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Rand Paul wins CPAC straw poll for president

Rand Paul won 25.7 percent of the 3,007 votes cast in the Conservative Political Action Conference’s presidential straw poll.Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — For the third conservative year, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul won the Conservative Political Action Conference’s presidential straw poll Saturday.

Paul won 25.7 percent of the 3,007 votes cast, down slightly from 2014, when the 2,459 attendees gave him 31 percent of the vote.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who placed fifth in 2014’s poll, floated to a strong second place — 21.4 percent — continuing a run of successes with conservative activists that started last month at the Iowa Freedom Summit.

The days of potential candidates barreling into CPAC with full campaigns, buying up blocks of tickets for straw-poll voters, are largely past.

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Paul, Walker, Ben Carson, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz all had street teams of various sizes; Paul was supported by Young Americans for Liberty, Carson by an unofficial draft presidential campaign. But Santorum, Walker, and Paul focused more on barnstorming events in the conference hotel than on making an obvious show of support on the convention floor.

“Rand believes in limited government,” said Charles Barr, a student at New Jersey’s Montclair State University, walking the convention clad in one of the Rand shirts provided by Young Americans for Liberty. “I knew I was voting for Rand when I came here; I actually picked Rand Paul for my second choice, too.”