Rick Santorum has won the non-binding Missouri primary Tuesday night and was just declared the winner of the Minnesota caucus as well. Results are still coming in for the Colorado caucus but early results show Santorum with a reasonable lead. Sometime around a midnight eastern time we might expect a winner declared in Colorado.
Results: Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri
Report from MSNBC:
Rick Santorum scored victories in Minnesota and Missouri nominating contests Tuesday night, winning him no actual delegates, but allowing the former Pennsylvania senator to stymie Mitt Romney’s bid to keep alive a streak of victories in the Republican presidential primary.
NBC News declared Santorum the projected winner of the Missouri primary and the Minnesota caucus. NBC will not be allocating any delegates from Missouri or Minnesota to Santorum in its projected count.
Santorum won the distinction of having upset Romney in the last nominating contests before the campaign enters a three-week break before Michigan and Arizona’s Feb. 28 contests. Tonight’s results virtually ensure the GOP primary will extend through early March, while Romney will have to answer fresh questions about his ability to win over conservative primary voters.
“Tonight’s victory should put to bed the idea that the Republican nomination for Mitt Romney is inevitable,” said Stuart Roy, an adviser to the pro-Santorum super PAC, the Red, White and Blue Fund.
We’ll have the updated numbers on Wednesday but right now it looks like Santorum will be picking up some seriously needed press and publicity from these wins, regardless of whether or not he can carry Colorado. Should he perform the trifecta and take them all, this will look like a different race Wednesday morning.
