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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Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
By no strange coincidence, this is the motto of Tea Party conservatives.
Just goes to show you how far off the spectrum these people are. Outside of Kentucky, Texas, and a few political altars of conservative wackos throughout the US, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have ZERO appeal. They will never come close to wining anything nationwide.
BUT, I find it comforting to think the CPAC folks think so. Doo wacka doo, wacka doo.
That's all he'll win! Those crazies clapped and yelled for Rick Perry, that tells you their intelligence.
@Cindy -I didn't endorse Paul either. I think there are better choices out there. Obama is not liberal????? You must be from Colorado and smoking too much of that wacky weed.
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Yes honey.. Obama is NOT liberal... he's further right than Bush.. but the GOP is so busy trying to out-conservative the TP influx, that they haven't even noticed.
I hope Rand Paul is the Republican candidate in the November 2016 presidential election. That would assure a victory for the Democrat candidate, no matter who it was!
None of the posters have any ideas of their own, they have regurgitated media euphemisms left and right. It is really sad for this country that the voters have no idea what their vote can do, and they just play the political smear game that the media wants us to while the corporations take us on a steep descent into the abyss.
If Republicans would only spend as much time trying to serve America as they do trying to get reelected. All of their attention is now on an election that is 2 years away, instead of Americas problems today.
Paul/Cruz in 2016!!! That would assure the biggest Democrat landslide in history!!
Is this like that chaos theory where a butterfly farts in China and CPAC ends up electing Rand Paul as its version of the best and the brightest?
obama isnt a liberal, the rest of the world regards him as a center-right politician. And that makes republicans so far right they are basically extremist. did republicans really think they would win another election after removing all consumer rights and protections from student loans?! Like the college grads buried under debt don't know about it?
And the last winner of a CPAC straw poll to win the Presidency is? Nobody. Not worried about this poll or the incredibly irrelevant wacky white wing.
@yruatwit
WELL WITH ANY KIND OF LUCK i'LL BE OUTTA HERE BY THE TIME THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ROLLS AROUND. I for one do not plan on remaining in this country and I know of several others who are also seriously considering leaving.
I would point out that winning the straw poll two years before the election is pretty meaningless. If memory serves, Rand's dad also won the straw poll two years before the last election, and we know where that went.
My turn! This article says that Paul will "stand up for the Constitution." So.... where was Paul when George Bush violated numerous parts of the "Constitution" between 2002 and 2008?? Where was Paul when George Bush tried to make "Torture" legal?? Where was Paul (and ALL Republicans) when George Bush used Torture (Waterboarding, freezing rooms, detainees hanging naked by chains from the ceiling, pulling down detainees underwear in front of women, etc!)?? Over 100 "detainees" died while in the custody of George Bush, so let's include "Crimes Against Humanity". The U. S. federal penalty for "waterboarding" is "death by hanging". The International penalty for waterboarding is "death by hanging". Where was the outcry for prosecution and justice for these crimes and the destruction of our honor and our flag?? Republicans have a VERY SHORT memory!!! They are now against NSA snooping programs, but when George Bush began and ran those programs for 7 years, they were FOR and IN FAVOR of those programs!! Republicans just keep shooting themselves in the foot!!! Let's see a ticket with Paul and Palin!!! 🙂
Jesus is the Original Liberal
I love it, Rand Paul wins, what a joke. Now we know why they call it CPAC. "C"an't "P"ick "A" "C"andidate...Fits em perfectly...LMAO I honestly hope that goofball picks Dumb She-It Palin for a running mate, if he gets the nod from the almightywhitey...Should be a cake walk for Hillary, no matter which candidate they scrape off the floor of the Outhouse.
Republicans are finished!!!
Once Again People:
Ted Cruz was born in Calgary, British Columbia, CANADA!!!!!!!!
Why does the media not know that(I'll bet they do).
Cannot be president under current law.
Move on or look really, really stupid.
I do not have an opinion on Cruz as good or bad, but all you backseat lawyers ought to know the law.
Or possibly just a distractive smoke-screen, to not focus on real potential candidates.
Well, of course the fake Doctor Paul leads there, what do you expect from a convention full of nitwits, racists, bigots and misogynists.
Paul/Cruz 2016!
Doesn't that mean 69% voted against him?
Semper Cogitatus
Semper Cogitatus
Off course he won the poll, but there is no way he can win an election. There are too many big government Republicans and not enough libertarian leaning Republicans for him even to get nominated, and he has no chance at all with that all important middle 6% that actually decides elections, as they are pretty much all big government swing voters.
Excuse me, sir. We're 30%, not 6%.
Let's hear it for a democrat win in 2016!!!!
People under 35 vote in Internet straw polls but then mysteriously vanish on election day.
While, on the flip side, seniors have troubling figuring out these modern whiz-bangs but they do know when and how to vote.
Yeah like this straw poll means anything considering Ron Paul won it and we know far he got.