Senator Marco Rubio has emerged as the first choice of conservative activists to join the Romney ticket as his running mate. Rubio beat out his closest rival in the poll by a 2 to 1 margin in the poll of over 500 attendees of a Political Action Committee meeting on Friday in Chicago.

The freshman lawmaker from Florida received over 30% of the votes from the PAC delegates. That was over twice the percentage that Chris Christies the Governor of New Jersey received whose total was 14.2%. Third place went to Paul Ryan a member of the House of Representatives from Wisconsin and the chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Little support was given to Rob Portman an Ohio Senator and Bob McDonnell the Governor of Virginia who were mentioned prominently recently as potential running mates for Romney. The two only received 2% each of the votes. Even Rick Santorum, who was a top rival to Romney until he dropped out of the race in April, received nearly 5% of the vote. The delegates at the PAC meeting that was American Conservative Union organized, were evenly divided on which quality was the most important in deciding upon a vice presidential running mate for Romney.

Just over 32% said Romney needed a VP who reaches out best to more conservatives. Over 27% said the top priority was a running mate who can help Romney run the country. Just less than 20% said Romney needed a running mate with national appeal politically, especially amongst independents, Democrats and minorities.