Then, in mid-May, Ron Paul issued a press release saying he wouldn’t be competing actively in California and Texas, using past-tense language such as congratulating his supporters for having “fought hard.” The media’s understandable conclusion: Paul had dropped out.
Except he hadn’t. The next day political director Jesse Benton scrambled to reframe the announcement, explaining that while the campaign was abandoning efforts to rack up primary votes in the big, expensive states, the effort to win delegates at state conventions would continue. Benton stressed the campaign’s desire to maintain a good relationship with the GOP, explaining that he wanted “respect and decorum” rather than more convention scrums.
The announcement hit Paul’s volunteer army hard. For some, it was evidence that the professional higher-ups surrounding the candidate—especially Benton, the grassroots’ bête noire—had lost intentionally. Theories ranged from the mundane (perhaps Paul was angling for a speaking slot at the convention) to the practical (the campaign was smoothing the path for the blander, more mainstream Rand Paul in 2016) to the paranoid (operatives were trying to kneecap the liberty movement entirely). This was a conspiracy theory I heard not only from anonymous firebrands at websites such as Ron Paul Forums, but from Oklahoma alternate delegate Porter Davis at the RNC. “For such a bunch of smart guys, they must have thrown the game to squander so many resources for such a pitiful result,” Davis said.
Activists noted that the announcement came directly after a weekend of particularly chaotic GOP state conventions. Paul fans had clashed with Romney folk in Arizona, and in Oklahoma, the Paulites split to run their own rump convention.
In an October 2012 interview, Paul explained to me that while he knew it would discourage many of his grassroots fans, he just felt obliged to be honest with supporters about his chances. “It was my preference to do it…because I felt like if I didn’t do it, it was more deception. You have your very hard workers who are realistic and know what to expect,” he said. “And others have the expectation that tomorrow everyone in the world will know I’m going to be president of the United States. I thought it was time to be more honest and upfront rather than leading people astray.”
