Mitt Romney won the first round but he hadn’t gotten 50% of the vote so another round of voting took place. According to Martha McCallum at Fox, McCain voters then switched to Huckabee, putting him over the top with 52%. Here’s the story from Fox News:
Mike Huckabee won the first of 21 GOP contests on Super Tuesday, pulling out a victory in the West Virginia Republican convention even though Mitt Romney won the first round.
The former Arkansas governor pulled ahead after John McCain’s delegates apparently defected to his side. In round two, Huckabee took 51.5 percent to Romney’s 47.4 percent.
The convention had to go into a second round of voting Tuesday after no candidate took a clear majority the first time. Texas Rep. Ron Paul was knocked out, but Huckabee, Romney and John McCain moved forward.
Paul finished fourth with 10 percent among the 1,133 participating delegates in the first round, while Mitt Romney took 41 percent and Mike Huckabee took 33 percent. McCain, who started the day in New York City before heading to California, reached the second round with 15 percent.
But before Huckabee’s surprising turnaround at the convention, McCain delegates told FOX News they had been instructed by the campaign to throw their support to Huckabee.
This definitely supports the argument that Huckabee is still in the race to hurt Romney and help McCain.
The Romney camp has responded:
“Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain’s inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney’s campaign of conservative change,” Beth Myers, Romney’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
