Former US senator Rick Santorum is banking on his victory in the Kansas caucuses on Saturday to lead to twin primary wins this week in Mississippi and Alabama that could winnow the Republican presidential primary field.
Santorum won 51 percent of the vote in Kansas and secured his fifth state caucus win.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, 64, who leads in the delegate count, and former US House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich largely ceded the state, while Representative Ron Paul did campaign in Kansas. Romney received 21 percent, followed by Gingrich at 14 percent and Paul at 13 percent, according to an Associated Press tally.
“This is a great win for the campaign and further evidence that conservatives and Tea Party loyalists are uniting behind Rick as the true, consistent conservative in this race,” Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement.
Kansas, where Santorum won 33 of 40 delegates, has a large proportion of Republican voters motivated by their opposition to abortion rights and gay marriage.
Caucuses were also held on Saturday in the Virgin Islands and the delegate-selection process was being completed in Wyoming. Romney will have seven delegates from the Virgin Islands, while Paul won one and one remains uncommitted
“Our campaign is on the move, and today’s victories in the island territories bring us one step closer to defeating [US ] President [Barack] Obama and restoring American promise,” Romney said in a statement on Saturday night.
Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul e-mailed a memo to reporters that said even though Santorum won Kansas, her candidate netted more delegates this weekend, at least 38 versus at least 34.
Even after winning the majority of the states that held so-called Super Tuesday contests last week, Romney and his campaign have presented tomorrow’s races in Mississippi and Alabama as unfriendly turf because of his northern upbringing and background. Romney has likened it to playing an “away game.”
Those states together will send 90 delegates to the Republican nominating convention in August.
Romney has secured 453 of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination, including endorsements from Republican Party -leaders who automatically attend and can vote for anyone, compared with 217 for Santorum, according to estimates.
Santorum, 53, has said his goal is to have the Republican race become a two-person contest following the Alabama and Mississippi primaries.
“Hopefully after this Tuesday, this will be a two-person race and we can get down to the business of deciding whether we want a conservative or a moderate to go up against President Barack Obama,” Santorum said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s Political Capital with Al Hunt that aired over the weekend.
Earlier, Romney picked up an additional 18 delegates with wins in the US -territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Romney won the unanimous support of the 215 people eligible to vote at the Republican convention in Guam. One of Romney’s sons, Matt, had visited both island chains ahead of the voting.
In Wyoming, where the -delegate-selection process started on Tuesday and was completed on Saturday, Romney won seven of the 12 delegates at stake, Santorum three and Paul one, while one delegate remained uncommitted.
Santorum won the first-in-the-nation caucuses in Iowa on Jan. 3, as well as caucuses in Colorado, Minnesota and North Dakota. He also won two primaries in Oklahoma and Tennessee on Tuesday.
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