- APFeb. 28, 2012: Mitt Romney, left, and Rick Santorum campaign on the day of the Michigan and Arizona primaries.
Mitt Romney landed a victory Tuesday
night in his home state of Michigan, Fox News projects, fending off Rick
Santorum in the Republican presidential primary contest and preventing
what could have been a major upset for his campaign going into Super
Tuesday.
The former Massachusetts governor also won
easily in Arizona, a winner-take-all election that will help Romney
build his growing delegate lead. The candidate's back-to-back victories
hardly lock down the race but they help get his campaign on track going
into Super Tuesday on March 6, when 10 states hold primaries worth
hundreds of delegates.
Unlike in Arizona, though, Romney will end up sharing Michigan's 30 delegates with Santorum.
With 75 percent of precincts reporting in
Michigan, Romney was leading with 41 percent, followed by Santorum with
37 percent. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich were trailing far behind, though
Fox News can project that Paul will take place third and Gingrich will
place last in the state.
The Michigan primary, along with the primary
in Arizona and an upcoming contest in Washington, are the final
elections before 10 states weigh in with their bountiful supply of
delegates in early March on what's known as Super Tuesday.
The two-for-two performance from Romney helps him reaffirm his front-runner status going into the 10-state set.
The Michigan election, though, was not
originally expected to be as close as it was. For weeks, Romney seemed
poised to walk away with well-timed victories in these two states.
Romney, while popular in Arizona, has deep roots in Michigan which were
expected to play to his advantage. He was born there, his father was
governor there and he won the state in the 2008 GOP presidential
primary.
But Santorum's surge, and a decision by the
former Pennsylvania senator to compete hard in the state, put Michigan
in pure toss-up territory heading into primary day. Santorum's campaign
demanded attention as he went from being sidelined at debates earlier in
the year to winning the Iowa caucuses by a hair, and then picking up wins in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado all in one night.
Exit polls showed Romney and Santorum were each leading among distinct categories of voters.
Romney did well in Michigan among those who
value electability and experience the most; Santorum fared best among
those who most value strong moral character and true conservative
values. Fortunately for Romney, those who think ability to beat
President Obama is the most important quality made up 33 percent of
those polled -- those who want someone who is a true conservative made
up 15 percent.
Santorum, though, dominated among
evangelical voters, picking up 50 percent of their support. Romney was
picking up 35 percent. In Michigan, evangelicals made up nearly four in
10 voters on Tuesday.
Though Romney squeaked out a victory over Ron Paul
in the low-key Maine caucuses earlier this month and maintains the
overall delegate lead, Santorum has kept up the heat on Romney in
Michigan. The two candidates traded the top spot in Michigan polls
leading up to Tuesday's primary.
The closeness of the race has helped fuel a
bitterly personal contest between the two candidates, with each accusing
the other of being a false conservative.
Romney, in an interview on Fox News,
continued to slam Santorum for taking positions he claims are contrary
to conservative principles -- such as voting repeatedly to raise the
debt ceiling without offsetting cuts to spending.
"This is a guy who's a far cry from a fiscal
conservative, and if people want to have somebody who's a real
conservative, they're going to vote for me," Romney said. "He portrays
himself in one way, but his voting record is very different."
Romney also slammed the Santorum campaign
for putting out a robo-call in Michigan urging Democrats to vote on
Tuesday -- and send a "loud message" to Romney by choosing Santorum.
Romney called it a "new low" for his opponent.
Santorum, meanwhile, defended the robo-call and kept his head up going into Tuesday's contests.
"We're going to get voters that we need to
be able to win this election. And we're going to do that here in
Michigan today," Santorum said, referring to blue collar voters with a
history of swinging between the parties.
The two other candidates in the race, Newt Gingrich and Paul, made little effort in either Michigan or Arizona, focusing instead on next week's 10-state collection of Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses.
At a rally in Georgia on Tuesday evening,
Gingrich said voters need somebody who has "really large ideas for a
really large country."
In a separate interview on Fox News,
Gingrich offered a rough sketch of his comeback strategy. He said he
plans to win Georgia, while doing "very well" in a handful of other
Super Tuesday states, victories he projected would give him momentum to
win subsequent southern contests in Mississippi and Alabama.
Paul, meanwhile, pumped up a crowd of
enthusiastic supporters Tuesday evening in Virginia, where he and Romney
are the only GOP candidates on the ballot. He stuck to his
bread-and-butter message, railing against Washington on the issues of
overseas military interventions, over-spending and over-regulation.
Paul, in an interview on Fox News, argued
that he can attract independents and Democrats in a general election in a
way the other Republican candidates cannot.
"Somebody like Santorum doesn't do that as well," Paul said.
There were 59 total delegates in play in
Tuesday's contests. Unlike Arizona, Michigan awards its 30 delegates
mostly by congressional district.
Nationally, Romney entered and exited the night with the delegate lead.
Before Tuesday's contests, The Associated
Press count showed Romney with 123 total delegates. Santorum followed
with 72. Gingrich had 32 and Paul had 19.
The eventual nominee will need to win 1,144
delegates. There are 40 delegates up for grabs in Washington's caucuses
on Saturday, and 419 on Super Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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