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Ronald Ernest Paul (born 1935) is an American medical doctor and was a Republican U.S. Congressman for the 14th congressional district of Texas, which encompasses the area south and southwest of the Greater Houston region. According to a 1998 study published in the American Journal of Political Science, Paul had the most conservative voting record of any member of Congress since 1937. His son Rand Paul was elected to the United States Senate for Kentucky in 2011, making the elder Paul the first Representative in history to serve alongside a son or daughter in the Senate. Paul has been called the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement. He has gained prominence for his libertarian positions on many political issues, often clashing with both Republican and Democratic Party leaders. Paul has run for President of the United States twice before, first in 1988 as the nominee of the Libertarian Party and again in 2008 as a candidate for the Republican nomination. On May 13, 2011, he formally announced he would run again in 2012 for the Republican presidential nomination. A 2010 scientific poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports among likely voters found Ron Paul and Barack Obama to be statistically tied in a hypothetical 2012 presidential election contest.