Romney Sails to Win in Puerto Rico

Mitt Romney scored an overwhelming win today in Puerto Rico's Republican presidential primary, trouncing chief rival Rick Santorum even as the two rivals looked ahead to more competitive contests this week in Illinois and Louisiana. The victory in the US territory was so convincing that Romney, the GOP frontrunner, won all 20 delegates to the national convention at stake because he prevailed with more than 50% of the vote. Romney now has 521 delegates to Santorum's 253; Newt Gingrich has 136 and Ron Paul has 50.

Enrique Melendez, the Republican representative on the Puerto Rican State Electoral Commission, said that Romney "won the Puerto Rican primary by a huge margin and we are granting him the 20 delegates." At this rate, Romney is on pace to capture the nomination in June unless Santorum or Gingrich is able to win decisively in the coming contests. In Puerto Rico, the race was focused on the issue of statehood, and Melendez said, "This proves Gov. Romney's electability and his ability to reach out to Hispanics and minorities." (More Puerto Rico stories.)