Rick Santorum swept all three contests on Tuesday, even Colorado which is a state Mitt Romney won handily in 2008. Here are the full results for each state.
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum swept the nominating contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado Tuesday night, putting him back in contention for the GOP nomination.
Santorum now has four victories under his belt in the GOP race, more than any other candidate. His new standing stalls Mitt Romney's earlier momentum and gives Santorum grounds to argue that he — not Newt Gingrich — is the best conservative alternative to Romney.
Speaking from his Missouri campaign headquarters in St. Charles Tuesday night, Santorum looked ahead to the general election.
"I don't stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney," he said. "I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama."
Rick Santorum has won the non-binding Missouri primary Tuesday night and was just declared the winner of the Minnesota caucus as well. Results are still coming in for the Colorado caucus but early results show Santorum with a reasonable lead. Sometime around a midnight eastern time we might expect a winner declared in Colorado.
Rick Santorum scored victories in Minnesota and Missouri nominating contests Tuesday night, winning him no actual delegates, but allowing the former Pennsylvania senator to stymie Mitt Romney's bid to keep alive a streak of victories in the Republican presidential primary.
NBC News declared Santorum the projected winner of the Missouri primary and the Minnesota caucus. NBC will not be allocating any delegates from Missouri or Minnesota to Santorum in its projected count.
Santorum won the distinction of having upset Romney in the last nominating contests before the campaign enters a three-week break before Michigan and Arizona's Feb. 28 contests. Tonight's results virtually ensure the GOP primary will extend through early March, while Romney will have to answer fresh questions about his ability to win over conservative primary voters.
"Tonight's victory should put to bed the idea that the Republican nomination for Mitt Romney is inevitable," said Stuart Roy, an adviser to the pro-Santorum super PAC, the Red, White and Blue Fund.
We'll have the updated numbers on Wednesday but right now it looks like Santorum will be picking up some seriously needed press and publicity from these wins, regardless of whether or not he can carry Colorado. Should he perform the trifecta and take them all, this will look like a different race Wednesday morning.
Colorado and Minnesota will be holding caucuses Tuesday in order to pick a GOP nominee for President. Missouri will be holding a primary to do the same, however, no delegates will be awarded since the Missouri Republican Party will be holding a caucus on March 17 for the purposes of choosing convention delegates.
We'll have the results for each contest later Tuesday evening once the caucuses complete and the Missouri polls officially close.
Three states hold early nominating contests Tuesday — and while none of those contests is as high profile as the early states that have come before (or the Super Tuesday states up ahead next month), the four GOP contenders are nonetheless hustling to make the rounds and make a competitive showing.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) is holding two public events Monday, both in Colorado — a state he swept with 60 percent of the vote in the GOP caucuses four years ago.
Meanwhile, former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) starts his day in Minnesota and ends it in Colorado, while for former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), it’s vice versa.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is holding two rallies Monday, both in Minnesota — another state that Romney won in 2008, with 41 percent to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 22 percent.
Both Santorum and Paul have some hopes pinned on Tuesday with Paul hoping to do well in Minnesota and Colorado while polling indicates Santorum has a chance to pull off a victory in Missouri which will be more of a superficial boost than a delegate boost.
Update
A new Public Policy Polling (PPP) poll out today shows the potential for a big Santorum night in Minnesota and Missouri. Report from PPP:
Rick Santorum could be headed for a big day in today's contests in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri. Missouri looks like a probable win for Santorum. He's at 45% there to 32% for Mitt Romney and 19% for Paul. Minnesota provides an opportunity for a win as well. Currently he has a small advantage with 33% to 24% for Romney, 22% for Newt Gingrich, and 20% for Ron Paul. And Santorum should get a second place finish in Colorado, where Romney appears to be the likely winner. The standings there are Romney at 37%, Santorum at 27%, Gingrich at 21%, and Paul at 13%.
Santorum's personal popularity is the main reason for his sudden reemergence as a relevant player in the GOP race. In all 3 of these states his favorability is over 70%- 74/17 in Minnesota, 72/17 in Missouri, and 71/19 in Colorado. He's far better liked than his main opponents- Romney's favorability is 47-60% in those states and Gingrich's is 47-48%. While Romney and Gingrich have hammered each other in recents weeks Santorum's been largely left alone and he's benefiting from that now.
Unfortunately for Santorum, a win in Missouri won't count for delegates but a win in Minnesota would greatly help his momentum in building a case for his candidacy. If Santorum wins at least one state tonight, coupled with his Iowa win, he will become the candidate just behind Romney in terms of primary/caucus victories.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday to discuss the Nevada caucus results and his plans to continue fighting for the GOP nomination.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich shows no sign of letting up on his tough attacks against rival Mitt Romney, despite losing yesterday’s Nevada caucuses to Romney by a large margin.
On NBC’s Meet the Press today, Gingrich hit Romney for comments he made on the campaign trail and for positions he took as Massachusetts governor.
“My goal over the next few weeks is to draw very sharp distinctions between [mine and] Romney’s positions, which are very, the Wall Street Journal described them as timid, and in terms of tax policy, as being like Obama,” Gingrich said.
He dismissed the importance of the Nevada caucuses. “This is a state he won last time, and he won it this time,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich said he is relying on the southern states to boost his delegate count. That includes Georgia, the state he represented in Congress, and Tennessee, which both vote March 6; Alabama, which votes March 13; and Texas, which votes April 3. “We believe by the time Texas is over, we’ll be very competitive in delegate count,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich will be hoping to out-last Santorum and Paul if he has any hope of building a coalition to combat Romney in the upcoming contests. Of course, Paul and Santorum are also hoping the same about Gingrich.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul appeared on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday to discuss the results of the Nevada caucus. Paul vowed to press forward as long as possible up to the convention.
A day after losing a Nevada contest that exposed the limits of his appeal to Republicans, Ron Paul vowed to keep pressing ahead for the party's presidential nomination, saying his ideas were inspiring an intellectual revolution among young Americans.
"I want to change the government, and I want to change it through the electoral process, but I also want to change the hearts and minds of people," the Texas congressman told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week." "That is where it really starts, and that is where we're making the progress."
Initial returns found Paul finishing third in the Nevada caucuses, just behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, but far behind winner Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. If those results stick in the final tally, it would mark a serious disappointment for Paul, who is counting on a sprawling grassroots network of supporters to dominate GOP contests in states that hold party caucuses rather than primaries.
"The votes aren't all counted yet, and there seems to be a bit of chaos out there, even though it was a small caucus vote," said Paul, who had hoped to place at least second to Romney. "There was a lot of confusion. So yes, if you go from second to third, there would be disappointment, but also on the positive side, we will get a bloc of votes. We will still get some delegates."
Paul stopped short of saying that he had no hope of capturing the nomination. But he came close.
Paul has the money to continue and his supporters are adamant so I suspect he'll be fighting Romney for the long haul. Gingrich can only hope to outlast Paul and become the non-Romney in the race.
Nevada will head to caucus sites on Saturday to choose their preferred 2012 GOP nominee. Results should be expected sometime after 8pm ET once the results are counted and the tallies are confirmed.
Three of the four remaining GOP candidates participated in a "Vegas Forum" hosted by Sean Hannity on Thursday night. Ron Paul was also invited but declined the appearance.
Here are links to the full videos with each candidate:
With the more prominent Florida and South Carolina primaries now in the record books, the campaigns head into smaller caucus contests with a much different dynamic. Congressman Ron Paul and former Senator Rick Santorum are banking on these states to make a difference in their delegate count since they rely on a different cross-section of the . . . → Read More: Will upcoming caucus states make the difference for Paul, Santorum?
Mitt Romney easily took the Florida primary Tuesday night followed by Newt Gingrich in second, Rick Santorum in third and Ron Paul rounding out the remaining four.
In case you missed it, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich both participated in a forum hosted by the Univision Spanish television network earlier in the week. Rick Santorum was also slated to appear, however, due to his own scheduling conflicts, he had to cancel the appearance. Ron Paul was also invited to attend but simply declined . . . → Read More: Video: Romney, Gingrich participate in Univision Presidential forum
