The results of the inaugural Oklahoma Republican Presidential Straw Poll were announced last night, and Ron Paul took the win in a landslide!  Here’s the official breakdown:

• Ron Paul: 46%
• Herman Cain: 25%
• Newt Gingrich: 17%
• Mitt Romney: 6%
• Rick Perry: 3%
• Michele Bachmann: 2%
• Rick Santorum: 1%
• Gary Johnson: <1%

The straw poll was held online for a 2-week period from Nov. 21 through Dec. 5.  This explains Cain’s 2nd place finish, since most of the voting took place prior to his announcement suspending his campaign.  Cain himself spoke at the “Victory Event,” but evidently declined to announce the straw poll results, leaving that task to Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman, Matt Pinnell.

KOCO, Channel 5 was on hand to cover Cain’s visit and the straw poll results.  Cain gets the lion’s share of the coverage in the segment that aired, but I did get an opportunity to comment on Ron Paul’s straw poll victory (at about the 1:20 mark).  Of course, they severely edited my statement, cutting me off in mid-sentence, leaving it unclear whether I am a Ron Paul supporter or critic: http://www.koco.com/video/29929586/detail.html

(Just so’s ya know, that sentence ended with,”but the crisis we’re facing in America is bigger than the solutions that have normally been tried, and Ron Paul is offering those bigger solutions.”)

These straw poll results are a fantastic demonstration of the grassroots support for the Champion of the Constitution deep in the reddest of the red states.  We need to seize this jump-start and continue building our momentum into the new year.  This straw poll victory puts a powerful tool in our hands: legitimacy.

In the 2007-8 campaign, we were a stealth operation, trying to fly under the radar of a vicious and bitter Republican Party establishment.  But this time is different.  We not only have the candidate with the principles other candidates can only dream of, we have the candidate who can win!  In the most recent NBC/Marist poll, Ron Paul is the only Republican who doesn’t trail Obama in a head-to-head matchup, even beating the President among independents and young voters.

Our task is to take these impressive poll numbers and make them a reality on election day.  How do we do that, you ask?  Well, a great way to continue building that all-important momentum is to have a huge turnout at the LiberTea Rally for Ron Paul coming up on Dec. 17.  This is a golden opportunity to show our fellow Okies that we are not just an online phenomenon, but that we are real, live, voting human beings whose numbers are only growing.  This will be your chance to meet fellow activists from around the state, pick up some Ron Paul swag, sign up for volunteer opportunities, and get inspired to win Oklahoma for Ron Paul!

The next priority is to get phone-banking and neighborhood canvassing up and running.  But, in order to do that, we need to buy some phones and door-hangers, which takes money.  Go here to donate to these crucial projects.

From there, we hit the phones and streets to build our numbers going into the local conventions, show up with a majority of Ron Paul Delegates, and send a slate of liberty-lovers to the national convention!  It’s not gonna be easy, but we have the will and the enthusiasm to take Oklahoma for Freedom!