Ron Paul Takes Second Place In Nevada

After finishing fourth or fifth in the first four GOP contests, former Libertarian Presidential candidate and 10-term Texas Congressman Ron Paul appears to have taken second place in Nevada, significantly behind Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney but edging out Sen. John McCain (AZ).

Exit polls suggested Romney took the Mormon vote; approximately 1-in-5 Republicans caucusing today said that they were Mormon. The graphic below shows results from the Nevada GOP with 1750 of 1789 precincts reporting. [Final results are not on the GOP home page: Romney, 51%; Paul, 14%; McCain, 13%. Paul trumped McCain by 434 votes.]

Paul is the only Republican candidate to oppose the Iraq war. He has consistently finished behind Romney, McCain and Mike Huckabee (who was fourth in Nevada). Paul has also consistently and significantly trumped Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani and Duncan Hunter, who bowed out of the nomination race today.

In addition, it looks like Paul will be the top fundraiser for the Republicans when fall 2007 data are final.

See How Do Nevada Caucuses Work? ... State Politics At A Glance: Nevada ... 2008 Election Central