ABSTRACT
Looking at the end results of the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, one might conclude that Mitt Romney sailed to an easy victory. After all, he won 32 out of 40 presidential primaries, and he was being called the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party by April. Even in the year before the election, Romney was considered by many to be the front-runner, having amassed the most money for his own campaign. In addition, Romney for several years had quietly built support among Republican activists with early visits to their states and had established ties with state and local Republican candidates with contributions from his Free and Strong America PAC. Yet in late 2011, Romney could not maintain a lead in the public opinion polls, and in 2012, he faced a series of challenges to his front-runner status as other candidates won early primaries or caucuses. Former president Bill Clinton on The Daily Show colorfully described Romney’s path to the Republican nomination as akin to a game of “Whac-A-Mole.” 1 Each week seemed to bring a new challenger to Romney’s claim to be the front-runner for the 2012 Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
