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DALLAS – Veteran Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin calls the straw poll ballot at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) “the ultimate barometer of what’s going on in the conservative movement.”
McLaughlin and Associates, which conducted polling for former President Donald Trump’s successful 2016 election and unsuccessful 2020 re-election bid, will once again oversee the CPAC straw poll, this time at the confab in Dallas.
Former President Trump speaks at CPAC in Dallas July 11, 2021.
(Andy Jacobsohn/AFP via Getty Images)
The three-day conference concludes Saturday with the release of the straw poll results — including the highly anticipated 2024 Republican presidential nomination questions — followed by a keynote speech from the former president.
McLaughlin, who’s been attending CPAC for decades, told Fox News that “just like back in the old days when Ronald Reagan defined and was setting the tone for the conservative movement, it’s the same thing right now with Donald Trump.”
2024 WATCH: CPAC ATTENDEES CHOOSE FAVORITE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AS TRUMP, DESANTIS REMAIN POPULAR
As Fox News first reported last week, Trump’s name sits atop the GOP presidential nomination straw poll ballot, above the names of 20 other Republicans considered potential White House contenders in the 2024 election.
The 2024 straw poll includes a second list without Trump. The former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., takes his place in the first spot on the ballot in the second 2024 question. Both ballot questions allow for respondents to write in the name of a potential candidate not listed and also allow for those voting to say they are undecided.
The former president, who remains the most popular and influential politician in the Republican Party, continues to play a kingmaker’s role in GOP primaries and who for a year and a half has repeatedly teased another White House run in 2024, won 55% support in the straw poll conducted at the 2021 CPAC in Orlando, Florida. His support jumped to 70% in the 2024 straw poll conducted at last summer’s CPAC in Texas. Trump captured 59% of ballots cast in the anonymous online straw poll at the CPAC Orlando gathering in February.
Former Vice President Mike Pence gives a speech on the stage of the Varkert Bazar cultural center in Budapest Sept. 23, 2021.
(Attila Kisbendek/AFP via Getty Images)
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