Santorum Wins Kansas GOP Caucus By A Landslide

Former Pennsylvania Sentator Rick Santorum won the Kansas Republican Caucuses by a landslide today by a 53% to 17% margin over GOP rival Mitt Romney.

The 2012 Kansas Republican Caucus results placed Santorum in first, Mitt Romney second, Newt Gingrich third with 15%, and Ron Paul fourth with 13% after 80% of the voting precincts had reported.

Santorum's surge in Kansas should add at least 25 delegates to his column. More importantly for the Santorum campaign, is that such an overwhelming victory over Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in Kansas could give Santorum the momentum going into the delegate rich Alabama and Mississippi Republican primaries on March 13 where recent polls show a statistical three-way tie between those candidates.

Santorum's immediate goal is to win overwhelmingly in those southern states in order to either force Newt Gingrich out of the GOP race, or make Gingrich such a non-issue that it truly becomes a one-on-one race with Romney.

In Wyoming, Romney took 39% of the vote to Santorum's 32%.  Ron Paul came in second with 21% and Newt Gingrich last with 8%.

Overnight, Mitt Romney won 12 delegates in Republican caucuses held in the U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Marianas.