Rick Santorum has been declared the winner of the Oklahoma GOP primary. As The Fix team explained:
Rick Santorum won the Oklahoma primary, taking one of the most conservative states in the country.
Oklahoma Primary Results
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The state played to Santorum’s strengths, with many conservative, religious voters and tea party supporters. In the 2008 presidential election, no state gave Republican nominee John McCain a higher percentage of the vote.
That aside, it was one of the most competitive states of Super Tuesday, with Mitt Romney performing well in some of the more populated areas and Newt Gingrich winning some counties as well. In no other primary state on Tuesday were those three candidates so closely clustered together in the final results.
All three will get some delegates, because the state awards them proportionally both statewide and by congressional district. So despite Santorum’s win, Oklahoma may not be a big delegate prize for him.
Polling analysis from Behind the Numbers
Rick Santorum beat out Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in Oklahoma, trampling his closest rivals among voters seeking a candidate with strong conservative values. Nearly half of voters described their political views as “very conservative,” among the highest of any state that has voted so far.
Santorum won six in 10 Oklahomans who said having strong moral character was the most important candidate trait, according to exit polls reported by MSNBC, and he won nearly half of voters looking for “a true conservative.” Together these voters made up 44 percent of the electorate. Santorum also benefitted from heightened turnout among voters with incomes under $50,000, beating both Romney and Gingrich among this group by double digits.
Gingrich fought back among voters who focused on having the right experience, winning an outright majority. Santorum won just 9 percent among this group. Romney won voters looking for a candidate who can beat Obama, though Gingrich also held his own among this group.
Analysis from The Fix: The Sooner State should be a win for Rick Santorum — if you believe polling. If he can win Oklahoma, Ohio and Tennessee — well within the realm of possibility — he would, without question, be declared the winner of Super Tuesday and come out of March 6 with considerable momentum.
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