Posted on 06/08/2014 4:33:07 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
FORT WORTH — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz easily won the presidential preference straw poll held at the Texas GOP’s state convention Saturday, crushing outgoing Gov. Rick Perry and several other early contenders for the 2016 nomination.
Cruz took 43.4 percent of the vote, according to results announced at the close of the convention. Ben Carson, a columnist and neurosurgeon from Michigan, came in second with 12.2 percent, edging Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, who came in third place with 12.1 percent. In something of a surprise, Perry, who made a failed presidential attempt in 2012, came in fourth place with 11.7 percent.
Attendees cast ballots on secure iPads over the course of the convention at a pair of kiosks on the convention center grounds.
With the 2016 presidential field far from being defined, voters faced a ballot with 14 names. Some names, like Perry and Cruz, were very familiar. Others, like Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Iowa Congressman Steve King, maybe weren’t as familiar.
So early in the game, the excitement for the poll concerned how well Cruz and Perry would do. The sense was that Cruz, who was a high-profile presence at the convention on Friday, would win easily. He followed up an enthusiastically received speech in the morning with an extended stay in the exhibit hall, where he held court at an eye-grabbing booth in the center of the floor. He was joined by his father, Rafael Cruz, who is a Tea Party favorite in his own right.
Perry, meanwhile, kept his footprint at the convention small. After giving his speech on Thursday, which was also well received, he left for Austin, where he got back in time to tweet a photo of himself from the X Games competition. Perry’s speech was widely viewed as a table-setter for a second run for the White House.
Paul spoke at the convention on Friday afternoon and projected a more casual air, roaming the stage sans jacket. He mixed barbed humor — including a joke that President Barack Obama should have traded five Democrats instead of five Taliban for captured soldier Bowe Bergdahl — along with a slightly muted version of the libertarian stances of his father, former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.
The poll results on Saturday punctuated an eventful two years for Cruz. He came to the state convention in 2012 locked in a runoff contest with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for the Senate seat being vacated by then-U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Cruz had lost the first round of voting. But the convention confirmed that he had captured the momentum that would drive him to victory in July of that year.
The other rumored 2016 contenders on the straw poll, such as Chris Christie or Jeb Bush, didn’t have a presence at the convention.
Bush was in fifth place with 3.3 percent, well behind the first group of candidates. He was followed by Scott Walker (2.9 percent), Marco Rubio (2.6 percent), Paul Ryan (2 percent), Rick Santorum (1.9 percent), Bobby Jindal (1.7 percent) and Christie (1.3 percent).
The remaining three — Mike Pence, Kasich and King — all received less than 1 percent of the vote.
They will still pretend that 3.3% Jeb is the only one who can win. lol
I will vote for any or all of them, they would all be better then what we are stuck with now.
Or maybe support the top non-RINO from SC?
I don’t see myself caring to vote for many of them besides a Cruz or Palin
I agree with the one who said above that conservatives need to use the first conservative state as their decision point. Whichever conservative wins South Carolina, all others are dropped and we get behind that one candidate.
Otherwise, we allow the gop-e again to divide and conquer. I would like to see conservatives candidates agree to that and to drop out and to endorse themselves the S Carolina winner.
Wish these polls were reflected all over. I think Ben Carson would make a great running mate for Ted Cruz.
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Last week Dr Ben Carson came in second to Cruz in the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.
Cruz 30.33%.
Carson 29.38%
Paul 10.43%.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/05/31/cruz-convinced-gop-to-retake-congress-this-fall/
Actually they can be. The problem is that Texas electors wouldn't be able to vote for both of them... well, unless one of them makes a quick move out of Texas like Cheney did.
If the Dems keep control of the Senate, it could result in a strange case of a Republican president and a Democratic VP because without a majority the Senate would vote for the VP from the top two choices.
I stand with Ted
He and his staff almost singlehandedly stopped the last amnesty push by getting on the floor and in front of a tv camera every chance and pointing out all the places in the document that great claims by the Dems and other proponents of the measure proposed some waiting period or fine and then, a few paragraphs down, made an escape clause. It gave away the farm, as Jebbie is likely to do.
NO MORE SHRUBS!
vaudine
This must be another sign that Cruz is just part of the fringe/minority like the GOPe and the Democrats keep telling us.
;-)
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