Mitt Romney won the Republican presidential primaries in Maryland and Washington D.C., television networks projected, boosting his lead in the delegate count over chief rival Rick Santorum.

Networks including CNN and Fox projected Romney the winner in both contests.

 

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Mitt Romney at a campaign stop at an oil company in Milwaukee on April 2, 2012. Photographer: Steven Senne/AP Photo

In Maryland, with 4 percent of precincts reporting, Romney had 53 percent of the vote to 27 percent for Santorum, according to the Associated Press tally. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich had 10 percent and Representative Ron Paul of Texas 8 percent. The AP had no votes tallied yet in Washington, where Santorum didn’t make the ballot.

Romney seeks a sweep of the day’s contests with a win in Wisconsin, where polls have closed. A sweep would bolster the former Massachusetts governor’s status as the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination.

With Romney strongly favored in Maryland and Washington, Santorum focused his recent campaigning on Wisconsin. The state’s Republican electorate includes more of the working-class and rural voters that Santorum has attracted in other primaries.

A Romney win in Wisconsin would intensify pressure on Santorum to end his candidacy for the sake of party unity.

A three-week voting lull follows today’s contests. Primaries on April 24 will be held in four states where Romney is favored -- Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Delaware - - and in Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania. He represented Pennsylvania for 16 years in the House and Senate.

With about half the Republican nominating contests complete, Romney began today with exactly half -- 572 -- of the 1,144 delegates needed to capture the nomination, according to an Associated Press tally. Santorum has 273 delegates, according to the AP.

To contact the reporters on this story: Catherine Dodge in Washington atCdodge1@bloomberg.net; Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net

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