Sen. Rand Paul/photo from his website
So early on in the race, it's hard to attach a lot of significance to polls. Then again, there's not much else to gauge progress at this point.
With that in mind, Chad Livengood, and Melissa Nann Burke report that Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul won a presidential straw poll at this weekend’s Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference. He captured 22 percent of the vote among 16 candidates.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina came in second with 15 percent, followed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich in third place with 13.8 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in fourth with 13 percent in The Detroit News/MIRS presidential straw poll.
The Detroit News reports that Jeb Bush finished fifth in the straw poll with 9.7 percent of the 785 registered conference attendees who voted.
The News reports that the Paul campaign saw the straw poll as a sign that the candidate is still alive despite anemic results in national polls.
The News poll comes as CNN reports that Carly Fiorina has moved into second place among Republican presidential candidates in a CNN/ORC poll. That poll shows Donald Trump has lost some support, but remains the top contender.
