The Texas Straw Poll is a straw poll

Straw poll

A straw poll or straw vote is a vote with nonbinding results. Straw polls provide dialogue among movements within large groups, reflecting trends like organization and motivation...

 for the United States Republican presidential primary elections that was started in 2007 through promotion by Townhall.com

Townhall.com

Townhall.com is a web-based publication primarily dedicated to conservative United States politics. It was previously operated by the Heritage Foundation, but is now owned and operated by Salem Communications...

. The first poll was held on Saturday, September 1, 2007, in Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

. Voters in the first poll were required to have been a delegate or alternate to a previous Texas Republican Party Convention in the past four years or a delegate from Texas to either of the previous two Republican National Conventions. As with all straw polls, the results are not binding.

2007 poll

Duncan Hunter

Duncan Hunter

Duncan Lee Hunter is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the House of Representatives from California's 52nd, 45th and 42nd districts from 1981 to 2009....

 won the 2007 poll with 534 votes, 41.1 percent. Fred Thompson and Ron Paul

Ron Paul

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...

 finished second and third, respectively. Thompson took in 266 votes (20.5 percent) and Paul easily took 217 votes (16.7 percent). At the time, Thompson had not formally announced his candidacy.

The following candidates received a much smaller percentage of the delegate votes: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee

Michael "Mike" Dale Huckabee is an American politician who served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, finishing second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won . He won...

, 6.4 percent (83 votes); former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani

Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....

, 6 percent (78 votes); former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney

Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...

, 4.7 percent (61 votes); Georgia mechanical engineer Ray McKinney

Ray McKinney

Raymond Louis "Ray" McKinney is a mechanical services manager from Savannah, Georgia, and was the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress from Georgia's 12th District in 2010. He was a candidate for U.S...

, 2.2 percent (28 votes); Illinois lawyer John H. Cox

John H. Cox

John Herman Cox is an American lawyer, accountant, businessman, broadcaster, and aspiring politician. He was the first Republican to seek formally the party's 2008 nomination for president, but effectively withdrew from the race in late 2007 and suspended his campaign shortly after.-Biography:Born...

, 0.77 percent (10 votes); Sen. John McCain

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

 of Arizona, 0.62 percent (eight votes); Sen. Sam Brownback

Sam Brownback

Samuel Dale "Sam" Brownback is the 46th and current Governor of Kansas. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1996 to 2011, and as a U.S. Representative for Kansas's 2nd congressional district from 1995 to 1996...

 of Kansas, 0.46 percent (six votes); Rep. Tom Tancredo

Tom Tancredo

Thomas Gerard "Tom" Tancredo is an American politician from Colorado, who represented the state's sixth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009, as a Republican...

 of Colorado, 0.46 percent (six votes); and Alabama psychiatrist Hugh Cort, 0.23 percent (three votes).

Candidates Cort, Cox, Hunter, McKinney and Paul attended the straw poll and addressed the delegation.

The 2011 poll was canceled due to a lack of interest.