Santorum Wins Kansas GOP Caucuses, Gains Blunted by Romney's Island Victories
Published March 11, 2012
FoxNews.com
Mitt Romney's rivals are heading South in their latest attempt to shake up the Republican presidential leader board, after Rick Santorum scored a big heartland win in Kansas Saturday but was unable to erode the frontrunner's delegate lead.
The candidates appear to be in a tight and fluctuating race for Tuesday's primaries in Mississippi and Alabama. Recent polls in Alabama have interchangeably shown Santorum, Romney and Newt Gingrich in the lead.
Along with caucuses being held in Hawaii and American Samoa, Tuesday's contests offer up 119 total delegates – making it the most valuable single day of voting for the rest of the month.
But as Saturday's contests showed, Romney's rivals are having a tough time making any leaps in the delegate race.
Santorum dominated the Kansas contest with 51 percent support. Romney trailed with 21 percent, followed by Gingrich with 14 percent. Ron Paul placed last with 13 percent.
The former Pennsylvania senator ended up winning 33 of the 40 delegates up for grabs in the Kansas caucuses. He won another three in the latest round of voting out of Wyoming.
But Romney practically erased all of Santorum's gains Saturday, winning the overall Wyoming contest along with a series of tiny caucuses in far-flung locales like Guam -- racking up more than 30 delegates and once again using the nuances of the delegate battle to frustrate Santorum's effort to build momentum. Santorum still trails Romney by more than 200 delegates.
Santorum, speaking at a rally in neighboring Missouri Saturday, attributed his good fortune in the heartland to Americans voting their "values." Santorum, in a reference to Romney, urged Republicans not to nominate someone just because they think he has the best shot of winning in November.
"We have to have ... a nominee who can get up there and draw a clear contrast with the president of the United States," Santorum said.
Still, Romney was able to hold down Santorum's gains by competing across the five contests being held the same day.
In Kansas, Romney won seven delegates despite finishing second.
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