Ron Paul said Monday that he would continue to run his presidential campaign "in a modified way" even if Mitt Romney sews up the 1,144 delegates necessary to win the Republican nomination.

The Texas congressman said he would look to continue to collect delegates and influence the eventual convention platform.



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“This campaign is very, very viable for two reasons. One, they want to want to win if we can, they want to maximize the delegates and they do want to have an impact. That is very important to every single supporter,” Paul told CNBC.Paul added that by remaining in the race, he could potentially benefit from a Romney mistake.“You don’t quit because you happen to be behind,” he said. “You want to see how you do. And who knows? Maybe somebody will stumble.”Paul has said in the past he has "no intention" of waging a third-party campaign, although he refused to completely rule out the idea.But the Texas congressman did stop short of calling Romney "flawed," instead saying that he believed the entire political system had problems."He's part of that whole crowd of politicians, Republicans and Democrats, that are much closer together than most people realize," Paul said of Romney, the presumptive GOP nominee. "There's not much difference when it comes to policy. The rhetoric might be different. ... This is why young people are disgusted. They don't get what they're supposed to get."The congressmen added that his campaign still played a meaningful role in challenging the political norms and represented a movement that exceeded his own long-shot presidential aspirations."We're challenging the status quo of the entire country as well as the Republican Party," Paul said. "People don't like to give up their power. But the momentum is very powerful. I'm part of it, but I'm not it. It's much bigger than me."