The UTD Mercury

Republican Congressman Ron Paul's unique beliefs and unusual campaign style have established him a fiercely loyal support group.

Students for Ron Paul is a grassroots student organization created just last month by arts and performance junior Nicole Morrow.

The organization has taken an active role in the community. They recently met other Ron Paul supporters at his new campaign headquarters in Addison and are planning a showing of a documentary-type film related to Paul. Leading up to the March 4 primaries, they will be among the organizations handing out information about their candidate and his views on the issues.

Paul's supporters have said that it is not Paul alone they support, but more importantly his message.

"Our government has grown more irresponsible to the citizens it exists to represent. Ron Paul's goal is and always has been to correct these problems by returning our government to the foundational Law of the Land - the Constitution - which the vast majority of our nation's politicians get away with ignoring and violating on a regular basis," graduate student David Bindel said.

Students for Ron Paul is aware of the hurdles facing them, including media representation and a low delegate total for the Republican nomination.

"Ron Paul's message is clear, but some major media outlets would rather we not hear it. They censor Paul by keeping him out of debates and omitting him from performance polls. Fox News went as far as to edit their rebroadcast of the January debate in South Carolina, completely removing Ron Paul's response to one question," Steven Rosson, business administration junior, said.

Arizona Senator John McCain is close to winning the Republican nomination, while former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is in a distant second. Despite the delegate totals for Paul's competitors, his supporters are not worried.

"I find a candidate's party affiliation relatively unimportant. I would support a candidate in favor of Constitutionalism and limited government whether he ran as a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or Green," Rosson said.

Despite the obstacle to his nomination, Paul's supporters are optimistic. "Words are cheap - especially like 'change,' 'freedom,' and 'democracy.' Every major politician in history has promised either change or status quo, but only a rare few have actually delivered what they promised. Ron Paul truly does believe in what he says and this is reflected flawlessly in his exceptional voting record," Bindel said.

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