WSJ's Neil King looks at Mitt Romney's strong showing in the Illinois presidential primary and how the victory improves his chances of securing the nomination. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Mitt Romney racked up a decisive victory Tuesday in the Illinois primary, shoring up his claim that he will inevitably take the Republican presidential nomination and dealing another blow to Rick Santorum's bid to block him.
With 99% of precincts reporting, Mr. Romney led with 47% to Mr. Santorum's 35%. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas had 9%, and Newt Gingrich trailed with 8%.
That gave Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, fresh momentum heading into a month in which the race moves largely to Northeast and mid-Atlantic states that are friendly terrain for him.
While the nominating contest has remained competitive longer than he expected, Mr. Romney has won in every region of the country but the Deep South, including in Ohio, Florida and Virginia—large states that will be battlegrounds when the Republican winner faces Democratic President Barack Obama this fall. The Illinois victory gives him a trifecta in the industrial Midwest, following much narrower wins in Michigan and Ohio.
GOP candidate Mitt Romney scored a decisive win in Tuesday's primary election. In his victory speech, he slammed President Obama on jobs creation and touted his own success as a businessman. WSJ's Sara Murray reports.
REUTERSMitt and Ann Romney on Tuesday.
The Illinois primary gave Mr. Santorum his best shot yet at a head-to-head matchup with Mr. Romney, as Messrs. Gingrich and Paul made little effort to campaign in the state. But Mr. Santorum didn't seem to benefit from the waning of support for Mr. Gingrich, raising questions about whether Mr. Romney's rivals together can achieve their goal of preventing him from winning the nomination.
"With each step after Illinois, it becomes tougher for the remaining three others in the field to raise money and make a compelling case," said Rich Bond, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Mr. Romney hailed the results Tuesday night as an "extraordinary victory" before turning his attention to Mr. Obama, saying the president's background before running for office gave him little understanding of how to shepherd the economy.
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"You can't learn that teaching constitutional law. You can't learn that as a community organizer,'' Mr. Romney said at a victory party in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg.
"I'm running for president because I have the experience and the vision to get us out of this mess," he said.
Mr. Santorum answered on Tuesday night by challenging Mr. Romney's background as an investor and management consultant.
"We don't need a manager," the former senator told supporters in his home state of Pennsylvania. "We need someone who is going to pull up government by the roots and throw it out and do something to liberate the private sector in America."
Mr. Gingrich's poor showing will intensify pressure on him to drop out of the race. But his statement Tuesday night was combative.
"To defeat Barack Obama, Republicans can't nominate a candidate who relies on outspending his opponents" by large margins, Mr. Gingrich said. "Instead, we need a nominee who offers powerful solutions.''
The Illinois primary will expand Mr. Romney's delegate lead substantially—even more than the popular-vote spread would indicate, under the state's system for awarding delegates. Election returns showed Mr. Romney picking up at least 43 delegates to 10 for Mr. Santorum, with one delegate not yet determined.
But the results still didn't seal the deal for Mr. Romney. While it will boost his lead in the delegate chase, it will take strong performances in contests over the next month for Mr. Romney to claim the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, and probably longer than that.
Patrick Brady, Illinois RNC Chair, joins the News Hub to discuss Illinois's profile in the presidential campaign. Photo: AFP / Getty Images.
The next state to vote, Louisiana, is considered likely to support Mr. Santorum in balloting Saturday, because of the predominance of evangelical and conservative voters who have been cool to Mr. Romney.
In Illinois, Mr. Romney carried the same groups of voters that he has in most other states—more-affluent, suburban and centrist voters.
Although that wasn't enough to win in the South, it proved to be a powerful coalition in a big, industrial state where evangelicals and very conservative voters hold less sway.
According to exit polls released by media outlets, Illinois Republicans were most concerned about choosing a candidate who could beat Mr. Obama. Among that group, Mr. Romney was the overwhelming favorite, winning 71% support.
Surveys of voters as they left the state's polling places also showed Mr. Romney losing to Mr. Santorum among lower-income and rural voters, and among people who called themselves "very conservative,'' consistent with voting trends in many earlier contests.
After unexpected first-place finishes by Mr. Santorum in Alabama and Mississippi last week, a win by him in Illinois would have further upended the race and damaged Mr. Romney's standing.
Mr. Romney's delegate haul from the Illinois contest remains unclear, but it is sure to be large. Delegates are not awarded according to the results of the popular vote, but are directly elected by voters.
At stake Tuesday were 54 of the state's 69 convention delegates—the rest to be assigned at a state convention in June. Mr. Santorum forfeited the right to compete for 10 of the delegates, because he failed to qualify for the ballot in four congressional districts.
Illinois held great promise for Mr. Romney because of its concentration of voters who tend to favor him—those who are affluent and less-ideologically driven—especially in the populous Chicago suburbs.
According to exit polls, 71% of the votes cast in Tuesday were in the state's suburbs.
Centrist Republicans dominated Illinois for decades, electing GOP governors who supported a woman's right to an abortion. During that stretch, the state proved hospitable to business-friendly Republicans in Mr. Romney's mold.
Conservative activists have gained influence since the GOP lost its grip on the governorship in 2003, a trend that forced Mr. Romney to work hard for votes and outspend his rivals on television.
WSJ's Neil King previews Tuesday's Illinois primary and how the upcoming dates on the GOP primary calendar might benefit the candidates. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
The long-simmering divide between the state's powerful Republican establishment and its aggrieved conservative base played prominently down the stretch.
Mr. Romney touted a long list of endorsements from elected officials as he toured the state, while Mr. Santorum tried to tap conservative discontent by presenting himself as the protest candidate for activists looking to shake things up.
Neither candidate mounted an aggressive turnout effort in the state, as both have been hopscotching from one state to the next in what has become a grinding primary fight.
Mr. Romney and his allies were able to maintain a sizable advantage in television advertising.
The Romney campaign and Restore Our Future, a super PAC that is supporting his bid, combined to spend more than $3.5 million in Illinois, according to figures provided by multiple media buyers tracking those reservations.
By contrast, the Santorum campaign and his super PAC, The Red, White and Blue Fund, combined to spend roughly $525,000.
That edge was more pronounced in the Chicago area. Mr. Romney and his super PAC spent more than $1.6 million on broadcast TV ads in the state's most influential media market.
The Santorum campaign's only presence on Chicago TV came from a comparatively small $138,000 statewide cable buy.
Mr. Romney appealed to some voters because of his emphasis on economic issues.
"I think he can take care of the economy,'' said Jan Dunteman, 74 years old, a lifelong Republican who voted for Mr. Romney in the Chicago suburb of Addison.
Others seemed resigned to Mr. Romney as the inevitable nominee. "He's the last man standing,'' said Nicholas Dell, 73, as he left Dapper's Restaurant in Addison wearing a sticker indicating he had voted.
Mr. Santorum continued to draw support from Republicans who view him as more consistently conservative than Mr. Romney, particularly on divisive social issues.
"He's more conservative," said Dan Romano, 55, a salesman who prefers Mr. Santorum's stance on social issues.
"His values mirror my own," said Kathleen Fang, 60, who cast a ballot for Mr. Santorum at a polling site in Addison.
The election Tuesday gave voters in Mr. Obama's backyard a chance to appraise his tenure in office ahead of the general election in November. In some cases, the news may prove unwelcome for the White House.
Democrats James and Margaret Haubner, both 71, cast ballots for Mr. Romney on Tuesday after voting for Mr. Obama in 2008. They said they had grown frustrated with the president, citing his recent fight with the Catholic Church over contraception and the scandal involving a failed solar-panel manufacturer that cost the federal government more than $500 million in guaranteed loans.
Mr. Romney would "do better than what we have in there now," Mrs. Haubner said outside a polling site in Addison. Her husband added, "He's got to go."
—Siobhan Hughes contributed to this article.
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