WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said on Sunday he will not necessarily endorse another GOP candidate if he does not win the nomination, saying he cannot throw his support to anyone with different views.
Paul, a congressman from Texas with staunch Libertarian policies, supports major spending cuts, an end to the Federal Reserve and an end to many federal regulations. If the Republican nominee holds different views, he said on "Fox News Sunday" that he would "probably not" give an endorsement.
"If they believe in expanding the wars, if they don't believe in looking at the Federal Reserve, if they don't believe in real cuts, if they don't believe in deregulations and a better tax system, it would defy everything I believe in," he said.
Supporting a candidate without those libertarian views on small government would be like telling his supporters that "all we've done is for naught," he said.
"It would disagree with everything that we do," Paul added.
Still, Paul said he does not plan to run as a third-party candidate if he does not win the nomination. Paul is currently polling third among Iowa voters, according to the most recent Des Moines Register poll, and won an Oct. 29 straw poll of Republican voters in the state. More recently, he won a straw poll of Republican voters in Illinois, as announced on Saturday, with 52 percent of the vote.
Despite that strong support, he said he has "no intention" of continuing his campaign beyond the Republican nomination if he does not win.
"It doesn't make any sense to me to even think about doing that, let alone plan to do it," he said. "Because I don't want to do it."