Ted Cruz Wins Straw Poll

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Minnesota Republican straw poll: Ted Cruz nearly doubles nearest rival - Ted Cruz won a decisive victory in a straw poll of Minnesota Republican activists Saturday, with almost twice as many votes as second-place finisher Marco Rubio.

Cruz won 90 votes in the poll of delegates at the Republican Party of Minnesota's State Central Committee meeting in Monticello, Minn. His campaign had a large and visible presence at the meeting, and repeatedly cheered during Cruz's video message to the convention. Many other candidate videos had much more tepid reactions when their videos were played.

Cruz is "the only one who has the courage to stand up to the establishment and fight for our constitution and our liberty," delegate Nancy Spaengler of Wyoming, Minn., said.

Other Republican presidential candidates with strong support included Rubio with 46 votes, Carly Fiorina with 33, Donald Trump with 29, Rand Paul with 28 and Ben Carson with 23.

Of the 283 votes in the unscientific poll, 19 were undecided. Placing below that were Jeb Bush (four), Chris Christie (four), John Kasich (three), Mike Huckabee (two) and Rick Santorum (two). Lindsey Graham, Jim Gilmore and George Pataki received zero votes.

Bob Maginnis, a delegate from Edina, voted for Rubio in the straw poll, though he's still deciding who to ultimately pick for president. Maginnis said he went for Rubio Saturday because he's got "a darn good shot" at beating Democratic favorite Hillary Clinton.

"Anybody but Hillary," said Maginnis, who believes that "any of the Republican nominees would have a very good shot at beating Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Fiorina supporter Margaret Martin said she backed the former technology executive because of her talent, "outsider perspective" and "strong vision." Andrew Schmitz said he supported Paul because of his more restrained foreign policy and his "strong stance on civil liberties."

Minnesota's presidential caucuses will be held on March 1, 2016. Unlike past years, when the Republican caucuses were nonbinding and delegates for the national nominating convention were chosen later, the results of the March caucus will determine how many Minnesota delegates each candidate gets. Because the caucus will have more impact on the Republican race for president, Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Keith Downey said Saturday that caucus organizers should expect two to three times the turnout from the 2008 caucuses. n the February 2008 contest, Mitt Romney came in first place with 41.4 percent of more than 60,000 caucus-goers, beating eventual nominee John McCain's 22 percent.

Minnesota Democrats will also hold their caucus on that March 1. Current presidential candidates are Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley.

Results of the presidential straw poll taken by Republican Party activists at the December 2015 meeting of the party's State Central Committee:

Candidate/Votes

Ted Cruz        90

Marco Rubio        46

Carly Fiorina        33

Donald Trump        29

Rand Paul        28

Ben Carson        23

Jeb Bush        4

Chris Christie        4

John Kasich        3

Mike Huckabee        2

Rick Santorum        2

Undecided        19