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Meet the GOP Presidential Candidates

Learn about their backgrounds and where they stand on Social Security, Medicare, taxes and other issues

Republican candidates for president 2012

Candidate photos by Getty Images, flag and buttons by iStockphoto

Meet the Republican presidential candidates.

Two Republican presidential candidates remain in the field. This political season, more so than others in recent memory, is generating debates about programs that most matter to older Americans — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — as well as such important issues as jobs, the economy, taxes and retirement security.

Where do the GOP candidates stand on the key issues? Read our profiles of  Ron Paul and Mitt Romney to find out, and to learn more about them.

You can also watch video interviews with Paul that cover four of the key issues: Social Security, Medicare, jobs and the economy, and retirement security.

In November 2011, AARP invited the six GOP candidates who were polling at 5 percent or better in Iowa (as measured by recognized public opinion surveys) to participate in 20-minute interviews on the four issues. Four candidates (Paul, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry) accepted the invitation; two (Herman Cain and Romney) declined. The candidates were interviewed by Dave Price of WHO-TV, the NBC affiliate in Des Moines, on Nov. 4.

(Six candidates have dropped out of the race: Cain, Bachmann, Gingrich, Ron Huntsman, Perry and Rick Santorum.)

Also of interest: AARP’s voter education guide.