A recent ConservativeHQ Presidential Straw Poll indicates that the popularity of GOP elite candidates is waning.

The top two limited government conservatives Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) out polled the top two establishment Republicans by 25% held at the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2014.*

Rand Paul took a lead early on and sustained at least a nine percent edge over second place during the duration of the poll. Paul finished in first place with 29% of the vote -- a healthy twelve-point lead over Ted Cruz. The libertarian-leaning Paul clearly resonated with the audience.

Rounding out the top five in our poll were New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (9%) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (8%).

Limited government conservatives Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and Scott Walker outperformed establishment candidates by 36%. Rand Paul bested Jeb Bush by a whopping 27%. In fact, Cruz, Carson, Walker, and Ryan all polled higher than Bush. Conservative Gov. Scott Walker came in at seventh place with 6%, yet he beat out Rep. Paul Ryan by 3%. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal tied for last place with Jeb Bush.

Establishment candidates Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush only garnered 21% of the votes. Christie weighed in at fourth place with only 9%.

Following are the complete results for the ConservativeHQ Presidential Straw Poll taken at CPAC 2014. A total of 717 conservatives participated in the poll.

Rand Paul: 29%

Ted Cruz: 12%

Ben Carson: 12%

Chris Christie: 9%

Rick Santorum: 8%

Marco Rubio: 7%

Scott Walker: 6%

Paul Ryan: 3%

Jeb Bush: 2%

Bobby Jindal: 2%

*The CHQ poll was separate from, and not to be confused with, the official CPAC presidential poll.