Houston News: presidential

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Rep. Paul not ready to drop presidential bid

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Based on media coverage, you'd think there are only two people running for president, Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama. But Lake Jackson Congressman Ron Paul is still a contender and some maybe wondering why he hasn't dropped out.

And though it might seem like there are only two candidates still in the running, you couldn't tell that to Paul or the thousands of supporters who showed up at the University of Houston to hear him speak.

Ron Paul exceeded his own expectations on a Friday night. The Lake Jackson congressman and presidential candidate drew close to 4,000 people to Hofheinz Pavilion for an hour-long talk about his key principles: liberty, monetary and foreign policy, and the constitution. And they lined up early, long before dark, to get a good seat and hear him unfiltered.

"No disrespect to you, I don't know you from Adam, but a lot of people hate the mainstream media because they have totally not given him a fair shake," Paul supporter James Marshall said.

"It's like Coke and Pepsi, basically, Republicans and Democrats. They want to have more diversity in politics and Ron Paul offers that," Paul supporter Matthew Cunningham said.

Paul says his ideas ring true with young voters especially because they -- above most others -- truly cherish their freedom.

"Most of history you had big government telling people how to run their lives, run the economy, policing the world, militancy around the world; young people just seem to have a healthy disregard for that and a healthy attitude toward, 'It's my life, why don't you leave me alone,'" Paul said.

But with little realistic chance of winning the nomination -- let alone the White House -- those not in attendance at UH might ask why is he still running?

"Because of the support. If there was no support, we wouldn't have money and we wouldn't have anybody turn out," Paul said.

But there is that turnout, certainly evident inside a college basketball arena rarely this full on a Friday night in April.

By most official accounts, Paul has a fewer than 100 delegates. He needs 1,044 to win to GOP nomination.

Among the other questions we asked him was what it would take for him to win the nomination. He said, without any hint of sarcasm, "more votes."

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Paul lone Texas candidate in presidential race

CHARLESTON, SC (KTRK) -- Lake Jackson Congressman Ron Paul says he was surprised at the timing of Gov. Rick Perry's departure the presidential race, but not neccessarily at the fact it happened, given his so little support.

He was the other Texan in the race. But now he's the only Texan still running for president.

"This is criminal. This is immoral. It's bad economics," Paul said.

Paul drew another large crowd at the College of Charleston Thursday morning. He's spent only six days there campaigning, and yet he was polling well ahead of Gov. Rick Perry, who called it quits just a few miles from Paul's overflow event.

"How do you think his dropping out affects your campaign?" we asked Paul.

"I think it will help, but I wouldn't claim that every Rick Perry voter is going to come my way. My guess is it'll probably split. You know his numbers were getting pretty low," he replied.

Paul says he thinks Perry's withdrawal will have little effect in South Carolina Saturday. He says the governor lacked a dynamic campaign there despite committing a lot of time and money to the state.

For his part, Paul has not focused on the Palmetto State. His campaign says they've spent little money there, won't spend much in Florida and that they are looking to key caucuses in the West and Midwest next month. And they expect to stay in the race long after a lot of others have joined Perry on the sideline.

"Do you think it'll come down to Romney and you?" we asked Paul.

"Certainly looks like it could be at the rate we're going here. And even with the election being very important, we still have quite a few more to go," he said.

We asked Paul about his tendency to be a little more aggressive in the recent debates and he said he's aggressive when it comes to defending his beliefs and the American system. He also says he expects Thursday night's debate to be a slugfest even if Perry isn't a part of it.