Mitt Romney won the first state race in the 2008 primaries, an achievement nobody outside political junkies are paying attention to since the Granite State dominates headlines:
Mitt Romney captured his first win of the Republican presidential race, gaining most of Wyoming's delegates at stake in GOP caucuses on Saturday.
The former Massachusetts governor won six of the first eight delegates to be selected. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and California Rep. Duncan Hunter won one apiece, meaning no other candidate could beat Romney. Caucuses were still being held to decide all 12 delegates at stake.
Coming two days after the Iowa caucuses and three days before the New Hampshire primary, the early date of the Wyoming GOP county conventions was intended to draw candidates' attention to the state but had only modest results.
Republican hopefuls Romney, Hunter, Fred Thompson and Ron Paul all stopped by the state—visits they probably wouldn't have made except for this year's early conventions—and candidates have sent Wyoming's GOP voters a flood of campaign mail.
Wyoming had moved its primary forward to try and gain national attention, but ended up remaining mostly obscure. Hardly any of the GOP candidates spent time in Wyoming. Ron Paul had conducted some extensive politicking in a state predisposed to agree with is positions given their libertarian tendencies, but he ended up worse than he did in Iowa (all the worse given that the frontrunners except Romney didn't compete against him). With all precincts reporting, Romney won 67% of the vote, followed by Thompson at 25% and Duncan Hunter at 8%. With twelve delegates at stake, this gives Romney eight of them, Thompson three, and Hunter one. Eight delegates probably won't give Romney an edge, especially since candidates need over one thousand delegates to win. The Democrats will visit Wyoming in March.
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