Ron Paul 2012 Wins Iowa & Minnesota Delegates In Surprise [VIDEO]

The surprising news that Ron Paul's 2012 campaign is getting a breath of fresh air from Iowa, the state that kicked off the whole primary season months ago, is demonstrating the resiliency of his candidacy, and confounding prognosticators who thought Rick Santorum had both states locked up.

Ron Paul 2012 won a respectable 21.4 percent of votes in Iowa, but came in several percentage points behind both Santorum and Mitt Romney. In Minnesota his campaign came in second with 27.1 percent of the vote, but Santorum crushed him with 44.9 percent of votes there. Santorum dropped out of the race last week.

But it appears that Ron Paul and his supporters are getting the last laugh, as MSNBC's Rachel Maddow reported on Monday that the delegate counts in Iowa and Minnesota have tipped in his favor.

In fact, the delegates have lined up in both states to give him the majority of delegates to the Republican Party's nominating convention, according to MSNBC:

Fourteen of the 28 delegates [in Iowa] -- half the delegates -- are his. He will not get less than half. So Ron Paul will either wins Iowa, or worst-case scenario, he ties for first place, Maddow explained, citing a range of reports. And, while we're on the subject, looks like Ron Paul just won Minnesota, too. Minnesota has 40 delegates total, this weekend, Ron Paul won 20 of them. Now not all the rest of Minnesota's 40 delegates have been allocated yet, but with half of them locked up Ron Paul cannot come in worse than first. Worst-case scenario, Ron Paul can't come in worse than first in Minnesota. Anything better than that he wins outright.

The delegate sweep was predicted by Paul himself, who told a crowd the following:

When the dust settles, I think there's a very good chance we're gonna have the maximum number of delegates coming out of Minnesota.

And Rachel Maddow predicts that the strategy may lead to a resurgence for Paul, whose supporters are some of the most vociferous in the country. Though Paul's delegate gains are not making big headlines in Washington and nationwide, she believes he could possibly win the GOP presidential nomination using the unorthodox tactic:

Ron Paul was right. No one is getting more delegates than he did in Minnesota or in Iowa or in wherever else this Ron Paul delegate strategy of his pays off.

In fact, Ron Paul 2012 supporters in Texas cite Warren G. Harding's 1920 campaign, in which he won that year's fractious Republican nominating convention (and eventually the presidency) after heading into the convention with the fewest delegates of any remaining candidate.

Click play below to watch the video of Rachel Maddow explaining the Ron Paul 2012 campaign strategy of stacking up delegates: