Although most precincts have yet to report in, the tra­di­tion­al media has already declared Mitt Rom­ney the win­ner of the 2012 Repub­li­can pri­ma­ry in New Hamp­shire… and Rom­ney has tak­en to the stage to deliv­er an arro­gant­ly-word­ed vic­to­ry speech filled with bold promis­es that he has no abil­i­ty what­so­ev­er to ful­fill, along with a gen­er­ous serv­ing of scorn direct­ed toward Pres­i­dent Barack Obama.

As of 5:35 PM, Rom­ney had around 35% of the vote, with Ron Paul in sec­ond place and Jon Hunts­man in third. Iowa wun­derkind Rick San­to­rum fin­ished fifth, behind Newt Gin­grich, who once again man­aged to come in fourth. Fin­ish­ing last among the major can­di­dates was Rick Per­ry, who had less than one per­cent of the vote.

Mitt Rom­ney: 35.3% (15,121 votes)
Ron Paul: 25.0% (10,705 votes)
Jon Hunts­man: 16.8% (7,194votes)
Newt Gin­grich: 10.3% (4,410 votes)
Rick San­to­rum: 10.1 (4,342 votes)
Rick Per­ry: 0.7% (292 votes)

It’s worth not­ing that the total num­ber of votes received by all the can­di­dates is less than the pop­u­la­tion of a medi­um-sized city (like the City of Red­mond). This elec­tion is being decid­ed by a fair­ly small electorate.

The next nom­i­nat­ing con­test will be held a week from this Sat­ur­day in South Car­oli­na. It will like­ly be Rick Per­ry’s last stand — if he does­n’t at least fin­ish in the top three, he will be in a poor posi­tion to continue.

Very few del­e­gates are at stake in the four Jan­u­ary nom­i­nat­ing con­tests (Iowa, New Hamp­shire, South Car­oli­na, Flori­da), but it’s like­ly that the field will be sig­nif­i­cant­ly nar­rowed before the states with the most del­e­gates at stake hold their cau­cus­es and pri­maries, because pres­i­den­tial cam­paigns need mon­ey to run and mon­ey tends to dry up when a can­di­date is losing.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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