Tracking the Race for the Republican Presidential Nomination

From left to right: Republican presidential candidates Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich stand ready to debate in Arizona in February 2012.

Months of campaigning has thinned the pack of 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls, but battles in 21 states are still to be fought. There will be 2,286 delegates to the Republican National Convention, and most will be committed, in advance, to support one candidate or another depending on the outcome of their state’s primary or caucuses. To get the nomination, a candidate must win the support of a majority—1,144—of those delegates.

As of April 1, Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, has a fairly comfortable lead in the delegate count. He has 583 pledged delegates, while former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum is second with 273. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Texas congressman Ron Paul both remain in the race. Of the 1,257 Republican delegates yet to be won, 322 will be decided in April, 427 in May, and 338 in June, with the “prize” states—New York (95 delegates), Texas (155), and California (172)—up for grabs.

Each state determines how its delegates are allocated, and significant variation exists in how they do so. A state may award delegates at the congressional district level or on a statewide basis. Most states allocate delegates proportionally—that is, based on the percentage of the vote that each candidate gets. For example, Santorum won the Iowa caucuses in a close finish, gaining 14 of the state’s 28 delegates; but Romney, who came in second, picked up 12 delegates. Other states have a format in which the winner gets all the delegates, regardless of whether he or she wins a majority of the vote. For example, Romney’s victory in the Florida primary, with 46.4 percent of the vote, gave him all 50 of the Sunshine State’s delegates.

As the incumbent president, Barack Obama has not faced Democratic primary opposition. However, the Obama reelection campaign is already taking on the prospective Republican nominee, whoever it will be. One national poll conducted by USA Today/Gallup showed President Obama enjoys a slim lead over Mitt Romney among those registered voters surveyed.

Image credit: © Ross D. Franklin/AP Images

Related Links

  • Politico 2012 Live
    Examine Politico.com’s Delegate Tracker, which updates the Republican presidential nomination race according to outcomes in each state primary or caucus; Politico’s website also includes poll results, capsule stories on daily events, and more.
    (Source: Politico.com; accessed April 1, 2012)
  • Election 2012
    This website devoted to tracking the 2012 national election includes updates on the presidential, Senate, and House campaigns as well as news and polling data.
    (Source: Real Clear Politics; accessed March 31, 2012)
  • 2012 Election Central
    Track the 2012 presidential campaign through the primaries, conventions, and debates. This site is a clearinghouse of primary schedules, candidates’ videos, links to candidates’ websites, media interviews and press conferences, and more.
    (Source: 2012 Presidential Election News; accessed March 31, 2012)
  • 2012 Interactive Electoral Map
    Customize this interactive map to see how different state-by-state outcomes would affect the overall electoral vote in the November general election; includes links to polling data and allows map views of all historical U.S. presidential elections from 1789 to 2008.
    (Source: 270toWin.com; accessed March 31, 2012)

4 Comments

  1. latacah says:

    happy

  2. deven says:

    just checking if I can do this from CCPS

  3. noiz says:

    romney should win

  4. Jin says:

    Romney!