Ron Paul Shows No Signs of Leaving the Arena -- or the GOP

While he has no chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination and he will be leaving Congress after the November elections, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, shows no signs of heading to the political sidelines.

Paul sent out a campaign update to supporters late on Wednesday in which he crowed about bringing 200 bound delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa which shatters the predictions of the pundits and talking heads and shows the seriousness of our movement.

But Paul also insisted that he will have several hundred additional supporters to Tampa who, while bound to Romney, believe in our ideas of liberty, constitutional government, and a common-sense foreign policy leading to as many as 500 supporters as delegates on the convention floor.

Paul noted this total is not enough to win the nomination, it puts us in a tremendous position to grow our movement and shape the future of the GOP!

There has been speculation that Paul would bolt the GOP to support third-party candidates -- like he did in 2008 -- or launch a bid of his own, as he did in 1988 when he was the Libertarian Partys nominee.

Paul insisted to his supporters that they never had this kind of opportunity" to force the Republican Party to listen to the voice of liberty and he plans to support like-minded candidates, naming three in particular -- U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., Kurt Bills who is running for the Senate in Minnesota and Thomas Massie who is running for Congress in Kentucky.

The Texas congressman predicted there would be hundreds of his supporters in Tampa who will be ready and willing to push the Republican Party back to its limited government, liberty roots ... our delegates presence must be felt both in Tampa and in years to come.

Calling his backers the future of the party and of the country, Paul showed no signs of abandoning the fight -- or the Republican Party.