roles. The judge left the plaintiffs "a third and final opportunity" to amend their complaint. The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint just days before the scheduled start of the convention.
National convention Despite ceasing most campaign activities, the Paul campaign did some fundraising in July 2012, in an attempt to fund the transportation expenses of Paul delegates traveling to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. Paul said one of his goals at the convention was to "plant our flag and show that our Liberty movement is the future of the GOP". Presumptive candidate Romney would call for the plank's final inclusion. ==Electoral results==