Rand Paul Wins CPAC Straw Poll

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul won the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday for the second consecutive year.

The freshman senator practically inherited the mantle from his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a godfather of the tea party movement who won the poll in 2010 and 2011.When the elder Paul didnt attend in 2012, Mitt Romney won first place, shortly before he secured the GOP nomination.

The younger Paul was expected to win the straw poll after delivering abarnburner of a speechon Friday bashing President Barack Obama for infringing on civil liberties. Mr. Paul hasnt been coy about his potential interest in running for president in 2016 and made a number of visits to early early-primary states. In recent weeks he has invoked the scandals of the Clinton administration to try to tarnish his potential Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Those attacks have drawn criticism from some fellow Republicans, including former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee after his speech at the conference.

Mr. Paul got 31% of the CPAC vote, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 11%, motivational speaker Ben Carson with 9%, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with 8%, and former Sen. Rick Santorum and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with 7%.

Mr. Pauls victory reflects his popularity with young voters. Forty-six percent of the 2,459 voters in the poll were under 25 years old. A large majority said their top concern was promoting individual freedom and slightly more than half said its time for U.S. allies to provide for their own defense.

Video: CPAC Attendees Pick Their Top 2016 candidates

* * *

More From CPAC 2014:

Rand Paul Blasts Obama on Civil Liberties

Jerry Seib: Chris Christie Makes Waves at CPAC(Video)

Continued here:
Rand Paul Wins CPAC Straw Poll