Romney Wins Nevada Caucuses

The Republican Party of Nevada held caucuses across the state on Saturday, February 4, 2012, to determine the distribution of the state's delegates. The Nevada caucuses resulted in a solid win for Mitt Romney, with exactly 50 percent of the vote. Newt Gingrich came in about 10,000 votes behind with 21.1 percent of the vote, and less than 1,000 votes behind him was Ron Paul, with 18.7 percent of the vote. Rick Santorum came in far behind with just 9.9 percent of the vote.



Nevada's twenty-eight delegates will be distributed proportionally, making this an important win for both Gingrich and Paul, who are relying on winning proportional votes to carry them through to the convention. Romney will gain 14 delegates from the Nevada caucuses, while Gingrich earned six, Paul won 5, and Santorum won three. Romney's total delegate count has surpassed 100 now, and although the necessary 1,144 is still far away, Romney still leads the candidates.

The final Nevada results were not announced until Monday, after days of counting the caucus votes. Redistricting and poor organization made the Nevada votes difficult to tally. State party officials took the extra time to count the votes to avoid mistakes like the one in Iowa earlier this year, which declared the wrong candidate the winner.

Romney's win comes just days after a controversial endorsement from Donald Trump in Las Vegas, Nevada on Thursday. Trump had been expected to endorse Newt Gingrich rather than Romney, with some news outlets falsely reporting the same. Trump, who is a former GOP presidential candidate himself, made the appearance along with Romney to announce the endorsement.

Romney has the most total money to spend on his campaign, and made several appearances in the state over the past few months. He won across demographics, but was especially popular among Mormon voters, since he is a member of the Mormon Church. Mormons made up a quarter of all votes in Nevada, of which he won 90 percent.

Next up on the GOP primary calendar are caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota on Tuesday, February 7. Colorado has 36 delegates up for grabs and Minnesota has a total of 40.