FORT WORTH, Texas — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is already angling for a share of the 153 Republican delegates in Texas who will be up for grabs in early 2016.
Most of the media’s attention is focused on Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two contests of the Republican presidential primary.
But Texas, the biggest Republican state in the nation, holds more delegates than four key states ahead of it on the calendar.
The other so-called carve-out states that precede Texas are South Carolina and Nevada.
The early map is favorable for Paul, who is near the top of a crowded field of possible GOP contenders. He has a natural advantage in New Hampshire and Nevada, two states with libertarian leanings that mirror his views.
{mosads}And a new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll shows the Kentucky senator running in second place in Iowa, only a point behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
The Texas primary, which is scheduled for March 1, 2016, will have a major impact on the delegate count. Paul’s allies think it could be a difference-maker in the race. Only California has more delegates, 172, but its primary isn’t until early June, when the nominee will likely have already been decided.
“We will be the second biggest,” said Steve Munisteri, the Texas Republican Party chairman who will step down from his post to serve as a senior adviser to Paul’s expected presidential campaign. “We’re the fifth primary. You’re going to have the four carve-outs and then Texas.”
Iowa and New Hampshire have 28 and 21 delegates, respectively. Nevada has 40 delegates and South Carolina has 48 delegates.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is considered the favorite to win the Texas primary if he does well enough in the earliest states to retain a sense of viability. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) would also be formidable.
If Paul performs strongly in Texas, however, he could grab a good chunk of delegates and perhaps take the bulk of those that went to Cruz and Perry should they falter later in the campaign.
“Rand Paul can win two ways. He can run high enough in the finishing order where he gets delegates or, if a candidate who is conservative runs high in the pecking order and drops out before the state convention, then Paul presumably could pick up the delegates that might be an alternative to, say, Jeb Bush,” said Munisteri.
He argued that delegates who are initially bound to Cruz are more likely to vote for Paul over Bush if either or both drop out of the campaign after March.
Paul has strong ties in Texas thanks to his father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who built a strong following by running for president in 1988, 2008 and 2012. Rand grew up in the state, and attended high school and college there.
The younger Paul spent the weekend meeting donors and activists in Dallas and Fort Worth, where he spoke at the Dallas County GOP Reagan Day dinner and the Tarrant County Lincoln Day dinner.
“Did you know that Sen. Paul is a true native Texan? A true Texan, he grew up in Lake Jackson southwest of Houston,” boomed GOP state Sen. Don Huffines, introducing Paul to a cavernous ballroom of donors at the Renaissance Dallas hotel on Friday.
Ron Paul finished second in the 2012 Texas GOP presidential primary but lagged badly behind winner Mitt Romney. The contest was held on May 29 that year, when Romney was on the cusp of clinching the nomination.
Signing Munisteri, who helped raise $22 million for the state party, to his political team is a major coup for Paul and a sign of his connection to the state.
The outgoing party chairman has known the Paul family for 40 years and recruited Sen. Paul to serve as president of the Baylor chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas in the early 1980s.
He was planning to help Paul run for the Senate in 2010 when he unexpectedly won a bid to chair the Texas GOP.
He said three other presidential candidates or their staffs contacted him about backing them.
“I had excellent relations with them up until Wednesday. I haven’t talked to them since. I presume it won’t be as warm a greeting next time I see them,” he quipped.