WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney on Tuesday night locked up the Republican presidential nomination, winning the Texas primary and setting his sights on beating President Barack Obama in November.
Romney has effectively been the Republican nominee since his last serious challenger, Rick Santorum, bowed out of the race in April. But by winning Texas — which offers 155 delegates — the former Massachusetts governor locks up more than enough delegates to accept the Republican Party’s nomination at its convention in late August.
“Thank you,” Romney wrote in a message on Twitter shortly after the results were announced. “Whatever challenges lie ahead, we will settle for nothing less than getting America back on the path to prosperity.”
The onetime Bain Capital executive spent the day in Colorado and Nevada, courting voters and raising campaign cash, including at a Las Vegas fund-raiser with businessman Donald Trump. Romney also released a new campaign video, slamming what he calls billions of wasted taxpayer dollars funneled by Obama to companies that later failed.
His campaign, meanwhile, kept up the drumbeat of criticism against Obama’s economic policies, and said Romney will offer businesses tax relief. “On day one, Mitt Romney will usher in pro-growth policies that help give businesses the confidence they need to begin hiring again,” said campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul.
For Romney, who announced his bid for the Republican nomination almost a year ago, Tuesday was especially sweet. He lost the nomination in 2008 to Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican.
But polls show a tight race between Romney and Obama, and neither man can take victory in November for granted. The latest Gallup poll shows Obama edging Romney by just two percent nationally, and in swing states like Florida, Virginia and Ohio, Obama has a narrow lead.
The closeness of the race and the slow recovery portend a bruising election season that will be marked by a focus on jobs and the economy. In January 2009, when Obama took office, unemployment was 7.8%. It now stands at 8.1%. Economists expect the jobless rate to be unchanged when the government releases the latest data on Friday. Meanwhile, jobless rates are falling in key swing states, recent data has shown.
Later this week, Obama is scheduled to campaign in Minnesota and Chicago. He has lately focused his attacks on Romney’s career at Bain Capital, saying that running a private-equity firm and being president are vastly different.
After fending off attacks from Santorum, Newt Gingrich and others during the Republican primary season, Romney has been sharpening his attacks on Obama as well as quietly deliberating about a running mate.