Ron Paul wins the Louisiana caucus

Over the weekend, Republicans caucused in Louisiana and handed Ron Paul a victory. A portion of Louisiana’s delegates were awarded on March 24 during the statewide Primary while the remaining delegates were awarded this weekend in a GOP caucus.

Report from the Daily Caller:

Texas Rep. Ron Paul claimed another come-from-behind caucus victory this weekend, announcing that approximately 74 percent of the delegates to Louisiana’s state GOP convention will be Paul supporters.

Louisiana has a unique system of selecting delegates to the Republican National Convention. Twenty delegates are selected based on the results of the state’s March 24 primary and another 26 delegates are based on the outcome of the state’s caucus process.

“Preliminary results from the Louisiana Republican Party indicate that Ron Paul supporters won majorities in Congressional Districts 1, 2, 5, and 6, with a narrow decision having occurred in District 4,” said a Sunday press release from the Paul campaign. “This means Ron Paul supporters won about four and a half of the six Congressional District caucus conventions held yesterday.

“Taken together, victories across four and half CDs mean that Ron Paul supporters are likely to control the outcome of the state convention in June,” said the Paul campaign. “To be sure, a win on this scale gives Ron Paul supporters a majority of yesterday’s elected delegates and the ability to choose most of the at-large delegates, as well as the three National Delegates from CDs 1, 2, 5, and 6.”

Rick Santorum dominated the Louisiana primary with 49 percent of the vote to runner-up Mitt Romney’s 27 percent. Paul fared poorly — receiving six percent of the primary vote, behind Newt Gingrich’s 16 percent.

There are several similar upcoming contests around the country where the GOP delegate selection process is finalized and Paul is expected to outperform the other candidates. Many of the early primaries and caucuses were non-binding and left the delegate selection process officially to a state convention or smaller contests down the road. Similar to Louisiana, some states held a statewide primary but left a portion of the delegates decided at state and county conventions or caucuses.