Ron Paul Receives the Most Military Donations

Update: On February 28th, 2008, the Seattle Times observed the support that Dr. Paul has from tech companies:

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has proved his popularity in the tech world, far outpacing Sen. John McCain in support from donors. Paul received twice as much money from Microsoft employees as McCain did, and five times as much as McCain from Google employees.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, employees of Google and Microsoft are number three and four in a list of top contributors to the campaign. (First and second on that list are the Army and Navy respectively.)

Congressman Paul has repeatedly said that he doesn’t want to tax or regulate the internet, and internet innovators – who have thrived from the freedom of the internet – support candidates who understand that freedom is key to the success of the e-Economy.

– From the Ron Paul 2008 Blog. Now back to my original post…

For the past few days, reports have been floating around about how well Ron Paul did in the last quarter of 2007 with donations from veterans and current servicemen and women. Many people are concerned that, with his anti-war stance, Ron Paul does not understand our military defense needs. Let these people be reassured. The troops absolutely support Ron Paul.

Patrick Semmens crunched the numbers to get the most accurate figures, and sure enough, Dr. Paul beats all other candidates, Republican or Democrat, in military donations. And by a significant margin, too.

Dr. Paul has worked his entire career working for veterans, and has many awards and endorsements due to his dedication to their cause.

A search of the FEC database by employer reveals that Dr. Paul has received 1160 donations from military donors, nearly triple that of John McCain, and more than McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee combined.

Dr. Paul™s total military donations of $249 thousand are almost as much as the $260 thousand of combined donations received by the other five remaining candidates.

Congressman Paul is no stranger to military support. Former president Ronald Reagan once said, Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country!

Left to right: Ronald Reagan, Ron Paul
Image Source

According to the FEC reports, these are the total number and amount of military donations for each of the presidential candidates*:

Ron Paul: 1160 $249k
John McCain: 438 $83k
Mike Huckabee: 126 $37k
Mitt Romney: 126 $24k
Barack Obama: 443 $76k
Hillary Clinton: 154 $41k

*Methodology: Searched FEC reports for occupation/employer contains: Army Navy USN USAF Air Force Marine USMC Coast Guard USCG then removed duplicates and non-military occupations (i.e. marine repair)

Now, the important question is: why? My theory is that the military knows the issues, and knows the situation in Iraq. I do not know the real situation in Iraq. I am far more inclined to listen to their money, than any words that can spew out of a candidate’s mouth in a debate.

Oh, and here’s even bigger news: “Ron Paul … is attracting the most individual campaign contributions from employees of major U.S. high-tech companies.” Source

Again, why are technology people supporting Ron Paul? I think “websmith” put it well: “Tech workers are a smarter than average bunch …”

Not really too surprising: I’m a former Google and JPL intern, and now a Ron Paul supporter!

If you’re a Ron Paul supporter: get out and vote!