US vice president JD Vance is the Conservative Political Action Conference‘s top choice this year for the next US president, according to a straw poll released on Saturday.
About 53 per cent of attendees who voted in the poll at this year’s CPAC convention chose Vance. secretary of state Marco Rubio came in second with 35 per cent at CPAC, a key gathering for Republican lawmakers, activists and presidential hopefuls.
CPAC, which is holding this year’s event in Grapevine, Texas, draws heavily from the Republican Party’s conservative wing. Its annual straw poll is not necessarily a reliable predictor of the eventual nominee.
But the poll offers a snapshot of where the energy currently lies among core supporters of president Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. Trump, currently serving his second term, is not eligible to run again in 2028.