Paul鈥檚 most ambitious goal is to influence the Republican Party as a whole, making it more amenable to his libertarian principles. That appears to be the point of his so-called 鈥渄elegate strategy," whereby Paul supporters out-organize rivals in caucus states to win as many delegates as possible. In some cases, such as in Maine, the Paul forces have won outright control of state party organizations.
On May 19, for instance, Paulites won 12 of the 13 delegate slots up for grabs at Minnesota鈥檚 GOP convention. Combined with previous victories in the North Star State鈥檚 complicated selection process that means 32 of the 40 Minnesota delegates to Tampa will be Paul supporters. Sorry about that, Rick Santorum. (Mr. Santorum won Minnesota鈥檚 nonbinding caucus presidential nomination vote on Feb. 7 with a plurality of 45 percent of the vote.)
This is why Paul has eschewed any interest in a third-party bid.
鈥淗e鈥檚 gotten a lot of attention working through the two-party system and he鈥檚 gotten a lot of people involved,鈥� said his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky, in a Fox News interview earlier this month. 鈥淚 mean, the chairman of Iowa now was Ron Paul鈥檚 campaign chairman. The chairman of Nevada was a Ron Paul campaign person. We鈥檝e won several states and are influencing the party and becoming the Republican Party.鈥�
