Ted Cruz smiles while listening to his introduction at a campaign event on Jan. 29, 2016, in Emmetsburg, Iowa. | AP Photo Cruz wins Senate Conservatives Fund straw poll More than 20,000 ballots were cast.

Sen. Ted Cruz won the Senate Conservatives Fund's 2016 presidential straw poll with 65 percent of the vote, beating out real estate mogul Donald Trump by a wide margin.

The conservative group polled its members on Saturday on the Republican candidates in the 2016 presidential primary. In an email to members obtained by POLITICO, the SCF said that Cruz won by a wide margin with 65 percent of the vote, followed by Trump with 25 percent, Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 3.44 percent, and Sen. Marco Rubio with 3.11 percent.


"The strong showing by Cruz appears to track with what we're seeing in the presidential race at large where the grassroots are uniting behind Cruz, while he is splitting some anti-establishment voters with Trump," SCF President Ken Cuccinelli said in announcing the result.

More than 20,000 ballots were cast in the straw poll, Cuccinelli said.

Cuccinelli, who endorsed Cruz in December, added that the fund did not plan to endorse in the primary, but the results did signal something important.

"While SCF does not plan to endorse a candidate in this race, these results should encourage all of us to keep fighting for principled candidates in the Senate and House races who will stand up to the Washington establishment," Cuccinelli continued.

The SCF has long been supportive of Cruz and was one of the main groups backing his push to defund the Affordable Care Act, resulting in a weeks-long government shutdown in October 2013.