Romney Sweeps the Night Wins WI, MD and DC

Mitt Romney has swept the April 3rd primaries with wins in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia. It looks like Romney will garner 86 delegates and Santorum will get 6 delegates. As I have been saying for more than a month, this primary is over and we have a presumptive nominee. Santorum failed to qualify for the District of Columbia primary.

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Delegate Math

For the purposes of this exercise, I'll use the AP Delegate Numbers.

Candidate	Mitt Romney	Rick Santorum	Newt Gingrich	Ron Paul
Delegates	655	278	135	51
% of Nomination	57.26%	24.30%	11.80%	4.46%
Delegates Needed	487 of 1,167	866 of 1,167	1,009 of 1,167	1,093 of 1,167
% of Remaining Delegates Needed	41.90%	74.21%	86.46%	93.66%

In other words, it's time for Santorum and Gingrich to put on their big boy pants and admit that it is over.

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The Race So Far




Graphics

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Speeches

Mitt Romney


Rick Santorum


I could find no speeches uploaded for Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul. I think that the networks have pulled their embeds from these campaigns and that the campaigns themselves are too disorganized to even think of posting videos of their candidate online. That alone should disqualify them from a national race.

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Next Up

On April 21st, Missouri has their third chance to select delegates this primary season. I think the "Show Me" state has taken things too far this election cycle. I've blogged about the mess in Missouri previously, check it out.

Then on April 24th, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich reach the point where they become mathematically ruled out. New York (95 delegates), Pennsylvania (72 delegates), Connecticut (28 delegates), Rhode Island (19 delegates) and Delaware (17 delegates).

I expect Mitt Romney stands an excellent chance to win them all. I believe it is probable that he will take Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum's home state.

On May 8th, Rick Santorum (depending on how many delegates he wins on April 21st and 28th) may be mathematically eliminated from the nomination battle.