Former former Godfather’s Pizza chief executive Herman Cain surprised Texas Governor Rick Perry with an upset victory on Saturday in a Republican presidential straw poll in Florida, dealing a disappointing loss to Perry two days after a shaky debate performance.
Perry, leading in the polls for the next year’s US Republican presidential nomination to run against Democratic US President Barack Obama, needed a victory in what was an early test of strength to salve the wounds left from a debate with his rivals on Thursday in which he struggled.
Instead, Cain, who is far behind the two top-tier candidates Perry and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in national polls, won with 37 percent of 2,657 votes cast.
Perry was a distant second at 15 percent, just ahead of Romney, who won 14 percent despite not participating in the poll. Further back were former US senator Rick Santorum, US Representative Ron Paul, former US House speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman and US -Representative Michele Bachmann.
Florida’s straw poll is nonbinding and significant only in terms of showing a candidate’s strength in the state. State contests to pick the nominee do not start until next year.
The Perry camp shrugged off the results.
“Cain won, we still have work to do,” Perry spokesman Mark Miner said.
“It’s his day. The conservative message won today. We’ve been in this race for five weeks. We’re going to continue campaigning hard,” he said.
Miner put the focus on Romney’s third-place finish, saying Perry’s chief rival has been running for president for years and is still not breaking through.
“It’s more of what happened to Mitt Romney. He’s not going to be crowned president of the United States. He’s going to have to work for it. And after five-and-a-half years, he once again got rejected in a key state in the Republican primary process,” Miner said.
Perry created doubts among some conservatives at a Republican candidates debate on Thursday, which he said on Friday was not his best performance. He was criticized by his rivals for a Texas policy that allows children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at Texas colleges.
“Perry doesn’t stand for our constitutional values,” said delegate Kris Anne Hall, who voted for Cain. “Perry doesn’t stand up against illegal immigration.”
Perry surrogate Michael Williams, addressing the straw poll delegates on Saturday before the vote, sought to do some damage control for the Texas governor, who had addressed an Orlando breakfast earlier before campaigning in Michigan.
“We’re not electing a debater-in-chief, we’re electing a commander-in-chief,” said Williams, adding that no Texas illegal immigrant had received a handout for a free education.
Cain, who promotes himself as a pragmatic problem-solver with a clear tax reform plan, eagerly welcomed the victory.
“This is a sign of our growing momentum and my candidacy that cannot be ignored,” Cain said after his win.
Most political analysts give him no chance of winning the nomination.
However, Florida’s Republican Party noted that, since 1979, every winner of the Florida straw poll has gone on to become the nominee. Senator John McCain won it in the 2008 cycle and defeated Romney to become the nominee.
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