Gubernatorial candidate George Brauchler won the Western Conservative Summit's straw poll of the conference's 3,500 attendees.
The Western Conservative Summit is held every year and serves as a weekend-long conference for conservative Coloradans to come together in pursuit of their political goals. The big news coming out of this year's Western Conservative Summit was the straw poll. Every year, the Summit asks attendees to vote on a number of issues. During the event two years ago, for example, the straw poll asked attendees which Republican Presidential candidate they preferred. This year, attendees were asked to choose which Gubernatorial candidate they preferred. In all, 26 candidates were on the straw poll ballot. The list included candidates that had formally announced and other Colorado figures long rumored to be considering entering the race, such as State Treasurer Walker Stapleton. Even with the crowded field, a clear favorite emerged. 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler won the straw poll with a resounding 38 percent.
Former state representative Victor Mitchell took second with 20 percent of the vote and Steve Barlock -- the Denver co-chair of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign -- came in third with seven percent. Undeclared Walker Stapleton came in fourth with six percent.
While the results are not scientific and are only representative of the 3,500 conservative activists who attended the conference, they show that Mr. Brauchler is the favorite among Colorado's conservative base at this point in the campaign.
When the news broke, the Brauchler campaign was quick to share the straw poll results with its followers, sharing a number of favorable articles on the news page of the campaign website. In an email to followers, the campaign touted that when the poll asked for approval numbers, the margin of victory was even bigger. 58 percent of the attendees responded that they viewed Brauchler favorably.
Brauchler's campaign manager, Ryan Lynch, used the victory to declare that "George Brauchler is the clear conservative choice for governor of Colorado."
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