The maverick, anti-war contender in the Republican presidential contest issued a stern warning for his party Thursday.

Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas, said that if fellow Republicans don't lead a change of course on Iraq and embrace the unconventional coalition that has been attracted to his campaign, they are doomed in the 2008 elections.

"If they don't change their foreign policy, they're going to lose big time next year," Paul said during a midway stroll at the Iowa State Fair. "They're going to lose more congressional seats, and they can't win the presidency. They can't possibly win by maintaining the status quo in Iraq."

Paul is considered a long shot in the race for the White House. But he has stood out from the crowd at nationally televised debates with his fiery anti- war rhetoric and calls for restoring civil liberties that he believes have been eroded since Sept. 11, 2001, in the name of protecting the country from terrorism.

A one-time Libertarian Party nominee for president, he has built an unusual coalition of anti- war activists and conservatives opposed to big government.

But if the rest of the party treats him and his followers like outcasts, they're making a big mistake, Paul told the Rocky Mountain News.

Until recently, Paul has had one of the more invisible campaign operations in Iowa, the state where the first votes will be cast at caucuses now scheduled for January.

But in recent days, he has started running television ads in -Iowa, and he said he's hoping to do "pretty well" in the Iowa GOP's non-binding straw poll in Ames on Saturday.