ORLANDO -- From the bottom of the polls to the top of the pack, businessman Herman Cain won a surprise victory at the Republican Party of Florida’s nationally watched presidential straw poll Saturday in a sign that frontrunner Rick Perry is in deep trouble.

Cain’s landslide victory, with 37 percent of the vote, exceeded the combined total for Perry and Mitt Romney, who only garnered 15 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

But it was a particularly stinging defeat for Perry, the frontrunner in Florida and national polls. He had wooed the nearly 3,000 party faithful with fliers before the weekend and a free breakfast Saturday.

"Folks, this is what you call momentum," Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, said in a video message from his campaign bus. "The Herman Cain train is picking up steam."

The vote also showed how soft Republican support is for Mitt Romney, who came in third with 14 percent. Unlike Perry, though, he avoided schmoozing the voters.

The straw poll is a mock election and doesn’t necessarily reflect the sentiment of the voters at large. In past years, it has predicted the party’s national nominee, but that streak could be in jeopardy because even some Cain voters doubted that he could ultimately win. Still, the vote is a major indication of how badly damaged Perry was by a poor debate performance Thursday when he fumbled answers and failed to give specifics.

Many straw poll voters were especially dissatisfied by the answers Perry gave over his moderate immigration position and his plan to inoculate girls from human papillomavirus — issues that have haunted him since the first debate weeks ago.

“I came in thinking Rick Perry,” said Tommy Langford, a Gilchrist County commissioner who voted for Cain. “I didn’t like the debate at all. I really thought Perry lost it.”

Cain’s momentum was evident throughout the weekend. At a faith rally before the debate and a conservative forum after, Cain earned the loudest applause. By Friday night, he was so popular that his staff had to find a bigger room to accommodate admirers. But even then, in a room with a capacity of 700, a long line snaked out the door.

Cain’s centerpiece: His plan to scrap the tax code and replace it with a flat 9 percent tax on income, national sales and business profits. Saturday morning, in a speech before the vote, the crowd chanted “9-9-9!” and had an electric response to almost everything he said..

"Let’s send a message to Washington,” he shouted. “We the people are still in charge of this country!"

It resonated in a convention where vendors sold “Don’t Tread on Me” ties and some activists dressed as revolutionary soldiers with tri-corner hats. After the vote, people streamed out of the convention hall roaring: “No more RINOS! No more RINOS!” — an acronym for Republicans in Name Only.

The vote and spectacle underscored that Cain, who polled in single digits this week, is the new tea party darling. And Michele Bachmann isn’t. She was the big loser, coming in last place. Once a top-tier candidate who won the Iowa straw poll, Bachmann had trouble breaking through in recent debates, failed to give specifics and didn’t reach out to the Presidency 5 grassroots voters.

Perry issued a written statement congratulating Cain, saying the vote underscored the fact that the conservative message of job creation, fiscal responsibility and limited government is gaining momentum.