With nearly half of the states having voted in the Republican presidential nomination process, Rep. Ron Paul still has yet to win a single state, but he says his message is still catching on in the campaign.
The Texas congressman even has honed his strategy to focus on caucus states but has yet to win any of them either, and overall he runs a distant fourth, with less than half the votes nationwide of third-place finisher Newt Gingrich, and well less than a third of the votes of front-runner Mitt Romney.
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On Tuesday, Mr. Paul put his effort into caucuses in North Dakota, Idaho and Alaska but managed just a second-place showing in the first and third-place showings in the other two.
In Fargo, N.D., Mr. Paul said Tuesday that his campaign has succeeded in placing his issues before voters.
“The momentum is building,” he said at his victory party.
And indeed, some of his fellow candidates have praised his stance on issues and even made a play to try to win some of his supporters.
Of the 23 states that have held primaries or caucuses so far, Mr. Paul’s best performance came Tuesday night in Virginia, where just he and Mr. Romney were on the ballot. In that head-to-head matchup, Mr. Paul won 40 percent of the vote.
The 12-term congressman’s campaign has touted the large crowds Mr. Paul regularly draws at his rallies and speeches, including more than 6,600 people in four events in Idaho on Monday and Tuesday.
But Mr. Paul won only slightly more than 8,000 votes in Idaho’s caucuses Tuesday night — suggesting that his supporters are very committed but that he has trouble winning over voters beyond that limited core group.
Mr. Paul already has announced plans to campaign in Kansas on Friday ahead of that state’s caucuses this weekend.
