OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
Over 2,000 conservatives appearing at the annual CPAC conference picked their favorite potential 2024 Republican Party nominee — and Donald Trump won by a landslide.
Trump received 62 percent of the vote. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in 2nd place after Trump with 20 percent of the vote.
Something else caught everyone’s eye: Kari Lake emerged as the leading favorite for Trump’s potential vice presidential pick. She received 20 percent of the vote.
BREAKING: Out of 30 contenders, @KariLake wins @CPAC straw poll for Vice President.
We’re flattered, but unfortunately our legal team says the Constitution won’t allow for her to serve as Governor and VP at the same time. pic.twitter.com/gFV3z3wtxB
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) March 4, 2023
DeSantis came in second as the choice for vice president of 14 percent of the vote.
DeSantis hasn’t announced whether he is running and he did not attend the CPAC conference.
Kari Lake recently lost as the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona. She is fighting in Arizona’s Supreme Court over the results of the November election.
Trump is officially back, dominates CPAC straw poll and delivers RED HOT speech: ‘I am your retribution’ https://t.co/6AjReRiIBS pic.twitter.com/mIgAcJ84Fb
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) March 5, 2023
Lake has been a vocal Trump supporter and has successfully exposed the recent failures of the voting machines in Arizona’s largest county.
Last week, somebody came to her house and tried to buy @KariLake out of politics.
But @KariLake can't be bought.
"There is no price that I would sell out my country for." pic.twitter.com/QGIccw1gLC
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) March 4, 2023
More on this story via Western Journal:
Finishing third was Michigan businessman Perry Johnson with 5 percent, according to Fox. Johnson only announced his bid for the GOP nomination on Thursday, hours after speaking at CPAC, according to The Associated Press.
Rounding out the top five were former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley at 3 percent, according to the Washington Examiner, and former pharmaceutical executive Vivek Ramaswamy. For the ethnic bean counters on the left, that makes a man and a woman who are offspring of immigrants from India who are in the conversation for the Republican nomination for president.
Both Haley and Ramaswamy spoke to the CPAC audience before Saturday’s polling. DeSantis skipped the CPAC gathering entirely in favor of a conference of the conservative Club for Growth in Palm Beach, Florida. (The fact that Trump was not invited to Club for Growth, according to Fox, is a sign of the divisions the party is facing.)
Trump has been the dominant candidate at CPAC for years, but the results of this year’s polling are noteworthy since they are coming after a year of ever-rising persecution from the supposedly nonpartisan DOJ.
