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Brett Neely

Bachmann takes 5th place in Values Voter straw poll

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WASHINGTON - Michele Bachmann's bid for the GOP presidential nomination took another blow today when she took 5th place in the straw poll at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC.

The gathering of religious conservatives represents the kind of voters Bachmann has relied upon throughout her career. Bachmann garnered 8 percent support with 157 votes cast in her favor, putting her far behind the winner, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who drew 37 percent support with 732 votes.

Second place went to former pizza magnate Herman Cain, who had 23 percent of the votes and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) took third place. Bachmann placed behind the fourth place winner, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose entrance into the campaign marked the beginning of Bachmann's declining fortunes.

In a sign of how badly her campaign wanted a win from this straw poll, Bachmann asked attendees for their vote during her address to the summit Friday evening, something none of the other presidential candidates in attendance did.

Bachmann can draw one consolation from the results: she came in ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the apparent front runner in the race who's viewed with suspicion by social conservatives for past expressing some support for abortion and same-sex unions. Romney drew just four percent support from those who voted at the convention.

CORRECTION An earlier version of this post put Bachmann at fourth place before detailed results from the poll came out. Bachmann actually placed fifth.

The full results are below:

Votes Percentage

Michele Bachmann 157 8%

Herman Cain 447 23%

Newt Gingrich 54 3%

Jon Huntsman 2 0%

Ron Paul 732 37%

Rick Perry 167 8%

Mitt Romney 88 4%

Rick Santorum 323 16%

Undecided 13 1%