Mitt Romney wins Arkansas primary

Mitt Romney won the Arkansas Republican presidential primary on Tuesday, pushing him closer to the 1,144 delegates he needs to clinch the Republican nomination.

The Associated Press projected Romney's victory shortly after the polls closed at 9 p.m. ET.

There were 36 delegates at stake in the Arkansas primary, and another 45 in Kentucky, which also held its primary on Tuesday. Romney won both contests, and will take the bulk of the delegates in each state.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who has stopped campaigning, finished a distant second in the proportional primary. Paul will likely be working behind the scenes to see if he can scoop up delegates by maintaining a sustained presence in local caucuses.

Arkansas’s six electoral college votes are safely in Romney’s corner for the general election. One poll from March showed Romney with a 24 percent lead over the president in a state that rarely votes Democratic.

In the 2008, Hillary Clinton trounced Obama 70 percent to 26 in Arkansas, and with an open primary, some are speculating that Obama may face an embarrassingly close challenge from another Democrat on the ticket, attorney John Wolfe.

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