Trump Wins Nashville Grassroots Straw Poll With 52 Percent

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presid...th-52-percent/

Trump Wins Nashville Grassroots Straw Poll With 52 Percent

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — After delivering an energetic 50 minute speech using no notes or teleprompter, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump easily won a presidential straw poll conducted at the annual convention of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, garnering 52 percent of the votes cast.

Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) finished second with 24 percent, and Dr. Ben Carson, another political outsider and Tea Party friend, finished behind Cruz in third.

The overflowing crowd of more than 1,000 attendees displayed a number of Trump signs, which they waved with enthusiasm . In his speech, Trump focused on his theme of making America great again through common sense, strength, and negotiations.

Trump showed a flair for personalizing his message, referring repeatedly to a new supporter, a 92-year-old woman in the audience, who told him that she was so impressed with his message that she had decided, for the first time in her life, that she would register to vote.

“And she’s going to vote for, me, I think!” Trump said.

Trump began his speech by praising the Tea Party movement.

“You have not been treated fairly. You know, people talk about the tea party, and you talk about marginalized? At least I have a microphone where I can fight back. You people don’t,” Trump told the enthusiastic crowd.

“The tea party people are incredible people,” Trump added.”These are people who work hard and love the country and they get beat up all the time by the media.”

Trump delighted the crowd with his frequent use of colorful phrases.

“I don’t want it to be about me. This is about common sense,” Trump said.

“Normally I wouldn’t say this, but I need your frickin’ votes!” he added as he smiled broadly.

The crowd seemed to appreciate his down-to-earth language and straightforward message.

Trump promised to “repeal and replace Obamacare.” He also criticized President Obama as a weak leader.

“Obama never read [my book] the Art of Deal,” he said.

Obama does not know how to negotiate, and that weakness is apparent, Trump said, especially in his dealings with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who clearly neither fears nor respects Obama.

The real estate billionaire also criticized Ford Motor Company for its recent decision to locate a new car manufacturing plant in Mexico, rather than Tennessee, which currently has a strong car manufacturing industry with three major companies — General Motors, Nissan, and Volkswagen — that currently have plants in the state.

Trump seems to be connecting with voters in ways the other Republican candidates are not.

When they attend the rallies of other candidates, they often emerge saying “yes, I agree with that.”

It’s different with Trump.

Voters, at least at the moment, seem to come out saying, “I want to go where he’s leading.”

The key question is whether Trump can maintain the momentum for his campaign that has swept him to the lead among GOP primary voters over the past two months all the way to the Republican convention in Cleveland, ten months from now in June 2016.

GO TRUMP! Thank you Nashville!

Donald Trump wins GOP straw poll after spirited speech in Nashville

08/29/15 04:13 PM—Updated 08/29/15 04:18 PM

By Ali Vitali



NASHVILLE, Tenn. – He’s hired.

Donald Trump handily won the straw poll at the National Federal of Republican Assemblies event in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, becoming both the first and second top pick among conservatives here after delivering another boisterous speech.

“I need your frickin’ votes!”
Donald Trump

“I don’t want it to be about me. This is about common sense,” Trump said, even as he extolled his surging numbers. “Normally I wouldn’t say this, but I need your frickin’ votes!” he exclaimed at another point.

A few hours after addressing a cheering crowd of about 800, Trump was declared the first choice Republican presidential candidate with 52% of the vote, as well as the top pick for attendees’ second choice, with 26%. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson were the second and third choices, respectively, in the NFRA straw poll for first and second-choice candidates.

While straw polls are not known for their scientific specificity or methodology, Saturday’s result is just the latest in a series of successes at the polls for Trump, who on Saturday called his candidacy “a movement” and his supporters “a silent majority.”

“The Republican party has been treating me very, very fairly,” Trump told reporters after his speech Saturday, responding to a question about whether the billionaire businessman would mount a third party run if he fails to secure the Republican nomination. “In terms of victory, that would certainly be the best path to victory and we’re going to make a decision very soon, and I think a lot of people are going to be very happy.”

States like South Carolina, where Trump attended an event on Thursday, mandate that Republican candidates sign pledges to support the eventual GOP nominee when the file for the state’s primary. In Greenville, S.C., Trump told media, “we’ll we have plenty of time to think about it.”

But while he demurred on questions of an independent candidacy, he was forceful when it came to defending comments he made Friday about one of Hillary Clinton’s top aides, Huma Abedin.

“I think it’s a very dangerous thing when she is the receiver of so much of this very important information and she’s married to guy that obviously is psychologically disturbed,” Trump said, doubling down on previous remarks about Abedin’s husband, sex scandal-plagued former Congressman Anthony Weiner.

“So how can she be married to this guy who’s got these major problems? She’s getting her most important information, it could be, in the world. Who knows what he’s going to do with it?” he continued. “What she did is a very dangerous thing for this country, and probably it’s a criminal act.”

Trump had warmer words for fellow Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, whose once-low polling puts her in danger of being excluded from an upcoming CNN debate despite surging support.

“I think it’s a shame that Carly is not on stage because from time of the last debate till now, she’s doing better than some of the people that are on stage,” he said. “In fairness, I would like to see Carly on stage over some of the people that really have not done as well during this shorter period of time.”

That was a nice article covering the event by MSNBC. Surprising.

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