Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann won the Iowa Republican presidential straw poll on Saturday, edging out Ron Paul, the Libertarian Texas congressman and quadrennial White House hopeful.
Former two-term Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty finished a distant third, capturing less than half of the totals brought in by the top two finishers.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was not on the ballot, ended up in sixth place with 718 votes, besting Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and Thaddeus McCotter.
Romney and Huntsman were on the ballot, but did not actively compete.
The results are a victory for the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party and make Pawlenty's way forward uncertain.
"You can never count anybody out, but that's a big comeback," said Republican strategist John Stineman, who is not aligned with any campaign. "Pawlenty's going to have to reevaluate his strategy."
Bachmann's vote haul was the third highest in straw poll history, and Paul's the fourth highest. Then-candidate George W. Bush pulled in 7,418 in 1999; and Romney got 4,516 votes in 2007, when he won the straw poll.
The poll results, and Perry's jump Saturday into the party's presidential nomination race, are expected to firm up the party's top tier presidential candidates.
Here are the results out of a total of 16,892 votes:
Michele Bachmann, 4,823
Ron Paul, 4,671
Tim Pawlenty, 2,293
Rick Santorum, 1,657
Herman Cain, 1,456
Rick Perry, 768
Mitt Romney, 567
Newt Gingrich, 385
Jon Huntsman, 69
Thad McCotter, 35
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