Romney Adds More Wins

The Republican candidates have been campaigning across the country for months now. But at the end of March they had a slight lull in the schedule and didn’t hold a party primary or caucus. This was probably welcome news for Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul. It gave them and their campaign staffs a few days to pause, catch their breaths, and prepare for the push to this summer’s Republican Party convention.

The Second Half Matters

As the Republicans move into the second half of the primary season, Mitt Romney remains the strong leader in delegates won. When polled, most Republicans choose him as the candidate most likely to defeat incumbent president Barack Obama. But there continues to be a reluctance surrounding Romney’s march to the nomination. Such reluctance has kept Romney’s main rival, Rick Santorum, in the race. While Santorum has not gathered delegates as effectively as Romney, he continues to get noticeable support in each state contest.

On Tuesday, April 3, the Republicans held primaries in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Wisconsin. Mitt Romney won all three contests. This marks the best string of wins by Romney this primary season. Romney won the Maine caucus on February 11 and then won the February 28 contests in Arizona and Michigan, the Wyoming caucus on February 29, the Washington caucus on March 3, and the majority of the Super Tuesday states on March 6. Since Super Tuesday, however, Rick Santorum has effectively traded wins with Romney in the Republican contests, while Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have settled into third and fourth places consistently.

The significance of these results was that, for the first time, Romney has passed the midpoint in the delegate count. To win the Republican Party nomination outright, a candidate must collect 1,144 of the total delegates attending the convention, which is made up of party members from each state in the country. According to most media estimates, Romney has passed that halfway point and, more importantly, he continues to stay far ahead of Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul.

Yet, Santorum is not giving up. As the votes were counted on Tuesday, he held a rally in his home state of Pennsylvania, which holds its primary on April 24. The Santorum camp remains hopeful that a strong win in this state will increase his propel him towards a strong series of primaries in May and June, closing the delegate gap between him and Romney. While Romney spent his victory speech focusing on how he is a better choice for America than President Obama, Santorum is claiming to be a more conservative candidate than Romney. Each man’s target shows their focus–Romney looking ahead to the Fall’s general election contest and Santorum to a more immediate series of battles with his party rival.