2012 Tennessee Republican presidential primary

Main article: 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries

The 2012 Tennessee Republican presidential primary took place on Super Tuesday, March 6, 2012, with 58 national delegates.^[1][2] Former Senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum won the primary with a plurality, carrying 37.11% of the vote and all but four counties, awarding him 29 delegates.

2012 Tennessee Republican presidential primary

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58 Republican National Convention delegates
Candidate Rick Santorum Mitt Romney Home state Pennsylvania Massachusetts Delegate count 29 14 Popular vote 205,809 155,630 Percentage 37.11% 28.06%   Candidate Newt Gingrich Ron Paul Home state Georgia Texas Delegate count 9 0 Popular vote 132,889 50,156 Percentage 23.96% 9.04%
County winner Vote share      Santorum      Romney      Gingrich Santorum   30 – 40%   40 – 50%   50 – 60% Romney   30 – 40% Gingrich   30 – 40%

Former Massachusetts Governor and eventual nominee, Mitt Romney, came second with 28.06% of the vote and 19 delegates, carrying only three counties: Davidson, Loudon, and Williamson. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich of neighboring Georgia, came third with 23.96% of the vote and 9 delegates, carrying only the county of Marion. Representative from Texas Ron Paul received 9.04% of the vote, and all other candidates received under 1% of the vote.^[3]

Procedure

Tennessee was given 58 delegates for the 2012 Republican National Convention. Three superdelegates were unbound. 27 delegates are awarded by congressional district, 3 delegates for each district. If a candidate wins two-thirds of the vote in a district, he takes all 3 delegates there; if not, delegates are split 2-to-1 between the top two candidates. Another 28 delegates are awarded to the candidate who wins two-thirds of the vote statewide, or allocated proportionately among candidates winning at least 20% of the vote if no one gets two-thirds.^[4]

Results

Tennessee Republican primary, 2012^[5]

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Projected delegate count
			NYT [6]	CNN [7]	FOX [8]
Rick Santorum	205,809	37.11%	29	27	26
Mitt Romney	155,630	28.06%	14	15	12
Newt Gingrich	132,889	23.96%	9	8	9
Ron Paul	50,156	9.04%	0	0	0
Rick Perry (withdrawn)	1,966	0.35%	0	0	0
Michele Bachmann (withdrawn)	1,895	0.34%	0	0	0
Jon Huntsman (withdrawn)	1,239	0.22%	0	0	0
Buddy Roemer (withdrawn)	881	0.16%	0	0	0
Gary Johnson (withdrawn)	572	0.10%	0	0	0
Uncommitted	3,536	0.64%	0	0	0
Unprojected delegates:			6	8	9
Total:	554,573	100.00%	58	58	58

See also

• 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries
• 2012 Tennessee Democratic presidential primary
• 2012 United States presidential election in Tennessee
• 2012 Tennessee elections