A poll released Tuesday found that in head-to-head election match-ups between President Barack Obama and various Republican presidential candidates, Texas Rep. Ron Paul fared best among non-white voters.
In a hypothetical contest against the president, the CNN/Opinion Research poll found Paul with 25 percent of the non-white vote.
Romney received 20 percent of that demographic against Obama, Texas Gov. Rick Perry 17 percent, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann 18 percent, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich 15 percent.
Paul campaign press secretary Gary Howard, who is himself an African American, told The Daily Caller that his candidate’s opposition to the War on Drugs has helped him win support from minorities.
“The figures in this poll show that voters are looking at Congressman Paul’s decades-long history of fighting for the individual liberties of all Americans,” said Howard.
“He has the strongest record of any candidate in this presidential race of standing up for civil liberties, and is also a staunch advocate of ending the drug war and fixing our biased court system which unfairly punishes minorities,” he said.
Paul has made direct appeals to non-white voters, saying that he believes the criminal justice system and the War on Drugs have disproportionately affected African-Americans, as have foreign military campaigns.
