Ron Paul Wins FreedomWorks GOP Presidential Straw Poll

Online Poll Receives a Staggering 16,371 Individually Validated Ballots

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FreedomWorks officially closed its Republican Presidential Straw Poll early this morning after 16,371 limited government conservatives cast their votes over 3 days of polling. Texas Representative Ron Paul won by a wide margin with 56 percent of the vote. Senator Fred Thompson snatched the second place position, with Duncan Hunter taking third. The FreedomWorks Straw Poll provides the most complete view of the limited government movement heading into the Iowa Straw Poll on August 11th. For complete results, visit http://www.freedomworks.org/strawpoll

FreedomWorks launched this Straw Poll to gauge the opinions of the economic conservative community. The Straw Poll was open to the grassroots community from July 31 to August 2 on the FreedomWorks web site. Voters had a choice of one of the eleven current and likely future candidates in the race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008.

The FreedomWorks GOP Straw Poll was engineered to allow for only one vote per e-mail address, and all email addresses had to be validated to count in the poll, making it one of the most accurate online polls.

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe commented:

"FreedomWorks would like to thank all 16,371 Straw Poll participants for taking the time to vote for their candidate. We congratulate Ron Paul on his victory, and hope the Straw Poll raises awareness of limited government issues in the ’08 race. One of the more interesting untold stories of the current primary is how well organized and enthusiastic Ron Paul and Fred Thompson supporters are online.”

The Straw Poll is an early part of FreedomWorks’ overall 2008 voter education effort. FreedomWorks activists have already intercepted candidates in key primary states. In addition, activists are passing out the FreedomWorks 2008 Presidential Candidate Survey to get candidates on the record on key issues such as regulation, entitlement reform and taxes.

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey has personally visited with most of the GOP candidates in recent months to discuss how the big ideas of the Freedom Agenda made conservatives successful in the 1990’s.

FreedomWorks will also sponsor a Straw Poll for the Democrat field from August 7 to 9. This poll will provide an interesting view of how fiscal conservatives view the Democrat candidates on economic and limited government issues.