The results of the “Super Tuesday” primaries and caucuses are mostly in and the Ron Paul campaign is doing quite well, although you wouldn’t know it by the media accounts and near blackout of anything related to Ron Paul. But regardless, the extraordinary efforts of Ron Paul, his campaign, the grassroots and tens-of-thousands of individuals, over 560,000 Americans have voted for the Freedom, Peace and Prosperity candidate and the Paul campaign is now projecting that it has a minimum of 42 delegates for the national convention secured.
While the media focused on the preference poll numbers, the Ron Paul caucus-goers were busy securing delegates to the national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
According to campaign projections from last night’s results, at least 3 delegates were won in Alaska, 5 delegates were won in North Dakota, 9 delegates were won in Minnesota, and 4 delegates were won in Colorado.
Even though Mitt Romney was projected to take all in West Virginia, 3 delegates were secured for Ron Paul through an agreement with the Mike Huckabee campaign at the state convention early Tuesday as Paul delegates to the state convention swung their sizable support to Huckabee in exchange for the 3 delegates, thus putting Huckabee over the top for the remaining delegates.
Add to the 24 delegates won yesterday the projected delegates from the strong showings in Iowa (4 delegates), Nevada (8 delegates ), Louisiana (3 delegates) and Maine (3 delegates) and that brings the total count to 42 delegates and possibly more for Paul.
Despite the mainstream media’s insistent focus on the presidential preference polling in Maine that placed Ron Paul in third place, the facts reveal that the Congressman actually beat John McCain and finished in second place and secured 3 delegates to the state convention.
And the results of the Louisiana Caucus could swing in favor of Ron Paul after Paul challenged the results in a move that could result in most of that state’s delegates going towards Ron Paul after state GOP officials violated their own rules.
The remaining Republican delegates up for grabs:
Feb. 12: 116 Republican delegates, including 63 in Virginia and 37 in Maryland.
March 4: 256 Republican, including 137 in Texas and 85 in Ohio.
May 6: 96 Republican, including 69 in North Carolina.
McCain would now need to pick up 578 delegates to secure the nomination and super Tuesday was his chance at winning the nomination, but he failed to mobilize the conservative vote.
So if McCain has 613 delegates and if he can sustain to win Maryland (37 delegates) and Ohio (85 delegates), that would give him 735 total delegates and far short of the 1,191 necessary delegates to secure the GOP nomination. It would appear that we are headed to a brokered convention. And this bodes well for Ron Paul.
Ron Paul will have the opportunity to speak to the nation at the GOP convention and without the media censorship. He will have a national platform to introduce the freedom message to the masses.
“Our goal has always been to walk into the national GOP convention with as many delegates as possible,” said Ron Paul 2008 campaign manager Lew Moore. “The number of delegates we won yesterday could very well be the difference in a Convention where no one has a first-ballot majority. With Dr. Paul’s home state of Texas coming up, we feel we can enter the convention with a substantial number of delegates.”
These primary wins do not ensure there are actual people won acting as delegates, but rather these are virtual delegates. A virtual delegate is merely a number - there are people yet that represent the candidate who won the particular state at the national convention.
In most states the delegates are voted in a statewide delegate caucus after the primary. Anyone can be a delegate, but in closed primary states they must be registered Republicans, in open primary states they can be registered Republican, Democrat or Independent.
Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican party’s candidate for President of the United States in 1860, and he did it as the dark horse candidate entering the convention with only 22 delegates. Most expected the well-known and powerful William H. Seward of New York to receive the nomination. There is much ado about ‘the real’ Lincoln and his actions as President, but the history of the 1860 election is exciting and inspirational.
Learn how to become a delegate here.
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