Influences Austrian School Anarchism Anarcho-capitalism Classical liberalism Objectivism

Ideas Civil liberties Free markets Laissez-faire Liberty Non-aggression Self-ownership Free trade

Key issues Parties Economic views Views of rights Theories of law

Politics Portal · edit Ron Paul was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Dormont High School, Dormont, Pennsylvania 1953. He received his B.A. from Gettysburg College (1957) and M.D. from Duke University School of Medicine (1961). He did his internship and residency training at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan from 1961 to 1962. He was a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force from 1963 to 1968. He went on to complete Obstetrics and Gynecology training at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1965-1968, and in 1968 he and his wife Carol moved to Surfside Beach, Texas.

Early political career He became a delegate to the Texas state Republican convention in 1974. He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election to Congress in 1974 against entrenched liberal Democrat Robert R. Casey. When President Gerald R. Ford appointed Robert Casey as head of the Federal Maritime Commission, a special election was held in April 1976 to replace him. Paul won that election but lost six months later in the general election to Democrat Robert A. Gammage. He then defeated Gammage in a 1978 rematch. Paul won new terms in 1980 and 1982. He was the first congressman to propose term limit legislation for the House of Representatives. He was succeeded by Tom DeLay. In 1985 Paul returned to medical practice as an OBGYN.

In 1988, Dr. Paul won the nomination of the Libertarian Party for the U.S. Presidency. He placed third in the popular vote (with 0.3f the total), behind George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis.

Return to Congress In 1996, Paul was again elected to the House as a Republican. Mainstream Republican Party figures backed the incumbent, Greg Laughlin, a Democratic representative who had switched parties in the wake of the Republican takeover of Congress. Laughlin attempted to portray Paul's views as extreme and eccentric, but Paul won the primary and went on to win the general election.

Leaders of the Texan Republican Party made similar efforts to defeat him in 1998, but he again won the primary and the election. The Republican congressional leadership then agreed to a compromise: Paul votes with the Republicans on procedural matters and remains nominally Republican in exchange for the committee assignments normally due according to his seniority. This is arguably similar to the deal that Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont has with the Democratic Party (though Jeffords was elected as a Republican and is now officially independent). Paul was convincingly re-elected in 2000 and 2002. He was elected unopposed in 2004 to his ninth term in the Congress. He is a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus. He was renominated in the Republican primary held on March 7, 2006; he defeated a former wife of entertainer Frank Sinatra, Jr.