The New Hampshire Straw Poll is a straw poll for the United States Republican presidential primary elections that was started in 2011 through promotion by

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

and

WMUR-TV WMUR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Manchester, New Hampshire, United States, broadcasting ABC programming to most of New Hampshire. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on South Commercial Street in do ...

. The first poll was held on Saturday, January 22, 2011, in Derry, New Hampshire, a year in advance of the New Hampshire primary, which as is traditional will be the first primary in the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination process. Voters in the poll were among some 400 members of the state Republican Party attending a meeting at the

Pinkerton Academy Pinkerton Academy is a secondary school in Derry, New Hampshire, United States. It serves roughly 3,269 students, making it by far the largest high school in New Hampshire, more than 1,300 students greater than the Nashua High School South, next ...

in Derry. As with all straw polls, the results are in no way binding.

2011 poll

Mitt Romney won the 2011 poll with 35 percent of the vote. Second was Ron Paul with 11 percent, and third place was taken by

Tim Pawlenty Timothy James Pawlenty (; born November 27, 1960) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 39th governor of Minnesota from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party, Pawlenty served in the Minnesota House o ...

with 8 percent. They were followed by Sarah Palin with 7 percent and

Michele Bachmann Michele Marie Bachmann (; née Amble; born April 6, 1956) is an American politician who was the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 2007 until 2015. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

and

Jim DeMint James Warren DeMint (born September 2, 1951) is an American political advocate, businessman, author, and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from South Carolina and as president of the Heritage Foundation. DeMint is a member ...

with 5 percent each. Those with less than that included Herman Cain,

Rick Santorum Richard John Santorum ( ; born May 10, 1958) is an American politician, attorney, and political commentator. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007 and was the Senate's third ...

Mitch Daniels Mitchell Elias Daniels Jr. (born April 7, 1949) is an American academic administrator, businessman, author, and retired politician. A Republican, Daniels served as the 49th governor of Indiana from 2005 to 2013. Since 2013, Daniels has been pr ...

, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Mike Pence, and a number of others. Romney had been expected to win, based upon his geographical proximity to the state. Of the contenders, only Romney, Pawlenty, and Santorum had spent a lot of time in New Hampshire in the months preceding the straw poll, and only Cain was at the time an actual declared candidate.

2011 poll

Results

References

External links