Super Tuesday's mixed bag yields no peace of mind for Mitt Romney

Romney wins six Super Tuesday contests, including prize state Ohio, but fails to knock out Rick Santorum or unite party base
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Mitt Romney in Boston
Mitt Romney at his speech in Boston at the end of Super Tuesday. Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

Mitt Romney has boosted his prospects for becoming the Republican presidential nominee, winning six states including the coveted prize Ohio on Super Tuesday, the busiest day in the turbulent campaign to select a rival to President Barack Obama.

But Romney failed to land a knockout blow against his main rival, Rick Santorum, who won three contests and barely lost Ohio. Newt Gingrich kept his candidacy alive by winning his home state of Georgia.

The mixed results in the 10 state contests held on Tuesday suggest that Romney, despite padding his lead in the tally of delegates who will pick the nominee, is still unable to win over some conservatives and rally the party behind his candidacy.

With Santorum and Gingrich energised by their wins, the often-acrimonious race will likely continue for weeks or even months, perhaps weakening the eventual nominee and benefiting Obama, whose standing in opinion polls has improved.

Romney scored a home-state win in Massachusetts, where he served as governor, to go with primary victories in Vermont and in Virginia, where neither Santorum nor Newt Gingrich was on the ballot. He later added the Idaho and Alaska caucuses to his score. Santorum won primaries in Oklahoma and Tennessee and the North Dakota caucuses.

But the most closely watched contest was in Ohio, a heavily populated midwestern industrial state often seen as a bellwether in presidential elections. It was a test of strength for Santorum, who was a US senator from neighbouring Pennsylvania.

Romney trailed much of the night but rallied near midnight. With 99% of Ohio's precincts reporting, he had 38% to Santorum's 37%, an uncomfortably close margin for a candidate who had spent nearly four times as much money in the state as his rival. He led Santorum by about 12,000 votes out of more than 1.1m cast.

Santorum looked to use Super Tuesday to prove he still has a shot at the nomination. He needed to overcome Romney's momentum from recent wins and his advantage in money and organisation.

Santorum's three wins and close-second in Ohio were impressive for a candidate few analysts took seriously just months ago. His success reflects his appeal to socially conservative evangelicals, an important part of the Republican base, particularly in the south.

"This was a big night tonight," Santorum told cheering supporters in Ohio. "We have won in the west, the midwest and the south, and we're ready to win across this country."

But Santorum is falling further behind Romney in the delegate count and it is not clear how he can catch up. Moreover, Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives who represented a surburban Atlanta district in Congress for two decades, insists he will stay in the race after his win in Georgia and could split the conservative vote as he vies with Santorum to be Romney's main rival.

It was Gingrich's first victory since 21 January when he won the primary in neighbouring South Carolina.

Libertarian-leaning congressman Ron Paul, still in search of his first state victory of the nomination battle, had pinned his hopes on winning caucuses in Idaho and Alaska but fell short in both.

At stake on Tuesday were 419 delegates, more than a third of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination at the party's national convention in late August in Tampa, Florida.

Romney picked up at least 212 delegates on Tuesday, Santorum at least 84, Gingrich at least 72 and Paul at least 22, according to Associated Press calculations. In the overall race for delegates, Romney leads with 415, Santorum has 176, Gingrich has 105 and Paul has 47.

Romney had been almost certain to win in Virginia, where Paul was his only opponent on the ballot, after neither Santorum nor Gingrich met filing requirements. He had been favoured to win in the two northeastern states, Vermont and Massachusetts, considered his home state.

"I'm going to get this nomination," Romney told cheering supporters in Boston, Massachusetts, pointing particularly to delegate pickups on Tuesday that were greater than the combined totals of his three rivals.

AThe candidates were already looking ahead to the next contests, Kansas and Wyoming caucuses on Saturday, followed by Alabama and Mississippi primaries on 13 March.

Republicans were considered to have a strong shot at winning back the White House, with Obama's re-election prospects hurt by the weak US economy.

But the president's poll numbers have improved as the economy has strengthened, unemployment has slowly declined and Republicans have ripped into one another in the campaign.

Obama stepped into the Republican race by holding a news conference on Tuesday. He dismissed the candidates' almost-constant criticism of his foreign policy efforts and accused Republicans of "beating the drums of war" over Iran. "Those folks don't have a lot of responsibilities. They're not commander-in-chief," he said.

Asked what he had to say to Romney in response to the Republican's harsh criticism, Obama responded with a big smile, saying "Good luck tonight."

Romney has campaigned as the candidate with the greatest likelihood of beating Obama. He is seen as more moderate than his main rivals, giving him better prospects for winning over centrist, independent voters who often swing US presidential races.

But that perceived moderation has made him vulnerable to attacks by Gingrich and Santorum.

Romney's campaign was staggered when Santorum won a pair of caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota and a non-binding Missouri primary on 7 February. But Romney entered Super Tuesday on a winning streak. He captured the Washington state caucuses last Saturday, days after winning a little-contested primary in Arizona and a hard-fought one in Michigan, where he grew up and his father served as governor. He narrowly won the Maine caucuses earlier in February.

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