It might surprise you to learn that Paul is not originally from Texas, but Pittsburgh, where he was born to a dairy farmer and his wife. He graduated from\u00a0Gettysburg State College<\/a>\u00a0in 1957, with a degree in biology. He earned his medical degree from\u00a0Duke\u2019s School of Medicine<\/a>\u00a0in 1961. From 1963 to 1965, he was a flight surgeon in the\u00a0United States Air Force<\/a>, before moving over to the Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968. Upon discharge, he relocated to Texas to start a private practice in obstetrics and gynecology.<\/p>\n While he had been reading\u00a0Austrian economics<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Libertarian political philosophy<\/a>\u00a0for years beforehand, he finally decided to run for Congress when President Richard Nixon took the nation off of the\u00a0gold standard<\/a>\u00a0in 1971. He lost his first attempt at public office in 1974, but won a special election in 1976, losing the regular election later that year by a mere 300 votes. He defeated his opponent in 1978, serving until 1985, then again from 1997 to 2013.<\/p>\n While in Congress, Paul spoke in favor of a return to the gold standard with\u00a0Senator Jesse Helms<\/a>, as well as against a\u00a0reinstatement of the draft favored by President Jimmy Carter<\/a> and the majority of Republicans in Congress.<\/p>\n He retired from Congress in 1984 to run for Senate, losing the Republican primary to\u00a0Phil Gramm<\/a>.<\/p>\n After his time in Congress, he focused on the private promotion of liberty, publishing the\u00a0Ron Paul Survival Newsletter<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0Ron Paul Freedom Report<\/em>\u00a0with\u00a0Lew Rockwell<\/a>, who had previously been his congressional chief of staff. He also sold precious metals under the auspices of Ron Paul Coins.<\/p>\n In 1988, he made his first run for the presidency as a\u00a0Libertarian<\/a>, defeating Native American activist\u00a0Russell Means<\/a>\u00a0(who had previously seconded\u00a0Larry Flynt<\/a>\u00a0in his bid for the Libertarian Party line) and coming in third nationwide. He considered running again in 1992, but instead decided to back\u00a0Pat Buchanan\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0campaign against President George H.W. Bush.<\/p>\n However, it was his 2008 presidential campaign that began to change the world of liberty. There is arguably no one more responsible for the spread of the liberty movement than Ron Paul, whose 2008 campaign electrified young people who would likely have largely been Democrats previously. The average Ron Paul supporter in 2008 was not the country club Republican or movement Libertarian one might have pegged, but more likely to be a tech-savvy college kid than anything else.<\/p>\n Thus, throughout the 2008 primary season, the acolytes of Ron Paul dominated political debate on the Internet and social media, the latter of which was still in its infancy at this point. Ron Paul\u2019s campaign was the most searched for and his YouTube channel had even more followers than Barack Obama\u2019s.<\/p>\n None of this translated into a terribly successful campaign. His highwater mark was a 25 percent second-place showing in Montana. He chose not to enter the general election as a third-party candidate, but did not endorse the eventual nominee,\u00a0John McCain<\/a>. Paul often claimed that he did not run as a third-party candidate because he had signed a binding agreement preventing him from doing so. He chose instead to endorse the four major third-party candidates:\u00a0Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney<\/a>,\u00a0Libertarian Bob Barr<\/a>\u00a0(this despite\u00a0his previous role in Ruby Ridge<\/a>), the\u00a0Constitution Party\u2019s Chuck Baldwin<\/a>, and\u00a0independent Ralph Nader<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2012, Ron Paul was still considered an outsider, but had considerably raised his national profile since 2008. He remained hot on the heels of front-runner Mitt Romney throughout the entire Republican primary, but once again came up short of the nomination. Much like in 2008, he refused to endorse Mitt Romney and even refused to give a speech at the convention because it would have to be vetted by Romney\u2019s team.<\/p>\n Since retiring from elected office and the presidential race, Ron Paul has become\u00a0a fierce critic of the NSA and surveillance<\/a>, as well as a supporter of\u00a0Edward Snowden<\/a>, whom he considers to be a great hero and champion of freedoms for Americans. He also founded the\u00a0Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity<\/a>\u00a0underneath the broader umbrella of his\u00a0Foundation for Rational Economics and Education<\/a>. He offers the\u00a0Ron Paul Curriculum<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(developed by\u00a0Gary North<\/a>) free for\u00a0homeschooled children<\/a>\u00a0from K-5 and paid for 6-12.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Ron Paul Liberty Report<\/a>\u00a0has received more than 17 million views as of April 2019.<\/p>\n In 2016, Ron Paul became the oldest person to ever receive an electoral vote when a faithless elector in Texas voted for him.<\/p>\n Veterans of the Ron Paul rEVOLution are active in the liberty movement today. And how great is it that a man who has never smoked a cigarette in his life inspired a generation of pot-smoking techies to join the fight for liberty?<\/p>\n You can bet your last\u00a0Ron Paul Dollar<\/a>\u00a0(remember those?) that Dr. Paul will be speaking hard truths, bucking the system and standing his ground until the day he dies. Libertarians will likely never find a champion quite like him.<\/p>\nThe Beginning of Ron Paul\u2019s Political Career<\/h3>\n
Coming Back to Congress<\/h3>\n
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Paul returned to Congress after a 1996 election with a huge assist from friends\u00a0Nolan Ryan<\/a>,\u00a0Steve Forbes<\/a>, and Pat Buchanan.<\/p>\nRon Paul\u2019s Criticisms of the Republican Party<\/h3>\n
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While Paul was a life-long Republican, he was often highly critical of the party and its leadership. Indeed, he was one of the only Republicans to vote against Ronald Reagan\u2019s 1981 spending bill, despite being one of the first elected officials to endorse Reagan in both 1976 and 1980. He even had some extremely harsh words to say about Reagan while running for president in 1988. He called the Reagan administration “a dramatic failure,\u201d continuing by saying that “Reagan’s record is disgraceful. He starts wars, breaks the law, supplies terrorists with guns made at\u00a0taxpayers’ expense<\/a>\u00a0and lies about it to the American people.”<\/p>\n