page_title: 2012 United States presidential election in Iowa
section_title: Ames Straw Poll
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 United States presidential election in Iowa / Republican caucuses / Campaign / Ames Straw Poll
caption_attribution_description: English: Michele Bachmann at the w:en:Ames Straw Poll in Ames, Iowa.
context_page_description: The 2012 United States presidential election in Iowa took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Iowa voters chose six electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan.
  Obama won Iowa with 51.99% of the vote to Romney's 46.18%, a Democratic victory margin of 5.81%. The result being closer than 2008, Romney picked up wins in several counties that Obama had won in 2008, although one county flipped in the opposite direction, with Obama narrowly winning Woodbury County in 2012 after narrowly losing it in 2008. The state would turn Republican in 2016.
context_section_description: As the Ames Straw Poll approached in August 2011, visits and spending by the campaigns dramatically increased. Several candidates, including Bachmann, Congressman Ron Paul, former Senator Rick Santorum, Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, former Governor Tim Pawlenty, and businessman Herman Cain made bids for spots to compete at the straw poll. Congressman Paul bid the most, and was awarded the prime spot at the straw poll, which Mitt Romney occupied in 2007, and eventually led to his victory.
  A representative for Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was also present, but due to his campaign facing large amounts of debt,  did not place a bid, and was not given a spot at the straw poll. The rest of the candidates who did place a bid spent millions attempting to win the poll, with Bachmann, Paul and Pawlenty spending the most money, performing various get out the vote efforts, and visiting the state dozens of times in the weeks leading up to the straw poll.
  Two days before the straw poll, the third official Republican debate was held at Iowa State University in Ames, sponsored by the Republican Party of Iowa, Fox News, and The Washington Examiner. Candidates participating in the debate included Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum. The debate was noted for the sparring between Bachmann and Pawlenty, with Pawlenty criticized Bachmann for what he said was a lack of leadership, while Bachmann fired back that Pawlenty's support for cap and trade legislation and the individual mandate while governor of Minnesota made his record look like Obama's.
  Gingrich criticized Wallace by saying he was asking "gotcha questions" instead of legitimate questions. Romney responded to criticisms of his Massachusetts health care reform, and its similarity to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, termed "Obamacare" by its opponent. Santorum stated his view that same-sex marriage is not a state issue, because the 10th Amendment "does not give states the right to trample over moral law." Romney agreed that it is a federal issue, reasoning that people move to different states and that marriage is a status, not an activity that takes place within the walls of a state. Huntsman and Paul reiterated their support for civil unions.
  On Saturday, August 13, 2011, the straw poll was conducted on the campus of Iowa State University at the Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa, with Bachmann narrowly defeating Paul, and former Governor Tim Pawlenty in third place. The 2011 straw poll had the second highest turnout in history, second only to 1999 straw poll, when then-Governor George W. Bush won in a landslide. Governor Rick Perry, who announced the day of the straw poll in South Carolina, but whose name did not appear on the ballot, received a significant amount of write-in votes, placing in sixth. Other non-participating candidates, such as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and former Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, performed poorly in the straw poll, placing a distant seventh, eighth, and ninth respectively.
caption: Michele Bachmann speaking at the Ames Straw Poll on August 13, 2011.
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