Rick Santorum Wins Kansas Republican Caucus 2012

Rick Santorum is the winner of the Republican caucus in Kansas.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, the former Pennsylvania senator had 51.2 percent of the vote, according to Politico. He was followed by Mitt Romney at 20.9.0 percent. Newt Gingrich received 14.4 percent of the vote and Ron Paul came in fourth with 12.6 percent. Santorum was awarded all 40 of Kansas' delegates.

Santorum had been hoping for a big win in the Sunflower State, especially among Kansas' evangelical Christian and Tea Party voters, and he was on the stump in Topeka and Wichita on Friday. His campaign has been focusing on edging out Gingrich and becoming the sole alternative candidate to Romney, who currently leads with delegates and state wins.

We have an opportunity to potentially narrow this race down so we can go one-on-one with Gov. Romney, and once that happens, the conservative will be nominated, Santorum told a crowd of about 250 at a Topeka railroad station on Friday, according to The Kansas City (Mo.) Star.

The caucus results were a disappointment for Paul. The Texas congressman has yet to win a presidential contest and also spent much of Friday in the state, speaking at a rally in Topeka and stopping by Wichita and Lawrence, WIBW reported.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, skipped campaigning in Kansas this year, although he received the endorsement of the state's Bob Dole, the former U.S. Senate majority leader and Republican Party nominee in the 1996 presidential election. He headed straight for the south this week ahead of the critical Mississippi and Alabama primaries this Tuesday.

Gingrich also headed straight to Alabama and Mississippi, but he didn't entirely neglect Kansas: The former U.S. House of Representatives speaker from Georgia spent $180,000 on television ads in Kansas, according to the New York Daily News.

Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Caucuses in Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands also are scheduled for Saturday, awarding nine delegates each.

Because of the time difference, Romney learned that he won the contest in Guam late Friday night and the U.S. Mariana Islands early Saturday morning. The candidate had sent his son Matt Romney to campaign on his behalf in both the territories.

Santorum held a conference call with Republican leaders on Guam and apologized for joking about sending liberal judges to the island in January, according to The Huffington Post's Angela Terkel.