Republican Walker Stapleton won a straw poll conducted Thursday night at the conclusion of a GOP gubernatorial candidate forum in Grand Junction.

The state treasurer pulled about 45 percent of the vote in a field that included former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and businessmen Victor Mitchell and Doug Robinson, although it was former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez who ran second in the results.

The forum was sponsored by the Mesa County Republicans. The local ABC affiliate KJCT was on the scene.

Out of 78 votes cast in the non-binding straw poll, Stapleton got 35, followed by Lopez with 16, Tancredo with 9, Mitchell with 8, Robinson with 5, Coffman with 3 and Steve Barlock, who helped run Donald Trump’s campaign in Denver two years ago, bringing up the rear with 2 votes.

It was the first forum and straw poll to draw the participation of all the major candidates since the lineup changed in early November – when Tancredo and Coffman jumped in the race and 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler, who had been running for governor for much of the year, dropped out and declared he would run for Coffman’s current job of attorney general instead. Larimer County Commissioner Lew Gaiter III and activist Jim Rundberg are also running in the GOP primary.

“I’m so humbled by all of the support our campaign received and really enjoyed the opportunity we had to share our campaign’s vision for renewing and inspiring strength in Colorado,” Stapleton said in an email to supporters on Friday. (While he also claimed in the email that he “won the straw poll with a sweeping majority!” the liberal wags at Colorado Pols pointed out that he fell more than a few votes shy of any kind of majority and, instead, won with a plurality.)

Stapleton won a straw poll conducted at a Weld County forum in mid-November with about the same share of the vote. Coffman and Tancredo had just declared their candidacies before that forum, but Coffman didn’t attend and wasn’t included in the poll.

Precinct caucus are March 6, the first step in a process that will require candidates to get 30 percent of delegates to the state assembly, on April 14, to win a spot on the June 26 primary ballot. Candidates who are petitioning onto ballot have until March 20 to return 1,500 signatures from each of the state’s seven congressional districts.

Nine Democrats are also running for the office held by term-limited Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.