At Ron Paul's tent, his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), rallied the Texas congressman's supporters. They are a fired up bunch.
There is plenty of speculation that Paul will ultimately win the straw poll. If that happens, Rand told the crowd, "some will try to discount it."
"This isn't an online poll," he said. "If Ron Paul wins the poll today, it's going to be a message heard around the world."
The crowd roared.
Rand said that rather than lamenting Ron Paul's presence in the race, the Republican Party should be glad that he has brought new blood into the GOP. A young man in a flat-brimmed hat waved his hand and nodded his head.
He served up plenty of red meat, hinting that America might see riots like the ones in Britain and Greece if the country does not get its debt under control and prevent its currency from being devalued.
"We want to capture and keep our republic before we get to that point," he said.
He railed against the fact that some agents of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department carry weapons.
"The government is here to protect us from ourselves but we want a government that will protect our liberties."
"It's a battle between good and evil," he said. "To steal from the future to get and live large off of government largesse now is theft. It's morally wrong and something we must change."
After he finished, Paul's senior campaign adviser Doug Wead, who previously worked as an adviser to both Presidents Bush, came up on stage. "When Ron Paul is president, Rand Paul will be there in the Oval Office whispering in his ear every day," Wead said. "You vote for Ron, you get Rand."
Ron Paul's campaign spokesperson Gary Howard predicted Ron Paul will get "a lot more [votes] than last time." In the 2007 straw poll, he finished 5th, with 9.1% of the vote.