Mitt Romney has won the popular vote in Michigan.
Precincts Reporting - 96%
- 41.0% Mitt Romney - 395,360 votes
- 37.9% Rick Santorum- 366,146 votes
- 11.6% Ron Paul - 112,232 votes
- 6.5% Newt Gingrich - 62,858 votes
As we reported earlier, Michigan's 30 delegates will be awarded by the popular vote (2 delegates), and for winning each of the 14 congressional districts (2 delegates for each district).
As of 11:55 this evening, the Michigan Republican Party is still determining the final delegate count.
10:34 p.m.
NPR has projected that Mitt Romney has won the popular vote in Michigan. The delegates for the 14 congressional districts in Michigan still remain to be tallied.
10:13 p.m.
Rick Santorum has taken the stage in Grand Rapids, saying they've put up a good fight in his opponent's backyard.
"The people of Michigan looked into the hearts of the candidates in Michigan... and all I have to say is, I love you back," said Santorum.
10:05 p.m.
The New York Times reports that "Mitt Romney has received a larger share of the vote than in 2008 in 62 of the 76 Michigan counties to have reported at least some results so far."
A good sign for Mitt Romney.
More from Mark Memmott at NPR.org:
- From NPR's Don Gonyea: "Santorum crowd's hope for knock-out punch in MI fading as incoming vote totals now trending wrong way for them." (link) 3 minutes ago
- Here's how the AP is characterizing the race in Michigan: "Mitt Romney ... is pulling ahead of Rick Santorum." 4 minutes ago
9:50 p.m.
NPR's Ari Shapiro reports people are dancing at Romney's campaign party in Novi buoyed by the news out of Arizona. They expected to hear from Romney earlier, but he didn't appear. Still waiting.
Shapiro quotes a Romney campaign staffer saying "I can't wait to get this big Michigan monkey off my back."
The New York Times reports on a strong county for Mitt Romney:
So far, about 65,000 votes have been counted in Mitt Romney's stronghold of Oakland County, Mich., even though only about 17 percent of its precincts have reported. That would put it on a pace to considerably exceed the 133,000 votes that the county cast in 2008, a good sign for Mr. Romney. Still, it may be that some of the largest precincts in Oakland County have reported while the smaller ones have not, or that the vote count is heavy with early and absentee ballots. So the vote pace will probably slow down somewhat. Mr. Romney is leading in Oakland County by 15 percentage points based on votes counted there so far, slightly behind his 2008 margin of 20 percent but probably good enough to put him on a winning trajectory with a strong turnout there.
9:39 p.m.
And here are updates from NPR.org's Mark Memmott who is live blogging the election results:
- From Rick Santorum's headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich., NPR's Don Gonyea tweets that "as narrow 3pt Romney lead flashes on screens. ... Crowd quiet. Chatting amongst selves." (link) 2 minutes ago
- "You won't have the kind of hysteria and panic you would have had if he had lost," NPR's Mara Liasson adds in discussing a possible win by Mitt Romney in Michigan and the reaction of Republican Party leaders to that. 6 minutes ago
- Snap analysis from NPR's Mara Liasson: If Romney does hold on to win in his native state of Michigan, he will have "quieted some of the anxiety in the Republican Party, but with lots of weaknesses exposed." 9 minutes ago
- If Mitt Romney does win in Michigan, it's the point spread that will matter, Politico says. A win of 5 points or less in his native state might not give him much of a bounce. (link) 15 minutes ago
