Ron Paul Loses Washington Caucus

Impact

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) had a chance to triple his delegate count today at the Washington Caucus, but lost out to GOP rival Mitt Romney.

A win for Paul would have been a boon to the libertarian, providing significant momentum to the candidate who is currently last in the GOP pack, and would prove that his grassroots-oriented campaign strategy is working.

Rick Santorum — the surging GOP candidate who won a string of states in February and battled Romney in Michigan — and Newt Gingrich failedt o build a big enough ground game in Washington to make significant inroads with voters in the state.

Winning the Washington caucus would have also underlined that libertarian ideals can win over voters in big states. Paul’s progressive views have sometimes alienated mainstream or far-right conservative voters. Paul acknowledges that this is very much his biggest weakness in the primaries.

On Friday Paul told a crowd here that he’s not winning primary states because “changing a hundred years of history takes a little bit of time.”

Paul, who has yet to win a state, will now turn to Alaska and Virgina to find momentum in the campaign.

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