Congressman Ron Paul has gained a large amount of interest during the Republican Primaries, and the Youth for Ron Paul organization on campus is dedicated to helping him win the election.

Support for Ron Paul has been growing in the younger demographic of voters for quite some time.

“People always bicker and fight, always telling people how to live,” Ryan Vest, junior in chemical engineering, said “Americans worry too much about how other people live. Most people are sick of it and see it as a waste of money.”

In 2008, Ron Paul ran for the presidency on the Libertarian ballot, which is known for being a smaller party. In 2008, Vest said the country was nowhere near the political state it’s in now, specifically with economic problems.

Vest said people are ready for a change.

This is the first year the Youth for Ron Paul organization has existed on campus in a legitimate form. Prior to this year, the organization mainly consisted of volunteers.

 At the beginning of the campaign year, the national Ron Paul 2012 campaign asked people all over the country to start chapters at their universities. Several people around campus got together to start the current organization, and registered online with the national campaign.

“This time around, one of the main differences is this campaign is run much more professionally and much more well organized,” Derek Spicer, senior in history and political science, said,  ”they have the polls down, they know exactly what it takes to win a nomination.”

As of right now, the organization’s main focus is voter registration and name recognition.

“We’re trying to find supporters through [our table] on the Brickyard, online, and through word of mouth,” Jason Cockrell , senior in applied mathematics, said.

The North Carolina Republican Primaries won’t be until May, and the Ron Paul Youth organization is already getting prepared.

“Closer to the primaries, we’ll start working directly with the national campaign,” Vest said.

Cockrell said that most of the work they will do will be through networking. In May, the organization will be reminding voters about the primaries by asking those who have pledged their support to Ron Paul to vote.

Primaries are won through the accumulation of delegate votes, and this is the strategy Ron Paul is focusing on. The number of delegates needed to win is about 1,100. Currently, Ron Paul is in second place for delegates behind Mitt Romney.

Gathering delegates does not get as much media attention as the popularity polls at state primaries. However, this former strategy takes time.

“Campaign analyst and political analyst is (sic) acknowledging Ron Paul’s got one of the stronger organizational skills,” Spicer said.

Spicer believes it will be these skills that will help Ron Paul win the primaries.

Ron Paul is currently polling very low in comparison to the other three Republican candidates, especially in North Carolina, though his poll numbers are not quite as low in western states such as Colorado and the Dakotas.

“Even if [Ron Paul] secures a majority of North Carolina delegates, chances [of winning the North Carolina primaries] are not fantastic, but are still pretty good,” Cockrell said.

Cockrell asserts there is still a definite chance Ron Paul could win the overall Republican nomination. At the Republican National Convention, when all the delegate votes are counted, it will be the candidate with the majority of votes, not the plurality that wins the nomination.

If one candidate does not have 51 percent of the votes, the National Convention rules will change, and delegates previously promised to one candidate or another will have the chance to change their votes.

“If the delegates get to change their votes, it can only work in Ron Paul’s favor, because I don’t think delegates are sticking as strongly to the other candidates,” Cockrell said.