Speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Presidential Candidate Ron Paul (R-Texas) expressed optimism about his presidential campaign, announcing that over the past three months his campaign has collected more than $8 million and gathered over 100,000 campaign donors.
“We are very pleased with that and believe that will give us the energy to keep the campaign moving right along,” Paul stated.
In contrast, Texas Governor Rick Perry, a fellow presidential hopeful, raised more than $17 million from only 22,000 donors.
“If you get $8 million, half as much, and you get it from small individual donors who are fervently engaged in campaigning for you, that’s a lot different than getting money that more than likely might have come, for the other candidates, from special interests,” Paul enumerated. “All donors are not equal. I will take my small donations, with the enthusiasm of the people who send me the money.”
Paul continued his address and explained that much of his donations come from military troops since he is consistently advocating to bring the troops home and end war.
“If you add up all the donations for all of the Republican candidates from military active duty people, I get twice as much because they are sick and tired of these wars and know it is not working out,” Paul exclaimed.
While Paul expressed discontent that his campaign has not recieved the same level of media attention as fellow candidates, Paul stated that his campaign faced an “uphill battle.”
“I will continue to do the campaigning and quite frankly I feel pretty optimistic about how the campaign is going,” Paul concluded.
Click here to see photos from today’s luncheon