Herman Cain (left) won a polll at the summit itself; Ron Paul won a larger online survey. | AP Photos Cain, Paul win tea party straw polls

Herman Cain and Ron Paul won a pair of tea party straw polls Sunday, a show of strength among grassroots activists for the long-shot presidential hopefuls.

Each captured a different straw poll at the close of the Tea Party Patriots policy summit in Phoenix. Paul, the longtime Texas congressman, easily won a larger online poll of tea party activists with 49 percent of the vote, followed by 12 percent for Cain and 9 percent for Sarah Palin. Cain, the Atlanta businessman, won the straw poll of activists taken at the summit itself, taking 22 percent of the vote. Tim Pawlenty won 16 percent of the vote in that poll, and Ron Paul had 15 percent.


Cain, Pawlenty and Paul all addressed the summit over the weekend. It was just the latest straw poll win for Paul, whose supporters have become savvy at engineering straw poll wins and powered him to another victory in the recent CPAC poll.

Pawlenty nabbed a major speaking slot at the summit Saturday, and his fiery speech amounted to one of his first pitches to the conservative movement on a national level.