Pence Wins Values Voter Summit Straw Poll
Rep. Mike Pence won the Values Voter Summit presidential and vice-presidential straw poll. The 2nd place winner for vice-president was Sarah Palin.
A total of 723 people voted in the poll, a very low figure in total, out of a conference with 2000 attendees. None of the candidates won a plurality of votes. Pence had 170 votes (24% of the presidential vote) and Palin had 112 votes (15%) for the vice-presidential vote.
There also was not much of a difference between second place in both polls, Huckabee followed Pence with 159 votes and Rick Santorum followed Palin with 75 votes.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins suspects that Mike Pence’s win might not necessarily indicate that they want him to president, but that they want someone like him to be president. Perkins also didn’t think the poll suggested that Mike Huckabee was a less popular candidate, noting that he may not have won simply because some voters would prefer that he kept his show on Fox News.
The one slightly surprising result is that Mitt Romney, a candidate who gave a reportedly lackluster speech and who has had problems with social conservatives come in at third place, but he only got 93 votes out of 723, which does not seem impressive from that perspective.
A few politicians asked for their names not to be on the list including Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann.
The results for the top five vote-getters in the two races:
Total Votes Cast: 723
President:
Mike Pence, 170 votes, 24%
Mike Huckabee, 159 votes, 22%
Mitt Romney, 93 votes, 13%
Newt Gingrich, 72 votes, 10%
Sarah Palin, 51 votes, 7%
Vice President:
Mike Pence, 118 votes, 16%
Sarah Palin, 112 votes, 15%
Rick Santorum, 75 votes, 10%
Paul Ryan, 51 votes, 7%
Jim DeMint, 45 votes, 6%
Follow Noah on Twitter: @noahkgreen