Romney wins Hawaii GOP caucus

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The votes have been tallied and Mitt Romney was declared the victor in Hawaii's first-ever Republican Presidential Caucus.

Republican Headquarters released the unofficial results, however, there are still about 850 votes that must be counted.

Hawaii Caucus Results:

Mitt Romney: 4,250, 45.4%
Rick Santorum: 2,369, 25.3%
Ron Paul: 1,712, 18.3%
Newt Gingrich: 1,034, 11%

Nearly half of the voters backed the former Massachusetts governor. Rick Santorum followed, with Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich rounding out the bottom.

In terms of Hawaii delegates, at this point it appears Romney came away with nine, Santorum with five, Paul with three and Gingrich with zero.

The Romney camp called it a historic night for Hawaii and his campaign.

However, the Democratic Party of Hawaii said, "Hawaii respectfully remains Obama country."

Romney also won all nine delegates up for grabs in America Samoa's caucuses.

On Tuesday night, Romney picked up at least 40 delegates in all and Santorum got at least 34.

The surprise, however, was that Santorum won both Alabama and Mississippi even though not a single major poll had him in the lead.

Gingrich came in second in both states and gave no indication that he's quitting. Instead, he foucsed on Romney's failure to win the conservative southern vote.

Speaking from Louisiana -- where he promised another big win next week -- Santorum hinted Gingrich should drop out of the race.

"The time is now for conservatives to pull together. The time is now to make sure - to make sure that we have the best chance to win this election," Santorum said.

"If you're the frontrunner and you keep coming in third, you're not much of a frontrunner," Gingrich said. "The elite media's effort to convince the nation that Mitt Romney is inevitable just collapsed."

So far, Romney is still leading in total delegate count. He has twice as many as Santorum -- his closest competitor.