The early Missouri Republican primary election results are showing former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum as the projected winner, according to CNN and NBC News.
CNN is reporting that with 27 percent of the votes turned in, Mr. Santorum leads Mr. Romney by more than 25,000 votes, garnering 54 percent of the votes compared to 26 percent for Mr. Romney.
Texas congressman Ron Paul is currently in third place in Missouri, with 12 percent of the votes.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is not on the ballot in the Missouri Republican primary election. Mr. Gingrich is currently campaigning in Ohio, which holds its Republican primary election on Super Tuesday in March.
Mr. Gingrich, like all of the other candidates, knows that although Missouri is holding its primary election on Tuesday, none of the votes from Republican voters will count towards delegate votes at the Republican National Convention in August.
That’s because in 2011, the Missouri state legislature moved the date of its Republican primary election up to February 7th, instead of its original March date. The Republican National Committee is punishing states that moved their election dates ahead of March 6th, stating that the move would cost states half of their delegate votes.
In order to avoid that penalty, Missouri is hosting its primary election Tuesday, and its caucuses on March 17th when the actual delegate selection will occur. The actual distribution of their delegate votes won’t occur until their state convention in June.
That means that no matter how big of a margin of victory Mr. Santorum wins by in Missouri, he won’t actually receive any of their delegate votes until June.
