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Rep. Ron Paul, the 72-year-old libertarian-like, 10-term Texas congressman who's also running for the Republican presidential nomination, easily won his 14th District primary Tuesday and is set for easy re-election in November. With about half the precincts counted (what's the rush--it's Texas) Paul was thumping Friendswood City Councilman Chris Peden by two-to-one. Paul, the only Republican presidential candidate to oppose the Iraq war, is no longer the oldest presidential candidate since the 74-year-old Ralph Nader began his quadrennial quest for 3% of the vote. Paul has declined to endorse McCain, which pretty much dooms the Arizonan's candidacy in the eyes...

UPDATE 8:36: Ron Paul has been re-elected to Congress in the Fourteenth District of Texas. Campaign manager Mark Elam: "Chris Peden is toast. It's just a question of how big the margin is." The campaign is looking at a result in line with its final internal polls, with about 70 percent of the vote going to Paul. With about 8,400 votes in, Paul is leading Peden 72-28. UPDATE 8:53: These are early votes being reported right now, but around 40 to 50 percent of votes were cast in early voting and the Paul campaign doesn't expect the election day results...

Texas Rep. Ron Paul has no chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination, but the libertarian iconoclast has pressed on with his national campaign. And he has done so even as he faces a more pressing challenge to his political future back home: a challenge in his March 4 Republican House primary in the state’s 14th District, located in and around the southeastern Texas cities of Victoria and Galveston. The 72-year-old Paul, who is allowed to run simultaneously for president and for re-election to Congress under Texas law, is being opposed in the 14th District primary by Chris Peden, a...

US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), 72, has represented the 14th District in Texas for 20 years, and while he has faced some serious Democratic challengers in the past, this year he is confronting a major battle in the Republican Primary. His opponent is Chris Peden, mayor pro tem of Friendswood. Whether or not the race is close is a matter of conjecture. No independent polls have been released and both camps claim their internal surveys show them with comfortable leads. Mark Elam, Paul’s congressional campaign manager, blogging on the Lone Star Times website, contends Paul is leading by about 60%...

White House Contender Raised Millions, Sparked Debate, Now Fights for Day Job In the House, they are but one lone vote, one voice in a fractured chorus of 435. In Congress, they are members on the world's second greatest deliberative body. But if they're not in the majority, they don't often get to debate much at all. On the campaign trail for president, however, they can raise their profile from local pol to national voice. They can raise millions, draw crowds, rally the base, needle the front-runners, and maybe, just maybe, start a movement or at least force a dialogue....

TIKI ISLAND, Texas – It's tough to think of a political endeavor more audacious than trying to unseat a 10-term member of Congress – except, perhaps, to attempt a jump from the U.S. House to the Oval Office as an anti-war Republican. Voters in the 14th District get to choose between two such dreamers – Rep. Ron Paul, the odd man out at one GOP presidential debate after another, with his call for a return to the gold standard, an end to the drug war and a radically shrunken federal government; and a challenger who has forced him to divert...

As no Democrat is on the ballot, those who vote in the Republican Primary will choose the next member of Congress from U.S. House of Representatives District 14. That’s why The Daily News is taking the unusual, but not unprecedented, step of supporting challenger Chris Peden in this race. While The Daily News doesn’t often endorse in primary races, this election will be the one that decides the district’s representation in Congress for the next two years. Peden, a certified public accountant who has done a solid job as a city councilman in Friendswood, is running against Dr. Ron Paul,...

He marches to his own drum, but not everyone in his Texas congressional district is happy with him. Streaming Audio

During a question and answer session with Dr. Ron Paul following Paul's remarks at Texas A&M University at Galveston, he is asked if he is willing to debate CD14 challenger Chris Peden. Video 1: Ron Paul asked to debate Chris PedenVideo 2: Ron Paul asked to debate Chris Peden, again.

When incumbent Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul faces Chris Peden in the Republican primary March 4, the winner likely will be the district’s next congressman. And it might not be Paul. Early voting in the contest opens Tuesday. Peden, 36, is challenging Paul for the seat in the 14th Congressional District, which runs down the Gulf Coast almost from Port Arthur to Port Aransas. It doesn’t include Houston or a chunk of Galveston County. With no Democrat in the race, the winner of the Republican primary is exceedingly likely to be the district’s next congressman. Paul, 72, is something...

Are we really getting the most effective representation with Ron Paul as our Congressman? The presidential debates have exposed a stubbornness and inability to compromise that is at odds with the intentions of the founding fathers. Democracy requires negotiation and compromise to reach a consensus. We negotiate and compromise in our daily life, at work and at home. Ron Paul's inability to reach consensus on vital issues makes him ineffective as our congressman. Ron Paul is a self-described Libertarian; if he is so enamoured with Libertarian philosophy, why is he running in the Republican primary for Congress? I welcome his...

Dear Matthew, Many of you know that Chris supports the Global War on Terror and the War in Iraq. Chris is also a Republican of conviction who will support and work for and with the Republican nominee for U.S President that Republican primary voters select. What you may not know is that our opponent, the incumbent congressman, does not support the war and has stated publicly that he is not even sure that he will support the Republican nominee for US President. The following is an excerpt from an article written by U.S. writer Jeremy Lott and published by the...