The result came at the end of a long night that put Mr. Romney that much farther ahead in the race for the nomination, but dashed any hopes he had of using the day to assert himself as the inevitable nominee.
Far from bringing more clarity to the race as some in the party had hoped, Tuesday’s elections gave every candidate cause to keep driving forward — including Newt Gingrich, who won a definitive victory in Georgia.
Mr. Romney won in Massachusetts, where he served as governor; in Virginia, where neither Mr. Gingrich nor Mr. Santorum qualified for the ballot; and in Vermont and Idaho. Mr. Santorum won in Tennessee, North Dakota and Oklahoma.
But all eyes were on Ohio, which The Associated Press called for Mr. Romney early Wednesday morning, capping a turbulent night in which the results see-sawed both ways within a very tight range. Even around 1 a.m., Mr. Santorum’s campaign manager said he was still awaiting an assessment of provisional ballots that had not been counted before deciding to concede.
Speaking in Steubenville, Ohio, earlier in the evening, Mr. Santorum declared: “We’ve won the West, the Midwest and the South, and we’re ready to win across this country.”
When the result in Ohio was still pending, Mr. Romney assured supporters in Boston, “I’m going to get this nomination.” But acknowledging the mode that his campaign has now entered, he added: “Tonight we’re doing some counting. We’re counting up delegates.”
Seemingly noting some of his own mistakes over the past couple of weeks, Mr. Romney struck a chastened note, saying: “I’ve listened, and I’ve learned. I hope I’m a better candidate for it.”
Mr. Romney was poised to wake up Wednesday far ahead of his rivals in the delegate count, and about a third of the way to the 1,144 needed to cinch the nomination. As of midnight, he had 332 delegates to Mr. Santorum’s 139. Mr. Gingrich had 73 and Representative Ron Paul 35.
Yet the close race in Ohio, a state where he had far outspent Mr. Santorum, and his defeats elsewhere showed continuing vulnerabilities for Mr. Romney on both geographic and ideological grounds.
With the party as well as President Obama’s re-election campaign operating under the assumption that Mr. Romney remains the most likely Republican nominee, he has nonetheless lost states across several regions of the nation.
Only about 2 in 10 voters in Ohio and Tennessee who were asked on Tuesday which candidate best understands the problems of average Americans named Mr. Romney; one-third said Mr. Santorum did.
Yet the Romney campaign could point to the squeaker in Ohio and the delegate math, which fell so squarely in its favor, to argue it was winning where it mattered.
It was the most eventful day of the Republican race so far, with 10 states holding contests. And again voters upended the expectations set in campaign war rooms and New York newsrooms, splitting their preferences in ways that exposed continued divisions within the restive party between pragmatism and passion, political expediency and ideological purity.
Surveys of voters in Ohio on Tuesday showed the election revolved around the debate that has resonated within the restive party all year: whether to choose Mr. Romney as the presumed strongest challenger to Mr. Obama in the fall or Mr. Santorum as the more reliable champion of conservative causes.
The battle for Ohio was viewed as the most critical to determining whether Mr. Romney could finally emerge solidly on his way to winning his party’s nomination or was heading into an even longer fight.
Like Michigan last week, Ohio became a test of strength for Mr. Santorum and Mr. Romney among the middle-class, middle-income Republicans who have become a swing group for Republicans this year, and voter surveys showed the two competed neck and neck for this group, with the slight edge going to Mr. Santorum. In Tennessee, Mr. Santorum benefited from a strong edge among the evangelical voters so critical in deciding Republican elections there.
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