Polling
In polling conducted at the Utah GOP convention on June 9, 2007, Paul placed second behind Mitt Romney. Paul also placed second in the straw poll conducted at the National Taxpayers Union conference, following Fred Thompson. Ron Paul placed second, polling 17 percent, in a Cobb County GOP straw poll on July 4, 2007.
Ron Paul placed third in the Illinois Straw Poll on August 16, 2007, with 18.87 percent of the vote, polling just 0.4 percent behind undeclared candidate Fred Thompson. Paul won the similar West Alabama Republican Assembly 2007 Presidential Preference Straw Poll on August 18, 2007, capturing 216 of 266 votes (81 percent), ahead of second place Mitt Romney On August 18. Paul won the South Sound Ronald Reagan Republican Club's straw poll on August 21 in Snohomish County, Washington, with 30 percent of the vote, with Fred Thompson coming in second with 27 percent.
On November 20, 2007, Ron Paul finished fourth behind fellow Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson in a Zogby International "blind bio" poll of likely Republican voters. However, Paul was first when Democrats and Independents were included in the survey. The poll presented potential voters with descriptions of each candidate's resume rather than candidate names.
National polls conducted in January 2008 showed Paul with an average of just under 5% among Republican candidates.
Read more about this topic: Ron Paul Presidential Campaign, 2008