Republican Party candidate Mitt Romney extended his lead in the Republican Party Primaries on Tuesday, with wins in Michigan and Arizona, beating off his main challenger Rick Santorum.
“We didn’t win by a lot, but we won and that’s what counts,” Romney said.
In Arizona, Romney won 48 percent of the vote, well ahead of Santorum on 25 percent, Newt Gingrich on 16 percent, and Ron Paul on 8 percent.
In Michigan, where Romney's father served as a governor in the 1960's, the race was closer with Romney gaining 41 percent, just ahead of Santorum with 38 percent, whilst Ron Paul trailed with 12 percent, and Gingrich on 7 percent, according to CNN.
The results mean Romney wins all of Arizona’s 29 voting delegates but will share Michigan’s 30 delegates due to the district-based system in that state.
The results were in line with pundits’ expectations and strengthen expectations that Romney will gain the Republican nomination and go on to face incumbent President Barak Obama in the presidential poll in November.
The Michigan and Arizona results were the first since Santorum won three states earlier in February, reviving what had been widely seen as a one-horse race.
Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, now has 152 delegates compared to Santorum’s 72, with a total 1,144 needed to secure the nomination. The candidates now go on to campaign for Super Tuesday, the most important date in the Primaries calendar, when ten states will vote, including the key bellweather state of Ohio.
