Updated March 24, 10:20 p.m. ET
Updated March 25, 11:00 a.m. ET
Rick Santorum easily won the Louisiana primary Saturday — but it may be too late to make much of a difference.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting in Louisiana, Santorum had 49 percent, Romney 26.7 percent, Gingrich 15.9 percent and Paul 6 percent, according to the Associated Press. CNN, Fox News, NBC and CBS projected Santorum the winner as soon as polls closed, based on an overwhelming lead in exit polls.
The Louisiana primary uses a proportional system for delegates, with a minimum threshold of 25 percent for candidates. Romney will therefore still gain some delegates, bringing him closer to the magic number 1,144 needed for nomination, and in either case will maintain his wide delegate lead over Santorum.
But Saturday’s contest is still an embarrassment of sorts for Romney, coming on the heels of the “Etch-A-Sketch” gaffe by his top adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, who in a morning TV interview on CNN earlier in the week described how the campaign could remake its platform in order to appeal to moderate voters in the general election.
Also, the results cast further doubt on any viability for Newt Gingrich’s campaign — even as a regional Southern candidate — and his quest to become an anti-Romney candidate at a brokered convention.
Following Gingrich’s second-place showings to Santorum in Alabama and Mississippi two weeks ago, and his fourth-place showing this past week in Illinois, he failed to meet the 25 percent threshold in the Louisiana primary and thus will get no delegates at all from the state.
Santorum addressed supporters in Green Bay, Wis., the state with the next big primary on April 3, and where Mitt Romney is ahead in the latest polling.
“You don’t believe as the pundits have said, that this race is over. You didn’t get the memo that — (interrupted by cheering). We’re still here, we’re still fighting, we still believe as this race really showed.
“Just a couple of weeks ago, this race was within a couple of points, within the margin of error. And we went down and talked about being the true conservative in this race. We talked about being the candidate who didn’t have their policy positions sketched on an Etch-A-Sketch, but sketched in our hearts. Because I’m not running as the conservative candidate for president - I am the conservative candidate for president.”
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