Romney Wins Nevada Caucus [VIDEO]

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has won Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses.

NJ Decides: Presidential Election 2012
GOP Campaign

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul remain in a tight race for second, with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum finishing last. Returns from 14 of 17 counties showed Romney with 42 percent support, Gingrich with 25 percent, Paul with 20 percent and Santorum with 13 percent.

No votes have been reported yet from Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and often accounts for half or more of the votes in a statewide election.

GOP race turns to Colorado, Minnesota

While Nevada’s caucuses are looking like a big win for Mitt Romney, his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination are shrugging it off as the expected result.

At last count, 71 percent of Nevada’s precincts had been tallied, and Romney has 48 percent of the vote. Newt Gingrich has 23 percent, followed by Ron Paul with 19 percent and Rick Santorum 11 percent.

Turnout was down significantly from 2008, when Romney also won the state’s GOP caucuses, and Gingrich took note of that fact in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press this morning. He says he’s focused on making it to Super Tuesday, where he says he’ll be in “much more favorable territory.”

On ABC’s “This Week,” Paul maintained Nevada’s results show voters are still up for grabs, with a large number “looking for another option.”

After winning in Iowa, Santorum has trailed in the contests since then. But told Fox News Sunday that his numbers “are moving up continually” and the race is a “long way from being over.”

Colorado and Minnesota are next on the calendar, with caucuses scheduled for Tuesday. Maine follows on Saturday.

Gingrich says he’s staying in GOP race

Newt Gingrich says he’s staying in the Republican presidential nominating contest.

The former House speaker is struggling to forge a comeback after big back-to-back losses to Romney in Saturday’s Nevada caucuses and Florida’s primary four days earlier.

Gingrich vowed to stay in the race all the way to the party’s nominating convention in Florida this summer. Gingrich waged a limited campaign in Nevada, with just a handful of events and no TV ads.

He needs to forge a breakthrough as the race turns to a string of states friendly to Romney, including Colorado and Minnesota on Tuesday and Michigan, where Romney grew up, on Feb. 28.

Conservatives, Mormons help Romney win Nevada

Preliminary results of a poll of voters in Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses show Mitt Romney’s victory flowing from his best performance yet among conservatives plus overwhelming backing from the state’s Mormons.

The former Massachusetts governor’s support was broad as well as deep. He was the clear winner among all but the lowest-earning voters and every age group but those under 30.

One in 4 voters was Mormon, as is Romney, and 9 in 10 backed him. Romney also carried Catholics and Protestants.

Around 4 in 5 called themselves conservative, tying Nevada with Iowa as the most conservative group of voters yet in this year’s five GOP presidential contests. Nearly 6 in 10 of them supported Romney. Until now, he’d won no more than 4 in 10 conservative votes.

Romney adds to delegate lead with Nevada victory

Mitt Romney has added to his lead in the race for delegates with a big win in the Nevada Republican presidential caucuses.

Romney won at least 10 delegates in Saturday’s contest, with eight delegates still to be determined. Newt Gingrich won at least four delegates, Ron Paul won at least three and Rick Santorum won at least two.

Nevada awarded delegates in proportion to the statewide vote. Romney has a total of 97 delegates to the party’s national convention, including endorsements from Republican National Committee members who will automatically attend the convention and can support any candidate they choose.

Gingrich has 30, Santorum has 16 and Paul has seven. It will take 1,144 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

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