Newt Gingrich has been declared the winner of the South Carolina presidential primary. With three presidential races finished to this point, there have been three winners. Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucus. Mitt Romney was victorious in New Hampshire. Gingrich has won South Carolina. For the first time, three candidates have won the first three races.
Here's a look at the results of the South Carolina primary, by the numbers.
23: Delegates to the Republican National Convention that Gingrich earned. The delegates are based on the population of the state. Gingrich won just more than 40 percent of the vote, according to the New York Times. There are 25 delegates available from the Palmetto State.
4: Mainstream candidates on the ballot in South Carolina. For the Iowa caucus, there were eight major candidates.
46: Counties in South Carolina. Polls were open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
1.1: Percentage of votes earned by Herman Cain. Even though he dropped out of the race in early December, Cain got over 6,300 votes in South Carolina. That number would not have made a difference in the final tally.
34: Percentage of voters in South Carolina who identify themselves as having an affiliation with the tea party. A CBS News poll claimed nearly half of them supported Gingrich.
18: Percentage of voters who came to the polls. Some precincts had heavier turnouts than others, especially in large cities where Republicans do well.
243,398: Votes Gingrich won in the primary, with 99 percent of the precincts reporting. The front-runner had 75,000 votes more than second place finisher Romney.
143,224: Votes Sen. John McCain won in the 2008 primary. He won by only 15,000 votes over Mike Huckabee.
3: Counties Romney won in South Carolina. Gingrich won the rest. Romney won Charleston County, Richland County and Beaufort County. Those places include Columbia and Charleston.
167,957: Votes Romney won. He improved upon his 2008 total by more than 100,000 votes. He won nearly 28 percent in 2012 vs. 15 percent four years ago.
4: Place Rep. Ron Paul finished in South Carolina. He came in last out of the mainstream candidates. Paul is the only major candidate who hasn't won a primary election in 2012.
William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.
