Texas Congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul seems to have found a bottomless pit of support: the co-founders of Paypal.
According to reports released Wednesday, co-founders of the online U.S. payment service PayPal, now owned by eBay Inc., have reportedly spent the past several months donating to the Super PAC funding group Endorse Liberty, which supports Mr. Paul’s bid.
PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel (also an early investor in Facebook) and Luke Nosek and Scott Banister, an early adviser and board member, put their support behind the Endorse Liberty Super PAC, according to filings released early Wednesday.
“Too often in this country we learn things the hard way … With its unsustainable deficits, government spending is heading down the same path. Men and women who want freedom and growth should take action. A good place to start is voting for Ron Paul,” Mr. Thiel said in a statement.
Mr. Thiel, a libertarian activist whose $1.5 billion in wealth ranked him 833 on the Forbes top billionaires list last year, has expressed support for Mr. Paul’s presidential bid in the past. The latest report shows Mr. Thiel contributing upwards of $900,000 to the PAC supporting Mr. Paul, making him the single largest contributor in the short time since the PAC was founded on December 20.
In addition, the latest reports shows the group raised $1 million in December. That said, in a press release on Tuesday, the founders disclosed that they have increased their fundraising to date to $3.9 million
The report comes as Mr. Paul, who placed last in Tuesday’s Florida primary, has spent the past several days campaigning in Maine and Nevada — both of which are expected to play a significant role in Mr. Paul’s bid for capturing the support of as many delegates as possible.
The Texas Republican, who has thus far run a fairly conventional campaign, remains behind Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, according to recent polls. The Texas congressman has acknowledged that an outright victory is far from likely, however, he says he will remain in the race until the 2012 convention, regardless of whether he wins the upcoming primary races.
