Well, Ron Paul has been around for decades. I can assure you he has never been a Democrat.
My first viewing of him was on that Republican debate where he kind of went off.
That was the only thing I had to really get a feel for him with.
There are many pretty good folks who have some good conservative principles but can only go so far up the food chain. Here in CA we have McClintock who has a good conservative resume, but he just isn’t electable.
Maybe sometimes the issue is that people are not so good in front of the camera and are unelectable to certain offices.