Ron Paul says he can still win the Republican nomination

Ron Paul has yet to win a single state’s primary or caucus, but he told CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday that he can still win the Republican party’s nomination come August.

The reason, as Politico notes, comes down to delegates. In the same way that the electoral college serves as a buffer between the popular vote and who actually gets elected president, the party nominating process is ultimately decided not by an aggregate popular vote but by a number delegates from each state, each of whom are supposed to represent the vote of their regional constituents. These delegates are the people who actually cast votes to directly determine the party’s nominee. And just like the electoral college they can technically act autonomously—they don’t have to vote the same way as the regional vote they’re representing.

Ultimately it’s a numbers game. And Ron Paul feels pretty good about the numbers. “We think we’re going to have the most delegates out of Iowa … same thing in Maine,” he said.

Mitt Romney is currently leading the delegate count with 123 delegates to Paul’s 19, according the latest report from the AP. Romney won 11 delegates in Maine to Paul’s 11. But as AP notes, building delegates is a process that doesn’t end at after a state’s caucus—in fact that’s when it begins. Of Romney’s advantage over Paul in Iowa, AP writes, “After the straw poll was over, caucus-goers elected delegates to county conventions scheduled for March. Those conventions will elect delegates to congressional district conventions in April and the state GOP convention in June. Delegates to the GOP national convention in Tampa, Fla., will be selected at the congressional district and state conventions, and the outcome may look very different from the results of the Jan 3 vote [in Iowa.]”

“It’s still relatively early,” Paul said yesterday on CNN and he’s right. NY Times notes that it takes 1,144 delegates to get nominated. With Mitt Romney’s supposed 123 delegates committed so far we’re not even 10% of the way there.

In mainstream media Paul is often dismissed as having no chance at actually winning the nomination—his candidacy is usually depicted as symbolic, like Ralph Nader’s. But make no mistake—Ron Paul is still in this thing to win it.

“It all depends on how you measure winning. The bottom line is who is going to get the delegates, and we think we’re doing pretty good.”

He added, “There’s every reason to believe this momentum will continue.” If it seems like momentum isn’t on Paul’s side, videos like the one below, which haven’t received much coverage in mainstream media, may give you an idea of what he’s talking about. Despite not having won any state primaries or caucuses, Paul is whipping up enthusiasm like no other candidate. Whether he’ll be able to use that enthusiasm to convert delegates before the Republican Convention and become the party’s nominee remains to be seen.

[Image via Shutterstock]