Texas Congressman Ron Paul — the third-place finisher in Iowa’s Caucuses this past January — will no longer campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in states that have yet to hold primaries. Campaign aide Jesse Benton says their focus is on getting Ron Paul delegates to the Republican National Convention this summer. The Iowa Republican Party’s delegates to that national convention will be elected at the party’s state convention on June 16.
“I think we’re going to spend money and campaign time in Iowa making sure that we have ID’d every single delegate to the state convention and that we turn out all of our delegates to the Iowa state convention to make sure that they vote and get their voices heard,” Benton says.
The man who was elected chairman of the Iowa GOP in February is a Ron Paul supporter and former campaign aide. Ron Paul supporters now hold a majority of seats on the Iowa Republican Party’s state central committee.
“We want to get our people involved in the process,” Benton says, “and we want our people in positions of influence.”
Mitt Romney — the man likely to be the Republican Party’s nominee for president in 2012 — will be in Des Moines this afternoon to deliver a policy speech. It’s Romney’s first visit to Iowa since the Caucuses and a signal Iowa is among the toss-up states for the fall election battle between Romney and President Obama.