Santorum wins the Louisiana GOP Primary capturing approx 49% of the voters, but is it enough to keep going?
Romney: 563 Delegates
Santorum: 259 Delegates
Gingrich: 137 Delegates
Paul: 71 Delegates
** Delegate standings pending #’s vary
CNN Election Center
WSJ Delegate Tracker
Santorum will win Louisiana, CNN projects
CNN) — Rick Santorum will win Saturday’s Republican presidential primary in Louisiana by winning close to majority of the vote, according to early results and exit polling,
With around 20% of the vote in, Santorum held a 45%-28% lead over front-runner Mitt Romney. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had 19% of the vote and Texas Rep. Ron Paul had 6%.
Santorum’s win was his fourth in the South, where front-runner Mitt Romney has not been able to connect with conservative voters in the region.
Winning Louisiana big will help fuel Santorum’s campaign as the conservative alternative to Romney.
“Santorum can’t just win, he has to win big. He’s the one who needs to shake up this race. Another ho-hum win in the South doesn’t cut it. He’s on a political bridge to nowhere and is running out of time to change destinations,” said Bruce Haynes, a GOP strategist and managing partner of Purple Strategies, a bipartisan public affairs consulting firm, last week. … Read more
Santorum wins Louisiana, FoxNews projects
The polls are now closed in Louisiana, and Fox News can project that Rick Santorum will win by a comfortable margin, leaving Mitt Romney to finish second, Newt Gingrich third and Ron Paul fourth.
Santorum did well with evangelical and conservative voters in Louisiana, as he has in other Deep South states. But tonight he also edged out Romney among self-described moderate voters and those who consider the economy the most important issue, according to Fox News exit polls.
It’s a solid victory for Santorum, though Romney remains the national front-runner. The former Massachusetts governor has amassed more than twice as many delegates as Santorum nationwide and is nearly halfway to the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the Republican presidential nomination. Read more