Rand Paul wins CPAC presidential straw poll

Chris Moody
·Political Reporter

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is this year's winner of the Conservative Political Action Committee straw poll, an unscientific survey of conservative political activists attending the event.

Paul, whose father, Ron Paul, won the straw poll twice in recent years, secured 25 percent of the votes. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio came in second with 23 percent. The poll, which American Conservative Union President Al Cardenas described as "not scientific" but still "pretty cool," provides a brief snapshot of the thinking of a small group of conservative activists three years before the party's next primary elections.

The conference, the largest annual gathering of conservatives, was held Thursday through Saturday this week.