We reported on Scott Walker’s impressive victory last weekend in Prince William County. Now comes results from Prince William’s neighbor to the south, Stafford County.[read_more]
Photo Credit: The Nation
In an informal 2016 presidential preference straw poll conducted at the monthly business meeting of the Stafford County Republican Committee on Monday, the roughly 70 assembled activists and elected officials expressed an overwhelming preference for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker over all other candidates.
As with last weekend’s straw poll in Prince William, the Stafford survey asked candidates to identify the three candidates they were most excited about supporting, and the three candidates that would they would be least enthusiastic about supporting. Scott Walker’s name was marked on the positive side of 69% of all ballots cast, and was the only name not to receive a single negative vote. His nearest challenger (unlike in Prince William) was Jeb Bush, who appeared on the positive side of 28% of the ballots…but who also showed up on the negative side a shocking 39% of the time.
Clearly Walker has struck a chord with ordinary Republicans, who tend to view him as a conservative without any label that would turn them off. He’s not “tea party” like Cruz or Carson, he’s not “establishment” like Bush or Christie, and so far he doesn’t appear to have any glaring weaknesses on policies like illegal immigration, taxes, or foreign policy. Time will tell if this endures (there’s already a building resistance to any sort of early coronation, with articles like “12 Reasons Why Conservatives Should Reject Scott Walker“), but it’s clear right now who our frontrunner is.
Take it with a grain of salt (especially given the small and completely unscientific sample), but it is obvious that few people (in Stafford at least) take Donald Trump or Sarah Palin seriously. The numbers plainly suggest that, with such huge negatives for Christie and Bush, there will be no easy path to the nomination for them. Carson is not a serious threat to anyone, which leaves only Walker, Paul, Rubio, and Cruz with any significant spread of positive support over negative opposition.
Full results below.
| MOST POPULAR | MOST UNPOPULAR | |||
| (Respondents were given three choices in each category; results reflect the percentage of ballots with the candidate’s name chosen) | ||||
| Rick Santorum | 2% | Donald Trump | 59% | |
| Donald Trump | 3% | Chris Christie | 55% | |
| Chris Christie | 5% | Jeb Bush | 39% | |
| Sarah Palin | 5% | Sarah Palin | 36% | |
| Carly Fiorina | 8% | Mike Huckabee | 16% | |
| Mike Pence | 8% | Ted Cruz | 14% | |
| John Kasich | 13% | Carly Fiorina | 13% | |
| Rick Perry | 13% | Rand Paul | 13% | |
| Trey Gowdy | 16% | Ben Carson | 8% | |
| Mike Huckabee | 16% | John Kasich | 8% | |
| Bobby Jindal | 19% | Trey Gowdy | 5% | |
| Ben Carson | 22% | Bobby Jindal | 5% | |
| Marco Rubio | 22% | Rick Santorum | 5% | |
| Rand Paul | 23% | Mike Pence | 3% | |
| Ted Cruz | 27% | Rick Perry | 3% | |
| Jeb Bush | 28% | Marco Rubio | 2% | |
| Scott Walker | 69% | Scott Walker | 0% | |
