Firebrand U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has easily won a 2016 presidential straw poll at the state Republican Convention in his native Texas.
Cruz took 43 percent of the vote Saturday, at a gathering in Fort Worth featuring roughly 7,000 delegates. Conservative speaker and author Ben Carson was second with 12.2 percent.
The result was announced a day after Cruz promised to lead a national conservative revolution unseen since the days of Ronald Reagan.
Cruz easily bested Texas Gov. Rick Perry who took 11.7 percent, and fellow tea party favorite and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who won 12.1 percent.
Perry also addressed the convention as did Paul, who was born in Texas and whose father Ron long-served in Congress from the state.
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