Ted Cruz Wins CPAC Straw Poll

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Saturday won the straw poll at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Forty percent of those who voted picked Cruz as their first choice for president. He was followed by Sen. Marco Rubio (30 percent), Donald Trump (15 percent) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (8 percent). Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who formally ended his campaign at CPAC on Friday, received 2 percent of the vote.

Cruz on Saturday won the Republican caucus in Kansas, notching a decisive victory over Trump.

Trump was the only candidate who did not address the conference after pulling out at the last minute on Friday, a decision that annoyed some attendees.

Attendees were each given a unique PIN and could complete the poll on the CPAC app, via email or at a station at the conference. They were required to enter both their unique identification number and the email they used to register for the conference in order to vote. Some 2,659 attendees voted in the poll.

Cruz's victory in the straw poll comes as he urges other Republican candidates to unite behind him to defeat Trump.

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