Thread: Rick Santorum wins Kansas

Kansas Republican caucuses results: Rick Santorum wins

By JUANA SUMMERS | 3/10/12 4:03 PM EST Updated: 3/10/12 4:18 PM EST

SIKESTON, Mo. — Rick Santorum handily won the Kansas GOP caucuses in another test of his strength with the party’s conservative voters.

The former Pennsylvania senator was the only candidate to seriously campaign in Kansas as he tries to narrow the GOP nominating contest to a head-to-head matchup between himself and Mitt Romney.
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Santorum will likely receive the vast majority of Kansas’ 40 delegates when all the caucus votes are tallied, with Romney placing second. But Romney picked up nine delegates apiece yesterday in Guam and the Northern Marianas. The former Massachusetts governor is also likely to add to his total in Wyoming tonight, though that will still not mark the end of that state’s caucus process.

Santorum’s easy win on Saturday leaves Tuesday’s contests in Alabama and Mississippi — where a total of 90 delegates are at stake — on unexpected center stage.

Polls show a close race in Alabama and at least one poll in Mississippi showed Santorum trailing, with Newt Gingrich in first place.

Romney didn’t campaign in Kansas. Ron Paul briefly stumped in the state, but Newt Gingrich canceled plans to travel to Kansas to instead focus on Southern primary states like Mississippi and Alabama, which will vote on Tuesday.

In Kansas, Santorum set the bar high for himself in the days before Saturday’s caucuses, telling supporters at rallies in Lenexa, Wichita and Topeka that a win in Kansas — which he called part of the conservative heartland — could help propel him forward in Mississippi and Alabama.

Santorum’s Kansas win also comes as his allies have suggested it is time for Gingrich to exit the race and for conservatives to rally around Santorum.

“That’s been the goal from the beginning, to get this into a two-man race,” Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said. “We’re very pleased to see the Santorum surge slip into the Jayhawk State.”

Gidley said the Kansas victory would “definitely give us momentum,” but argued that it was more indicative of Santorum’s viability in every corner of the country.

“This is definitely a good day for the campaign,” Gidley said. “We’re the only ones that have proven we can win all over this country.”

Santorum, meanwhile, was not in Kansas to claim his victory. Instead, he had planned campaign stops in neighboring Missouri, including Springfield and Cape Girardeau. Santorum won Missouri’s non-binding primary in early February, but hopes to capture a healthy number of the state’s delegates when voters begin to caucus for real there on March 17.

Kansas Republican caucuses results: Rick Santorum wins - Juana Summers - POLITICO.com

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