Photograph by Edmund D. Fountain/Tampa Bay Times/Zuma Press
A Mitt Romney supporter in Tampa, Florida.
That’s about how many votes Republican front-runner Mitt Romney has received in the 29 states that have held a Republican primary or caucus so far.
Romney has won about 39 percent of the total vote, compared to 27 percent for Rick Santorum, who’s won about 2.8 million votes, and 22 percent for Newt Gingrich, who’s amassed about 2.3 million votes. Ron Paul has won about 10 percent or 1 million votes.
Romney has won a disproportionate share of national convention delegates in part because some of his biggest wins have come in states that awarded most or all of their delegates to a plurality winner. Romney swept all of the delegates in Florida and Arizona and most of them in Illinois, where he won a primary on March 20. He’s also done well in low-profile contests in U.S. territories that award delegates but don’t vote for president in the general election. Romney is about halfway to the 1,144 delegates he needs to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press tally.
Romney has prevailed in 16 states, Santorum in 11 states and Gingrich in two states. Gingrich is deceptively close to Santorum in the popular vote count because he won more than half of his 2.3 million votes in three primaries — Florida, where he finished second to Romney, and Georgia and South Carolina, which Gingrich won.
Romney should increase his advantages in the popular vote and the delegate count after tomorrow’s primaries in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin. Romney probably will win Maryland and Washington, D.C., by comfortable margins, while Wisconsin should be more competitive between him and Santorum.
