Romney’s narrow victory ignites the Republicans’ battle

4^th January 2012

Tom Chapman

Tom Chapman

4 January 2012

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has won his first vote by US Republican supporters by only eight votes.

The Caucus meetings are the first time that voters have any say over who takes on Barrack Obama for the US presidency on the 6^th of November.

But the race in Iowa was only won by 8 votes, leading second-place candidate Rick Santorum and third runner-up Ron Paul both to initially claim victory.

Romney and Santorum each ended the night on 24.5% of the vote, Paul on 21.5%, Newt Gingrich on 13%, Rick Perry on 10%, Michelle Bachmann on 5% and Jon Huntsman on 1%.

The Republican Party said that there would be no recount.

With the race being so close, there is no real clear answer as to who Republicans want to back to try and defeat President Obama.

Mr Romney is believed to have won because his election campaign focused on the President rather than his fellow Republican rivals:

“The gap between his promises four years ago and his performance is as great as anything I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.

His opponent, Mr Santorum declared, “Game on!” to his supporters as the results continued to come in.

“You have taken the first step toward taking back this country,” he said.

Tom Chapman