Mitt Romney is within one win of garnering the necessary delegates to become the Republican nominee for president. The Associated Press reports the front-runner swept all of the delegates in the Arkansas and Kentucky primaries Tuesday. The next contest is in Texas May 29. Congressional seats were also at stake in contested primaries.
* Romney won 75 delegates from both states. He has 1,067 delegates out of 1,144 needed to secure the nomination. Texas has 152 delegates of which Romney only needs 77.
* Even though Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum dropped out of the race, they were on the ballots in Arkansas and Kentucky. Many thousands of votes came in for those candidates anyway.
* In Arkansas, unofficial results show Romney is winning with more than 68 percent of the vote. Santorum and Paul were in second place with around 13 percent. Gingrich had less than 5 percent.
* The Democratic primary in Arkansas showed incumbent President Barack Obama with a 58 percent to 42 percent lead over John Wolfe. Wolfe has earned nearly 67,000 votes to Obama's 94,000.
* Wolfe is from Tennessee and has challenged Obama in Southern states. He believes there is an angry swath of Democrats who will not support Obama in the general election.
* Three candidates were in the Democratic primary election for the 4th District in Arkansas. KYTV reports state Sen. Gene Jeffress will have a runoff election June 12 against attorney Q. Byrum Hurst of Hot Springs. Jeffress earned more than 43 percent of the vote and Hurst had more than 35 percent.
* In Arkansas' 1st District, Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington will face a runoff against Clark M. Hall. ArkansasBusiness.com states Ellington is the prosecutor who negotiated the plea bargain in the West Memphis Three case.
* Romney easily won Kentucky's primary with more than 66 percent approval. Paul came in second with more than 12 percent. Santorum was third, Gingrich was fourth and "uncommitted" voters numbered over 10,000.
* The Republican uncommitted vote total was within 200 votes of Gingrich's total in Kentucky. Obama earned nearly 58 percent of the Democratic votes in Kentucky vs. 42 percent "uncommitted."
* Seven candidates squared off in Kentucky's 4th District Republican race. Thomas Massie came out with a win thanks to nearly 45 percent of the vote. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported Massie had the backing of tea party conservatives.
William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.
