In an email sent to reporters Monday morning, Texas Congressman Ron Paul announced he is suspending his campaign in the remaining 11 primary states. He cited a lack of resources as the cause, explaining that participating in the primary states "would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have." He will, however, continue to "take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.”
While full disclosure of his "fruitful delegate-attainment strategy" will be revealed to supporters "soon," IVN has been tracking his delegate strategy since the beginning of the primary election. Despite decreased spending in primary states, his campaign is far from being over. As reported by IVN Editor Kymberly Bays back in April,
"Part of the plan is accumulating enough delegates to give the Texas congressman the necessary leverage in Tampa to mold the GOP platform to his taste." She continues, "The next step for the Ron Paul campaign is to maximize his performance in his home state of Texas, which has a totally proportional primary on May 29."
And while most news organizations credit Dr. Paul with winning around 95 delegates, we have been keeping a tab on the distribution of delegates post primary, and recent wins in Maine, Nevada, Alaska, Louisiana, and Massachusetts could threaten Mitt Romney come August. Even some delegates bound to Romney are expected to vote for Ron Paul at convention, as IVN's Wes Messamore explains:
"Although it is impossible to determine the actual number without official counts, Paul’s campaign seems quietly self-assured that at this point, many of Mitt Romney’s bound delegates will vote for Ron Paul and hand him the nomination, not because Paul thinks he can charm and persuade them in Tampa, but because the Paul campaign has already stacked each state’s slate of delegates with his own supporters, who have been stealthily getting elected as delegates."
With a money bomb planned for May 17th and a appeal to his loyal supporters to remain "deeply involved," it seems as though Paul has something in store for the National Convention in August.