Politics / Ron Paul Ron Paul Raises $1.8M in One Day And wins a straw poll on his birthday, to boot By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff Posted Aug 22, 2011 2:12 PM CDT Copied Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas speaks during a meeting with business leaders, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011, at the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce in Concord, NH. (AP Photo/Jim Cole) Ron Paul had a very, very happy 76th birthday: He raised $1.8 million in 24 hours and he won Saturday's New Hampshire Young Republicans Straw Poll. The $1.8 million was the result of an online “money bomb” staged for his birthday on Saturday, the Hill notes, and it marks the fourth time the presidential candidate has raised more than a million bucks in one day during the 2012 campaign cycle. Meanwhile, Paul won a whopping 45% of the vote in that straw poll, according to Patch.com, beating second-place Mitt Romney by 35 percentage points and trouncing 10 other Republicans. He won the straw poll despite not attending the event—and he raised the $1.8 million despite a cyberattack that brought his website down for a few hours. (More Ron Paul stories.) Report an error