Ted Cruz Winning Isn’t Most Shocking Thing About Values Voter Straw Poll

Conservatives decided Ted Cruz is their choice to be the next president in the 2014 annual Values Voter straw poll. What’s shocking is who came in second. 

Radical religious conservatives at this weekend’s annual Values Voter Summit chose Ted Cruz as their standard bearer. The son of an anti-gay anti-science anti-women Christian pastor, Cruz’s embrace of religious rhetoric and his habitual grenade-throwing has endeared him to the Christian conservative crowd.

So what’s shocking?

LOOK: LGBT Advocates Ask RNC: ‘Where Does The GOP Stand On Gay Bashing?’

First, Cruz garnered a mere 25 percent of the poll, just 228 votes. Last year the Texas Tea Party Senator won nearly twice as much – 42 percent.

That exposes a great divide this year in the religious conservative crowd.

Second, Dr. Ben Carson, the man who equates gay people with pedophiles from NAMBLA, came in second, with nearly 20 percent of the vote. That says a lot more than Cruz coming in first.

Carson, by the way, last month formed a presidential run exploratory committee. He believes white liberals are “the most racist” people in America, and abortion is “human sacrifice.”

WATCH: Sarah Palin Promises To Bring ‘Truth’ To ‘1400 Pennsylvania Avenue’ (Video)

It says the GOP, at least the religious right, wants some new blood, that they’re dissatisfied with the Republican pack.

(Touché, by the way, to the one person who voted for Hillary Clinton.)

Straw poll voters also said their top priority was “protecting religious liberty.” Second-most important was fighting abortion, followed by “protecting natural marriage.”

Responses on Twitter:

The results, via FRC Action:

 

Image of Ted Cruz by Gage Skidmore via Flickr