Sen. Rand Paul convincingly wins CPAC presidential straw poll
(CNN) - Sen. Rand Paul easily won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, giving the potential White House candidate an early boost with the Republican base ahead of the 2016 election.
It was the second-straight year the Kentucky lawmaker topped the poll at the annual gathering, notching 31% support.
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Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was second with 11%, followed by conservative firebrand Ben Carson.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, never popular with many in the party's conservative base, was fourth with 8% support.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who for a time gave Mitt Romney a run for his money with conservative voters in the 2012 presidential race, rounded out the top six.
CPAC is the largest annual gathering of conservative leaders and activists and is a must-attend cattle call for GOP presidential hopefuls looking to pass the right-wing litmus test.
Polling indicates no real frontrunner among the potential GOP contenders so far. The next race for the White House officially doesn't get under way until after November's midterm election, and it's fair to say presidential surveys this early are often heavily influenced by name recognition.
Still, the straw poll was a strong sign for some and a troubling one for others.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who finished second last year - just two points behind Paul at 23% - fell to a disappointing 6%. Texas Governor Rick Perry, who fired up the crowds Friday morning, received only three percent.
Though Cruz was a distant second, his 11% was up 4 points from his showing last year.
Sen. Paul said in a statement that he was grateful for the support, touching on his libertarian themes of individual rights and standing up for the Constitution.
"Thank you and onwards to victory," he said.
Paul, whose libertarian fight in the Senate is often met with a tepid response, spoke before an audience Friday that treated him like a rock star.
The son of former presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the first-term senator is eager to expand his base and expand the GOP in general.
He's been aggressively trying to broaden the party by talking about the need to include not only libertarians, but even Democrats and minority voters that don't traditionally fall in the GOP column.
But he wasn't trying to hammer home that message on Friday. His remarks were mostly catered to firing up the conservative libertarian crowd.
Paul supporters could be seen at all corners of the conference this week, easily spotted by their "I Stand With Rand" stickers and signs.
With representatives from all 50 states, 2,459 people participated in the straw poll. As is usually the case, it was a very young voting group, with 46% of the voters between 18 and 25 years old, and overwhelmingly male, at 63%.
CNN's Steve Brusk, Conor Finnegan, Ashley Killough and Peter Hamby contributed to this report.
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I sure hope the GOP does run Rand Paul. He will lose by 20 million votes.
Ha ha, perfect.
And he has the voting record to back up his speech!
Rand Paul is honestly what we need
Who cares?rand will not be president of USA
RAnd Paul is an idiot.
Why do the Republicans want to direct the Government when their avowed aim is to Dismantle it ?
Great, just what we need. Someone that doesn't like the rules and creates a set of rules to follow themselves.
Bring it! Hilary is going to wipe the floor with him.
As an American citizen who loves my country and served honorably in her armed forces, I really, really hope the GOP will nominate Rand Paul for President in 2016 so Hillary Clinton can kick his sorry butt from one end of the nation to the other. Rand Paul is a lightweight politician who has no leading-edge ideas of his own, no empathy for the poor and vulnerable, no concern for the general welfare of the nation, and no legitimate chance of becoming President. Most Americans who operate in the reality-based community think he's a sad, pathetic joke. Please, GOP: nominate Rand Paul so you can lose the election resoundingly.
This is great news for us Democrats 🙂
how the hell did Kentucky ever elected a dem governor.
This confirms that Paul won't get the nomination. Look at the track records of the winners of this poll. It's a joke.
If the country has to go ultra conservative, this should be the guy to take us there. He would at least remove the government from out lives and we would be free to do what was needed to be done. Most conservatives want to keep the government in our lives in some way, often in an intrusive way. They only want to remove social nets. They should not be allowed to have it both ways.
What bad, bad key word did I use to get sent to moderation?
Ran Paul is Walmart version of Libertarianism. Freedom for big business and the rich chains for the normal people
Fortunately, these angry, old, protestant, white men don't have many more years left of the public stage. Despite their best efforts to deny others the vote, their percentage of the American voting block shrinks a bit more every year. Their message of hate does not resonate with the younger generation. I look forward to the day the Republican party returns to the center where it belongs.
Money talks, so what? I will not listen.
Rand Paul can not beat a Democrat. His appeal is limited to the right wing fringe .
This is an excellent choice. No one in his/her right mind will vote for him in the general election and there are just enough sane people in the country to make sure he won't win. The margin of sane over insane is very small, I realize, but I think for at least one more election we'll be ok.
It's quite remarkable in that someone who basically is opposed to the existence of the Federal Government wants to be the head of it.
Good. There's no way he can win.
So in other words 69% voted against Rand Paul, 89% voted against Ted Cruz and 94% against Christie. Exactly what do the Republicans want?
He has my vote.
But Rand Paul will never be President.
Okay. So he got elected "Most Popular" at Clown College. Big hairy deal.