Mitt Romney tightened his grip on the presidential nomination with a triple primary win and trained his sights on President Barack Obama as his flagging Republican rivals vowed to fight on.
Tuesday appeared to mark the start of a new phase in Mr Romney’s campaign, as he turns his full attention to challenging Mr Obama in November
Mr Romney thumped main rival Rick Santorum in Maryland and the US capital Washington on Tuesday, and won a tighter but more important race in Wisconsin, US media projected, in a pivotal night for the party’s front runner.
“We won them all! This really has been quite a night,” Mr Romney told supporters in Wisconsin, where he won by nearly five percentage points.
“We’ve won a great victory tonight in our campaign to restore the promise of America,” he said.
Mr Romney’s opponents remained undaunted, however, with Mr Santorum insisting the Republican race to see who will challenge President Barack Obama in November was merely at “half-time.”
Mr Santorum, a Christian conservative and staunch opponent of abortion and gay marriage, has said he will carry on at least into May, when primaries are held in more conservative states seen as friendlier to his candidacy.
“The clock starts tonight,” Mr Santorum told supporters in his home state of Pennsylvania, which votes later in April.
“We’ve got three weeks to go out here in Pennsylvania and win this state. And after winning this state, the field looks a little different in May,” he said.
But Mr Santorum must feel the sting of a loss in Wisconsin, where he campaigned heavily over the last week. With nearly 100 per cent of precincts reporting, Mr Romney had 43 per cent of the vote to Mr Santorum’s 38 per cent.
Mr Santorum virtually ignored the other two contests in the hope of snagging a victory in the Midwest, where the arch-conservative opponent of abortion and gay marriage has fared far better than in the more moderate Northeast.
Mr Romney won 49 per cent to Mr Santorum’s 29 per cent in Maryland and dominated with 70 per cent in Washington, DC, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas congressman Ron Paul trailing far behind in all three contests.
The trifecta put Mr Romney more than half-way to the magic number of 1,144 delegates needed to be crowned the Republican flag-bearer at the party’s national convention in Tampa, Florida in August.
Tuesday appeared to mark the start of a new phase in Mr Romney’s campaign, as he turns his full attention to challenging Mr Obama in November.
He is already acting like the nominee, training his political fire on Mr Obama’s “government-centred society” and no longer mentioning his Republican rivals on the campaign trail.
Mr Obama also appeared to step into campaign mode on Tuesday, rebuking Mr Romney by name in a speech and calling him to account for supporting a “radical” Budget passed by congressional conservatives last week.
Mr Obama accused Mr Romney of championing cut-throat “social Darwinism” that neglects the middle class and favours the wealthy, and said the Republican candidate is seeking to institute such a budget on “day one of his presidency.”
Mr Romney fired back.
“There’s no question that under this President, this recovery has been the most tepid, the most weak, the most painful since the beginning of our recorded economic history,” Mr Romney said on the Sean Hannity radio show.