Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney narrowly beat John McCain, 35 to 34 percent, in a straw poll of conservative political activists gathered Saturday in Washington — a vote that is viewed as a barometer of support from that major GOP voting bloc.
The announcement of Romney’s win was greeted by cheers from the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference. McCain is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
Roughly three-quarters of the votes in the three-day CPAC 2008 straw poll were cast before Mitt Romney dropped out of the presidential race, and one-quarter after his withdrawal.
In votes cast before Romney left the race, he beat McCain 44 to 27 percent. Among votes gathered after Romney’s withdrawal, McCain led Romney 37 to 32 percent.
Mike Huckabee received 12 percent of the vote in the straw poll overall, and Ron Paul received 10 percent. Those results were virtually unchanged among just those votes taken after Romney's withdrawal.
Thirty-one percent said that if John McCain were the GOP presidential nominee, they would either vote for someone else, or not vote at all.
Huckabee fared even worse in the survey – 36 percent said they would not support him, or would back someone else, if he were the Republican nominee.
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Does Mitt Romney's campaign suspension mean that he's totally out of the race? I live in Texas and planned to vote for him in our state's primary. He was the man for president.
I want Mitt Romney back! Does his suspending his campaign mean that he is completely out of the race? The Texas primary is coming up March 4th and I want to cast my vote for him! He is the "change" we need.
Elizabeth, Please do vote for Mitt! He is not totally out of the race, and I would love to see him rack up lots of votes in spite of his "standing aside." Maybe I'm dreaming, but I can think of some scenarios where he might feel as though he needs to come back. I think his absence already has some folks wishing he were still actively campaigning. Let's still vote for Mitt!!
I believe (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) that suspending operations means he's not actively campaigning. He is still able to collect $ and I believe any votes he gets still count (as well as any delegates)
I became a precinct delegate for Romney today in Washington state. Even with his picture crossed off our list of candidates, enough of us statewide chose to represent him that he got about 17% of the delegates votes today. Keep on voting for Romney if you feel so inclined! Especially Ohioans & Texans!
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