Romney Wins Puerto Rico Primary In Landslide

Mitt Romney won the Puerto Rico primary Sunday in a landslide victory. The Associated Press called the election with just 11 percent of precincts reporting, when Romney already had 82 percent of the vote. With the decisive win, Romney will take all 20 of the territory’s delegates because he won over 50 percent of the vote. Romney now heads into Tuesday’s Illinois primary with momentum on his side.

Rick Santorum traveled to Puerto Rico earlier this week to woo primary voters, campaigning there Wednesday and Thursday. He ran into trouble when he told prospective supporters that Puerto Rico should make English its official language as a condition of statehood, an issue on the ballot later this year.

The Romney campaign pounced on Santorum’s comments Thursday, staking out an opposing position that English should not be a requirement for statehood. On Friday, Romney traveled to Puerto Rico, where he promised to push for statehood in Washington if the a majority of Puerto Ricans approve the referendum this fall. The move also put Romney squarely in line with Puerto Rico’s popular Gov. Luis Fortuño, a Romney supporter.

“Ann and I are deeply grateful to Governor Fortuño, his wife Lucé Vela, and the good people of Puerto Rico for their support and help in winning the Republican primary,” Romney said Sunday in a statement. “We won’t get the economy going again by replacing one president with no job creation experience with another with no job creation experience. I’ve spent my life turning around failing enterprises. I have a plan to get government out of the way so we can create jobs and put people back to work. And that plan begins by earning every vote I can in order to send Barack Obama on his way.”

Puerto Rico will send 20 delegates to the Republican National Convention, as well as three unbound RNC delegates. Voters do not participate in the general election in November. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul largely ignored the primary contest.