Many thanks to Brady Wright for writing up this essential guide to becoming a Ron Paul Delegate:

How Ron Paul Will Win the Republican Nomination

Ron Paul must win Delegates!

This may be one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Presidential election process: the Presidential candidates are not nominated by popular vote.  The nomination is actually won by a vote of the delegates assembled at the party’s National Convention.  For Ron Paul to win the nomination, he needs enough delegate votes.  That’s where you come in!

What can I do?

Just sit in an air-conditioned hall for a little while.

Is it really that easy?

Yes!  If you want Ron Paul to be President, stop for just a moment and commit the following phrase to memory: “JUST SHOW UP!”

This chair-sitting technique is one of the most powerful, best-kept secrets in America, and I’m about to tell you all about it.

Sounds great!  So how does it work?

Delegates are selected (usually elected) in each state, and then go on to the National Convention to represent their state and vote to determine who the nominee will be.

The method of the selection of delegates varies by state, so let us concentrate here on Oklahoma.  In Oklahoma, delegates are elected by convention (meeting).  Yes, every delegate is elected at a relatively small meeting, and if you simply SHOW UP to this meeting and bring your friends, and your fellow Ron Paul supporters do the same, YOU WILL WIN that convention!  But let’s get on to the details…

Without getting too technical, here in Oklahoma there are two main groups of delegates:

1)  “District” delegates — These delegates represent their Congressional district.  They are initially “pledged” to a candidate based on the proportion won in that Congressional District.

2)  “At-large” delegates — These delegates represent the entire state at-large.  They are initially “pledged” to the candidate who won either the majority of votes in the primary state-wide, or if no candidate received a majority, they are pledged to the candidates who received 15% or more of the popular vote (in proportion to how many votes they received).

What does “initially pledged” mean?

Let me explain: In 2008, McCain won all of the “at-large” delegates who represent the entire state.  However, Mike Huckabee won all the delegates in two of Oklahoma’s Congressional Districts.  So two sets of “district delegates” (6 in total) were “pledged” to vote for Huckabee at the National Convention, and all of the rest of the delegates were “pledged” to vote for McCain.  However, after Huckabee bowed out of the race, he released his delegates to vote as they wished, as is customary.

This kind of “release” is very common, so even if Ron Paul does not win 15% or more (the threshold to be awarded delegates) of the primary in Oklahoma, the candidates who do may bow out before the convention and all of those delegates will be “unpledged”.  Which is why we need to make sure we win those delegate elections so that if that happens, those delegates will be fellow Ron Paul supporters ready to cast their ballot for “Dr. No”!

Ron Paul for President in 4 easy steps:

How do we elect Ron Paul supporters as delegates?

Repeat after me: “JUST SHOW UP!”  Where do we show up?  A small series of meetings which begin in your own neighborhood.  I’ll briefly outline these meetings with their approximate dates (the precise dates have yet to be set):

1. Precinct meeting/caucus (To Be Announced [TBA] usually the first week of February)
2. County Convention (TBA in March, varies by county, see OK GOP website link below for date announcement)
3. District Convention (TBA in April, varies by district, see OK GOP website link below date for announcement)
4. State Convention (May 12th, see OK GOP website link below for more details)

1. Precinct meeting — This first meeting is extremely small and takes place in your neighborhood.  You may even be the only person to show up in many cases.  There’s pretty much nothing to it.  You just show up, put your name down as wishing to attend your county convention and you’re all set.  Precinct meetings are generally held on a weeknight, and last a couple of hours at most.
2. County Convention — This next meeting is a bit larger and is basically a convention of all the precincts in your county.  County Conventions are generally held on a Saturday morning, and are through by lunch time.  At this meeting, if you want, you’ll get to vote on a few fun things like the county party’s platform, etc, but for the most part this meeting is just to qualify for the next two meetings:
3. District Convention — This meeting includes all the counties in your Congressional District.  Again, it is usually held on a Saturday morning.  This is where the actual “district delegates” are elected.  If you’re interested in running for delegate, you will want to let someone know before this point — probably your county chairman (we’ll get to that later).  If you aren’t running, you are greatly needed here to cast your vote for the Ron Paul supporters who are running.  Again, if we all JUST SHOW UP, we will WIN!
4. State Convention — This is the last and largest convention, where all the counties in the state are represented.  The State Convention will take up most of the day on a Saturday.  This is where the single largest bloc of delegates will be elected.  Again, you only need to show up and cast your vote!

Get started early

I strongly recommend that you go ahead now and visit the following webpage:

http://okgop.com/take-action/attend-events/

This is the calendar for up-coming Republican events, and you’ll find many county meetings listed here. These meetings are usually very, very small, and occur on a monthly basis.  It’s a good idea to find yours and start attending now so that you can start to get to know other people in your county.  You will probably find you have much in common with many of these people, and for the others, you can win them over!  I’ve personally seen many counties transformed by the regular attendance of just a few Ron Paul supporters, shifting to be more liberty-oriented and constitution-focused.  And you’ll make many new friends in the process.  So getting in on this early and often is a great idea, though not required.

The convention process is critical to Ron Paul’s election, and I think you’ll agree it is one of the easiest things you will probably do to support Ron Paul, and also one of the most effective.  So to recap, make absolutely sure to show up to the following, and don’t forget to bring friends and family with you at each step!  Plan ahead now!:

1. Precinct meeting/caucus
2. County Convention
3. District Convention
4. State Convention