Inside Paul’s Marriage

by Genevieve Lill

Ron and Carol Wells Paul
Married Since: 1957
Family Album: Five children, 18 grandchildren, one great-grandchild

Ron Paul is running for the Republican Party Presidential nomination on a platform of no-jokes Libertarianism, which whether one agrees with his politics or not, clearly is a sign of determination. His wife of nearly 51 years, Carol, has stood by Paul throughout his medical and Congressional years, as well as his time on the campaign trail, even despite requiring heart surgery to implant a pacemaker while garnering support in Iowa in August 2007.

Carol made the bold first move back in 1952 when she asked her future husband to her “Sweet 16” celebration. Paul was then a high school track star who worked in a drugstore and delivered newspapers in his small Pennsylvania town. The two eventually attended separate colleges, but kept in touch and married five years later, on February 1, 1957. The first two Paul children were born while Ron was completing medical school at Duke University, the rest after moving to Texas via Detroit. After serving with the Air Force in Vietnam, Dr. Paul set up his gynecology practice, eventually delivering more than 4,000 babies during his career.

Perhaps unexpected from this all-American life story is the way that Paul’s name has come to be associated with extremes. If elected as President, he plans to solve the impending Social Security shortage by doing away with the Social Security Administration, along with other institutions like the Federal Reserve Bank. He wants to bring the troops home from Iraq immediately, and vows that he’d withdraw the United States from participation in NATO and the United Nations to assure an isolationist state. In other words, he’s not your typical candidate.

The strict constitutionalist and on-and-off Representative (currently on) from Texas since 1976 has earned a reputation around Congress for consistency in his “hands-off” approach to government. As Carol put it in a recently released message on his campaign website: “[Ron] is trying to deliver the message that freedom works and that true patriotism must not grow weak in the hearts of Americans.”