NEW YORK - November 15, 2011 - A surprising new poll out of Bloomberg News on Tuesday morning found that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is not the only Republican to benefit from the seeming demise of other prior frontrunners.

Beating all the odds and the pundits’ expectations, Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) has emerged as one of the new frontrunners for the GOP nomination to the presidency, topping even Gingrich and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, and virtually tying former businessman Herman Cain for the lead.

All surveys counted, Bloomberg News found that Paul has the support of 19% of GOP primary voters, versus Cain’s 20%, Romney’s 18%, and Gingrich’s 17%.

The four-way tie moving forward will present an interesting challenge to conservative media, which seems to have been content ignoring Paul as much as possible. Even in the instances where he’s won or placed highly in typically influential Republican polls, his victories have been swept under the rug as biased media continues to focus on candidates they prefer.

Ron Paul, known among his supporters as The Patriot Congressman, has won more significant straw polls than any other GOP candidate. He is the only candidate to candidly speak his mind about government corruption, and he is the only candidate to call for a restoration of the Rule of Law and a return to strict constitutional limitations on the federal government.