Pretty sure Ron Paul was the first... but I'm 100% sure RFK wasn't the first. Rand Paul accepted it as well. Maybe others. Come on "Documenting BTC...
The time for fan-boying politicians has long passed.
A quick search:
November 4th, 2011.
Presidential candidate (and Libertarian) Gary Johnson (who came in 3rd place, losing to Obama and to the Republican candidate Mitt Romney) accepted bitcoin (from me).
The photo from the forum post no longer appears, but here is my copy:
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Adding on to that story ... an interesting twist.
There was this L.A. Times reporter trailing Governor Johnson that day. She stood to my side listening as I was telling the Governor about bitcoin. I then asked her if she was familiar with bitcoin and I might even have asked her to write an article on it. She brushed me off to get in another question or two in with Governor Johnson.
A decade later, still with L.A. Times, she now does hit pieces on Bukele (President of El Salvador). And she still doesn't understand bitcoin.
Her 2011 article on Governor Johnson:
Republican Gary Johnson is not the average presidential candidate https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2011-nov-13-la-na-gary-johnson-20111113-story.html
Her articles on Bukele:
El Salvador’s president buys bitcoins ‘naked,’ he boasts. His experiment is costing his nation millions https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/el-salvadors-president-buys-bitcoins-naked-he-boasts-his-experiment-is-costing-his-nation-millions/
In response to killings, El Salvador’s bitcoin president attacks civil liberties #18824 https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-04-08/mass-arrests-of-salvadorans-accused-of-being-in-gangs
As El Salvador’s president tries to silence free press, journalist brothers expose his ties to street gangs https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-06-09/nayib-bukele-el-salvador-el-faro-journalists [Archive]
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