Super Tuesday: Romney wins 6 states

Mitt Romney has won the Republican nominating contests in six states  — Ohio, Alaska, Idaho, Vermont, Virginia and Massachusetts, the state he once governed, according to MSNBC.

"There are three states under our belt, and counting. We're going to get more by the time this night is over," Romney said "I'm going to get this nomination."

CNN hesitated to declare Romney winner in the all-important state of Ohio, where Romney had been the slight favorite recently, until just after 12:30 a.m. ET today.

His chief rival, Rick Santorum, kept the pressure on with wins in Oklahoma, North Dakota and Tennessee.

Observers waited until 95 percent of votes were counted in Ohio before giving the state to Romney. Santorum enjoyed an early lead by dominating in smaller, rural counties.

Romney, however, slowly gathered steam in all-important urban areas, finishing with slightly more than 12,000 votes among more than 1 million cast.

He carried Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati for the narrow victory.

Newt Gingrich added a win in his home state of Georgia, while Ron Paul was shut out.

Georgia allocates 31 delegates toward the Republican nomination, and The New York Times projects that they will be split between Gingrich and Romney.

The Times projects that, because the Virginia primary is largely uncontested, Romney will take all 49 of its delegates but that he will gain few in Vermont, which allocates most of its 17 delegates on a proportional basis.

More from GlobalPost: Santorum storms Oklahoma, takes Tennessee

Romney enjoyed convincing victories in Virginia and Vermont, CNN's results showed later.

Gingrich and Santorum didn't appear on the ballots in Virginia, allowing Romney to walk away with 43 delegates. Only Paul provided opposition, and earned 3 delegates for his efforts.

In Vermont, Romney captured 8 delegates thanks to 40 percent of the vote. Paul and Santorum were well back with 25 and 23 percent, respectively, and 3 delegates each.

"Tonight, we're doing some counting," Romney said, MSNBC reported. "We're counting the delegates for the convention and that looks good, and we're counting down the days to the convention, and that looks better."

As the evening came to a close, the campaign chalked up Idaho and Alaska.

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