Perry's In, Pawlenty's Out, and Bachmann Wins the Iowa Straw Poll

The Iowa Straw Poll took place on August 13th, 2011. To no surprise, Michele Bachmann came out very well; she got the most votes in the Straw Poll. What's interesting is that Bachmann bought and gave out over 6,000 tickets ($30 per ticket). In the end, however, she only received 4,823 votes (80% of the votes she bought).

Ron Paul, who was once an annoyance, has finally started talking about social issues, the issues that most people care about. After switching his issues from economy to social, he received an astounding 4,671 votes (28%) in the poll, making him one of the leading candidates in the GOP.

Although Tim Pawlenty received third highest number of votes in the poll, the next day he announced that he will be ending his campaign for president, saying that "the audience was looking for something different."

Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, has announced on the day of the Straw Poll that he will be running for president. Surprisingly, he received 718 write-in votes (3.6%). This might have had something to do with Stephen Colbert's advertisements for "Rick Parry."

More information on the 2011 Iowa Straw Poll can be found here.