Texas Rep. Ron Paul won't run for reelection to Congress

Tea Party icon and renegade Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas won't seek reelection to Congress, focusing instead on his third Oval Office bid, aides said Tuesday.

"I felt it was better that I concentrate on one election," Paul told Texas newspaper The Facts. "It's about that time when I should change tactics."

Paul ran as a libertarian in 1988 and fell well short of the GOP nomination in 2008.

The second run helped trigger an ideological split in his party that led to the rise of the Tea Party, including son Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and fellow White House hopeful Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.)

Paul's views, which include support for U.S. withdrawal from conflicts overseas and abolition of the Federal Reserve, have eaed him a fiercely loyal and generous base of supporters.

his fans wrote checks totaling $1 million in one day of "money bomb" fundraising in May.

An obstetrician by trade, Paul delivered more than 4,000 babies before running for his first term in Congress from 1976 to 1977 representing part of Texas' Gulf coast.

He served again from 1979 to 1985, and began his current stint in 1997.