Romney Wins Florida Primary

Mitt Romney has taken one more step to secure his lead in the GOP primaries, winning the January 31 primary in Florida with a decisive 46.4 percent of the vote. Romney's closest opponent, Newt Gingrich, took second place with 31.9 percent of the total vote, followed by Rick Santorum who received 13.4 percent. Ron Paul came in fourth with 7 percent of the vote.

Florida's delegates were allocated on a winner-take-all basis, giving Romney 50 additional delegates. To date, Romney has secured a total of 87 delegates out of the 1,144 necessary to earn the Republican nomination, while Gingrich trails at just 26 according to the most recent count from the Associated Press. Santorum earned 14 in his big win in Iowa, and Paul secured 3 in New Hampshire.

Romney did well with several key demographics, including women, the elderly, wealthy, and Hispanic voters. He also outspent Gingrich in Florida by over $12 million, which went a long way to boost his results at the polls. Santorum and Paul chose not to campaign in Florida, to instead focus on the next four upcoming primaries in which the delegates are allocated proportionally or are non-binding so they will have a better chance of securing delegates.

Despite Romney's early lead, the other major candidates have each pledged to keep fighting for the nomination, refusing to drop out of the race. With only a small number of delegates assigned so far, the nomination is still a long way away for any candidate. Next, the race for GOP nominee will move to Nevada, where caucuses on Saturday, February 4 will determine the allocation of the state's 28 delegates. Caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado the following Tuesday, February 7, will determine the non-binding allocation of delegates from those states.