WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney won five states, including a razor-thin win over Rick Santorum in delegate-rich Ohio, tonight in the Super Tuesday contests. Overall, Romney took five states and a scrappy Santorum won three. Newt Gingrich won one state.
With 99.4 percent of precincts counted in Ohio, Romney led Santorum by about 12,000 votes. The AP called Ohio for Romney at 10:30 p.m. Tucson time. The race was almost impossibly close despite Romney's vastly outspending Santorum there.
Romney, who also won at home in Massachusetts and in Idaho, Vermont and Virginia, said, "This is a process of gathering enough delegates to become the nominee, and I think we're on track to have that happen."
Santorum waited until Oklahoma — known as "the reddest of the red states" — and Tennessee fell into his column before speaking to cheering supporters in Ohio. "We're going to win a few. We're going to lose a few. But as it looks right now, we're going to get a couple of gold medals and a whole passel of silver," he said.
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Later in the night, The Associated Press called the North Dakota caucus for Santorum, as well.
Newt Gingrich won a home-field primary in Georgia.
Ohio was the marquee matchup of the night, the second industrial state showdown in as many weeks for the former Massachusetts governor and the former senator from Pennsylvania.
Santorum was drawing strong support Tuesday from the most conservative voters in Ohio primary, according to early results of an exit poll of voters. Romney fared better with more moderate, less religiously driven voters.
Stay with StarNet for Super Tuesday updates tonight.
