Republican, Illinois Primary | featured news

Front-runner Mitt Romney won the Illinois primary with ease Tuesday night, defeating Rick Santorum in yet another industrial state showdown and padding his already-formidable delegate lead in the race for the Republican presidential 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.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney may be headed for an important victory in Illinois on Tuesday that would help him put more distance between himself and Rick Santorum, his chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination.

Mitt Romney has yet another chance this week to prove he is the inevitable Republican candidate.

The Republican presidential contest next week gives the conservative a shot at seizing the momentum from front-runner Mitt Romney, who leads him there by just 4 points.After a pair of pivotal Southern tests, the Republican presidential race has become a battle between Mitt Romney's grind-it-out delegate arithmetic and Rick Santorum's popular momentum.