Mitt Romney Edges Rick Santorum to Win Ohio

With 10 states up for grabs, Mitt Romney emerged a battered winner on Super Tuesday -- but he did not knock out his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.

Romney won five of the 10 states that held contests on Tuesday -- though results have not come in from the Alaska caucus. While he won Ohio, his chief battleground on Tuesday, Romney's wins also included two New England states which Republicans have little chance of winning in November and Virginia where his chief GOP rivals did not make the ballot.

However, Romney won the closest contest of the night. All eyes were on Ohio -- a state Republicans are looking to take from President Barack Obama in November -- where Romney looks headed for a close win over Rick Santorum. While Santorum led in polls of the Buckeye State last week, in recent days Romney closed the gap and took the lead in some of the polls.

While polls closed in Ohio at 7:30 pm on Tuesday night, the networks could not call the race in the Buckeye State, where 66 delegates were up for grabs, but Romney was declared the winner in the early hours of Wednesday.

With 96 percent of the votes counted in Ohio, Romney had 38 percent and Santorum took 37 percent. Newt Gingrich placed a distant third with 15 percent followed by Ron Paul with 9 percent. Two candidates who pulled out of the race back in January -- former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas -- took 1 percent apiece.