Obviously the following is all predicated on Romney losing to Obama in November. Seeing as the primary season will begin basically in February or March of 2015, we have about 2 and a half years before a potential Rand Paul 2016 run. We as a grassroots, to prepare for this, must be sure to set the perception that Rand Paul is THE frontrunner in any way we possibly can. This means, in part, winning straw polls. We may be infamous for it, but the straw poll launched Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum (People don't realize it, but his 4th helped him a lot) and a few others. Winning straw polls helps our perception and ignites our grassroots base. I will keep a master list here of the important ones (in chronological order) added by all of you brilliant people, as I can only think of a couple. For now we will focus on 2013, as CPAC and SRLC for example have conferences every year that have straw polls.



CPAC 2013 (March 14-16, 2013)-This will be the first major gathering of republicans following Romney's loss to Obama. This may actually be the most important CPAC to win of any of them, because it will set the tone for the future of how conservatism will be defined in this election cycle and beyond. A convincing win by Rand at CPAC 2013 would create the buzz that the "Paul" movement (as they will call us, despite it being about liberty not Ron or Rand) is gaining steam in the aftermath of the moderates going down. Our biggest competitors here are likely to be Christie, Ryan, Rubio and Palin.

SRLC 2013 (June 2013)- This is less important then CPAC, but showing strength in the south is an area where Ron struggled that we can improve upon. It is also very important to continue the media narrative that we are winning straw polls, gaining momentum and building towards 2016.

Iowa Straw Poll (August 2015)- I know it's not 2013, but any straw poll thread that doesn't include the grand daddy of all straw polls is missing the point! This is obviously a must win for us, and it should be a win that we can accomplish with our organizational prowess. I also think we need to learn from Bachmann last time and raise some money to hire some first class entertainment for our tent, energizing even our less hardcore supporters to come out!