Primary, 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate | featured news

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, in what may be a grim development for his campaign, has lost the lead in his home state of Pennsylvania to front-runner Mitt Romney, according to a poll released on Thursday.

Polls are open in Maryland, the District and Wisconsin, where Tuesday’s Republican primaries could move Mitt Romney closer to a nomination that has hovered just out of his reach. Romney is favored to win in all three jurisdictions: the closest race appears to be in Wisconsin, where recent polls have shown him with a single-digit lead over former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.)

The former Pa. senator leads among likely GOP voters back home, but nearly 4 in 10 could change their minds before the April 24 primary.

Republicans went to the polls Saturday in Louisiana to vote in a primary poised to give a boost to Rick Santorum, but also add to Mitt Romney’s growing, if not insurmountable delegate lead in the race for the GOP nomination.

Even if Rick Santorum won the presidential preference vote in Tuesday's Illinois Republican primary -- and polls indicate that it's actually Mitt Romney who is the favorite -- he still could lose out in the delegate race.

Puerto Rico held its Republican presidential primary on Sunday, with 20 of the U.S. territory's 23 delegates up for grabs in a race in which an upcoming vote on statehood has taken central stage.

Newt Gingrich may not be ready to admit it, but his presidential hopes are all but over and calls will be getting louder for him to step aside.

Rick Santorum hopes to muscle Newt Gingrich out the race Tuesday and to force a face-off with Mitt Romney. But CNN's Candy Crowley reports Gingrich shows no signs of quitting.

A new poll Monday showed Mitt Romney is surprisingly strong in two Republican presidential primary contests in the South this week that are crucial to his conservative rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.

Setting the stage for primary elections Tuesday in Alabama and Mississippi, Republicans in Kansas gathered Saturday for their presidential caucuses. Forty delegates are at stake.