Santorum sweeps votes, Romney falls hard

Rick Santorum addressed his supporters in St. Charles, Mo.

Republican candidate Rick Santorum won the Missouri primary and Minnesota and Colorado caucuses in Tuesday’s state elections, despite prior speculation that opposing Republican candidate Mitt Romney would have taken the lead. Santorum’s candidacy was all but dismissed just a few days beforehand, according to this New York Times article, causing great deliberation as to how these wins will affect his running against his fellow party candidates, Romney and Newt Gingrich.

“Conservatism is alive and well…” said Santorum, the former Senator of Pennsylvania, at a rally in St. Charles, Mo., the state in which he won over every single county. “Tonight was a victory for the voices of our party, conservatives and Tea Party people.”

Mitt Romney took a serious beating, as the numbers in his support fell far by the way side in comparison to Santorum, who swept the elections in what The Daily Beast called “a beauty pageant” of a show. The former Massachusetts governor, who had won Colorado (by 60 percent) and Missouri in the 2008 caucus, lost by drastic numbers to Santorum in both states on Tuesday, exacerbating the blow to his campaign in which he considers himself the strongest Republican candidate.

Gingrich struggled hard against Santorum, where he failed to even make the primary ballot.

“Romney is still in the best position to win the nomination, purely because he is the best equipped for a drawn out primary that requires organization and money. He can outlast Santorum, and former House speaker Newt Gingrich,” according to this Huffington Post article.

Republican candidate Santorum sweeps voting in three states

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum gives a speech in St. Charles, Mo. Photo courtesy of The Washington Post.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum won the votes of Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado in yesterday’s elections.

Santorum took 55 percent of the vote in Missouri’s primary, 45 percent in Minnesota’s caucus and 40 percent in Colorado’s caucus to overtake his competitors by at least 5 percent in all three elections, electoralvote.com noted.

According to the Boston Globe, Santorum’s wins put him in the lead for the race to the presidential ballot. In the eight caucuses that have occurred since the beginning of January, Santorum has won four, while candidate Mitt Romney has taken three and Newt Gingrich only one.

Despite his gain in momentum, however, Santorum failed to gain any delegates for this summer’s Republican National Convention, The Huffington Post stated. Colorado and Minnesota assign 36 and 40 delegates respectively for the Convention, but because last night’s elections are unbinding, the designation of delegates could change this spring when the states hold their state conventions.