Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Romney Seals Republican Nomination With Victory in Texas


Mitt Romney clinched the Republican presidential nomination by winning the Texas primary, taking the contest by a wide margin that put him over the top in the delegate chase.
Romney now has 1,183 delegates, capturing at least 97 of the 152 awarded in Texas based on the candidate’s statewide vote total yesterday, the Associated Press reported. He began the day with 1,086 delegates, needing just 58 to surpass the 1,144 nomination threshold.
Mitt Romney off of his campaign plane past Donald Trump's plane after landing at McCarran International Airport on May 29, 2012 in Las Vegas. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
May 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts, talks with Bloomberg's Al Hunt about U.S. foreign policy. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, discusses U.S. immigration policy and the Obama administration's handling of Osama bin Laden's death. They speak on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital with Al Hunt." Bloomberg's Hans Nichols reports on President Barack Obama's comments about presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's background. Commentators Margaret Carlson and Kate O'Beirne discuss the outlook for the 2012 election. (Source: Bloomberg) 

The former Massachusetts governor had 69 percent of the vote in Texas with 89 percent of precincts reporting. Representative Ron Paul of Texas had 12 percent, followed by former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania with 8 percent and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia with 5 percent.
“Our party has come together with the goal of putting the failures of the last 3½ years behind us,” Romney said in a statement issued by his campaign office in Boston. “We will settle for nothing less than getting America back on the path to full employment and prosperity.”

Campaign Appearances

Romney campaigned yesterday in Colorado and Nevada, two of the 10 or so states that polls show are the most competitive in a November matchup between him and President Barack Obama. He finished the day at a Las Vegas fundraiser with billionaire Donald Trump, who is persisting in questioning whether Obama was born in Kenya. Obama, 50, released his long-form birth certificate in April 2011 that showed his birthplace to be Honolulu.
Republicans will formally nominate Romney, 65, at their national convention Aug. 27-30 in Tampa, Florida. One of his major tasks before his nomination is to select a running mate, a process the campaign began last month.
Romney effectively locked down the nomination when Santorum, who had emerged as his main rival in the Republican race, announced on April 10 he was ending his candidacy.
Santorum, 54, and Romney battled for support throughout much of January and February. Romney scored a crucial victory on Feb. 28 when he won his native state of Michigan by 3 percentage points over Santorum. Romney, who unsuccessfully sought his party’s nomination in 2008, maintained his front-runner’s status in this year’s race with primary wins March 6 in Ohio, March 20 in Illinois and April 3 in Wisconsin.

Sweeping Primaries

Romney declared the Republican race over on the night he swept five primaries on April 24, including one in Pennsylvania. He has focused since then on Obama, offering himself as more capable of guiding the nation’s economy than the president.
Five states, including California, conduct presidential primaries on June 5, and the last of the contests occurs June 26 in Utah.
In the Texas Democratic primary, Obama faced three little- known opponents. The president had 89 percent of the vote, with 93 percent of the precincts reporting.

No comments:

BLOG ARCHIVE