GREENVILLE, S.C. ? On the eve of the South Carolina primary, ? Iowa Republicans dealt Mitt Romney?s campaign a blow by formally declaring Rick Santorum the winner of their Jan. 3 caucuses.
At 18 minutes before midnight Friday, South Carolina time, the Republican Party of Iowa released a statement revising its Thursday announcement that reported Santorum ahead of Romney but also saying the two-week-old race had no clear winner.
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?In order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results released January 18 by the Republican Party of Iowa, Chairman Matthew Strawn and the State Central Committee declared Senator Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucus,? the state GOP?s statement read.
The news that Romney ? who for two weeks celebrated what he jokingly called a ?landslide? eight-vote victory in Iowa, only to see it reversed this week when the state GOP certified Santorum the leader by 34 votes ? officially lost the first contest muddies his narrative, especially as Newt Gingrich surges in the polls in South Carolina.
It?s also a boon to Santorum, who can now claim victory in one of the three key early states, though the former Pennsylvania senator badly trails Gingrich and Romney in polls here.
Strawn?s Thursday announcement, which placed Santorum ahead but didn?t definitively declare him a winner because eight precincts had yet to report their results, had left enough uncertainty for Romney?s campaign to suggest that the state was a draw.
Now, with Iowa formally in the Santorum column and Romney polling behind Gingrich in the most recent public poll in South Carolina, the former Massachusetts governor faces the prospect of leaving here Sunday morning one-for-three in early state voting ? a dramatically different scenario than when he arrived.
Romney campaign officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment early Saturday morning.
Strawn also did not immediately respond to messages left at his home and office.
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