Iowa caucus results: Mitt Romney wins by 8 votes
theGRIO REPORT - Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won by only eight votes in an extremely close race in Iowa, illustrating the frontrunner's still weak support among his party's base.
DES MOINES The Iowa caucus results are in: Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won by only eight votes in an extremely close race in Iowa, illustrating the frontrunner’s still weak support among his party’s base.
Romney and Santorum both received 25 percent of the vote, while Texas Rep. Ron Paul finished in third with 21 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry were at 13 percent and 10 percent. Perry is expected to drop out the race this week after his poor finish.
Tuesday’s voting completed a highly unusual year-long contest in Iowa in which Perry, Gingrich and businessman Herman Cain, who suspended his campaign last month amid sexual harassment allegations, all at some point led in the polls. Gingrich was ahead a few weeks ago, but faded after a barrage of negative campaign ads from a political action committee operated by supporters of Romney.
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The campaign will now move to New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Jan 10. Nearly all of the candidates who were in Iowa are expected to compete aggressively in Granite State, as well as former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr., who largely downplayed the Iowa content.
And the campaign is likely to get uglier. Gingrich, who ran a largely positive campaign here, was furious about ads he faced in Iowa and promised in New Hampshire to aggressively attack Romney, who he dubbed a “Massachusetts moderate” whose presidency would be “managing the decay” of the country.
“The debate begins tomorrow,” a sullen-looking Gingrich promised in his speech Tuesday night.
Santorum’s near victory was completely unexpected until about two weeks ago, when he surged in polls. Surveys Republican voters in Iowa on Election Night showed Santorum dominated the votes of evangelical Christians, while Romney won voters who said the most important criterion for their vote was “can defeat Obama.”
Paul, an anti-war libertarian, was the strongest candidate among voters below age 30 and among self-identified independents.
It was the closest caucus in the history of Iowa.
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