Ron Paul vows to press on despite fourth-place finish

Ron Paul vowed to press forward with his quest for the Republican presidential nomination on Saturday even as early vote tallies showed him headed for a fourth-place finish in the South Carolina primary.

In an election-night speech to hundreds of cheering supporters at a sports bar in Columbia, S.C., the 76-year-old congressman from Texas promoted his libertarian philosophy with not a hint of disappointment at losing his third consecutive contest in the Republican race.

“The message of liberty is being received by more people every single day,” Paul, 76, told the crowd, minutes after national front-runner Mitt Romney finished a more traditional concession speech to South Carolina winner Newt Gingrich.

At Paul’s side was his wife, Carol. His supporters packed into Jillian’s Billiards Club, a cavernous brick-wall-and-exposed-rafters bar with ping pong, shuffleboard and pool tables, along with a couple dozen flat screen TVs showing CNN and Fox News election-night coverage.

Many in the crowd drank beer and cocktails as Paul spoke. They greeted his denunciation of the U.S. monetary system by thrusting their fists into the air and chanting, “End the Fed! End the Fed!”

Paul pointed out that only 37 delegates -- a tiny fraction of what is needed to win the party nomination -- had been awarded so far, and he vowed to keep campaigning, particularly in states that hold caucuses, a brand of party contest that rewards candidates with strong grassroots organizations like his.

Other candidates rise and fall, he said, but “our effort is steady growth.”

“That’s the way it’s going to continue,” he told the crowd.

“President Paul! President Paul!” his loyalists shouted as the congressman, dressed in a blue pullover sweater over a dress shirt and tie, left the makeshift stage, decorated with silver and blue balloons.

His volunteers took Paul’s loss as a small setback, if that, for a man whose candidacy is at least as much a movement as a bid for public office.

Paul volunteer Rylon Reith, 25, a Ft. Bragg Army sergeant who has been promoting the libertarian candidate at gun shows, said it was still a “definite possibility” that Paul would be elected president.

“Even if not, he’s waken up a movement,” Reith said as he drank a beer with two fellow Paul enthusiasts. “Liberty is contagious.”

“It’s a revolution,” said another Paul volunteer, Jesse Graston, 27, a construction manager from Fort Lawn, S.C. “It’s about the movement and the ideas of turning back to constitutional government.”

Graston said he saw little difference between President Obama and the leading Republican contenders for president.

“Why would you vote for a red socialist instead of a blue one?” he said. “They’re the same stuff.

“What if Gingrich gets in?” he asked. “What if Romney gets in? It’s going to be just as bad.”

michael.finnegan@latimes.com