Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney inched closer towards officially getting the delegates needed to earn his party’s nomination with projected primary wins in Pennsylvania, Delaware and three other states Tuesday.
With 72 delegates at stake in the Keystone State, Romney looked like he would get a challenge in the GOP race from former U.S. Senator Santorum. But the former two-term senator from Pennsylvania suspended his campaign two weeks ago so he could spend more time with his family leaving Romney a clearer path to victory.
Despite Santorum pulling out of the race his name still appeared on the ballot along with challengers Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich.
With Pennsylvania virtually a foregone conclusion, Gingrich focused on Delaware where he was trying to win the First State’s 17 delegates but he came up short against Romney who is sweeping his way towards a November general election showdown with President Barack Obama.
NBC News projected a clean sweep Tuesday for Romney as he also took races in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island Tuesday.
Polls closed in Pennsylvania and Delaware at 8 p.m. and within an hour both states fell to Romney.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
NBC News called the Keystone State for Romney just before 9 p.m. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Romney had 58 percent (about 434,000 votes) to 19 percent (about 140,000 votes) for Santorum with Paul pulling in 13 percent and Gingrich getting 11 percent of the vote. Romney was leading most counties including everywhere in the Philadelphia region.
NBC News called the First State for Romney around 8:40 p.m. With 100 percent of the votes in, Romney had 56 percent of the vote (more than 16,000 votes) to Gingrich's 27 percent, Paul's 11 percent and Santorum's 6 percent. Romney pulled in 60 percent of the votes in New Castle County.
Fan, follow and download: Get the latest from NBC10.com anytime, anywhere. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, our mobile site and NBC Philadelphia. Sign up for our breaking news newsletter. And, get breaking news delivered right to your mobile phone -- just text PHIBREAKING to 639710 to sign up. (Message and data rates may apply.)
