Ron Paul visits San Francisco, UC Berkeley

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is in Berkeley. It's the last stop on a California fundraising swing. The Texas congressman was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley at 7 p.m. and 2,000 were expected to show up to hear him speak.

Paul says he's been attracting big crowds, but they've largely been ignored by the news media. That allegation is coming in a one-on-one interview with the candidate as he laid out his reasons for staying in the race.

"I want to win, I try, and if I don't, it's to promote something I believe in very sincerely, and that's what the young people especially are interested in," said Paul.

That something that Paul wants to promote is ending the war in Afghanistan and staying out of military intervention, unless Congress is willing to declare war.

"The people are sick of these wars. Democrats and Republicans are pro-war and the young people don't like it, they're paying for it, they don't want to fight them, they want our troops to come home," said Paul.

Paul says that message is resonating with young voters.

"My job is to deliver a message and get people excited and get them involved and literally thousands are if not millions are involved. I mean, the truth is we get bigger crowds than the rest, but it goes unreported," said Paul.

Paul says the news media isn't accurately reporting his support. At a fundraiser near Union Square, we heard that a lot.

"I think more people would support him actually, if the media were honest about what's going on with him and didn't hide is name from polls and just completely eliminate him," said Staci Hollister from Fremont.

Young people telling us the media isn't giving Paul his due. But in Wisconsin this week, young voters picked Mitt Romney over Ron Paul -- 33 to 29 percent -- and that same age group, 18-29, was just 10 percent of the total Wisconsin turnout.

"I tell you what, they may play a role this time if I'm not the nominee and they're tired of Obama because they're sort of burned with him, because he didn't stop the wars and he still sends the feds over here to crack down on anybody who uses medical marijuana, they're sick of all that stuff," said Paul.

Paul says young voters may influence the election by just sitting it out and for that matter, he may not vote for the Republican nominee.

"Well it would be pretty hard to support somebody that I have no agreements with," said Paul.

Paul says it would be hard, but he also says he doesn't have to make that decision just yet. After Thursday night's speech, he's heading back to in his home state of Texas to do some campaigning there.

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ron paul, republicans, berkeley, uc berkeley, elections, 2012 presidential race, local news, mark matthews

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