(CBS News) Nearly a year after announcing his presidential bid, CBS News estimates that Mitt Romney has earned the necessary delegates to clinch the Republican presidential nomination.
With 85 percent of the votes counted, CBS News projects that the former Massachusetts governor will win Tuesday's Texas' GOP primary, earning 70 percent of the vote and surpassing the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination. Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who announced earlier this month that he would no longer be actively campaigning in the race, earned 11 percent.
CBS News has been tracking delegates throughout the primaries and caucuses, including interviews with Republican delegates across the country. The former Massachusetts governor has amassed more than a thousand delegates from these contests and CBS News has also confirmed that he has the support of 83 of the 123 delegates who are Republican National Committee members and are free to support who they choose.
According to CBS News estimates, Romney will have 1,198 delegates following his victory in Texas.
In a statement after the Texas polls closed, Romney said he was "humbled to have won enough delegates to become the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nominee."
"Our party has come together with the goal of putting the failures of the last three and a half years behind us," Romney said in the statement. "On November 6, I am confident that we will unite as a country and begin the hard work of fulfilling the American promise and restoring our country to greatness."
Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus congratulated the presumptive nominee on reaching the 1,144 delegate marker, and expressed confidence that "Romney will offer America the new direction we so desperately need."
"We cannot afford four more years of President Obama's big government agenda, deficit spending, and attacks on American free enterprise," Priebus said in a Tuesday night statement. "At a time when the country must empower the private sector to create jobs, we need a leader who actually understands job creation and respects the private sector. That leader is Mitt Romney."
In the year since announcing his candidacy, Romney has won 31 states en route to the nomination. It was a long battle partially due to new Republican party rules, as a result of which more states awarded delegates proportionally, making it more difficult for Romney -- or any candidate -- to wrap the nomination up early.
Paul, who continues to focus on winning delegates at state and district conventions, now has 121 total delegates, according to CBS News estimates.
Former candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum also won a number of delegates during their presidential campaigns. While both have publicly endorsed Romney, they have yet to release their delegates, which means many of these delegates remain bound to Gingrich and Santorum -- at least for now.
When asked Tuesday when he expected to officially release his delegates, Gingrich said he wasn't yet sure.
"When it's appropriate. I don't know yet," he told reporters.
Romney will officially be nominated at the Republican national convention in August in Tampa, Florida.
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
People are reading it or someone is refreshing their browser.
It's those pesky & annoying basketcase gay Kloughns from LP. You know the ones: the admiral, tater and the infamous Alaskan queer. They think that is how to create a DDOS attack.
t's those pesky & annoying basketcase gay Kloughns from LP. You know the ones: the admiral, tater and the infamous Alaskan queer. They think that is how to create a DDOS attack.
It worked. Or at least I was wondering why at times my browser would not load LF. Happened to me about an hour or so ago. Has happened to me before. I just close out the page, do the rest of my reading on other sites until it's able to load again.
Shocked enough to make a financial contribution to LF?
Sure. I'm always up for a friendly wager.
What do you have in mind?
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
A straight bet on the outcome of the electoral college.
You got a number in mind?
As a friendly gesture I will not bet against Ron Paul.
And I won't insult Obama. :o)
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
Free free to insult the Kenyan Usurper at your leisure, you're betting money he'll win reelection.
It's really that I'm betting Romney, and the RNC, will lose. They're running a lame horse, just like in '08.
You and I lose either way.
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
The loser to settle up by making a like contribution to Liberty's Flame.
I don't see a way to donate to LF.
Does LF accept donations?
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
I'd send it to you, Stone, Paul, but not the RNC. Or the DNC.
Losing the bet would be bad enough but that would just hurt.
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." Samuel Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772