‘Corrupt’: Ramaswamy Says Consultant Promised Second-Place Finish in CPAC Poll for ‘a Few Hundred Thousand Dollars’

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Monday he was offered second place in the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll if he paid a consultant.

“One of the things you see as an outsider is how corrupt the system is. You know something funny about this? I’ve attended CPAC before. I didn’t know it works this way,” Ramaswamy told Fox Business host Stuart Varney. “A consultant calls my campaign shortly after I declared, says ‘Hey, we can get you up to number two on there if you pay us a few hundred thousand dollars.’ I was shocked, you know … there’s a lot of people making money not only off of me, but every presidential campaign.”

Read the full story

Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles Wins Marshall County GOP 5th Congressional District Straw Poll, Disqualified Candidates Allowed to Participate

Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles won the Marshall County Republican Party’s Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District straw poll by a commanding margin, a poll which was conducted during the party’s annual fundraising dinner Thursday night.

Marshall County Republican Chair Julie Quan allowed disqualified TN-5 candidates Robby Starbuck, Morgan Ortagus, and Baxter Lee to participate in the poll. In a Facebook post shared on Friday, Quan said that the former candidates would be included because the final plans for the event “were finalized prior to the changes by made the SEC.”

Read the full story

Trump Wins CPAC Poll While Support for DeSantis Grows

Former President Donald Trump won the CPAC 2022 straw poll for the 2024 presidential primary with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) coming in second.

The poll, conducted from Thursday to Sunday with 2,564 attendees, shows that 59% of people said they would vote for Trump in the 2024 primary. DeSantis has less than half the support of Trump, 28% as the second-highest-ranking primary candidate.

Read the full story

Diane Black Wins Davidson County GOP Straw Poll For Governor

Diane Black, Bill Lee, Randy Boyd

Gubernatorial candidate Diane Black won a straw poll at the Davidson County Republican Party picnic Saturday, a blog reported. U.S. Rep. Black (R-TN) received 116 votes in the governor’s primary straw poll, according to a blog called “A Disgruntled Republican in Nashville.” Rod Williams is the author. Second place went to Bill Lee, 106 votes. Other results were: Beth Harwell, 28 votes, Kay White, 11 votes and Randy Boyd, 2 votes. Williams says it appears many of the candidates brought their voters to the picnic at the Centennial Park event shelter. “Still, I was surprised that Randy Boyd only got two votes,” Williams said. About 300 people attended. Black spoke at the gathering, while other candidates’ representatives also spoke. The picnic straw poll is merely the latest forecasting in the Tennessee gubernatorial race. Boyd led Black by 32 percent to 27 percent among likely Republican gubernatorial primary voters in a Tennessee Star poll released June 29. The battle for the Republican nomination for governor is a three-way race, the poll showed, with Lee surging into a strong third position, with 20 percent. Harwell is no longer a factor in the Republican gubernatorial primary, coming in a distant fourth position with only 7…

Read the full story