While in Arizona, with 89 percent of the vote counted, Romney had floored Santorum with a 47% votes against Santorum’s 27%, in Michigan Santorum came a very close second at 38% while Romney scraped through with 41% of votes. In Michigan, 99 percent votes were counted.
The visibly relieved Romney said, “We didn’t win by a lot but we won by enough, and that’s all that counts.”
However, the situation was quite precarious before the ballots with Santorum looking like the winner in Michigan. While in Arizona, Romney had won all 29 delegates, Michigan’s 30 seemed equally divided and only 10 had decided in favor of Romney prior to the vote. Even though Santorum had lost the state’s popular vote he stood a chance of winning more delegates as he led in the majority of congressional districts that remained tossups.
The loss of the popular Michigan vote could have been extremely expensive for Romney, but for now the Republicans supporting Romney are in the mood for a party.
According to political experts, Romney has to capitalize on his win as swiftly as possible and try to gain Washington State on Saturday, and stabilize his base fully before 10 states go to vote on next Tuesday.
Romney’s victory speech, characteristically, was on the “Ode to Obama” line, criticizing the President for inefficient and impractical policies.
Santorum’s controversial comments on contraception and prenatal testing proved fatal as Romney found a clear winning edge among women voters. When exit polls showed Romney beating Santorum 42-37 percent with women, Rick changed tactics and played the card of his 93-year old mother.
Santorum, in his concession speech, talked for long of his mother, his wife, and daughter, saying his mother “was a professional who actually made more money than her husband.” But the moms present in the audience remained unfazed.
The 2012 Republican primary is heating up really fast, and Tuesday will be defining for the candidates as 10 states including states like Alaska, North Dakota, and Massachusetts, all of which were won by Romney in 2008 go to vote. Romney would be facing a tough fight in Ohio and Vermont, but Georgia and Tennessee as well as Oklahoma have the chance of favoring Romney. Though Virginia could have been the real disaster for Romney, neither Santorum nor Gingrich were able to collect the mandatory 10, 000 signatures, so Romney remains assured of Virginia’s 49 delegates without opposition.