On Wednesday, the Washington Post tallied [3] Ron Paul’s gains in various states:
At Massachusetts’ state convention less than half of Romney’s 27 chosen delegates won tickets to Tampa. Paul supporters were chosen instead. While all of the state’s delegates are committed to vote for Romney, the delegates get to decide on the party chairman, platform, and VP nominee. …Paul supporters are a majority in the Iowa GOP’s State Central Committee, and he’s set to claim a majority of the state’s delegates despite finishing third in the caucuses.
They dominated the caucuses in Louisiana, carrying four out of six congressional districts with a tie in a fifth. That means 74 percent of the state’s convention delegates will be Paul backers.
In Minnesota, Paul won 20 of 24 delegates allocated at congressional district conventions, and he’s expected to take more at the statewide convention.
Huffington Post notes [4]:
Paul can be nominated from the floor in Tampa by a plurality of five state delegations
The Des Moines Register reports [5]:
Several Paul loyalists said they harbor hope for getting Paul nominated at the national convention in Tampa in late August.
In order to do that, Paul must have a majority of support from at least five state delegations. With states like North Dakota, Minnesota and others on track, his supporters could then attempt to nominate him from the floor.
Iowa’s 28 delegates are all “unbound,” meaning they can individually decide which presidential candidate to support. To stop Paul supporters from controlling the Iowa delegation, Romney backers in Iowa said they will likely focus on teaming up with Christian conservatives here.
To stop Paul supporters, mainstream Republicans are playing dirty. For example, the Republican National Committee has warned that it may refuse to allow the entire delegation for Nevada to be seated [6] at the national convention for fear that Ron Paul supporters have taken control of the state.
Paul is not backing down [7].