Presidential candidate former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., dropped out of the primary race Thursday after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., won significantly more delegates to the Republican nominating convention in the Super Tuesday primaries.
"Because I love America, in this time of war, I feel I have to stand aside for our party and our country," Romney said in an announcement at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
McCain is widely deemed the Republican frontrunner and with Romney's withdrawal from the race, McCain seems increasingly likely to win the Republican nomination. This is a significant turnaround for McCain, whose campaign was lagging last summer.
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., surprised many pundits with a strong showing in southern states on Super Tuesday, but he and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas., continue to lag far behind McCain in their total delegate accumulations. In the past week, McCain has come under fire from several conservative political leaders who question his conservative credentials.
McCain won most of the larger states, including California and Illinois. Huckabee won many states in the South, while Romney did well in the western mountain states such as Utah.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., are competing in a tight race for the Democratic nomination. On Super Tuesday each candidate carried important states across the country.
Clinton currently has 1,045 delegates to Obama's 960, although the number of delegates has not been finalized. This count also includes super-delegates, the unpledged party insiders who make up nearly a fifth of the Democratic delegates and whose votes are not determined based on the outcomes of state primaries. The Democratic candidates need 2,025 delegates to clinch the nomination. With such close competition, the contest could last until the Democratic nominating convention in August.
On Super Tuesday, Clinton won in large coastal states such as California and New York, while Obama won a higher total number of states, including a number of states in the Midwest and in the South.
Since Super Tuesday, Obama has gained $7.2 million for his campaign while Clinton raised $4 million and lent $5 million of her own money to support her campaign. These large totals reflct the fervency of the Democratic contest.
Clinton has challenged Obama to five debates before the March 4 primaries in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island. Obama has agreed to two.
Both parties will hold primaries in Louisiana this Saturday. The Republicans will also hold caucuses in Kansas on Saturday.
