Mitt Romney cruised to an easy victory in the Nevada caucuses Saturday, giving him his first back-to-back win of the Republican presidential race he is once again dominating though still a long way from conquering.
Unofficial returns showed Romney, who also won the Silver State in 2008, finishing strongly ahead of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was running last in unofficial results.
“This is not the first time you gave me your vote of confidence, and this time I’m going to take it to the White House,” Romney told a jubilant crowd in Las Vegas, focusing on President Obama rather than his GOP rivals. “Mr. President, America has had enough of your kind of help.”
Downplaying the importance of Nevada, Gingrich didn’t arrange a rally after the polls closed. Instead, he held a press conference with reporters and aggressively attacked Romney.
“I believe the vast majority of Republicans across the country are going to want an alternative to a Massachusetts moderate,” he said, dismissing any suggestion that he would drop out of the race. “I suspect this debate will continue for quite some time.”
Romney’s strong showing follows his double digit win in Florida on Jan. 31. He’s won three of the first five nominating contests and now faces nominating contests in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri.
Saturday’s result was hardly in doubt given that Romney, backed by the state’s Mormon population, had the largest base of support and easily invested the most resources in Nevada.
Gingrich, who largely passed on the caucuses, was hoping for a second-place finish that would allow him to continue as the most serious conservative threat to Romney.
Santorum is expected to finish a distant fourth. He chose to campaign in Colorado on Saturday night rather than wait out the Nevada results.
“Demographically, you’re playing on Mitt’s home court in Nevada,” Santorum said on CNN, downplaying the loss. “We think this is an opportunity for the race to begin to turn.”
The Nevada victory launches what should serve as a favorable stretch for the former Massachusetts governor in coming days. The Maine caucuses, which began Saturday, and contests Tuesday in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri are expected to tilt Romney’s way as well.
Romney has claimed the mantle as the best-suited Republican to steer the economy back to prosperity, and that message apparently played well in Nevada, which leads the nation in home foreclosures.
In contrast, the surge that Gingrich had expected after winning the South Carolina primary just two weeks ago appears to have waned. Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has injected at least $10 million into Gingrich’s campaign through a super PAC, but Gingrich didn’t spend that money in Nevada because Romney was dominating there.
Nevada has long been favorable terrain for Romney, as he carried the state with more than half of the vote in his 2008 presidential bid. With Nevada in his back pocket, Romney has carried three of the first five GOP contests.
Nevada awards 28 delegates on a proportional basis, making it the second-most delegate rich state after Florida so far.
