Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), an official candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, will participate in CNN’s Tea Party debate at the Florida State Fairgrounds on Monday night. Last Wednesday, Paul sparred with Texas Governor Rick Perry over Perry’s HPV vaccine policy and a number of other issues at the Reagan Centennial debate in California.
Paul won a post-debate MSNBC online poll with 58.9 percent of the vote. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney grabbed 13.9 percent of the vote and Perry finished in third place with 11.8 percent of the vote. Paul managed to pull in 130,089 votes even though the focus of the debate was centered around the competition for frontrunner status between Romney and Perry.
Paul’s campaign has another poll to celebrate going into CNN’s Tea Party debate as the GOP candidate grabbed fourth place in the latest CNN poll with 12 percent of the vote. Perry took first with 30 percent of the vote and Romney remained in second with 18 percent of the vote. Sarah Palin, who may run for the Republican presidential nomination, took third place with 15 percent of the vote. Without Palin, Paul took third place with 13 percent of the vote.
Besides Perry and Romney, Paul beat out the rest of his competition by 7 percent or more. Paul’s support also increased by six percent from the CNN poll that was conducted between August 24-25, 2011.
In August, Paul also won a post-debate Iowa GOP poll hosted by Fox News. Paul grabbed first place with more than 50 percent of the vote. The Iowa GOP debate was marked by a sparring match between ex-GOP candidate Tim Pawlenty and Bachmann over health care and number of other issues.
The CNN poll was conducted between September 9-11, 2011 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
