Ron Paul

Ron Paul (born 1935) is a former Republican congressman from Texas and a physician. Born in Pittsburgh, he earned a medical degree from Duke, served as an Air Force flight surgeon and practiced obstetrics in Texas. He served in the U.S. House in three stretches between 1976 and 2013. He was the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee in 1988, finishing third with about 0.5 percent of the vote, and sought the Republican nomination in 2008 and 2012. He left Congress in 2013 and now writes weekly columns, co-hosts the online Ron Paul Liberty Report and founded the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity in 2013.

Supporters credit Paul with building a youthful libertarian movement through his 2008 and 2012 campaigns, popularizing criticism of the Federal Reserve and foreshadowing the Tea Party; his son Rand Paul became a U.S. senator. Critics argue his positions, such as ending the Federal Reserve and leaving NATO, are impractical, and his criticism of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 drew objections. In December 2011 renewed attention fell on racist and homophobic passages in newsletters published under his name in the 1980s and 1990s; he said in 2001 that he had not written them and in 2011 repudiated their content. Aides from his 2012 campaign were convicted over payments to an Iowa state senator for an endorsement.