Texas Congressman and GOP candidate Ron Paul won the Values Voter Summit straw poll over the weekend. The Values Voter Summit, which was held in Washington DC between October 7 and 9, featured a number of GOP candidates and conservatives. Paul won the Values Voter Summit straw poll with 37 percent of the votes. Pizza magnate Herman Cain came in second with 23 percent of the votes and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum finished in third with 16 percent of the votes. Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney earned less than 10 percent of the votes each.
On Monday, Paul followed up his Values Voter Summit straw poll win with a third place finish in a Harvard University Institute of Politics and New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College poll. Paul was one of only three candidates to pull in more than 10 percent of the votes in the poll.
Paul grabbed third place with 13 percent of the votes. Cain came in second with 20 percent of the votes and Romney took first with 38 percent of the votes. Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Gary Johnson and Rick Santorum finished with less than 6 percent of the votes. The poll was conducted between October 2 and 6 with 648 telephone participants. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Paul made news over the weekend when he defended Romney against the comments made by Perry-supporter Robert Jeffress at the Values Voter Summit. Speaking to reporters, Jeffress called Mormonism a “cult” and said that “Mormonism is not Christianity.” Speaking to Fox News, Paul said that Jeffress’ comments were “unnecessary” and added that “liberty is the issue of the day. Our Constitution is the issue of the day. And too much government – that is the issue of the day. It’s not the definition of a cult.”
Paul will join the other GOP candidates at Dartmouth College for a GOP debate on Tuesday night.
