Republican nominee hopeful Ron Paul criticized big government and reflected on his progress in the presidential race at a rally at the Oklahoma Capitol.

Paul stopped in Oklahoma at noon Saturday before heading to Michigan to campaign for the primary Thursday. He is the third of the Republican nomination candidates to visit Oklahoma, following Rick Santorum on Feb. 9 and Newt Gingrich on Feb. 20.

“We’re really on a roll now as far as presenting our case, and [we’re] actually doing very well in the effort to accumulate delegates,” Paul said. “Right now they’re admitting that we are in second place with delegate count.”

Big government is ultimately the reason for America’s troubles and is the result of politicians not taking their jobs seriously, Paul said.

“I claim that most of the reason, if not all the reason, why we’re in this political and economic mess is we have allowed too many to go to Washington who … didn’t take their oath of office seriously like they should,” Paul said.

U. Oklahoma students were among the crowd at the rally. Aerospace engineering junior Austin Jones said he was drawn to the event because he is a fan.

“[Paul] actually believes in following the Constitution,” Jones said. “Everyone else seems to talk about the importance of the Constitution, but everybody seems to act like it doesn’t exist.”

Young people are drawn to Paul because they are in a better position to see deviations from the Constitution than older generations, Jones said.

“Young people are seeing what’s happening to the country,” Jones said. “They’re seeing wars being fought left and right and all kinds of crazy stuff going on. It takes a younger generation to identify the problems the older generations have caused.”