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2012 Republican Delegate Count

March 7, 2012 by · Comments Off on 2012 Republican Delegate Count 

2012 Republican Delegate Count, After winning five Super Tuesday states, Mitt Romney widened his lead in delegates and moved closer to the prize he has been seeking for five years and through two campaigns: the Republican nomination for president against Barack Obama.

On the busiest election night of the season, the former Massachusetts governor hoped to fortify his delegate count enough so his campaign could argue that no other candidate had a realistic chance of gaining the 1,144 delegates needed to be nominated.

“Tonight we’ve taken one more step toward restoring the promise of America,” Romney said in victory remarks distributed by his campaign that focused not on his Republican rivals but on bashing Obama. “There will be good days and bad days, always long hours and never enough time. But on November 6th, we will stand united, not only having won an election but having saved a future.”

Not so fast, Romney’s competitors said, claiming their own victories.

Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker and Georgia congressman, easily won the Peach State, a victory that kept him in the race. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum won Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Dakota.

Romney carried Ohio, Virginia, Vermont, Idaho, Alaska and his home state of Massachusetts.

Republican primary and caucus results: View caucus and primary results, plus total delegates won by candidates to date.

Getting to this point has carried costs for Romney. To prove his conservative credentials to Republican primary voters, he has hurt his standing with moderates and staked out positions on immigration and contraception that could prove problematic in the fall election. He’s relied on a barrage of TV ads that tear his opponents down rather than build himself up, and he’s shown a propensity for making maladroit comments that become fodder for critics.

Since January, when the Iowa caucuses opened a string of contests, Romney’s favorable rating in the daily Gallup Poll among very conservative voters has risen from 55 percent in early January to 73 percent now, a jump of 18 percentage points.

His standing among every other ideological group has dropped — to 55 percent among conservatives, 42 percent among moderates, 26 percent among liberals and 8 percent among very liberals.

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