With all but 25 of the state's 1,774 precincts reporting, Rick Santorum's lead over Romney was just five votes out of more than 120,000 cast.
Rick Santorum rode a late-breaking burst of support, after getting counted out by virtually everyone until the final days of a long campaign. His Iowa comeback represented a drastic reversal from his last election night, a 17-point reelection drubbing in 2006.
Once considered a fringe candidate, the Christian conservative former Pennsylvania senator has come from nowhere to take the lead in the first race of the Republican race. Even if he doesn't come in first place, it's still a major win for Santorum.
His 25% of the vote is a marked improvement from his poll numbers from just a day ago, when The Huffington Post had him at an average of 17.2%. So, what's changed in the past few days? Sure, the ground game helped. But perhaps even more important was the support of Jim Bob Duggar, his wife and his 19 children.
The stars of "19 Kids and Counting" on TLC toured with Santorum over the weekend, including a stop at a well-attended rally at a pizza joint on Monday. Jim Bob made appealed to voters, saying, "I'm asking families, Christians all over American to get behind Rick Santorum for the next president of the United States."
While he admitted that Santorum isn't Jesus Christ, his preferred candidate, Duggar's endorsement of Santorum as a man who "just votes from his heart and votes on his convictions, votes on things based on the Constitution of the United States and the Bible," seems to have done the trick. And for those dubious about his impact, there's precedent here.The white hot Santorum surge is a repeat of the 2008 Republican primary, when the Duggar-approved Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee surprised the nation and took home the Caucus prize. Now, Jim Bob is looking to take it one step further, learning his lesson from the limited Huckabee victory and hoping to repeat it nationally.
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