Rand Paul Wins Republican Liberty Caucus Straw Poll

Sen. Rand Paul scored a victory in Saturday’s Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) straw poll.

Paul was the favored choice of more than 700 voters at the libertarian-leaning RLC’s national convention in Nashua, New Hampshire, slightly edging out Republican opponent Sen. Ted Cruz.

“The Republican Liberty Caucus is pleased to announce Rand Paul as the winner of our straw poll with 57.1% of the vote. Ted Cruz came in second with 51.2% of the vote. 777 Liberty activists voted at our convention where Rand Paul and Ted Cruz were featured speakers,” the RLC wrote on Facebook Saturday evening.

Paul’s win in the straw poll is a solid feather in his cap as he looks to rebound from sluggish poll numbers and relatively unimpressive debate performances early in the campaign.

Paul gave a casual, well-received, roughly half-hour speech at the convention Friday.

“The guy in front of me has got like two big plates of barbecue food,” Paul said at the beginning of his remarks, referring to a political Bar-B-Q he recently attended. “He said, ‘My granddad lived to be a hundred and five.’ I said, ‘Well your granddad didn’t live to be a hundred and five eating like that.’ And he said, ‘Nope, he lived to be a hundred and five by minding his own business.'”