Missouri GOP caucus held Saturday, results in June

Missouri Republicans held a caucus on Saturday to divvy up delegates headed for the Republican National Convention in August. If you’ll recall, Missouri held a non-binding primary back on February 7 which was won by Rick Santorum. Under the caucus rules, the results of delegate apportionment won’t be known until the Missouri GOP state convention in June.

Report from The Ticket:

Rick Santorum’s campaign is looking to gain additional momentum against Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but that won’t come in Missouri—at least not this weekend.

Yes, Missouri is set to begin holding its Republican caucuses on Saturday, but the full results won’t be announced until June.

Under the state’s somewhat arcane process, Republicans caucusgoers in the state will begin electing county delegates on Saturday. Those delegates will then proceed to a congressional district caucus set for April 21, where, according to rules laid out by the Missouri Republican Party, roughly half of the state’s 52 presidential delegates will be selected. The other half will be determined at the state Republican convention scheduled for June 2.

Santorum easily won the state’s Republican primary on Feb. 7, defeating Romney 52 percent to 23 percent. Ron Paul placed third with 12 percent, while Newt Gingrich did not qualify for the ballot. But those results were non-binding. Since then, Santorum and his rivals have been competing hard to win support at the caucuses, in spite of the fact that no clear winner will emerge until the national primary campaign is nearly over.

Still, there’s a chance the preliminary results in April could have some effect on the race—especially if it continues to be a debate about delegate math, a narrative Romney’s campaign has been pushing hard in recent days.

With 52 delegate at stake in Missouri, this will be a looming question over the next couple months depending on how tight the race continues to be.