Still, the trend is unmistakable. Paul has increased his electoral standing in 27 of the 31 states that have voted so far. (Only in the Virgin Islands caucuses did he do worse than in 2008; he went from nine votes to one.) And he’s made sizeable gains in some states. In Florida, for instance, he won 116,776 votes this year, an 85 percent increase from the 62,887 votes he got in 2008. At the same time, he made surprisingly little headway in the theoretically friendly caucus state of Nevada. In 2012, Paul won 6,175 votes — only slightly better than his 6,084 total in 2008.
In the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove once observed that Ron Paul had a high floor and a low ceiling. It appears that Paul has now slightly raised that floor…
According to CNN’s exit polls across the country, Paul voters are more likely to be young, independent, and ideologically liberal or moderate — very different from the typical Republican primary voter. He’s got a quirky coalition, but that coalition is growing.
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