Congressman Kevin Cramer Running His Own Presidential Straw Poll In North Dakota

With all the attention on the Iowa caucuses earlier this week, and the New Hampshire primaries this weekend, you may be wondering when North Dakotans will get a say on the presidential candidates.Well if you’re a Republican in North Dakota, you don’t really get a say as this KFYR story notes.

To address that issue, Congressman Kevin Cramer has launched a presidential straw poll of his own. He’s doing it online, and through his re-election campaign. You can read his campaign’s press release about it right here.

Full disclosure: Cramer’s campaign has purchased advertising for the straw poll on SAB, which you can see from the banner ads currently in circulation.

In the KFYR story Cramer said he’s looking to fill a gap left open by the state party, though it should be noted that when you vote in Cramer’s straw poll you’re also giving his campaign the information you provide (your email, name, etc.).

Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., thinks North Dakota should be getting some of that attention, especially with a limited number of votes in Congress.

“The place to play, if you will, the place to exert our influence, is in the presidential preference process. I believe a primary is the best way to do that with dignity and integrity,” Cramer said.

Because so many candidates get weeded out through the primary process, Cramer says the delegates North Dakota sends to the Republican National Convention (RNC) are powerless. By the time RNC rolls around, the winner is generally a foregone conclusion.

“So, to me, it’s sort of lazy democracy,” said Cramer.

In the article NDGOP chairman Kelly Armstrong notes that the party has done non-binding preference polls in the past, and that the state’s delegates have never been bound when sent to the national convention. He says RNC rules now require that such votes be binding, which is why the party isn’t holding one now.