Former President Donald Trump was the clear frontrunner at local Republican straw polls in most of Mount Vernon, Bertram and Lisbon, held Monday, Jan. 15.
Winter weather impacted the location of the Lisbon caucus. Originally, the caucus was to be held in the Lisbon lunch room space. A broken water main due to extremely cold conditions over the weekend moved the location to the Lisbon Early Childcare Center gymnasium. Attendees were encouraged to park in the south parking lot near district offices and then walk to the LECC gym inside the school.
That relocation did not deter 96 people from voting in the straw poll. Trump got 49 votes in the poll. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had the second most votes at Lisbon, with 22. Nikki Haley had 20, while Vivek Ramaswamy three and Ryan Binkley two. No votes were reflected for Asa Hutchinson or Chris Christie.
Mount Vernon 1 had 87 total votes, with 36 recorded for Trump, 23 for Desantis, 21 for Haley, and 7 for Ramaswamy.
Mount Vernon 2 differed from other locations, with their 49 votes going to a different front leader, with Haley receiving 20. Desantis had 11, Trump 10, Ramaswamy seven and Hutchinson one.
Bertram Township had 142 votes total. Trump had 63, DeSantis 38, Haley 30 and Ramaswamy 11.
Statewide turnout was 110,298 for the straw poll, with Trump receiving 51 percent of the vote, with 56,520 votes. Desantis received 21.2 percent of the vote with 23,420 votes, Haley had 19.1 percent with 21,085 votes. Vivek Ramaswamy had 7.7 percent and 8,449 total votes. Ryan Binkley had 0.7 percent of the vote, with 774 votes statewide, Hutchinson with 0.2 percent of the vote with 191 statewide. Others clocked in with 0.1 percent of the vote and 84 total votes. Christie received a total of 35 votes overall.