Ron Paul Backers Still Working, Just Not For Romney

November 6, 2012 from WOI

With all the attention on the impending presidential election, it seems like no one's talking about Ron Paul anymore. His candidacy for the GOP nomination has been dead for months. But his passionate, young supporters are still organizing this time, around local candidates in several states, including Iowa. Their dissatisfaction with Mitt Romney could have implications for the top of ticket, too.

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LYNN NEARY, HOST:

Early on in the election cycle, some voters were fired up about a candidate we haven't heard a lot from since the Republican primary. That's Ron Paul. The Texas congressman ran for the GOP nomination with a strong libertarian platform. He has not endorsed Mitt Romney. And in some places, including Iowa, his supporters are still involved but not on behalf of Romney. As we hear from Sarah McCammon of Iowa Public Radio, they're keeping their focus close to home.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union...

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: It's not every day you run across a couple of grown men dressed as the Founding Fathers, but Liberty Fest isn't every day, either. It's a cool, fall evening, in Hampton, a town of a few thousand residents in northern Iowa. And several dozen people, including lots of young families, have gathered near the town square for this event, billed as a celebration of the Constitution. Like most people here, Clayton Black supported Ron Paul for president in the Iowa caucuses.

CLAYTON BLACK: We're spending way too much time thinking about who's going to be our next president when we should be concentrating on who's going to be our next mayor or councilman or supervisor.

MCCAMMON: Black is in his early 60s and runs a bakery in another small town. He came to Liberty Fest dressed as a Revolutionary War-era militiaman.

BLACK: We get good people locally, and that's going to grow out.

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Ron Paul Backers Still Working, Just Not For Romney