Presidential elections
Barrack Obama and Mitt Romney are the runners
For the first time in modern GOP history, three different candidates won the first three contests. Although Romney was thought to originally have won in ,Iowa and New Hampshire, Santorum was declared the winner (by 34 votes) in Iowa a few weeks after the caucuses.Gingrich won south Carolina by a large and surprising margin.
A number of candidates dropped out at this time. Bachmann, who finished fifth in Iowa, withdrew after the caucuses. Huntsman withdrew after coming in third in New Hampshire, and Perry withdrew when polls showed him drawing low numbers in South Carolina.
Santorum, who had previously ran an essentially one-state campaign in Iowa, took his campaign national and carried three more states on February 7.
Romney won all other contests after South Carolina, including Florida, seen at the time as a major win over Gingrich, former Governor of Massachusetts;
- Ron Paul, U.S. Representative from Texas (withdrew on May 14, 2012; no endorsement)
- Newt Gingrinch, former U.s Speaker of the house from Georgia (Withdrew on May 2, 2012, and endorsed Mitt Romney)
- Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania (withdrew on April 10, 2012, and endorsed Mitt Romney)
- Buddy Roemer, former governor of Louisiana[51][52] (withdrew on February 22, 2012, to run for the nominations of Americans Elect and the Reform Party)
- Rick Perry, Governor of Texas (withdrew on January 19, 2012, and endorsed Newt Gingrich, now Mitt Romney)
- Jon Huntsman, Jr., former U.S. ambassador to China and former governor of Utah (withdrew on January 15, 2012 and endorsed Mitt Romney)[56][57]
- Michele Bachmann, U.S. Representative from Minnesota (withdrew on January 4, 2012, and endorsed Mitt Romney)[58][59][60]
- Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico (withdrew December 28, 2011, to run for the nomination of the Libertarian Party)[61][62]
- Herman Cain, businessman from Georgia (withdrew on December 3, 2011, and endorsed Newt Gingrich, now Mitt Romney)
- Thaddeus McCotter, U.S. Representative from Michigan (withdrew on September 22, 2011, and endorsed Mitt Romney)[65][66]
- Tim Pawlenty, former governor of Minnesota,
Comments