NPR: McCain Wins Lion's Share of Delegates

McCain Wins Lion's Share of Delegates

Super Tuesday was indeed a super day for Republican Sen. John McCain. By the time the votes had been counted, McCain joked with his supporters that they would have to get use to being described as the frontrunners for the nomination, rather than always thinking of themselves as the come-back kids.

By winning all four of the big states up for grabs - New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California - McCain ensured that he would garner the lion's share of the delegates for the evening. In total, he won 51.

But while they didn't win the big prizes, former Massacusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee did well in the smaller states. Romney won many of the Western states that were holding caucuses, while Huckabee surprised a lot of people by winning five southern states. As a result, Romney won 176 delegate slots while Huckabee picked up 147. Texas Rep. Ron Paul picked up 10 delegates during the evening.

As of 8 a.m.EST this morning, and after you add all the pledged party officials and elected representatives (Republicans don't have super delegates, but do have some slots for these positions), McCain has 613 delegates, Romney 269, Huckabee 190 and Paul 14.

That means McCain needs another 578 delegates to win the nomination. So while it's appropriate to give McCain the frontrunner label, this race is also far from over.

8:39 AM ET | 02- 6-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

With three fairly strong candidates in the Republian race could it be possible that no one candidate could win more than 50% of the delegates?

Sent by Sara Dzimianski | 9:02 AM ET | 02-06-2008

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