Santorom Drops Out

This week I will be finally discussing the Wisconsin, Maryland, and the Washington D.C. primaries that took place at the beginning of the month, and then of course the decision by Rick Santorom to turn down from the GOP race.

First, to the only states that has voted in the month of April so far. On April 3^rd, Mitt Romney sweeped all three of those states, winning by seven percent over Santorom and picking up thirty-three delegates of the forty-two that were up for grabs in Wisconsin, beating Santorom by twenty percent and receiving all thirty-seven delegates available in Maryland, and getting seventy percent of the vote and winning all sixteen delegates in Washington D.C. over runner-up Ron Paul who finished with twelve percent. Rick Santorom was not on that D.C. ballot. This brought Mitt Romney to six hundred and fifty-nine total delegates by the end of the night, well over halfway to the Republican nomination.

After Easter weekend, Rick Santorom announced on April 10^th that he was stepping down from the GOP race. He left after winning eleven states and racking up two hundred and seventy-five delegates. There have been many different conclusions on why Santorom has dropped out so soon. Some analysts think it is because he wanted to avoid losing to Romney in his own home state, Pennsylvania, on April 24^th. There have been other reports that it’s because of his daughter Bella’s most recent scare with health issues, as she suffers from a rare genetic condition called Trisomy 18. Whatever the case, Rick has “suspended” his campaign after a “long weekend of prayer”. This obviously gives a wide open door to the Republican nomination for Mitt Romney who is already talking about facing President Obama in October and November. Santorom has said nothing yet about endorsing any candidate, and in fact hasn’t even talked to Romney.

The Republican nomination is everything but done, as Romney holds a five hundred and nineteen delegate lead over Newt Gingrich, and a five hundred and eighty-seven delegate lead on Ron Paul. Next week, I will be running down how the Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island primaries all went, although I think you all probably know how they will go. Once again, here are the two websites that I use for quotes among other things: cnn.com and usatoday.com. I also used newser.com this week for more information about Bella Santorom.