Columbus, Ohio (CNN) — Mitt Romney will win four states and Rick Santorum three on Super Tuesday, while Newt Gingrich grabbed a vital triumph in Georgia, CNN projected.
However, the big prize of the night — battleground state Ohio — remained too close to call in a duel between Romney and Santorum.
Santorum’s victories showed his continuing strength among conservative voters, while Gingrich’s win in the state that sent him to Congress allows him to keep his campaign going.
The Santorum victories — in Tennessee and Oklahoma primaries, and in North Dakota’s caucuses — also hurt Gingrich’s Southern strategy after the former House speaker’s triumphs in South Carolina and now Georgia, which both border Tennessee.
“It looks we’re going to get at least a couple of gold medals, and a whole passel full of silver medals,” Santorum told cheering supporters in Ohio, where he was running slightly ahead of Romney in a race too close to call.
Romney, meanwhile, easily won as expected in Virginia, Vermont, Idaho and Massachusetts, the state where he served as governor and considers home. In Virginia, two of his challengers — Santorum and Gingrich — failed to qualify for the ballot.
The Super Tuesday contests in 10 states put 419 delegates up for grabs. Based on the partial results, CNN estimated that Romney had accumulated 292 delegates to 121 for Santorum, 77 for Gingrich and 52 for Texas Rep. Ron Paul. It takes 1,144 delegates to win the Republican nomination.
For Gingrich, who represented Georgia’s sixth congressional district for two decades, the victory provided a new boost after a string of defeats since his only other primary triumph in South Carolina.
“Thank you Georgia! It is gratifying to win my home state so decisively to launch our March Momentum,” Gingrich said Tuesday night in a Twitter post.
“There’s lots of bunny rabbits that run through,” Gingrich later told supporters in Georgia. “I’m the tortoise.”
A Gingrich campaign source also told CNN on condition of not being identified that the former House speaker will become the third GOP candidate to get Secret Service protection starting Wednesday. Romney and Santorum already have that protection.
Romney entered Super Tuesday off of three wins last week and a growing lead in the race for the nomination to face President Barack Obama in November.
In remarks to supporters in Boston, Romney focused on Obama in trying to sound like the presumptive nominee.
Citing unemployment that remains above 8%, Romney said the figure is just an “inconvenient statistic” in the eyes of the Obama administration.
“But those numbers are more than data on a spreadsheet; they are worried families and anxious faces,” said Romney, who was interrupted repeatedly by chants and cheers. “And tonight, I’d like to say to each of them: You have not been forgotten. We will not leave you behind. Our campaign is on the move, and real change is finally on the way.”
Super photos from Super Tuesday
Romney also signaled a continued battle for his campaign.
“Tonight we’ve taken one more step towards restoring the promise of America,” he said. “Tomorrow we wake up and we start again. And the next day we’ll do the same. And so it will go, day by day, step by step, door by door, heart to heart.”
Santorum also focused on Obama, saying the president’s policies threatened the individual liberty of Americans. In addition, he targeted Romney for his health care law in Massachusetts, arguing it was the model for Obama’s federal health care reforms detested by conservatives.
“I’ve never been for a mandate at a state or a federal level,” Santorum said in challenging the requirement in both the Massachusetts and federal laws for people to have health coverage.
Tuesday was the biggest single day of the primary season, and included showdowns in several states that will determine the ability of Santorum, Gingrich and Paul to blunt Romney’s momentum toward what many believe will be his inevitable nomination.
Georgia had the most delegates up for grabs on Tuesday with 76, but Ohio, because of its status as a crucial battleground state in the general election, is considered the main prize.
Delegate tracker | delegate calculator
Romney and Santorum were running almost even in Ohio with more than 80% of unofficial returns counted. A CNN/ORC International poll released Monday indicated the state was a dead heat between Romney and Santorum, with each grabbing 32% of likely GOP primary voters. Gingrich was at 14% and Paul was at 11%.
Even if Santorum managed to win the Ohio vote, he wouldn’t get a majority of the delegates because his campaign failed to properly register them in some districts.
Surveys released a week earlier suggested Santorum led Romney, but they were conducted before Romney’s victories in Arizona and his native Michigan on February 28, followed by winning the Washington state caucuses on Saturday.
A leading GOP strategist thinks if Romney does well across the board on Tuesday night, he could come close to locking up his bid for the nomination.
“Even a come-from-behind win in Ohio won’t give Romney the momentum he needs to put this race away, but Romney could seal this deal Tuesday if he takes not only Ohio, but Tennessee,” said CNN contributor Alex Castellanos.
“If Romney demonstrates he can win in the South, GOP establishment and conservative voters will rally around him and money for his opponents would begin to dry up,” added Castellanos, who was a top media adviser for Romney’s 2008 nomination bid but who is not taking sides this cycle. “The real test Tuesday is this: Can Romney win not only in Ohio but in the South?”
Romney’s campaign was bolstered by endorsements from leading conservatives this week including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn and former Attorney General John Ashcroft.
The endorsements indicated a growing push in the Republican Party to show Romney can win the trust of conservatives, despite concerns that he is too moderate.
Thanks to a sweep of contests in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri on February 7, Santorum went from a long-shot candidate to a co-frontrunner, but going into Super Tuesday he hadn’t had a victory since.
“Simply put, he needs to stop the bleeding after three straight losses by winning several states of his own — including the big one in Ohio,” said Gentry Collins, a former political director for the Republican National Committee and the Republican Governors Association.
Paul has focused his efforts on winning delegates in the caucus states of Idaho, North Dakota and Alaska so that he can wield influence at the Republican convention in August.
Here is a state-by-state breakdown:
* Alaska is holding caucuses from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. ET. There are 24 delegates at stake, to be allocated on a proportional basis.
* Georgia held a primary, with polls closing at 7 p.m. ET. There are 76 delegates at stake, allocated on a proportional basis.
Georgia results | Georgia exit polls
* Idaho is holding caucuses beginning at 9 p.m. ET. There are 32 delegates at stake, to be allocated on a proportional basis.
* Massachusetts held a primary, with polls closing at 8 p.m. ET. There are 38 delegates at stake, to be allocated on a proportional basis.
Massachusetts results | Massachusetts exit polls
* North Dakota held caucuses from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET. There are 28 delegates at state, to be allocated on a proportional basis.
* Ohio held a primary, with polls closing at 7:30 p.m. ET. There are 63 delegates at stake, to be awarded on a proportional basis.
Ohio results | Ohio exit polls
* Oklahoma held a primary, with polls closing at 8 p.m. ET. There are 40 delegates at stake, to be allocated on a proportional basis.
Oklahoma results | Oklahoma exit polls
* Tennessee held a primary, with polls closing at 8 p.m. ET. There are 55 delegates at stake, to be awarded on a proportional basis.
* Vermont held a primary, with polls closing at 7 p.m. ET. There are 17 delegates at stake, to be awarded on a proportional basis.
Vermont results | Vermont exit polls
* Virginia held primary, with polls closing at 7 p.m. There are 46 delegates at stake, to be allocated on a proportional basis.
Virginia results | Virginia exit polls
CNN’s Jim Acosta, Dana Bash and Dana Bash contributed to this report.
