Here is a story from Paul Smith inside the New Mexico state convention. Be warned, there are no broken bones or angry voices. But then, this is how democracy is supposed to work.

Here’s the story:

I’ll begin with the great news: this Saturday, the New Mexico GOP Convention elected 20 delegates and 20 alternates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. Of these, the Conservative Unity slate organized by Ron Paul supporters won 8 delegates and 9 alternates!

After the county conventions in May, we Ron Paul folks knew we’d have a strong minority at the state convention—enough for a nice showing, but probably not enough to win national delegates. So in the week leading up to the convention, we formed a coalition that brought together Ron Paul supporters and other grassroots conservative leaders from across the state.

This coalition put together a full “Conservative Unity” delegate slate: 20 candidates for the 20 delegate spots. Of these 20, 15 were Ron Paul supporters, and 5 were proven limited-government advocates whose candidate preference went unstated. We were up against the Romney campaign slate: 20 state party leaders including Governor Susana Martinez, Lieutenant Governor John Sanchez, Congressman Steve Pearce, and US Senate Candidate Heather Wilson.

At the convention, several things occurred that made us successful and encourage me about the future of liberty and the GOP in New Mexico:

1) The state party leadership played fair. There were no shenanigans of any type. The rules were clear to all, and they were followed precisely. I commend their integrity. After certain happenings in other states this is a tremendous step in the right direction, and makes me positive about our efforts moving forward.

2) The Ron Paul supporters were respectful. We did not try to “hijack” the convention, we did not disrupt the proceedings, and we did not get into loud arguments about policy issues. Our time was spent engaged in civilized conversation, garnering the votes we needed for our Conservative Unity slate.

3) The true conservatives came together and actually won. This reminds me a bit of the Ted Cruz campaign in Texas: advocates for liberty uniting (regardless of which presidential candidate they supported) and achieving victory against establishment candidates.

Here’s the bottom line: 85% of our slate is going to Tampa as elected members of the New Mexico delegation. We’ll see you there—for liberty and the future.

~Paul Smith