Ted Cruz wins conservative confab’s straw poll

CPAC vote, a bellwether of Republican activist support, puts frontrunner Trump in third third place after Rubio

By AFP 6 March 2016, 2:53 am

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A supporter holds up a cardboard cutout of Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) during CPAC 2016, March 3, 2016 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP)

US Senator Ted Cruz, the most conservative candidate left in the 2016 presidential race, won Saturday’s straw poll at a prominent gathering of grass roots conservatives, while Republican frontrunner Donald Trump finished third.

Cruz placed first with 40 percent of the vote, followed by rival Senator Marco Rubio with 30 percent, according to results of the survey taken at the Conservative Political Action Conference held in Maryland, near Washington.

Trump was further back at 15 percent, followed by Ohio Governor John Kasich at eight percent and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who had already suspended his campaign, earning two percent.

Cruz’s victory was not unexpected here; CPAC attracts thousands of far-right activists and voters every year, and many of them see the senator from Texas as their movement flagbearer.

The informal vote is an important gauge of where core conservative voters stand in the midst of one of the most contentious primary seasons in decades.

In 2012, the last time the straw poll was conducted in an election year, Mitt Romney won and eventually became the Republican Party’s nominee.

The latest results could be seen as a reprimand of Trump, who backed out of a scheduled Saturday morning appearance at CPAC in order to campaign in Kansas, which was holding Republican and Democratic caucuses Saturday.

CPAC attendees also offered their vice presidential picks, with Kasich and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley emerging in a first place tie, with 12 percent each, and former Hewlett-Packard chief executive and onetime White House hopeful Carly Fiorina third with 11 percent.