Super Tuesday: Romney wins four, three for Santorum; close in Ohio
Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum each started off Super Tuesday strong, racking up early wins.
Romney won in his home state of Massachusetts, as well as Idaho, Vermont and Virginia. Santorum won Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota. Newt Gingrich, as expected, won his home state of Georgia.
{mosads}Romney’s early victories — including dominating performances in Massachusetts and Virginia that should net large numbers of delegates — mean the presumptive GOP front-runner is likely to expand his delegate lead in the hard-fought Republican presidential contest.
But the loss in Tennessee hurt the former Massachusetts governor, who hasn’t won a state yet in the deep South. He lost South Carolina in January and, while he won Florida’s primary, that state is considered as a different voting bloc outside the rest of the South.
Romney has struggled with Tea Party supporters, very conservative voters and evangelical Christians — three groups that hold large sway over GOP primaries in many southern states.
Romney won the biggest prize of the night, Ohio, with 38 percent of the vote with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Santorum took 37 percent, Gingrich 15 percent and Ron Paul with 9 percent. The Associated Press called the race not long after midnight.
Speaking to supporters in Steubenville, Ohio, while that state’s votes were being counted, Santorum stressed his proven ability to overcome the odds, and highlighted the contributions of his wife and mother. But he also took direct aim at Romney.
“It’s one thing to mandate a top-down, government-run healthcare system you imposed on the people of your state,” Santorum said. “It’s another thing to recommend and encourage the president of the United States to impose that on the American people, and go out — and tell the American people you didn’t do it.”
A strong showing for Romney in Ohio could anoint him the presumptive GOP nominee and put to bed doubts about his ability to rally conservative support. But a loss will likely push the GOP race into another chapter of uncertainty and doubt, and could elevate one of his challengers to clear No. 2 status.
More Super Tuesday news:
Poll closing times and results map
Romney wins Idaho
Santorum wins North Dakota
Santorum wins Oklahoma
Santorum wins Tennessee
Romney wins Massachusetts
Romney wins Vermont
Romney wins Virginia
Gingrich wins Georgia
Santorum led polls in the state by double digits just two weeks ago. While he’s seen that lead largely fade after Romney’s victories last week in Michigan and Arizona, his time as a senator in neighboring Pennsylvania leaves him a popular — and dangerous — figure in the state.
Santorum admitted that the state’s primary was “going to be a huge deal” for his campaign while meeting with voters Monday.
“This is going to be right down to the wire,” said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who had originally backed Romney but then switched support to Santorum.
Meanwhile, the caucuses in Alaska would seem to marginally favor Romney, although Paul has aggressively targeted the state. The Texas congressman is hunting for his first victory in a GOP primary — coming close but ultimately falling short during the 2008 campaign and early 2012 voting.
Paul was the only candidate to travel to Alaska, telling voters there he was optimistic about his chances in Tuesday’s vote.
“If a strong message can be sent from Alaska, which is known for your independence and liberty, it will be a loud and clear message,” Paul said while campaigning in Anchorage.
While much of the narrative will be shaped around Romney’s performance in battleground states like Ohio and Tennessee, early results and election math suggest that even a weak performance by the former governor will land him the most delegates of the night.
Romney’s early margin of victory in Massachusetts, where no other candidate looks poised to break 15 percent, based on early results, and in Virginia, where Romney could take more than 50 percent of the vote on the two-candidate ballot, means he could sweep the available delegates in the states.
The former governor already has a strong lead in delegate totals.
“On Wednesday, March 7, the Santorum campaign will be looking at a significant deficit to Governor Romney in bound delegates and no realistic hope of closing that gap. The combination of proportional allocation and his regional weaknesses are going to make it virtually impossible for him catch up to Governor Romney in delegates, let alone ever get to 1,144,” said Rick Beeson, Romney’s political director, in a statement.
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Still, the optics of the evening will be important for Romney as he seeks to pivot his campaign into general-election mode — and repair some of the bruising caused by the hard-fought primary. A poll released this week by The Washington Post and ABC News found none of the Republican candidates with a favorability rating above 40 percent, evidence that the GOP’s brand has been hurt by the difficult nomination fight.
—This story was originally posted at 4:25 p.m. and has been updated.
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