Mitt Romney wins Nebraska primary

Mitt Romney handily won the Nebraska primary Tuesday night, edging the presumptive Republican presidential candidate closer to officially clinching the GOP nomination.

The Associated Press projected Romney’s victory over Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) about 30 minutes after the polls closed.

{mosads}The race was a foregone conclusion, with Romney dominating the delegate chase and Paul signaling that he was suspending further campaign expenditures. 

Paul’s campaign chairman Jesse Benton acknowledged during a conference call Tuesday Romney “has what is very likely to be an insurmountable delegate lead.”

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Romney should take the vast majority of the state’s 35 delegates. Romney headed into the night with 973 of the 1,144 delegates needed to formally clinch the nomination according to a projection from the Associated Press. Coupled with an expected win in Oregon — which awards 28 delegates Tuesday — Romney seems poised to wrap up the nomination before Texas votes at the end of the month.

Romney did campaign in the state ahead of the primary, however, with a fundraiser and public speech in Omaha last Thursday. According to the presumptive Republican nominee, the event with state officials was the “most successful fundraising event in the history of Nebraska.”