VICTORY

Romney Takes Arizona, Michigan

Fights off Santorum challenge.

What a day for Mitt. In what was a dogfight in the former Massachusetts governor’s home state, Romney slithered past Rick Santorum in Michigan as major news outlets projected wins in both Arizona and Michigan. Michigan was the story of the day—as it has been for much of the last few weeks—and Romney held a 30,000-plus vote lead when outlets declared the state for Romney, who had been taken by surprise by a surging Santorum, who had captured contests in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota earlier this month. The projected win in Michigan came after Romney was immediately marked as the winner when Arizona polls closed at 9 p.m. EST. Romney wins all 29 of Arizona’s delegates in a winner-takes-all format. Michigan will split the delegates according to the final results. He led Santorum by 40 to 36 percent when Romney was projected the winner by outlets. Catholic voters were said to have deserted Santorum at the polls, the influential voting bloc instead swaying toward the Mormon Romney. Santorum vowed to fight on, taking positives from his effort in Michigan."We came into the backyard’s of one our opponents and they said we had no chance,” Santorum said in a speech in Grand Rapids. A source told CNN that before he stepped on the stage to speak he had called Romney, essentially conceding the state to his opponent.