Senator Ted Cruz of Texas won the Conservative Political Action Conference’s straw poll Saturday in with 40 percent of the vote, winning one over on front runner Donald Trump, who still leads in most polls.
Followed by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and with 30 percent, Trump with 15 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 8 percent.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley tied with Kasich as their number one pick for vice president with 12 percent of the vote.
#BREAKING: Sen. @tedcruz wins the #CPAC straw poll!
— CPAC (@CPAC) March 5, 2016
The majority of those polled, which had an average age of 35, considered themselves Reagan conservatives.
Trump pulled out of appearing at the conference last minute – a move both Cruz and Rubio slammed him for in their speeches, accusing the billionaire of being a fake conservative.
“God bless CPAC. So Donald Trump is skipping CPAC, I think somebody told him Megyn Kelly was going to be here or even worse he was told there were conservatives that were going to be here or even worse he was told there were libertarians that were going to be here or even worse young people that were going to be here,” Cruz said Thursday.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky – who dropped out of the race in February – won last year’s straw poll.
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